REVIEWS SPECS NEWS CLASSIFIEDS VIDEOS

More adventures in commuting

3297 Views 14 Replies 8 Participants Last post by Gluge, Dec 18, 2007

sarnali2

Discussion Starter · Dec 17, 2007

Riding in on my Bandit this morning, O-dark thirty, 44 and raining the usual winter stuff. I'm cruising along about 50 or so in the left lane next to some cowboy in a lifted Chevy pick up, I hear his revs increase and he swings right into my lane. I swing onto the shoulder and around him and back into the lane and continue on my way no problem, he must have freaked because he dropped way back.

It did get me thinking though, when you get these safety-crats talking about unsafe motorcycles and what not, how about these idiot monster trucks? I mean here I am next to this guys window glowing in the dark in my HiViz, refective diamond and arrows on my helmet and a Holeshot Can right next to him. His mudder tires were making so much noise he can't hear it and he's apparrently so high up he couldn't see me. If I'd have been in a little cage he would have ran right over me.

These POS's are pretty popular around here because there's lots of places to go 4 wheeling but what kind of dumbf**ker would pay $300 a piece for those big mud tires and then run them on the street or lift a truck so much you need a ladder to get in? not to mention non-existant crash avoidance stability and the amount of gas it takes to run those tires. if they want to improve road safety, putting a limit on those things would go along way.

1 - 15 of 15 Posts

seruzawa

· #2 · Dec 17, 2007

Trucks? How about luxury sedans with the radio pushing 155db and the driver yakking on a cell phone?

Honestly, all my close calls over the years are with sedans. Except for the a-holes pulling those verdamnt horse trailers at 90mph. Your experience may vary. But when I see someone in a sedan with a cell phone I stay the fock away.

Kenneth_Moore

· #3 · Dec 17, 2007

sarnali2 said:
These POS's are pretty popular around here because there's lots of places to go 4 wheeling but what kind of dumbf**ker would pay $300 a piece for those big mud tires and then run them on the street or lift a truck so much you need a ladder to get in?

For whatever consolation it might be, just imagine the sick feeling in the pit of that guy's stomach every time he wheels that fcker into a gas station.

sarnali2

Discussion Starter · #4 · Dec 17, 2007

The only time I got hit was a sedan but most of the close calls have been with these wannabe cowboys and loggers with lifted trucks, SUV's and Jeeps. Most of them drive like d*ckheads and the vehicles themselves are about as safe and roadworthy as a chopper.

This must be the SUV capitol of the world here, I have two myself and it seems like every other vehicle you see is a Suburban or Expedition or a cute ute like a CRV or Vue. Granted with the snow in winter and hills they're handy to have but adding those huge tires and lift kits just screws up the handleing on a vehicle that's pretty shakey in the first place. Those tires and kits are only of any real value in deep mud and who's going to take a $40k vehicle off road in the first place?

Makes a pretty piss-poor commuter that's for sure, can anyone say "over-compensating?"........

Kenneth_Moore

· #5 · Dec 17, 2007

Florida had a rash of deaths from the "lift kit" SUVs. The trucks bumpers were so high they would go right into the passenger compartment of the target vehicle. Supposedly they're to have dropped bumpers within DOT specs, but I hardly ever see that.

52944

· #6 · Dec 18, 2007

Glad you were able to avoid him.

Those vehicles crack me up they raise them like 4 feet up for 'off roading' but yet you can easily see the axles and all these vulnerable stuff under neither isn't any higher so they're not really any better for off roading (or hardly any) Then they use them for just driving around the town.. I can't imagine how many parking lot miss-haps they probably have.

Yes like Kenneth mentioned there are DOT standards for bumper height, and even noise (which includes tire noise) Unfortunately most cops would rather hand out speeding tickets than any of the other and in my opinion worse safety issues like tail gating, bumper height, cellphone talking, etc.

Seems that bumper height is just one of the many things they enforce on the manufacture side and never ticket for, I bet most cops don't even know what the legal bumper height range is.

It's ridiculous that a vehicle like that has the same speed limit as vehicles which are much more suited to freeway driving.

See less See more

seruzawa

· #7 · Dec 18, 2007

Gluge said:
Those vehicles crack me up they raise them like 4 feet up for 'off roading' but yet you can easily see the axles and all these vulnerable stuff under neither isn't any higher so they're not really any better for off roading (or hardly any) Then they use them for just driving around the town.. I can't imagine how many parking lot miss-haps they probably have.

I especially like it when I see one laying on its side when I go down to road junkie on some of my favorite jeep roads. High centor of gravity? Oops!

Although my very special favorite was seeing a hugely jacked up truck that was buried the dirt in the Uintahs. He'd apparently got stuck in the mud in the fall... mud above the axles.... only the tops of the tires were showing... and he had to leave it there until spring. When I drove by in the spring the ground was all dry and hardened and that nice fairly new Chevy 4WD must have been a cast iron bytch to get dug out.

Another friend of mine left a nice 500cc Honda ATV at the bottom of a deep crevasse in the Uintahs. It went down.. he didn't, luckily. It's still there if you want to try to figure out how to get it out.

sarnali2

Discussion Starter · #8 · Dec 18, 2007

The funny thing is that 9 times out of 10 skinny tires are better anyway. My '89 Range Rover uses 205/16's and will go anywhere I point it, I think the only thing that would slow it down is deep sand.

Kenneth_Moore

· #9 · Dec 18, 2007

sarnali2 said:
The funny thing is that 9 times out of 10 skinny tires are better anyway. My '89 Range Rover uses 205/16's and will go anywhere I point it, I think the only thing that would slow it down is deep sand.

Nice truck. 8-12 lbs in the tires and that puppy will climb dunes all day.

mscuddy

· #10 · Dec 18, 2007

Once I was waiting at Home Depot at the loading dock for a bunch of fertilizer and some guy was in front of me with a jacked up 4x4 with 44 gumbo monster mudders on a F150 Furd. The forklift operator stuck a whole pallet of sod in the back of the truck, and the Ford went about 4 feet before BOTH rear axles snapped off, and wedged the 44 gumbos under the wheel wells of the bed. Man, that was ugly.

sachiwilson

· #11 · Dec 18, 2007

But funny.

Fenton

· #12 · Dec 18, 2007

Oddly enough, I can understand lift kits to a point but can't get my head around 22" rims and low profile street tires on a Hummer. It's hard to find a stock denali around here too.
In fact, I saw an H2 with 24s yesterday. The 24" spare mounted in the rear window is not really all that smart.

The_AirHawk

· #13 · Dec 18, 2007 (Edited)

Fenton said:
Oddly enough, I can understand lift kits to a point but can't get my head around 22" rims and low profile street tires on a Hummer. It's hard to find a stock denali around here too.
In fact, I saw an H2 with 24s yesterday. The 24" spare mounted in the rear window is not really all that smart.

A friend of mine sez that the H2 just screams "Look at me! HEY! LOOK AT ME!!!
I'll pay you........"

Buying a 24 Blizzing-Yo! rim just sez to ME "Yes, I truly DO have far more money than sense; Hell, I don't even know how to change a tire........."

Fenton

· #14 · Dec 18, 2007

The_AirHawk said:
"Yes, I truly DO have far more money than sense; "

Problem being that the money came from our booming housing market. Buy a boat, H2 and a vacation home with your equity then find out your interest only mortage is coming due and your house value dropped $150k in the last 2 years. Send a thank-you card to the bank for the 3 year rental and move to an apartment.

52944

· #15 · Dec 18, 2007

seruzawa said:
I especially like it when I see one laying on its side when I go down to road junkie on some of my favorite jeep roads. High centor of gravity? Oops!

Although my very special favorite was seeing a hugely jacked up truck that was buried the dirt in the Uintahs. He'd apparently got stuck in the mud in the fall... mud above the axles.... only the tops of the tires were showing... and he had to leave it there until spring. When I drove by in the spring the ground was all dry and hardened and that nice fairly new Chevy 4WD must have been a cast iron bytch to get dug out.

Another friend of mine left a nice 500cc Honda ATV at the bottom of a deep crevasse in the Uintahs. It went down.. he didn't, luckily. It's still there if you want to try to figure out how to get it out.

Hehe When riding up in Lockwood valley once my father and I decided to do this innocent looking loop we had never done before. We set from camp around 12:00. The loop turned out to be 90% creek riding with tons and tons of big rocks to ride over some as big as VW bugs. We weren't prepared for such a long ride and we getting real close to giving in and drinking the creek water when we came apon an old 70's SUV type vehicle, a scout or something I think it's called. It was buried up to the door sills in sand, rocks and mud in the middle of the creek. Must have been there at least a year. We could see in though some of the windows though and saw some water judges in side, we managed to get the window open and grab them. We got back to camp at 10:00 at night, first time I ever tried riding my dirt bike in the dark... that was one hard ride. One week later in the paper there was a story about a motorcycle rider who tried the same loop got too tired and died for dehydration before his buddy could come back with help.

Later that year we ended up getting in even father over our heads... and did end up having to drink creek water and leave the bikes... but that's a story for another time

See less See more

1 - 15 of 15 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.