Maybe This Will Help You

[ChrisInTexas]

I went for a ride yesterday (Sunday) to Oklahoma even with a 30-40 mph head wind working against me the whole way. The wind was a strong cold front working its way south. The closer I got to Oklahoma the colder it got, so I decided to turn around a couple of miles short of the Red River. The ride back to Dallas was very nice, wind at my back and warmer. I slabbed it the whole way.

When I got back to town I went for a short ride up the North Dallas Tollway, here is where the problem began.

North Dallas is tollway hell, there are tollways in just about every direction, but most are brand new and have overhead tolltag scanners. The North Dallas Tollway is the oldest and until recently had toll booths, which have been removed now, but there is still construction where they were at one time. Because of this construction there are concrete barriers that force traffic to funnel into 3 lanes in most places where overhead tolltag scanners have been installed.

I was riding with the flow of traffic, 65-70 mph and knew that a toll gate was coming up so I moved over to the lane next to the fast lane to avoid the concrete barriers on the right. Traffic was a bit heavy for a Sunday, no unoccupied areas available, but was moving smoothly. As we got about 1/4 mile from the gate I noticed a car on my right with 3 people in it and I could tell by their head movement that they were confused about what to do. I kept them in my sight as we approached the gate.

They stayed in the right lane and everything was going fine. Then with no warning the driver did a hard turn into MY lane. I had been paying more attention to this car on my right and less attention to the lane on my left, I honestly didn't even know if there was a car in the left lane. I had to countersteer immediately to move over to the left, fast. I managed to avoid the car on my right from hitting me. I was about 12 inches into the left lane, when I noticed below my left hand was a car hood...there was a car within inches of me on my left.

A quick glance in the rearviews told me I was in trouble, many cars behind me and a large moving van, each moving about 70 mph and I was in the middle of this funnel with concrete barriers on each side. The lady on the left of me was just inches from the concrete barrier on her left, she had managed to move over towards the barrier when I had to jump into her lane.

The guy driving, to my right was in shock, his eyes were huge, he did not have a clue what he was doing. I have no idea why he jerked into my lane the way he did, he probably doesn't either. He was in a good lane with no obstructions in front of him.

So now I have a car just a few inches from me on my left and a crazed driver about 18 inches from me on my right and bunches of traffic hurling towards me. I remember thinking, "just everybody stay where you are, nobody move". I inched over to the right a bit and got on top of the white line. I looked over at the lady to my left, and she looked like she pretty uncomfortable. That was my key to the f out of there. I hit the throttle and I have never been so happy to hear my Kat's engine open up, it was there when I needed it.

After I managed to pull away from the car on my right, I moved over to the far right lane. I slowed a bit and let the lady that had avoided hitting me on my left pull up even to me. I had my dark visor on so she could not see my face but I gave her the "ok" sign with my hand. She was still having a tough time with it, and we continued on our way. I honestly owe this lady my life, if I had gone down I would have been run over, no one behind me would have been able to stop in that short of a space, and there is no where to go but straight through, between the concrete barriers.

Looking back, I believe that being on my Kat was a life saver. If I had been on a cruiser I don't think I could have countersteered as quickly to the left, plus I don't think there was enough room between the two cars for a large bike. And, having plenty of top-end speed available when you need it is now more important to me than ever, it trully can save your life.

I run the stock muffler on my bike and have always liked the quiteness it provides. But, I believe that had I had a loud can the people on the right would have heard me and the whole thing could have been avoided....maybe. I am now changing my attitude and recommend loud pipes. Make noise.

Trust your instincts. My instincts were telling me that the car on my right was trouble. I should have hit the throttle sooner and left everyone before we even got to the funnel. My instincts were correct.

Sorry for the long post, but it will be worth it if it saves one of you guys from a tragic ending. My riding habits will forever be changed now. The guy driving the car that almost got me killed, may have just saved my life.

One more thing, I will be avoiding the North Dallas Tollway in the future.

[Wild-Bill]

Or... You could have slowed down and let the car on your right get ahead of you when you saw they were confused.

Sorry man, but you helped cause that situation when you stayed next to a cager. (Worse, you were between two of them.) It doesn't matter why the guy on your right swerved into your lane, if you weren't right next to him in the first place it never would have been a problem at all. Judging from the picture you posted, you were right in his blind spot.

[Devinjordan]

Or... You could have slowed down and let the car on your right get ahead of you when you saw they were confused.

Sorry man, but you helped cause that situation when you stayed next to a cager. (Worse, you were between two of them.) It doesn't matter why the guy on your right swerved into your lane, if you weren't right next to him in the first place it never would have been a problem at all. Judging from the picture you posted, you were right in his blind spot.

true but Im glad everyone made it out ok

[zuma]

Glad that you're okay, Chris. There's not always a lot of open space to clear yourself of traffic near Dallas. When I ride from far West Texas (almost New Mexico actually) to the rally (North Carolina) the only spot that makes me think about being edgy is Dallas. Two summers ago CenCalKat and I went through okay, and coming back alone wasn't bad either. It's still the only dragon I have to face on my way to the Dragon.
Keep your head up.

[ChrisInTexas]

Zuma, it is true, Dallas can be rough. And, riding slower than the flow of traffic can be dangerous, especially on Dallas's version of the Autobahn.

Also, the tollway was extremely busy and no matter where I was, I was in someone's blind spot. The Super Bowl is this weekend and lots of out-of-towners are here. That may have been the case with this guy, he panicked, driving in all of the traffic, unfamiliar road. I don't know.

The only way that I helped "cause" this incident was the fact that I was riding on that road. Like I said in my post, I will be avoiding that particular tollway going forward. Anyway, I hope someone gets something useful from the post other than Wild-Bill's rants.

[zuma]

Aww, Wild Bill was just concerned about you...he's a Texan too...

[clark827]

I've ridden that stretch before and know your pain, glad you came out of it ok- that's the ultimate goal of every ride. It's amazing how much you learn about driving by riding a bike... cagers are out to get you! Stay safe!

[brian t]

loud pipes save lives ...............

[Wild-Bill]

Dude, it wasn't a rant. It was a suggestion that maybe you could have done something to avoid the situation in the first place by being a bit more pro-active before the situation developed into something truly terrifying. I'm exceedingly glad it turned out OK. The last thing we need is another death in the KR family. Good on you for having the skills to get through it but a situation avoided beats one escaped every time. Like Clark, I assume cagers don't/won't see me and if they do they're out to get me. It's kept me out of a lot of close calls over 20 years of riding.

[Kreylyn]

http://slayerhater.com/

Krey

[Wild-Bill]

Loud pipes torque off the neighbors and get laws passed restricting or altogether banning motorcycles. The only ones in traffic that hear you are the folks behind you. If you go for a louder pipe, at least go for one that's fairly quiet at idle and low rpms. That way you have the option of making a racket at speed or putting around a residential area without waking somebody's kid up.

[steves]

Loud pipes are really only loud to the people behind you.

Tollways can be inherently dangerous because of the funnel effect.

I can neither confirm, nor deny the removal of a mirror from the driver side of an F250 to get the operators attention.

[ChrisInTexas]

Dude, it wasn't a rant. It was a suggestion that maybe you could have done something to avoid the situation in the first place by being a bit more pro-active before the situation developed into something truly terrifying. I'm exceedingly glad it turned out OK. The last thing we need is another death in the KR family. Good on you for having the skills to get through it but a situation avoided beats one escaped every time. Like Clark, I assume cagers don't/won't see me and if they do they're out to get me. It's kept me out of a lot of close calls over 20 years of riding.

Well, I have been riding for about 40 years including motocross when I was about 12 years old and about 30 years on the street. All of those in Dallas, Texas, so I am very familiar with the area, the traffic and the hazards. As a matter of fact, I drive the same tollway about twice a week and have never had a single incident until this one. I also had been riding for about 4 hours that day traveling to Oklahoma and back, all of them in traffic, and did not have a single incident.

There was no unoccupied areas in the traffic to have ridden as is usually the case. The highway was very busy that day. I had been behind the car with the 3 people in it earlier and noticed that they were having difficulty with the road. I have seen cars literally come to a dead stop in the tollway because of confusion and I DID NOT WANT TO BE BEHIND A STOPPED CAR IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TOLLWAY WITH TRAFFIC GOING 70 MPH AROUND IT, so I pulled over in the middle lane and was proceding to go ahead of the car. I was not riding in the drivers blindspot, I was going ahead of him. That is when he turned into my lane and the incident occurred.

I did nothing to cause this...I was the "almost casualty". As a matter of fact, I am prowd of the way I handled it, I honestly believe it was my calm that kept me from getting killed.

As I said in my original post, maybe someone can take my experience and improve on it to avoid something tragic happening to them. If not, so be it.

[diavolo]

Got to agree with Steve - loud pipes do not prevent accidents - most motorcycle accidents are caused by drivers making a left turn IN FRONT of the rider - the noise won't reach that drivers' ears until AFTER they've run you over! Best suggestion is to always maintain a zone around you - either by accelerating ahead, or dropping back - riding parallel to cages is only asking for trouble.

[zuma]

You were locked in Chris, no doubt. I was in a similar situation on my VTX two springs ago in Odessa. I was passing an suv on my right and it came into the lane I was in right at the point where I was even with the back wheel. I had to shift to the left (where there were cars already) and ride the white line until I was even with the driver, and she went back into her lane. Not a thing I could do but ride the line and hope for the best. And as pointed out twice now, the volume of my pipes made no difference because I was behind her when she made her move.