Avoiding 'flying' debris

I've watched a piece of weatherbeaten plywood decking peel off of a skanky flatbed trailer.
Saw that 'trainwreck' coming, and was well clear when it went airborne.

Riding next to a large sedan on the freeway.
Odd clanging sound commences from the rear wheel of the car.
Look over/down, and see 2 lug nuts exit the hubcap.
Applied WFO throttle to get safely clear.

Riding home on the freeway late one night, in the fast lane, near zero traffic.
See something way up ahead in the lane.
Move over 2 lanes, and ride past a small motorboat sitting perfectly straight in the middle of the fast lane.
(WTF, they didn't hear/feel it coming off ???)

Saw the aftermath of a small couch that came off a trailer.
The Harley Dresser did not successfully negotiate that obstacle.
Luckily, injuries to the rider and pillion appeared minor.

Nearly ran over a large metal ratchet block, the type that is mounted to the edge of a semi-trailer flatbed.
I was going down an offramp, didn't see it until the car in front of me drove over it (without touching it).
Very lucky, as I don't think I could have avoided it, and that would have put me on the deck for sure.

Driving my cage in heavy medium speed traffic, suddenly there's a strange white cloud at road level ahead, and everyone is getting on the brakes.
A medium sized fire extinguisher comes out from underneath the car in front of me.
Boxed in, nowhere to go, I logroll it, soundly whacking a frame crossmember.
My CD player (that was on at the time) never was quite the same after that...

Long ago, driving on the freeway in my Karmann Ghia.
18 wheeler directly ahead slows down a lot.
I pull left to pass, and run over a *giant* furball of shredded cardboard, at least 4 feet in diameter.
I'm sure the Ghia was completely airborne.

Watch out for cars with mattresses tied onto the top.
90% of the people don't have any clue on how to properly secure them.

Try to keep a clear view of what's ahead.
It's sometimes impossible, of course.

Take cues from what the vehicles ahead are doing, try to get as far away as possible.

Any of the above incidents would have resulted in injury (at best) if I had gotten involved while on a moto.

I was heading up to San Francisco recently, in the sort of fast but heavy traffic we have around here, when I saw up ahead an odd white cloud and cars braking and swerving. Turned out to be a slab of wallboard in the process of being powdered by all the cars and trucks that were opting to drive over rather than swerve. Suddenly I'm riding over plaster chunks and dust, and the stuff is swirling in my helmet, eyes, nose, mouth. I can't see, I can't breathe, no where to go except forwards.... That was bad. As soon as I got through it I opened up my visor at about 65mph and was turning my head side to side to try to blow it out. No, I was not paying much attention to my riding at that moment.

Made it OK, makes for a good story, but I'm just stupid lucky some car didn't run me off the road in all the excitement, or that I didn't run myself off the road, or skid out on the stuff on the road. whew.

mossimo said:

Perfect example...

Done again what would you have done different to avoid the whole situation?

Click to expand...

I've been thinking about this all day. Short of being in a car I don't think there was anything I could have done to avoid the plaster debris cloud. My first thought was that my traction was at immediate risk, and the stuff was spread too wide to safely go around. I decelerated a bit, centered myself in the lane and tried to ride straight through it without hitting the throttle or (especially) the brake. That turned out to be a good tactic when the dust got into my helmet. Done again, I'd take a bigger breath of fresh air before hitting the cloud.
I can personally testify that a nice 65mph breeze will clear out whatever is in your eyes/nose/mouth/helmet in pretty short order.... :

Sometimes taking emergency evasive action is more dangerous than just riding straight through it (as others have mentioned re squirrels/small dogs/plastic baggies).

I once caused a bicycle accident by swerving around a pothole instead of riding through it (took out the guy behind me).

I'll throw in a couple of cents' worth here.

First off, you saw the cloud and driver behavior, in good time. That is excellent. Too many car drivers just stare at the bumper ahead of them. You looked far down the road and had plenty of warning that something unexpected was coming up.

With that knowledge, (and maybe you did this, but it wasn't in the post) I'd recommend opening up some car lengths between you and the guy ahead. No panic braking mind you (because the guy behind you probably isn't looking at the cloud) but a definite slow down so that you can see what's on the road before you get up to it. In heavy traffic we all tend to ride too close to the guy in front, so we don't see the road surface until we're right over it. If you have the early warning, take advantage. You never know whether, in addition to the wallboard, the guy might've lost some pipe or lumber or something else nasty.

And I think with the possibility of the sheet sliding under you, going straight over was the best course of action.