Blowing a tire, laying it down into a guardrail, that semi blowing a tire and hitting me, guess I have an active imagination.

 

hiking shoes usually are heavy near the ankles, so no complaints there..
this summer i met alot of young riders new to the sport..
the heaviest thing i saw on these guys were too much cologne. no gloves wearing jeans sneakers t-shirts.. and i felt like i was a broken record.. and top it all off, they're bikes were worth like four times my bikes.. i just want to see the young guys survive the season so they will make it to next season while still enjoying the sport.. i hate being that guy who says i told you so.. anyway i'm not knocking anyone, to each his own..

 

Frount fork seal leak goin around a curve at 80 and hit a bump high speed wabble

 

Very good question... good to see many varied answers.

... for me, it's just losing my family. Last year while on a Euro trip across Belgium, Germany, Swizzerland, Italy then Austria... I lost it on a corner doing around 70mph... was a fantastic sweeping left hander... me and one of th elads were going way too quickly tbh... but after riding day in day out on some of the worlds greatest roads, you're ability doubles...

So, I'm in the lead, leant right over on the lefty and my centre stand caught the ground and threw me upright... it seemed to last for minutes, and everything went through my mind, sure we've all had the same feeling of... "OMG, this is it..."...

Somehow the bike just corrected itself coming out of the corner and I just let of the gas and cruised to a stop... all I heard was my mate on his R1 behind shout "jesus fcking christ..." thinking I was gone (we have Interphone F5's communicators)....

I stopped got off... looked over the edge that I'd have gone off... around 1,200ft of sheer rocky drop... I got back on... rode down slowly to bottom of hill, met up with the other 3 guys... got off... and could barely stand up... legs wobbling... sweating all sorts. Sounds a bit girly but I was a mess for 20 minutes or so... and the main thing that kept popping up was my son (20) and my little girl (5)... couldn't get it out my head. Enjoyed the rest of the holiday but did take notice of the little green alien we have in europe who says "From hero To Zero"... i.e. a warning.

When I got back... I'd had the most wonderful experience of my life for them 13 days... great laughs, stunning and incredible scenary... BUT... I've not been able to shake the "event"... and it's changed ,my riding style... maybe for the better... not that I rode like an idiot, but that day we were all "speed demons"... and it brought me down to earth. I treat this like my "warning" from the bigman in the sky...

Riding wise, I don't like gravel... and always concerned about people pulling out etc... but my actual FEAR is losing my family... maybe that's a good thing... but it has effected me!

 

My biggest fear is that someone will hit me at high speed, from the front, side, rear. Does not matter. When someone hits you at 200 km/h that will be it.

 

Read a story a few years ago about a guy who laid his bike down and was trapped under it and another vehicle as the gas tank ignited. The poor bastard lost his leg, crushed his ********* and burnt off his *****. They somehow managed to salvage and reattach the tip, giving the guy a total of 1 angry inch and 0 nuts.

He was placed on hormone replacement therapy, but I guess the sex drive minus the equipment to relieve it made life so unbearable he gave up the testosterone and ended up basically just laying around all the time. His wife says he is much more calmer now and even snuggles with her(if nothing else) and cries while watching sad/romantic movies.

I suppose that would make my top 10 of fears.

 

I don`t remember was it a year or two ago, doesn`t matter, at work one of those telescopic forklifts was unloading my truck when all of the sudden it`s other front tire went KAPOW about five meters from me, shooting rocks into the windows of the tractor I was standing in front of, at high speed. My ears rang the whole day and I could feel the pressure of the shockwave in my chest for two days. Can only imagine what would have happened if one of those rocks had hit me in the head. I have also witnessed an oncoming truck tire blowing and shattering at speed throwing tire bits at me, lucky I was in my car and far enough to perform an emergency braking dodging all the flying bits. The driver didn`t bother so much than stop and clean the debris from the road so I fulfilled my civic duty as a biker and a trucker and moved them onto the curb.

My biggest fear would probably be to almost die in a horrible accident of some sort but live through it completely paralysed yet head still fully active. Every time I`ve gotten in a near-fatal situation, be it on a bike, on skis, with the sail-kite, whatever, that is the first thing that comes to my mind and gets me to try that one last ditch effort that will either save my bacon or seal the deal. I`ve managed to dodge the reaper`s scythe so far, and hoping to continue doing so in the future, not that I`m deliberately testing it`s sharpness...

 

I have several fears but try not to think about them... lol

Other drivers.. that's the big one. I'm confident in my riding ability but with everyone playing on their phone, or doing everything else but driving. It worries me...

Gravel... I live in the mountains of East Tennessee in the US. Lots of gravel driveways on these twisty mountain roads. Gotta be extra cautious after a good rain.

Mechanical failure, such as a chain breaking, tire blowout, etc... I check my bike out before every ride but I'm not an expert bike mechanic. So I'm a little paranoid about missing something then eating the pavement.

But... if it happens then it happens. I'm still gonna ride! lol...

 

Oil or something slippery, I ran through some semi-dried cooking oil through a turn and lived to tell about it on a FJR.

 

Are there any techniques or skills you can use when riding through slippery conditions or when coming across a slippery mid corner surprise?