Tuesday on I-75 at rush hour I was passed by a kid on a Ninja (ZX-7 I think).
The whole scene begged for some kind of witty saying... he was wearing Teva's, a T-Shirt, and had Temp Tags... the Four T's?
It was the exact place where I almost got hit by another Ninja (looked like maybe the same bike, but different rider) while I was in my cage...
I was in the center lane, and he was coming onto 75 from the exit ramp on the right.
There was a slow car in front of him on the exit ramp, followed by two tailgaiting cagers, followed by the aforementioned tailgaiting Ninja.
Ninja-boy decides he is going to make a scene and do the superman launch across three lanes from the slow (far right) to the fast (far left) lane, lays on the thottle, and is cutting right behind my cage.
He is way too close (10 feet or so) for the speeds (about 70mph in a 65 zone moving with traffic) by the time he is trying to move accross my lane immediately behind my car.
Problem was, cager one (the slow one) cut abrubtly into the far right lane from the exit ramp. No suprise. Impatient cager two and three, cut past slow cager one across two lanes into my lane (the middle lane), cutting me off totally (I had to mash the brakes pretty hard). Again, no suprise to anyone that has any business on a bike on the interstate. This left squidboy absolutely no margin.
I saw the whole thing develop, and weaved right while braking the least amount I could without hitting the car that cut me off. Squidboy at least had decent reflexes, and weaved left a lot harder then he originally intended.
He (barely) missed my back bumper (which was now well into the right of my lane) on his way to the left, and barely managed to hold it together without going into the grass in the center median (since he had to so radically alter his line to avoid rear ending me).
Had I not swerved while braking, his path would have easily clipped my left rear bumper. He was probably moving between 85 and 90mph at that point. Not a pretty picture.
As for the leathers, I suffered through my jacket several times this week with high temps and higher humidity. As safe riding goes, I am proud to be a whimp.
I'd rather sweat water then blood. Nuff said.
Bill
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"The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to eventually close it again on something solid" (GK Chesterton)