Re: [St] Road debris

[Matt Knowles <matt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sep 11, 2008, at 7:26 AM, David Jonas wrote:

>  What's the worst piece of road debris you've ever hit?

Back in 1985 my wife was going to school in LA and I was still living  
in San Jose. I'd go down to see her every other weekend, usually  
leaving Friday after work, which meant a lot of the ride was in the  
dark.

This was when I had my '83 Vision, which is a good thing because the  
fairing on that bike allowed you have your legs pretty protected.

I always took I-5 down there, and usually was quite a bit above the  
legal speed, especially since we were still under that asinine 55mph  
limit back then. (Doing 55mph on I-5 is a good way to fall asleep at  
the wheel)

On one trip, somewhere down in the Bakersfield area I was cooking  
along at about 75mph in the dark, when all of a sudden I got  
enveloped by a dust storm. Before I could even react, a 5 ft diameter  
tumbleweed appeared right in my path. The impact was a lot more than  
I would have expected from a dried bush. I had bits and pieces of the  
tumbleweed hanging from me and the bike and I had to pull over not  
only to remove it all, but to catch my breath from the shock of it.

That one I went through. The largest obstacle I ever went over was a  
log on Route 1 while I was riding the opening season ride with Blake  
on our KLRs. But opening season on Route 1 (not to be confused with  
Hwy 1 on the coast) is always full of surprises, and that's what  
makes it a good KLR road. Had I been on the Sprint, I might not be  
writing this today.

The largest obstacle I didn't go over is a 20ft long 1" galvanized  
pipe that came off a trailer and did a nice bounce on the highway in  
front of me. That was probably the scariest of the all because it  
wasn't just lying on the road and I could just picture getting  
impaled by it.

Matt Knowles - Ferndale, CA - http://www.knowlesville.com/matt/ 
motorcycles
 '99 Sprint ST - for going fast and far (2CZUSA)
 '01 KLR650 (A15) - for exploring the North Coast backroads
 '97 KLX300 & '01 Lakota - for playing in the dirt
 '79 KZ400 - just because it was the first vehicle I ever owned

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