This idea of chance and good/bad things that happen has been brought up here alot lately. Here's one of mine. I was driving home from a WERA race last year and passing through Cincinnati. It was about 1:00 in the morning. I stopped for my last gas stop and since it's Sunday night/Monday morning there are few people around. I'm pumping gas. These two rough looking guys pull up beside the pump and ask me what's in my trailer. Instead of saying motorcycles, tools and gold bullion (ha) I say I'm going to help my brother move some furniture. I add I don't know why he wants to move the stuff cause it's junky. They set there a moment then pulled way. I watch them leave. I couldn't read their license plate. I hung around the station a while and when I left was carefull to look for there car, stay around other cars and not stop at lights. I think these creeps were looking to rob me or worse.
^^^ THIS Far better to avoid the confrontation than to have to deal with the messy aftermath of having leaked a bad guy's oil out.
Lol... I did not listen to my voice once and it almost got me a bullet in the chest. Only quick thinking on my part saved me...in totally confidant about that, the same woman and 2 guys who tried to rob me killed 4 other people at ATMs back then..it was the same people. Two African-American dudes and one big ugly Mama sitting in the backseat... they got guns and the entire time their robbing me .. She's screaming at them " kill that white boy", " Cap his ass", Cap that white boy , "Do it ..."What the f*** you waiting for", Shoot that white boy NOoooW!!!!" I have more than my fair share of close calls that probably would have resulted in me possibly dying...I'm not kidding either..I put myself into some bad spots when I was young...oblivious to my surroundings... I should have had "ignorance is bliss tattooed on my forehead"..lol BUT HERES THE ONE INCIDENT OF CHANCE AND FATE FOR ME: 1986 I'm on my lil RZ350 riding ing home from work on the freeway outside of Los Angeles around 7:30 at night daylight savings time people are doing about 70 mph and I start to merge over the four lanes of traffic to the exit when inexplicably I see cars going left right hitting each other colliding with the center divider driving off the freeway and there I see a dog in the middle of the freeway and he's running while I am approaching it cars are literally gliding in front of me left and right everything I swear to God turned black and white in my memory I made it to the side of the freeway and there was about 15 cars just demolished and that dog ran right off the freeway down the soft shoulder about 50 yards from me. This was 1986 every car was a 2-ton gas guzzling clunker I've never been so lucky by chance in my life literally like out of a NASCAR wreck, & I rode right through it all untouched.. I had broken windshield glass in my lap & in my motorcycle jacket collar..... that's how close I was.. think bout that...
This all reminds me of something that happen to someone I worked around some. He was driving home from work and his current construction job took him through a bad area of Dayton, Ohio. He had the windows down and was stopped at a light when a guy came up to his car and said get out. He didn't get out and an altercation ensued through the car window. The would be carjacker shot the driver. The injury must not have been life threatening. The driver (regular steel worker) grabbed the idiot by the arm and floored his car. He drug him across the intersection and on for a block or two. Then drove himself to the hospital.
Think unintended Wall of Death ride. It happened by chance. A number of scenarios played out in my mind as I realized I was heading for the wall. - I will crash trying to make this turn. - I will run into the wall and my body's momentum will carry me over it. - I will run up and over the top. - I will ride up the wall and it will act as a berm. The wall was the Jersey Barrier on the outside at the top of the Crescent City Bridge exit into Gretna, LA. I was at 130mph in the short straight between the overpass's entrance and the top of the ramp when it dawned on me this might be a smidge too fast for what was coming. Coming south on the overpass to the east, somewhere between 1/2 - 2/3 of the way through the turn, I'm on the wall until it starts to straighten out. It acted like a berm. I "peaked" on the vertical profile of the wall over halfway up for most of the ride. Kept my cool, off the brakes, gently riding it out. Strangest thing, there was no chassis upset when I encountered the wall nor when I came off it. Good ol' FZR1000 stability.