It was bound to happen I guess. But if it had to happen it couldn't have gone much better. I got hit by a car a couple of days ago for the first time.
Maybe "hit" is a bit of an overstatement... if it had been a NASCAR race it would have been classified more as "rubbing" than a "crash".
I was following a Prius in the left lane of get-away holiday traffic in the rain Friday afternoon heading out of town. The Prius was tailgating a too-slow car in front who decided to make sure his brakes still worked for (non-)emergency stops. I thought, "oh this is not going to be pretty" so Blinker, Look, Move to the right lane. As I'm accelerating past the Prius he gets the same idea... except no Blinker/Look first. At this point I'm even with his front tires when I see him coming. ACK! More throttle!, juke to the right! then THUMP and I get that odd sensation that my tail is no longer following the front tire. How the bike stayed upright, I still don't know. A couple of friends following on their bikes said my rear didn't move as much as it felt like to me but it did "dance / bounce to the right several times". I pulled off onto the shoulder expecting to see all kinds of damage but all I could find was a deployed left side passenger footpeg that had been stowed before. The rubber on that footpeg had a little rub mark on it... and that's all I could find.
Curse, breathe, pray, repeat... and stay out of traffic (had to have a little help with this one).
Some other friends in the same group caught up with us about this time and looking the bike over asked why I stopped? Nothing wrong with the bike… I'm still in the same shape as before (for better or worse). So whassup? The group who trailed me and witnessed the event drove ahead 1/4 mile or so where the Prius was pulled over. When my heart rate returned to normal and I felt sure I wouldn't kill the driver when I saw him, the rest of us rode to the Prius. The driver and his wife couldn't have been nicer and in fact I think she was more shook up than I was making sure I was OK repeatedly. One of my friends who'd arrived on the scene earlier waved me to the front of the car where he pointed to the front bumper cover only half attached to the frame and nearly dragging the ground. As there was no damage to me or my bike and it was clearly their fault we all parted company with admonishments to be careful. In hindsight, this was a mistake on my part but can’t do anything about it now.
The rest of the weekend I was the butt of jokes about Prius-killing. At the same time I was very, very grateful and lucky that it was a Prius instead of a real car.. or a truck.
Anyway…just sharing another war story. Be careful out there.
Maybe "hit" is a bit of an overstatement... if it had been a NASCAR race it would have been classified more as "rubbing" than a "crash".
I was following a Prius in the left lane of get-away holiday traffic in the rain Friday afternoon heading out of town. The Prius was tailgating a too-slow car in front who decided to make sure his brakes still worked for (non-)emergency stops. I thought, "oh this is not going to be pretty" so Blinker, Look, Move to the right lane. As I'm accelerating past the Prius he gets the same idea... except no Blinker/Look first. At this point I'm even with his front tires when I see him coming. ACK! More throttle!, juke to the right! then THUMP and I get that odd sensation that my tail is no longer following the front tire. How the bike stayed upright, I still don't know. A couple of friends following on their bikes said my rear didn't move as much as it felt like to me but it did "dance / bounce to the right several times". I pulled off onto the shoulder expecting to see all kinds of damage but all I could find was a deployed left side passenger footpeg that had been stowed before. The rubber on that footpeg had a little rub mark on it... and that's all I could find.
Curse, breathe, pray, repeat... and stay out of traffic (had to have a little help with this one).
Some other friends in the same group caught up with us about this time and looking the bike over asked why I stopped? Nothing wrong with the bike… I'm still in the same shape as before (for better or worse). So whassup? The group who trailed me and witnessed the event drove ahead 1/4 mile or so where the Prius was pulled over. When my heart rate returned to normal and I felt sure I wouldn't kill the driver when I saw him, the rest of us rode to the Prius. The driver and his wife couldn't have been nicer and in fact I think she was more shook up than I was making sure I was OK repeatedly. One of my friends who'd arrived on the scene earlier waved me to the front of the car where he pointed to the front bumper cover only half attached to the frame and nearly dragging the ground. As there was no damage to me or my bike and it was clearly their fault we all parted company with admonishments to be careful. In hindsight, this was a mistake on my part but can’t do anything about it now.
The rest of the weekend I was the butt of jokes about Prius-killing. At the same time I was very, very grateful and lucky that it was a Prius instead of a real car.. or a truck.
Anyway…just sharing another war story. Be careful out there.
