Do you believe in UFOs?

Off-topic
1

I’ve always been sceptical about UFOs, until tonight that is.

There am I, at night, going round a tight-ish (for a motorway) right-hand bend on the M25 at a speed of ‘around’ 70 [no self-incrimination here], in inside lane then moving across middle lane with aim of going into outside lane.

Then time sloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooows…

From the top right corner of my vision there comes an object. As it arcs ever so slowly towards me, it comes more into my beam. I calculate it’s flight - a beautiful arc onto the road to my right front then a bounce into me.

What is it? Something fallen off a vehicle on the other carriageway. It’s looks big & heavy (it doesn’t flap about in it’s 70 mph ish flight) like a sack of potatoes, a bag of rocks, a bag of gravel.

Time goes ever so slowly. I wonder what it’s like to come off at high speed in the dark and play the lottery of will I be run over by a car or a truck?

Ok, brace for 140+ mph impact. It hits the road, smoke goes up then splatter, splatter, ow, ow, ride through smoke.

So this is what it feels like when you die.

Wait, I hurt. I must be alive. Yee hah!

I pull over. Bike and my right leg has rhs covered with what looks like cement. It must have been a cement bag, which broke open when it hit the road leaving clumps and powder to career into me.

How lucky can you be? All I’ve got is bruises. Had I been blasting along the outside lane I would have taken the full force of the bag and can’t see myself surviving that very well.

I shall now get myself a strong drink.

Anyone had any experiences like this?

Ian

2

I had a bird fly into my chest once, combined speed of about 140. Fugging hurt! That was in broad daylight, though and I think it was of Earth origin.

3

Years ago, riding a 125 on the North Circ, a large piece of damp cardboard (like 6x4) flew off the truck way in front and I hit it amidships, could see nothing and rode blind as it slowly tore down the middle and fell away.

Then, on the urban A1, riding a 750 and closely following a car, a brick suddenly appeared from underneath it dead centre and I rode over it, badum badum.

Nothing since… I wait in trepidation.

4

Close call OP, not had the UFO experience myself yet !

5

Was doing 70 going down a little lane (Mapleton Road) that runs past Chartwell (Churchill’s old estate) when a plastic carrier bag blew out and got momentarily stuck on my visor - thankfully it’d already blown away again by the time I came to a full stop, but initiating an emergency stop whilst effectively blind on a narrow lane was pretty damn hairy

I turned round and went a couple of hundred yards back to the estate entrance so I could get off the bike and have a fag whilst waiting for my rear end to stop puckering :stuck_out_tongue:

6

Holy f*ck - glad your ok Ian - that could have turned out oh so differently. . .

My worst experience was coming back from work on the motorway one night - it was an unlit section of motorway and it was pitch black I was in the fast lane doing (ahem. . .)

I could only see as far ahead as the illumination provided by the dipped headlights - suddenly - and out of the darkness - I see a large comfy armchair sitting in the middle lane flash past me. WTF? I thought - quarter of a mile further on down the mway I see some berk standing beside his cage (which had a roof rack) scratching his head and looking down the motorway in the direction of the armchair.

If i’d been in the middle lane chances are I would have got target fixated (I was knackered after a hard day at work and was not 100% switched on) and hit the f*cking thing.

What a way for a biker to go - getting killed by a comfy chair! :smiley:

7

Once had some debris come off a skip lorry in front of me on the North Circular, bounce up and whack me on the head, about three broken half-bricks still held together with mortar. I tried to duck underneath so it hit just off-centre above the visor. Rocked me back on the seat but the CBR sort of shook and straightened itself up again - nothing to do with me! Wrote off a nice red/white/blue Shoei that did.

8

So the bird was flying at 70 mph?:w00t:

9

I got hit by a bug…but I dont think that really counts :stuck_out_tongue:

But some of those incidents could have ended really badly, shakes you just thinking about it.

10

I’m sure I read somewhere about this happening to a biker down a country lane only he hit it as there was not where for him to go he was ok from what I remember but the bike was not so lucky

11

ERRRRRM i go out off bed 1s still asleep and went to the window and was shouting the aliens are coming to get us!!! and apparently i was firing a gun and saying don’t you see the lights!!!

12

Sounds nasty and could have been much worse!

Might be worth having a look at your air filter to see if much got sucked into your engine . . . cement powder will do no good in there!!

Doug

13

In 1991 myself and 8 mates were travelling in 2 cars coming back from the Gillingham Ice Bowl.

On the M2 before the Medway Bridge there was a bend in the road.

Just before we reached the bend we saw a whole back axle of a lorry bouncing towards us.

The axle missed us in by a few feet.

My 3 friends in the car ahead were not so lucky :crying:

14

A friend of mine had a kamakazi pigeon hit their windscreen whilst driving the car and it actually broke the windscreen and the head and part of the body flew in. If it had managed to completely go through the windscreen it would’ve hit the front passenger in the face!

15

It was a fast bird!! :smiley:

16

Nothing more to say here Gabs! :stuck_out_tongue:

I had a UFO encounter at work today. Unidentified Floating Object, wish people would learn to flush! :sick:

17

Talking about birds, did see one of the cop fly-on-the-wall tv shows where they were called out to an accident on a country road.

A biker had been riding along at speed, as you do, when a partridge or grouse flew up and smashed into his visor. The visor cracked, his face was covered with splattered bird and his eyes gave up the ghost. He steered the bike off into the side of the road and crashed into a ditch & hedge as the lesser of 2 evils (the other being crashing into a car coming the other way). He survived with bruises and a few stitches - no broken limbs.

Scary.

I’d prefer the armchair - at least it would **cushion ** my fall.

18

Strangest thing you’ve seen on a motorway?

A10, at night. The cars in front are braking and then swerving left in the fast lane. This filters back till it’s my turn. So I was ready for… a wheelie bin…

Seen on the M3. A large yacht on it’s side in the slow lane.

19

UFO’s are real as i have lived with an Alien for years :wink:

20

Some hairy moments there folks. Glad everyone’s come out ok the other side.

I do wonder occasionally about bird strike since I saw that one you mention about the bird in the guy’s visor…seems to be a not uncommon occurrence by the sound of things.

Closest call I’ve had like this was a few weeks ago with some kids on the 4th or 5th floor of an estate chucking water balloons at passing traffic.

I wondered whether it was diesel or something that was causing the shiny patches on a dry road, right up until the bl**dy thing exploded just in front of my front tyre. Happened so fast there wasn’t even time to worry about what was happening.

A near miss, but given the distance they were throwing it from and the speed I was going, they’d obviously had quite a bit of practice, and a good arm, to ‘get their eye in’ even that good.

Little buggers.