Close call

Hi folks.

I had one not nice event on the road yesterday and thought I should share it - maybe it will force someone to some kind of reflections...

So, I was on the way to Stockport, via country roads. Conditions were vile, snow, loads of mud, water, snowfall, fog - it was such dense Sh*t i couldn't see anything in front of me, never before seen fog like that. I have heated grips and muffs, but my Sidi Cobras are not the best winter boots ever. They got wet very quickly and so did my tex pants. Believe me or not, I was freezing my balls off!

I entered Peak Forrest. There was series of few nice bends that I loved in the summer. Road was going downhill and bends were sharp, with only two lines of blacktop, rest was covered in melting snow and mud. I choose to enter first bend wide and so had to follow this path till next straight. My tires, Pirelli City Demons, suck in wet, so didn't want to risk any skidding or lowside. I followed my path through second bend and then on the third, spotted even more Sh*t on the road. Stood the bike up and started to brake, but tail was locking up. I tried to lean more with countersteering and tap, but fixated on the doubble white and got carried onto oncoming lane - up to about quarter of it. Luckily my conciusness came back in time, and when I looked where I should, I saw fookin' big lorry coming straight at me. We were so close to each other that driver started to sverve in an attempt to avoid collision. It was just fraction of a second, when I opened throttle as wide as I could. With tail still sliding a little I went past my to-be killer.

During that mess, I was calm, didn't panic. But afterwards, after maybe a minute or two, I was scarred shitless! I know that target fixation is a bitch, but hoped I learnt that already. Just when I got back home, it got to me for real. Kind of makes me think about lots of stuff now.

Irony of the situation - I was going for biker funeral.

I'm not gonna stop riding, but will have to re-evaluate this and that.

Stay safe out there! I don't want to go to any other last ride!

The problem when we're in a slide is that we start to look at what we might hit, instead of where we want the bike to go, and that's when we drift into positions we don't want to be in. Glad you're ok Tom. don't stop riding, just be more selective about the conditions you ride in.

Roads were not so bad for about first 45 minutes of riding. After I got that far I didn't even consider the return. Way back was warmer, fog cleared, conditions were a little bit better. But lesson learnt and I will think twice before going that far on the bike in winter .