Maria and I were returning from a day of riding yesterday on my "favorite" Interstate, when I saw a large piece of flimsy plastic circulating in the wind ahead of me. It looked like something that might have covered a pallet, about the consistency of something your newspaper might be delivered in. Anyway, I was watching it as I was approaching so that I could avoid it, when a truck pulled in front of me, blocked my view, and caused the thing to swirl right at me. I still thought that I had missed it, when the passenger in a passing car frantically pointed to my wheels to warn me of a problem. There was no place to pull over, since this section of highway is perpetually under construction, so about 1/2 mile later, I pulled off of the road. What I saw scared the crap out of me... The huge piece of plastic had hooked onto the end of the kick stand and was flapping in the breeze behind me. In the process, big chunks had melted onto the pipes, and worse - had begun to wrap around the belt sprocket. I was able to unwind it from the sprocket without seriously burning my hands, and most of the melting occurred on non chromed sections of the pipes. I'm guessing that I was within minutes of catastrophe, had the plastic gotten much more tangled in the belt or wheel. Thank God for the people in the car taking an interest in helping us. It's refreshing to share the road with helpful car drivers instead of airheads on cell phones.
Ed
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Topic: Close call (Read 1389 times)