I’m just happy to hear that the cat didn’t take you down as well. Obviously, it’s better that the bike takes the brunt of the damage instead of the rider, which can easily be the case at any speed.
Brazing didn’t work. Not even with a super-low-melting-point braze / solder. (AU$90 down the drain.) So it was out with the TiG welder - which worked, apart from one tiny little weep that will be easy enough to fix.
So she’s back on the road - which means I can go and buy food!
@Nabiki - local wildlife protection laws say you’re not supposed to let your cat out at night. So it was either a stray / a feral / or someone was breaking the law by letting it out.
I still say poor kitty, but I’m glad you’re all right. I’ve never hit anything on the bike, but the instructors all told me that it’s better to hit the small animal than swerve, since the bike will usually keep you upright from a small impact, but a swerve will often take you down.
I don’t think I killed the cat, either. I looked back in the mirror and saw it upright and walking off the road. That will be at least one of it’s lives gone, then…
As for the swerve / no swerve argument - spot on. If you’re swerving (ie, countersteering and leant over), it’s more likely the impact will take you down. People don’t understand how stable a bike is when it’s moving.
And the same swerve / no swerve argument applies for cars, too. Unless it’s a cow / kangaroo / moose / elephant, etc where to not swerve is more dangerous than trying to dodge. If it’s a wombat and you value your car, dodge!!!
I was piloting a mate’s car many years ago and there were some rabbits on the road that weren’t quick enough. My mate’s GF got emotional about it and I calmly said that we’re hurtling along a gravel road in the middle of the night and I’m not going to endanger our lives for the sake of saving a feral pest. She shut up after that.
When I took my driving test, the person giving the test started quizzing me as I was driving. She asked what I would do if a car crossed the line and was coming directly at me.
I told her “Exactly what I did last time, aim for side of the hill” (the hill we were driving by was on my right). For some reason she didn’t like that. I explained that the last time, when I tried to swerve around the other driver, they had swerved at the same time. So I just got out of the idiot’s way. She still didn’t like it, but she refused to tell me what the “right” answer was. I doubt she’s ever had the headlights of a drunk driver staring her in the face.
When a car appeared in front of me, I didn’t had time to even try to swerve. There was a truck next to me, and the idiot in the GTO decided to dart out in front of the truck. I had less than a car length between us when he appeared in front of the truck. I dropped the bike so it didn’t crash into the car, but I still hit it… The bike was brand new (4 months old), and was totaled. I’m grateful I walked away, though I was incredibly sore a few hours later.
Hmmm… I’m really in the mood for thread necromancy tonight…
I’ve never understood the logic behind dropping the bike. Modern bikes have pretty awesome brakes and tyre technology has come a very long way. With good braking technique and practise you can stop a bike in a stupidly short amount of space.
I had less than a car length to react, and I was going about 35-40 MPH. There was no way I wasn’t going to hit the car, and I just reacted on instinct. He was lucky the truck didn’t hit him.
Saw a dude bail when someone cut him off in traffic, bike went into a ditch, he ended up running along the side of the road. I think the bike was FUBAR, he was just fine. Or at least looked that way as he walked back to the car that cut him off that was still in traffic. I was going the other way, would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for that conversation.
But crap like that is why I’ve never been all that interested in riding a bike.
The aftermath of my accident was interesting. The guy in the truck next to me was a paramedic and had a radio in his truck. The police were there in about three minutes, and cited the kid driving the lovely 60’s something GTO on the spot for causing the accident. When the kid moaned about his new car and the dent I put in the door, the officer on site said, “Son, that’s not a new car. That was a brand new bike.”
I was lucky. I walked away, my bike was totaled. I thank my martial arts training for that every time I think about it.
Last time I tripped and fell it became a rolling ukemi. Kind of weird, didn’t make it all the way through it, but I didn’t hit hard at all, and all with no thought.
That’s why you train. I’ve always hoped that if I ever get into a fight that I’ll be looking down saying, “Oops, I didn’t mean to do that,” to the attacker on the ground. I’m so out of practice these days, though, that that’s unlikely. I no longer deserve my shodan.
