Very cool post... I'm happy to hear you were so fortunate.

 

So...I rode my bike for my first commute to work on Wednesday. Preparing the night before the ride...I was looking for my clear visor. 20 minutes of looking for it in the most likely place that I would put it...couldn't figure it out...I remembered I started cleaning the garage on Sunday and decided to look up at my wire box that I had put away. Thinking...nah....can't be there...but then I looked closely at the shadow cast on the wall and low behold...there's the visor. The next morning, 4:55 AM, I'm already running late if I'm riding (10 minutes to get the bike started when it's cold). I can't find my damn keys. I thought about and said, where would I have put them...I moved the bike to the other bay...their not where they should be...maybe on top of the freezer. No...maybe in the pockets of the pants I was wearing....no.... Damn it...10 minutes rolls by and I'm thinking maybe this is a sign....Damn it...tore through the trash...nope...Damn it....look on the freezer for the 4th time. Hmmm...is it possible that it's under the ADC book map? Yup.

So by this point my inner voice is seeing...this is a sign....

I check the tank...hmmm..looks like it could be enough to make the 48 mile commute in. Start the 10 minute ritual of starting her up. Holy F! it's cold out here. Riding in...everytime I stop my visor fogs up...guess I need to find a different helmet. 23 miles later as I was coming to a stop, the oil light comes on. WTF! OK, now I need to pull over and check it.. Wait...the bike won't move. Oh snap...the engine is off... Maybe it wasn't enough gas. Switch to the reserve. Crank it. Nothing. Damn it...push to the left to the turning lane, crank it a couple times...ok. Rest of the trip uneventful, but 40 minutes late. 4 hours later, my thighs finally thaw out.

So for the trip hope...the worse part came... debilitating heart burn half way between home and work. I pull into the local convienence store (Wawa) and get some milk and wait 15 minutes to settle then hop on and ride the rest of the way home and end up calling out the next day (some bug going around).

I really don't like ignoring my inner voice, but in this case, it wasn't screaming at me like it usually does before a bad day. Overall not to bad. But about as much happened as expected from the way things felt they were going to go.

 

Excellent post BP.

 

i know exactly how you feel. recently i was out riding on some clear roads in the country practicing wheelies, and i got this strange urge to back off, i had a weird feeling that something was about to go wrong. about 30 seconds later, at a spot where i've done countless wheelies lately (you come around a turn and there's about 1/2 mile of straight, freshly paved road), there was a huge oil slick in the middle of my lane. i was able to maneuver around it, but i can only imagine what kind of story i'd be posting right nowif i had gone through it on one wheel going 60+ and lost control.

 

Amen to that. Too many people are hitting the asphalt lately. Wear the gear everytime you get on, no one is too good to crash.

 

Great post, but on the subject of that little voice only had that happen twice in my life. Once was to eat dirt and the second time was to turn around both times saved my life I truly wished it happened more often

 

Bigpops...I love the C-130! Hurkey Bird is my favorite aircraft (I was just a passenger, but those things are tough!)Nice words, echoing my sentiments towards members. All the e-screaming about safety has kept me safe. My "Little Voice" is a committee. I count seven crash posts, so fartoday, and I'm only halfway through! At this rate, we won't have any members soon. God forbid anybody else gets hurt, just for one day, Lord! Amen.

 

Good point about the inner voice BP. When I went down a few weeks ago, I had a really bad feeling about it before I even started out. I kept envisioning myself going down all week (WTF!)... I knew that I was hitting roads that were too advanced to ride at high speed (and had high potential for gravel around turns), but decided to press my luck. Bad idea!

 

Please do not take this post to be dis-respectful to those on the forum that have crashed recently. It just seems as though so many of us have got into SERIOUS accidents lately. And those that have crashed hard are not the noobs, but veterans. I know my small crash a few years ago was from riding dumb. It just seems as though we have forgotten that 90% of riding in in your head.

It seems as though most of these crashes are from errors in judgement, we have all crashed something (I crashed lots of stuff, bike, a few cars, etc) from an error in judgement. There are those case that riders are simply blindsided by cars, but it seems as though the vast majority of our forum accidents are from rider error.

Gear is all well and good, but the best gear is inside your head, not on the outside. I'd bet on the smart (and/or careful) rider before the geared up rider to survive the ride any day of the week. Just like the mind is the best weapon, it is also your greatest defense. Please ride smart everyone.

 

There is no such thing as too slow or too cautious. I'll go slow if it means my bike and my person are in one piece.