Episode 059 - Close Calls & Dumb Luck: The Motorcycle Mishaps That Almost Went Wrong

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tom: [00:00:00] Todd. They say communication is the key in relationships and apparently also not turning your buddy into a speed bump.

The bottom line is you must keep your head on a swivel and just make sure you do your pre-trip maintenance before you get into a trip. That's right. Um, I guess we're calling this one close calls and dumb luck,~ uh,~ because there's been a few rides where things probably could have been pretty bad. Mm-hmm.

Um, but with, I think Luck stepped in and saved the day. Faith, whatever you wanna call it. We had somebody watching out for us. So the first story I was thinking we could talk about is,~ uh,~ the Mike's near Miss.

Mm-hmm.

tom: Um. I, I don't remember if it was in Wisconsin or not. You thought maybe it was down south too, but Yeah, I'm thinking south.

But

Todd: yeah, I do know it was a beautiful day. It, it sure was. And I, it probably doesn't matter where this was. No, it's not the point of the story. [00:01:00] It doesn't matter where for

tom: sure. Um, and most of us have this point in time of our rides. I've been using,~ uh,~ Inna headsets just works so good to call out, you know, here's some gravel, here's something, Hey, we're taking a left.

You know? Yeah, I see this. I see that. So,

yep.

tom: We were, um, cruising down the road and I, I do remember this. We had gotten to a point, and I think, you know, sometimes even when you're trying to follow the GPS, you know, you get a bad signal. Mm-hmm. And it's a little behind and pretty soon, boom, it pops at your turning in, you know, 0.22.

Yeah.

tom: And so Brad said, Hey, taking a right. Taking a right. You know, and, um, I think Chris was right on, on his tail and, um. Chris didn't, wasn't gonna make the turn. So like he had kind of said, Hey, I'm not making the turn. You know, everyone pay attention. ~Uh, ~so they, the headsets were there. I was on the brakes.

I think it was Brad and then Chris, and then,~ uh,~ Mike, and then myself. Um, on, so everyone was kind of on it, but then I realized that Mike didn't [00:02:00] have his headset on. Didn't have headset. Didn't have a headset at all. At all. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So. So he didn't hear anything and he had kind of, he had drifted off a little bit and this happens.

And again, we were kind of in a, I wouldn't call emergency stop. But we were, we were stopping

Todd: quick. You know, it, it was a hard Yeah. 'cause you're having to make a hard right turn and Yeah. That can happen. I mean, your, your mind just wanders. You look off into the distance or you see something cool, see something on the side of the road, whatever.

tom: Right. Well, Mike didn't see that. Oh no. And so when he figured it out, he was going in full break and block up mode. Yeah. Um, and when he came to a stop and thank goodness,~ uh,~ Chris didn't turn,~ uh,~ because Chris just kind of. Stopped and didn't move.

Mm-hmm.

tom: And Mike came up hot. He just, he came up right in his back pocket and it happened so fast.

And when he stopped, he was right on Chris's just like in his Saddleback, I mean, he was in, he was within his back pocket within an inch. Right. [00:03:00] Oh gosh. I mean, like, I don't even know if Chris would've leaned over if he wouldn't hit it. When even got him. So it was just, it's one of those times when you're seeing it happen on and you're just, yeah.

Nothing you can do. I mean, I'm yelling in the headset, but the guy that needs to hear it doesn't have the headset that went on.

Todd: Did, do you remember, did he lock up the back brake even? Oh yeah. Yeah. Oh, he skid the back of the Oh yeah. Motorcycle. Yeah. That's scary. Yeah. And yeah, you feel helpless 'cause you're, you're squeezing that front brake.

You're pushing the brake well, and Chris can't hear

tom: him. No. So he's blind to it all. Yeah. He doesn't know he's coming. Yeah. Yeah. He can't see anything. And,~ uh,~ then he just, you know, then it was like, boom, we're stopped. And then Chris was like, whoa. And Mike was a little, you know, he was shake up of course.

Sure. ~Uh, ~but the first thing he did when Mike got home was when now all of a sudden he has heads, he has headset now. So he bought it the next day, didn't he? So, I mean, we, we talk about the enjoyment that we have 'cause we're just bantering so much on the, on the headsets. But really, I mean, there is a safety concern that really does help.

Mm-hmm. Um, and it really. You know, that was kind of the solidification moment for us that said, okay, you [00:04:00] know, you gotta have it, you know, you gotta have a headset. Yeah. 'cause it's just too, too much. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A second one, um, that I was gonna talk about was Chris's detour. I. Um, alright. Unplanned detour.

Unplanned detour. Um, so this one, I believe we were in Missouri and it was a really nice road, I think, and it was again, another great day. Mm-hmm. We were riding some gentle curves back and forth. Everything was going well. Mm-hmm. And sometimes, you know, and you'll come up on these once in a while. And,~ uh,~ the one of these turns will be just a little tighter than the others.

Mm-hmm. And, um, yeah, I think this is where I think he, did he come into the corner a little hot? Yeah, he

Todd: came in a little hot. He didn't really set his body up for it, Uhhuh, he didn't realize it was there. And by the time the curve was on him, he found a little gravel on that curve. Yeah, because I remember, I, I went to the inside of it.

He was out in the middle of it. And took it a little wide. Yeah, took it a little wide. Didn't have the right [00:05:00] lean. Like I said, his body wasn't ready, couldn't lean enough. And then I think there's a little bit of a fear factor if I do try and Well,

tom: you start to pucker a little at that point.

Todd: That's a good way to put it.

You ~uh, ~you think, I don't wanna turn like now really try and grab onto it. 'cause there's gravel here. Right. So.

tom: Well, and the other thing that people don't realize is that like motorcycles have more grip. On their tires when they turn, when they don't. So, yeah. So the ~uh, ~amount of tire that's touching the road is actually greater when you're in a corner than when you're sitting straight up.

Yeah. Now granted there was some gravel, so that's a whole nother Right. But I think you'll see these, you'll watch these videos of these people that, that wreck like just go tail of the dragon Rex. Oh yeah. And. You're just like, why are you not leaning? I mean, I think, yeah, and there's times when it's counterintuitive how to turn a motorcycle.

Todd: Yeah. 'cause you push on the, on the inside. On the inside, the direction you want to go. Right? Like you, it almost [00:06:00] feels like you're turning or trying to, you technically are. You are, you are. You're pushing the opposite direction of where you want to go, which is crazy. But, and

tom: the reason why is 'cause then the dimensions of your tire actually get smaller on the inside.

So you end up leaning, which. You know, it's a whole nother physics lesson.

Todd: It's got the whole gyroscope effect. Yes, exactly. With with exactly, with the two tires spinning. Yeah. So I, you know, that was just it, you know, the poor guy came, didn't, didn't have his body ready to, you know, to turn. Yeah. And, you know, the, the, he came in hot and there was gravel and it was just, and then he was puckered and then he was puckered at that point.

And,~ uh,~ we were. He was last in line. Yes. And we all had headsets. Yes. At that point. And all of a sudden, what? What do we hear over the headset? Boom. Well, we hear shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. Chip. Yeah. Yeah. Coming over that. And I just remember looking in the back. Yeah. You saw him actually. And you

tom: could see some dust.

I'm like, oh, good lord.

Todd: Yeah. Chris went in the ditch. He, well,

tom: and then I think he went silent just because he's. You know, he, he's not describing this to us, and I'm like,~ uh,~ Chris went in the ditch. Yeah. I'm

Todd: [00:07:00] like, this is bad. I'm sure he was taking inventory first. You know? I mean, that's what you do. Am I hurt?

Is the bike hurt? Right. Did I break a leg? Yeah. Yeah.

tom: So thankfully he, he, he kind of drove it into the ditch. He did. Yeah. Which was smart. I think. It wasn't a. It wasn't a big ditch. I think it was just a, it was a ni it was probably the perfect place that this could have happened. It, it was, yeah. And,~ uh,~ so he took a little bit of an unplanned offroad, a detour.

~Uh, ~

Todd: and luckily there was, there weren't cars coming the other direction. Nope. You know, 'cause he had to cross oncoming traffic Yes. Going into the ditch. Right. Thank God, you know, we were the only ones out there that day, but, and he's, I'm okay. I'm okay. And we're like, yeah, finally we, we turned around and yeah.

U-turns. And on our way back, he was like, I'm all right. I'm all right. I'm. It, it did bend, you know, it bend it had some damage. Not even damage like the windshield came off, but it was like, oh, that's great. A quick release. But then the,~ uh,~ the, his,~ uh,~ footrest, you know, was kind of bent uped up. Yeah. We were able to kinda highway peg.

Yeah. It was just a highway peg that was clamped on. So we got that. Bent [00:08:00] back in the mirror, I think was just outta place. So Right. It all went back together. I don't even remember if there was any other scuffing on the bike. I don't, I don't recall. It seemed like it hit the engine guards and the, you know, foot pack.

Yeah. Probably wouldn't mean

tom: what it was supposed to.

Todd: Yeah.

tom: Yeah. So gravel plus speed, plus a slight loss of focus equals pucker. Pucker. Bad combo. Bad combo. So, but you know, I think one thing is to learn, Chris did commit to it, you know? Mm-hmm. And it's kind of, um, like one of those things where it's like. I think him trying to avoid it even more once he got close was probably, it was probably good to just take it.

Mm-hmm. You know? Um, yeah. I suppose that depends on what was in the ditch, but Yeah. You know, so, but I do think it's important to think sometimes, and I don't know Todd when you're riding, but like, just be thinking like, what's my exit plan here? I mean mm-hmm.

I

tom: think about that more when we're riding with more cars because, um, they don't always pay attention.

I mean Right. We've seen many times and you know, I mean, I'm probably guilty too, I'm not. Pointing the finger, but there's a lot of texting, there's a lot of [00:09:00] distracted driving. There's a lot going on out there. And you can start to see it sometimes when you're mm-hmm. Not paying. People are just not paying attention.

They're not, yeah. Um, especially like riding through. If we're in towns and people can pull out like they mm-hmm. They just don't always see you.

Todd: They don't see you. So, um, and it happens on rural roads too. I, I know we've been on plenty of straight roads and, you know, there's a, you know, an intersection teeing in and there's someone coming towards us gonna make that left turn and all of a sudden they'll just turn right in front of you.

I always watch the tire. I do too. I look at the tire, I try and look moving. Yeah. Make eye contact. Eye contact. If I can see them looking at me, I know they've seen me, or you know, throw up a hand. Hey. I mean, yes. Yeah. Yeah.

tom: That's right. Um, so the th the third story is probably one of the worst incidents that we've been into.

And so this one is about,~ uh,~ ear. We were, we were on an early morning ride, um, really nice day. I think it was just starting to warm up. Wisconsin has some of the best a, b, c roads. Mm-hmm. And we were twisting through those. Just a [00:10:00] beautiful set of. Of, of corners that we were coming into and just, there's like a lot of bluffs in Wisconsin.

So we had a bluff on the left and it was kind of, ~uh, ~trees on the right. It was just awesome. I'm, we had just turned a corner, so we had just got on this road and I was, there was three of us. I was riding in the very back and ~uh, ~the gentleman on the Strom was in the front and he got around this corner.

And Stroms don't come factory with a kickstand. Um, or excuse me, they come only with a kickstand.

Okay.

tom: They don't, they come with a,~ uh,~ center. They don't come with a center stand. Oh,

alright.

tom: So what happened was when you put that center stand on there, they hang a little low. Oh, he added it? Yeah. You, well, you have to, there isn't a center stand on a estro, like you have to add the center stand.

Okay. So it's aftermarket. It's aftermarket. Okay. And it does hang down a little bit, but for the most part it's not a problem. Well. He'd gotten into this corner and he needed to dip in a little more than he thought. And he actually apex on the, the center stand wing that, you know, the kind of the Yeah, the foot part of that.

Yeah. [00:11:00] And it tii him on it basically as he was going around the corner. So he stood the bike back up. 'cause otherwise he was going, you know, sliding out. Well when he stood the bike back up, he wasn't enough around the corner, on the corner yet. Oh wow. And so it was early morning. Ish, you know, and we had Dewey grass, so he got his rear tire then into the grass.

So he slid sideways out. Got it. Oh wow. Centered back up. But when he centered back up, he's over, you know, he's over the edge basically. At that point, this is when I'm coming into view. So my first three, my first look is I come around and I see a rear tire, and then a dude's butt. Like up high in the air, almost like, I mean, it looked like almost like, like it bucked him off.

These guys that do it in the X Games, you know, when they're like the bike's down and they're flipping. It was like that. Oh gosh. He held onto the handlebars but went over and it was a deep ditch. In fact, it was actually a little like river bottom down below way, way down there. So he ended up low [00:12:00] siding it, sliding it sideways, down the thing.

But it was deep. I mean, if you're standing there, if like for instance, he'd have got knocked out. You were standing right there. Couldn't see him.

Todd: Wow. Like

tom: that's, I mean, he's probably 25 feet, 30 feet down and couldn't see him. I mean, there's small trees, tall

Todd: grass. So really, it was lucky you were as close as you were.

So you did see him go over? 'cause if you, well, yeah. Didn't, you didn't. Brad

tom: was between me and him. So Brad watch more of it. Oh, I see. Okay. But, but like, had we been. Yeah. Yeah. You could have not,~ uh,~ he would've been knocked out, disappeared. Wouldn't have seen him. Yeah, no, he absolutely disappeared. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, nothing. Wow. Yeah, it was crazy. So he hit that grass slid over, but, you know, it was just the craziest thing, but, and he was okay. Full gear. He was fine. Yep. But this is another reason why full phased helmets are it, I mean, he had a really nice rash up on the top left side of his, his, where he hit a tree with his, with his helmet slid through by it.

Wow. Unbelievable. Um, so [00:13:00] bust up the helmet then? No, didn't bust it up. Just you could see it scratched. Just took a, took a, I see. Nice heavy scratch out of it, but Wow. We ended up having to call and get a flatbed trailer to come out and winch him out. Um, essentially stood the bike up and pulled it, pulled it outta there, he rode it, it was fine.

~Uh, ~broke the left foot peg off is what happened. Wow. But there's no way

Todd: you guys could get the bike outta there. There's no way. Yeah. I mean,

tom: wow. It was at least 25 feet down and then sloped, you know? And then, I mean, I don't know. I mean, I suppose if a guy had some sort of a ratchet strap, I don't know if he could have winched it out of there by hand.

Mm-hmm. But I doubt it. It was. Unbelievable. But,~ uh,~ yeah, that's what, a 500 pound bike anyway, right? Well, no more than that. Probably. Those are probably 6 50, 700 pounds, you know? Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, um, you do have to be careful when you're, when you have accessories. I mean, there's some of these things you just gotta make sure you know that.

I mean, I've never seen that happen before, but that's definitely what happened. And then just again, and you just [00:14:00] don't wanna underestimate corners. Mm-hmm. You gotta have a plan, you know, and I know there's a lot of people that don't, don't always like gear, but. Man, I mean, it saved, saved it in this instance for sure.

So, yeah, I know he always had

Todd: jacket boots,

tom: the works. Yeah. Gloves,

Todd: all that kind of stuff. I knew he had a helmet on, but,

tom: wow. Yep. So, ~uh, ~just something to think about. Um, you know, in, in kind of a, I would call this about his ordinary, a ride in the morning as you get. Mm-hmm. Um. So,

Todd: yeah, I've heard of people hitting the kickstands and, you know, picking their back tires up or, or sliding

tom: out, but yep.

Um, wow. It can happen. That's scary. So the last one is really pre-trip maintenance. It's Brad versus his battery. We'll call that. He doesn't like the story, but it's, it's a good one. It was our first trip down to the tail of the dragon. Um, Brad Bike was a really nice bike actually. Um. He knew that the battery had probably seen a better day, but it, it, it, it started the bike fine.

Mm-hmm.

tom: Um, the incident kind of happened though. We'd [00:15:00] stopped checking maps, trying to figure out where the heck we were going. Killed the bike. 'cause you know, it was running and you know, it's loud. Mm-hmm. And,~ uh,~ went to turn it back on and nobody home. Ooh. Just, just, just sat it long enough, you know, kind of to, to not, not have enough juice to start back up.

Mm-hmm. So, and you know, this is a newer bike, so the Honda 13,~ uh,~ ST 1300. So fuel injected can't popstar m Oh yeah. So, ~uh, ~we were. Pretty, I mean, it, it wasn't the middle of nowhere, but it was like whatever's right next to nowhere. Um, so we had passed a small town with a hardware store in it. So I took off and went to find a set of jumper cables.

Um, and by the time I had gotten back, Mike and Brad had found a friendly crew of Tennessee guys that came back and jump started a with a Dodge truck. So the picture that I have is great, 'cause I have a picture of it and there's just kinda like parts everywhere, like. Because those bikes, um, aren't super easy to get to the battery, but I think wasn't a hundred percent sure what was going on.

So [00:16:00] they had things taken apart. So it's a great picture we have of those two. Um, a disassembled bike. A disassembled bike, but they were putting it back together and, and it was running and it was in good shape there. So, but that was almost the end of it. Now the backstory though, you have to hear is the fact that.

I was riding a 1978 Gold Wing, which Brad and Mike were thinking there was a little sketchy idea for me to take this thing down there in the first place. And I will say on the first day, we rode through rain the whole day. It wasn't loving the rain life. It was a little, you know, oh really? Well, this thing had some problem somewhere where if it was raining, electric was getting wet.

I don't know if it was electric or the points or what, but,~ uh,~ but my favorite part of the story is we would, we went downtown Nashville to get some barbecue and it was a great, great barbecue. And Brad not thinking, he flipped the ignition on pulling up the maps on the GPS. Waited a little too long while we're on the side of the road in Nashville and did it again.

Oh, no. Well, luckily, when we were [00:17:00] at this old hardware store, I had had picked up the jumper cables. I brought him back to jump him. So my favorite part of the story was that I got to jumpstart Brad's. 2006 Honda ST 1300 with my 1978 Goldwin Goldwin. That made me, that was great for me, but he didn't, he, his version of the story may be a little different.

Now I know why he doesn't like the story. I see. So, ~uh, ~but,~ uh,~ really, you know, this is why we keep talking about these pre-trip inspections, you know?

Mm-hmm.

tom: You're gonna buy that battery either way, so you may as well get it before you leave I before you go. ~Uh, ~as opposed to after. But also, I mean, as we've found in so many times, Todd is southern hospitality or just people are great.

You know, they're always, we've never ran into a spot where we're just like. Feeling like people are like, well, good luck with that. You know, like somebody's always there to help. Have fun walking. Yeah. Right, right. And so, ~uh, ~yeah, I mean it's just,~ uh,~ yeah. I guess just keep a tentative, keep attentive. Yep. ~Uh, ~there's just so much to distract you [00:18:00] on these trips and then just, you know, do that pre-trip.

Mm-hmm. And on batteries, like maybe every three or four years, just put a new one in. Yeah. I mean, it doesn't cost you that much. Yeah. Right. Okay, well for the toolkit then. I don't know if I can ask for people to get jumper cables anymore. 'cause this was quite a few years ago. This is probably 15 years ago now.

I'd say. Make sure you just have a jump pack. Yeah. At least. I mean, that would've been Yeah. ~Uh, ~just as good. That's a lot of weight though, isn't it? Um, adding a jump pack too. It is, but you know, the, the double bonus of the jump pack is, is I've used it more times for. Making sure that my headset was keeping charge.

Oh, that's

Todd: a great idea. They usually do have USBs on 'em, don't they? They do. Yeah. So it's kinda

tom: like you can't complain.

Todd: Yep.

tom: And then, you know, jumper cables are a little, I mean. Even small gauge jumper cables are pretty bulky.

Mm-hmm.

tom: Um, so, ~uh, ~I think the jump pack is [00:19:00] probably the way to go. Yeah. Um, and then headsets, we've talked about it forever.

~Uh, ~you know, like all, probably every fifth episode we've said we wouldn't want to do without 'em.

Todd: Yeah. And, and it, you know, we don't specifically talk about one brand. We happen to use Cena or Sena Senna. You know, Cardo Cardos are

tom: popular and there's, you know, if you're just doing your own thing. You know, there's some cheaper ones out there that do work too, but, um, you gotta want to, I, I don't know, we just wouldn't wanna do it without talking to people.

Yeah. Yep. Um, I know it gets boring even last 30 minutes when some people's headsets kick out, you know, when they die a battery, it's like, what the heck? Yeah. Makes that 30 minutes seem like a long, long, long time. But, and then I'll just put a punch in and, you know, it's like wear a helmet if you want to, don't, but.

A good full face helmet really is. Mm-hmm. Something I, I would highly recommend and you know, when you're getting into some, maybe some areas where you might have some sketchy, you gotta put that face down too. Yeah. You know, having the face up probably more. Unsafe than [00:20:00] having like a three quarter without a, a, a face or modular that you can pull down.

Mm-hmm. ~Uh, ~you got the helmet up, you probably hook it, you might have hooked it on a tree and ripped it right off your head. So yeah. So it's one of those things. But ~uh, ~yeah, that's, that's the things with the toolkit. Any other thoughts you have there? No, I,

Todd: I, I do. I agree with you on the helmet. I, I have a modular helmet.

Yeah, I think you do too. Yeah. Oh yeah. I like those. So when you're stopping at the gas station, you don't have to take it off. You can just flip the chin bar up and talk just to chat and chat. Nut. Yeah. Yeah. Get something to drink too. A little.

tom: I like it when we get into town. It's been a hot day. You can get a little more air flow too.

Yeah. Um, especially like on your guys' wings where you're not quite as much. Mm-hmm. Wind come around, out the wind, you know? So I usually just lower my windshield. Mm-hmm. So, yeah. Well, if you like the podcast today, please like and subscribe. Sign up for our BMR Rider alerts. It's our way of keeping you in the loop.

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Todd: Keep the spirit of adventure [00:21:00] alive. And remember, bikes, friends, and endless roads. The stories ride forever. Take care,