You linked this, so I re-read it. Again. I remember the first time you posted it.
About ten years back, I'm riding my Suzuki V-Strom 650 to work. 2-lane blacktop road. I gotta turn left to enter the parking lot, as I click the signal switch and start to lean in, notice in my left mirror there's a Jeep Cherokee coming up in the left side at maybe 100 mpg (speed limit is 35 in that area). My mind, racing, figures out he's late for work further down the road and planning to pass me on the left. If I completed the turn to the left I would be t-boned and killed. So I abort the turn and straighten out, thinking ok he'll pass me and I'll u-turn later and come back, beats dying. And then I hear the screaming of his tire locking up. I know instantly he saw my blinker and pulled back in the right lane, behind me, still going 100 mph. But since I've aborted the turn, I'm still in the right lane directly in front of him, now waiting for impact. I straighten the bike as best as possible and roll the throttle to full stop hoping any acceleration will lesson the impact. There's maybe 2 or 3 seconds before impact. It felt like 2 or 3 minutes. I still have dreams where I'm waiting for the hit. A lot of stuff went thru my head. The one defining thought was - I don't mind dying, I've had a good life, I just hope it don't hurt too much. Please be quick.
His bumper impacted directly on my back tire, throwing the bike forward. If I hadn't have been completely straight I would've been thrown from the bike. Instead I flew backwards and splayed myself out across the trunk mounted on the carrier rack. The bike stayed upright and stable - after flying forward about 20 feet. I jumped forward on the seat, grabbed the handlebars and steered into the ditch and laid it over slowly. My back felt on fire, the (vibrant diversity) person driving the Jeep kept on driving and left me there to ponder to nature of the universe by myself.
Those 3 seconds of waiting are forever etched in my memory. I truly thought I was going die and in some fashion that thought is still with me. I almost couldn't ride home (amazing the bike was not damaged enough to prevent riding). After getting home and parking it, I didn't ride for almost a year. Eventually I got beyond that. But yeah, 13 seconds? Fuck me. 3 second gave me PTSD, 13 seconds would be unbelievable agony.
I can relate to the car crash part. I still vividly remember how long it took before that Focus ST first landed into the field, bouncing back to the air for another, shorter flight. Don't remember anything between the first landing and the final one, though.
The couple seconds in the air, though, were interesting.
I think I missed this one the first time around. You had another great post on religion and your take on God more recently. I think early 2021. Substack really needs a tagging system.
You linked this, so I re-read it. Again. I remember the first time you posted it.
About ten years back, I'm riding my Suzuki V-Strom 650 to work. 2-lane blacktop road. I gotta turn left to enter the parking lot, as I click the signal switch and start to lean in, notice in my left mirror there's a Jeep Cherokee coming up in the left side at maybe 100 mpg (speed limit is 35 in that area). My mind, racing, figures out he's late for work further down the road and planning to pass me on the left. If I completed the turn to the left I would be t-boned and killed. So I abort the turn and straighten out, thinking ok he'll pass me and I'll u-turn later and come back, beats dying. And then I hear the screaming of his tire locking up. I know instantly he saw my blinker and pulled back in the right lane, behind me, still going 100 mph. But since I've aborted the turn, I'm still in the right lane directly in front of him, now waiting for impact. I straighten the bike as best as possible and roll the throttle to full stop hoping any acceleration will lesson the impact. There's maybe 2 or 3 seconds before impact. It felt like 2 or 3 minutes. I still have dreams where I'm waiting for the hit. A lot of stuff went thru my head. The one defining thought was - I don't mind dying, I've had a good life, I just hope it don't hurt too much. Please be quick.
His bumper impacted directly on my back tire, throwing the bike forward. If I hadn't have been completely straight I would've been thrown from the bike. Instead I flew backwards and splayed myself out across the trunk mounted on the carrier rack. The bike stayed upright and stable - after flying forward about 20 feet. I jumped forward on the seat, grabbed the handlebars and steered into the ditch and laid it over slowly. My back felt on fire, the (vibrant diversity) person driving the Jeep kept on driving and left me there to ponder to nature of the universe by myself.
Those 3 seconds of waiting are forever etched in my memory. I truly thought I was going die and in some fashion that thought is still with me. I almost couldn't ride home (amazing the bike was not damaged enough to prevent riding). After getting home and parking it, I didn't ride for almost a year. Eventually I got beyond that. But yeah, 13 seconds? Fuck me. 3 second gave me PTSD, 13 seconds would be unbelievable agony.
Between the Jeep braking and you accelerating the closing rate must have been significantly reduced. Good presence of mind on your part.
Can you add a "sort" feature to the archive so we can work back-to-front on all these great pieces?
I can relate to the car crash part. I still vividly remember how long it took before that Focus ST first landed into the field, bouncing back to the air for another, shorter flight. Don't remember anything between the first landing and the final one, though.
The couple seconds in the air, though, were interesting.
I think I missed this one the first time around. You had another great post on religion and your take on God more recently. I think early 2021. Substack really needs a tagging system.