Motorcycle Views

Wild Motorcycle Tales

Here's a great story from milo. Got your own story? Send it to me.

Don't Box Me In

I was on my Honda 750 ACE heading east down I80 to Des Moines, IA. I caught up with a line of four 18-wheelers that were all under the speed limit by about 5 mph.

Just as I started to pull out and pass, I double checked my mirror and there was a car. Now I could have accelerated and been in front of it safely enough, but I played it conservatively because a 750 is not an interstate machine.

I backed off a bit, let the car go by, and then started to move over to pass. When I backed off, the last two semis pulled out to pass the two in front of them. Not arguing with a vehicle which outweighs you by 80,000 pounds, I watched them go.

I checked my mirrors a couple of times and didn't find anyone coming hard from behind so I went ahead and followed them around.

MISTAKE!

They took their own sweet time getting around. It takes a long time if you are only going 5 mph faster than the vehicle you are passing. By the time the 4th truck in line got even with the 1st truck in line, I had a big Dodge Ram that was so close behind me, I couldn't even see his license plate.

At one point, I realized that if I had a passenger with me, they could have reached back and slapped the hood of the Ram.

Now I have wind buffeting me from the front and side from semis and a Ram ready to ram me from behind. It was, without a doubt, one of the few times riding that I was truly scared.

I got out of it OK but learned a valuable lesson to never get yourself boxed in. -- milo

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