GG Almost down
 

Well, fear not, me and the bike are fine, but we very nearly weren't :-(

Pulling away from the lights at Whitehall Garden Centre on the A350 towards Chippenham, accelerating fairly hard (but not more than 8k on the revs which is quite low on the BB) to get up to speed as it's a national limit and was doing about 40-45mph when I noticed a bunch of bailer twine (farmer type string for hay & straw bales) come off the lorry in the oncoming lane. I thought I'd missed it as it looked to be a good few feet away from me and I saw it come off as the lorry was passing, so I wouldn't have been able to move anyway.

10 or so yards later, doing same speed as was checking my mirror for the twine and BANG, rear tyre locked up. Horrible screeching sound and the back end fishtailed for the next 40 yards until it came to a stop and I managed to get it to the side of the road. I didn't use front brake and didn't touch gears or clutch as I didn't know if the twine had gne around the chain/sproket. I just held the bars tight to keep the front wheel straight and prayed it stayed upright.

Lucky for me it did.

For all the bikers (about 25-30) that went past me in the following 30 minutes...thanks so much for checking if I was ok...NOT! 3 police cars passed me, 1 RAC van passed me and not one stopped or even gave a nod or wave to see if I was ok. In fact, it was a BMW driver in the other lane that slowed enough to ask me if I was alright.

Luckily, 30 minutes in a motorcycle servicing dude pulled up, put his flashing ambers on and cut the twine for me. Then followed me home to make sure I was ok. Big thanks to him.

Off to Squirrel_Hunters now for him to have a quick look over, but it feels fine, just got the wheel and missed everything else :-)


Stay safe out there peeps and I don't know if I did the correct thing or not, but it worked.

Re: GG Almost down
 

the main thing is you stayed upright which sounded like a feat in itself - go have a cup of tea which SH looks over it and well done!!

so Glad you're alright!!

Re: GG Almost down
 

Glad you're pk GG. Will squirrel hunter be giving you a once over too? Is there something you're not telling us? Am I reading your post correctly.
Have a nice day and don't get lost or squashed.

Re: GG Almost down
 

Baby.

: (

5p 50p moment

Re: GG Almost down
 

sounds like you did alright, least you didnt panic. :)
Shame on the other riders though, I thought it was an unwritten rule that we pulled over to check on other riders? Were you in a place of poor visablity or did they have no excuse?

Re: GG Almost down
 

Thanks Q :-)

Well....he's only looking over, not going over as per my post and if you know Steve...you'll know he "looks" over anything with a pulse, so I am used to that ;-)


Weirdly, no. It happened, my brain pretty instantly equated what must have happened and I think I was too busy concentrating on keeping it upright than feeling what was happening anywhere else. Rest assured though, my lovely new leathers do not need washing ;-)

It was more scary being stuck on the side of that road, it's two lanes at the lights that instantly merge into one lane on a national speed limit road, so people trying to pass slower drivers by going over the lines, then realising something was coming and my bike was there....a few hard breakers, despite me walking down the road to warn them all :rolleyes:

Re: GG Almost down
 

Difficult one....I don't personally know one rider that would not have pulled up behind or in front of the bike and checked, but it is a busy road and maybe not the safest place to pull over. That's why I was, frankly disappointed in the 3 police cars and RAC van that passed. On a 60 road, only 1 lane in each direction and lorries were having to stop and wait for a gap to pass my bike.......lucky there wasn't a rear ender really.

Actually, thinking about it......given that I was already pulled up, there should be no reason another biker didn't pass my bike and pull up in front of it. Oh well, never mind.

Re: GG Almost down
 

well done you for keeping it upright. As for police not stopping, when the chain on the raptor snapped and I had to push the bike a mile, a couple of police cars went past me too without offering any assistance. A nice white van man stopped and helped me push the bike up the last bit of the hill, while his pal drove the van with his hazards on behind us, it was a narrow road coming up to brow of hill and a 60 limit. I was knackered. Then to add insult to injury, I phoned insurance, told them details, recover man was sent out, only to say he could do nothing and ordered a flat bed, the flatbed driver, told me I had to put bike on back for insurance reasons. I had got changed at work and had a skirt on, still had to push the bloody bike up onto flat bed and then off at the other end. anyway well done you again, now go home and change your pants lol

Re: GG Almost down
 

I recon flatbed driver made you do that for upskirt reasons, saucy minx lol.
(not nice to push far, been there wont do it again - you have my sympathys)

Re: GG Almost down
 

Glad to hear your ok, and its nothing more serious than perhaps a change of undies.

stay safe hun