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**Divya Sharan** · 01-16-2013, 07:47 AM

Originally posted by padfootmoony2006 View Post

hummm...have been on the highways hell lott of a times..and have had a such moments on a few rides.!!! but the worst was while i was returning from Malshej ghat....!!
It was around 4pm...My biking group "RoadRunnerz" had been for a weekend ride to malshej...!!! On our way back i was riding with a pillion and had just completed the malshej ghat section in a span of about 30 mins...!! it was dead fast....amazing corners and superfast straight line speeds...!! just after the malshej completes the road narrows down into a single lane...two way road.with a lot of heavy traffic around..!! The road was raised at around 4ft above the ground level with gravel and potholes on both sides before the road made a slopy descent of 4ft..!!....i had this orange swift in front of my...which was purposly not allowing me to overtake....(ego problem)....i made many safe attempts to overtake it...but he somehow dint allow me to overtake..!!!
And finally i got an oppourtunity...there was a huge truck in fron of the swift...i was very close to the swift...i made up my mind...now i have an oppourtunity to surpass the car.....from the 5th gear i shifted down to the 4th to gain some momentum...and took my bike to the right....as i reached half the cars length..the swift suddenly came outta its riding lane to overtake the truck....i had no option other than leaving the road and making a maneuver on the gravel and dust...!! i was riding at around...80kmph....moved my right foot from the break peddle....got constant on the throttle....dint let the handle bar moved much...but just allowed it to shoot away any pebble that came in the way...!!! all this happened in a span of around 5seconds....before i was on the tarmac again...!!!! i got back on road with all my controlling skills put together and luck i must say!!...and saved my bike (ZMR), myself and my pillion form a good 4ft fall into some small road side shop...!!! I then cruised at 40-50 for 2-3 kilometres to get back into my normal riding style....and then was back to usual cruising speeds....!!!
My pillion being a rider of the P200(with experience of more than 80,000kms under his seat with his machine)...also showed great confidence in me and did not panic ....!!
That was one moment i will never forget......and as far as the swift is concerned.....it took an immediate left diversion and moved to a different way...!!!
I thank My bike and my Luck for keeping us safe..!!

Saw this one late. My bad.
But, please avoid such incidents and ensure that you don't get hurt due to someone else's ego.

**evyavan** · 02-12-2013, 02:11 PM

Re: Heart in mouth moments.

I guess I've had a lot of heart in mouth experiences after I bought my bike and always it had something to do with pedestrians. Always ABS came to the rescue as if in any other bike w/o ABS I would've slid across the road painting bright red on the surface.

Pedestrians, be it early morning or night just jump to the roads like zombies. Despite of the road safety campaigns they don't stop and look either sides for oncoming vehicles and sometimes when we honk they'll just stand mid-road staring at the vehicle, rather than moving on or retreating. I've no problem if they cross at zebra lines, but in Kerala they don't mind jumping on to roads from nowhere.

I think while taking the learners test a RPG where the rider rides a bike thru Indian roads must be given to play.

There will be pedestrians jaywalking and staring at vehicles in this game.

Well thinking about it, I think I shall make a game like that! What say?!

**Divya Sharan** · 02-12-2013, 03:18 PM

^^^ Well, its the same emotion on both sides I can guarantee that.

A rider thinks:
a. Drivers are rude.
b. Pedestrians are fools.

A driver thinks:
a. Riders are rude.
b. Pedestrians are fools.

A pedestrian thinks:
a. Drivers are rude.
b. Riders are fools.

Unless most of the public is educated and aware of local surroundings and road safety, we'll continue to think so.
And this education is not happening any time soon.

**bbsrailfan** · 02-12-2013, 04:22 PM

To be frank, I'd had a fair share few heart-in-mouth moments both as a rider and as a pillion. One of the incidents I can recall very vividly was during my college days in Bhubaneswar - I was riding pillion behind one of my classmates on a Bullet. My classmate himself was a newbie on bullets and I had hopped on behind him unaware of the facts. It was a particularly hot afternoon and the roads were relatively empty so my buddy decides to open up the throttle. He touched 70+ before losing control and the next thing I remember was flying through the air. We landed as if in slow motion - first my classmate, the bullet over him and I was on top of the wreck!

As a rider, one of the scariest moment I encountered was at Bangalore on BTM 29th Main (the road leading from the BTM lake to AXA building). It was past 11PM and I was riding with my friend as pillion on my Yamaha Gladiator. We were doing almost 65-70 and under my poor headlamp beam, I couldn't notice the massive speedbreaker. For the next two seconds, I was flying through air, groping with my hands searching for the bike. Thankfully, we both landed in unison. And a fraction of a second later, a third 'Thud' threw my bike completely off-balance (That was my friend landing on the pillion seat). We fishboned for a few moments before finally coming to a halt.

A recent incident was on 27th Jan when I & my wife were returning from a trip. The roads were satin-smooth and we were cruising at 90-100 and all of a sudden, the tarmac vanished, giving way to very rough, potholed dirt-roads. The bike began jumping around like a mad bull and I hit both the brakes in panic and braced myself for a massive sliding fall on dirt-and-gravel roads - but the slide never happened, thanks to the ABS - the bike safely slowed down to a bumpy halt and the only pain I felt was my wife punching me for not driving carefully!

**evyavan** · 02-12-2013, 05:00 PM

Re: Heart in mouth moments.

Originally posted by Divya Sharan View Post

^^^ Well, its the same emotion on both sides I can guarantee that.

Yep. I get that a lot. I wasn't saying they are fools. At least not all.

I do wait it slow down when it's dark or if visibility is limited. The thing is even then these people, mostly older people and kids, appear as if they emerged from shadows. These are the times when we slam hard on the breaks and the wheel locks and the bike skids. At least these people have some kind of a reflective surface like riders use when it's dark for others to see from afar.

**evyavan** · 02-12-2013, 11:13 PM

Re: Heart in mouth moments.

Well, when I think about it I had one heart in mouth moment past week.

While cornering a tight corner on speeds above 60 my foot grazed against the aluminum railing in the corner. Was angry that day and was squeezing the throttle with a fuming mind.

I.misjudged the oncoming traffic and leaned maximum to have the bike through the tight corner without releasing the throttle. There were two or three cars coming from other side and the first one took a wider turn to get through the corner. I somehow pulled the bike to the other side and somehow managed to have the bike swerve away from the car but couldn't pull it upright. And to put pepper on the steak, in that frenzy I slammed the front break. I kept on pulling and releasing the lever. Bike went on its course out of the road. Couldn't bring it under control. A fuming head causes you to lose control over your faculties, right? Left side crash guard scratched on the railing in that corner with my foot. The sports shoe which I was wearing then got scrapped at the left side with a gaping hole which burnt through the shoe, socks and bruised my foot. It's nothing big, but I lost my shoe.

I kept on riding. Later I stopped to cool my head. Then decided not to ride when angry.

**Chetas Das** · 02-19-2013, 05:20 PM

They say never take your eyes off the road no matter what. I did just that. A Duke 200 overtook me near Bandra Flyover, Mumbai in the most badass fashion possible. I was distracted and awestruck and nearly rammed my Splendor 125cc into the taxi ahead which had just finished panic braking thanks to a bus guy ahead of us. Luckily, I dodged the cab in the nick of time. Like NSW's riderrisk says '4 wheels always brake faster than 2'. I always say that to myself when I feel like speeding

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