Nearly joined "the choir eternal' yesterday.

[Tony Smith]

Headed up to my favorite breakfast haunt, the Whistlestop Cafe at Yungaburra. Decided to go up via Kuranda and back via the Gillies.

Halfway between Kuranda and Mareeba, dead straight bit of road, minimal traffic and a lovely morning - the R65 was proceeding a little in excess of the posted speed limit.

I came up behind a Toyota Landcruiser towing a horsefloat, I didn't think too much of it as the road was straight, clear viz and no oncoming traffic. I just pulled over into the oncoming lane and made preparations to pass.

Suddenly the Landcruiser executed a smart right hand turn into a farm driveway - I didn't see any brake lights or indicators because Cletus hadn't bothered to connect them because he was just going to a neighbour's property to retrieve his daughter's pony.

You can in fact lock the front wheel of a single brembo R65, all it takes is sufficient "motivation".

[montmil]

More than horse drippings on the road this morning. Plus+one on motivation.

[skippyc]

Thank goodness you are here to write up the story.

[clonmore1]

A close shave!

Glad you are okay and brembos really do work well when called upon...

[nhmaf]

Adrenaline can do wonders for hand strength!

The key take-away is always to expect the unexpected, leave room between, and always have an escape path.

Back in November I was riding along at 55MPH on a 2-lane road behind a long stream of cars when they came upon somebody's granny putting along at 30 MPH as they went around a blind curve, and then she came to a stop to turn left against the oncoming traffic.  The pavement was slippery with oil from alot of construction traffic and I knew in a moment that I did not have enough friction to stop in the space left between my front tire and the rear bumper of the car ahead - I aimed for the (thanksfully) wide shoulder as my rear tire started to skid and my forks were fully compressed.  I overshot the rear bumper by about 2 feet, but the shoulder gave me the necessary clearance as other cars tried to stop behind me and their antilock brakes were chattering on the oily tarmac.   Being off to the side in the breakdown lane also saved me from being rear ended.

[Luca]

If only you drove on the right side of the road, Tony; it could have been a simple pass  

Glad you made it out ok.

[Tony Smith]

If only you drove on the right side of the road, Tony; it could have been a simple pass  

Glad you made it out ok.

Thank you.

At the time I stopped, gave Cletus a rather large piece of my mind and then rode on and enjoyed the rest of the day, I actually didn't think much more about it.

Except that I have had some rather lurid nightmares the last few nights. They will pass I am sure.

To be honest, I've had closer shaves, even as the distance closed I was evaluating my last best options of either pointing the bike at the scrub or giving it a boot-full of back brake and laying it down, so there was still wriggle room if in fact I didn't get stopped and time to think/act.

But I've never experienced the "lets re-live it all in fine detail" kind of nightmares before. Getting old I guess.