My closest call was on the way to my friends house. I had been riding for about an hour and was within a few hundred yards from his house. There was a Y in the road and I had to take a right turn.
Apparently they had just put a layer of oil and rock on the road and hadn't swept off the excess rock yet. NORMALLY they put a sign up that says "fresh oil" or "loose gravel" but not this time... sombody was slacking . The loose gravel started right as I entered the turn at about 40mph. My bike Immediatley started to try to slide out from under me but I was able to keep it upright with *very* slight pressure on both brakes. I had to take the turn extra super wide and went into the oncoming lane -- which of course had an oncoming car  
Luckily they were approaching a stop sign so they were going slow and stopped before I ran into them.
Got control back and made it the rest of the way very slowly.
Of course, turning into my friends gravel driveway, I managed to take it too fast and went into the grass on the side. This was literally seconds after the first incident.... I have no idea what my problem was that day.

First one..
back in 88, on my gs450l, i was on my way to class (juinor year at WUI).  I was comming up a hill on a pretty narrow road.  this was right by the student union, and there was a exit from the parking lot about 500 yards in front of the union I was on the road heading towards the union.  Speed limit was 30 miles an hour, and I am pretty sure I was going about 40.  Anyway, their is this cager stopped, he is trying to turn left out of the parking lot (which means he would turn in front of me), I was heading west (i think) and he was getting ready to make a turn to head east.  there were no cars in front of me, and one car heading east, about 300 yards away.  Anyway, this guy appeared to be waiting for me to pass, but just when I was about 10 feet from the parking lot he was turning out of he hit the gas.  as soon as he was completely blocking my lane he stopped (obviously now he saw me), and I could only swerve left (push left go left, thanks to the MSF course). The sidewalk was full of people, and the car that had been heading east was almost up at the same point.  I had to swerve back right, but this time I had a little hard time controling it, and after I cleared both cars, i over corrected and the bike was heading toward the siide walk and all I could do was lay it down.  my bike headed west and i followed behind it, slammed back of my head (thankfully in a helmet at the time) and slid for awhile (thankfully i had on my leather jacket).  After my head hit the ground, I had no idea where I was or what was happening,  I remember thinking i had to get to class becuase I had a test (but I had no idea that I was sliding accross the gravel at the time), but when I heard my bike flip and heard the windjammer farring crack, i was pretty aware if where I was.  I guess I had slid in to the curb with my shoulder and head (at least that is what some people told me)??  The dude that cut me off jumoed out of his car and said "I didnt even see you!!!??? Are you ok?"  The other car kept on going.  The accident happened right out in front of the the Campus Police dept (OPS), and when the a cop showed up the guy was like "The guy on the motorcycle was speeding and he almost hit me". Lucky for me the cop had actually seen the whole thing.  Long story short, before that I would ride with a helmet only once in awhile, after that I used it on every ride.  same with a protective jacket, you never know when something will happen.  The bike made it out pretty well too, the faring was ruined, but that was about it. I rode that bike about another 25,000 miles afterwards. I was able to walk away, and actually rode the bike home (but I was quite sore for awhile)

Secomd one...
On the Kenedy in Chicago on my yamaha XS400 (a very under powered bike IMO), some a$$hole cager decided to screw with me, he pulled in front of me an slammed on his brakes.  I went around on the shoulder and gave him the "Your number 1" sign  :nana: , any way he speed up and pulled right along side me in the same lane I was in and forced me on to the shoulder.  The bike had no power, so I just stopped and watched the guy drive away. I have no idea if I did anything to that guy to get him upset.  with this particular bike I never got out of the right lane (it stuggled to do 65).

fun stuff...

Quote from: EDubNot giving him the full blame for not checking his blind spot though, cuz i shouldnt have been trying to pass more than one car at a time.

It does not matter if it was 2 cars or 20.  If you were that far around the suv it forced you off the road I would have got the plates and turned it into the police.   It was not your fault.  

I always flip my high beams a couple times and toot my horn a little if passing more than one car.

I dunno about the US or even other parts of Canada, but if you want to pass a car here you can honk your horn once you're nearly beside them and they're legally obligated to let you pass, meaning they have to atleast maintain their current speed or reduce their speed to the speed limit. This only applies on streets with single lanes on each side where passing is indicated as legal but its good stuff to know if you're ever in Nova Scotia  :mrgreen:

Last time I tried to post my close call this erupted....http://www.gstwins.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20084

QuoteI had no idea where I was or what was happening, I remember thinking i had to get to class becuase I had a test (but I had no idea that I was sliding accross the gravel at the time)

:lol:  that's messed up.

so far I have 2100 miles on me, and my closest call was on my first week of riding I think.

Back when I was not able to judge the right entry speed for a turn, I was coming a bit too fast and turned right on a 2-way lane.
This and the lack of experience on leaning the bike, made me do a really wide turn... getting onto the second lane... with incoming traffic.

I remember thinking "it would be embarrasing to fly over the hood of that truck..." but thankfully, the guy in the incoming truck kinda saw I was having problems with the turn and slowed down very quickly until I was out of his way.  

Side Note: I wonder if I should go and practice locking the rear wheel on a parking lot and not release the brake.
I locked the wheel once, but I released it before I could think about it. Luckily I was doing like 30mph, so the bike kept it's posture.

Quote from: subcSide Note: I wonder if I should go and practice locking the rear wheel on a parking lot and not release the brake.
I locked the wheel once, but I released it before I could think about it. Luckily I was doing like 30mph, so the bike kept it's posture.

Haha, not sure I'd "practice" screwing up your braking.  As for me, from now on I'm going light on the rear, and hard threshold-braking on the front.

But if the feeling of sliding diagonally is your thing??  :dunno:  

Closest calls for me was when I was a month into riding, I was riding home down a rez street and I decided to stand up on my bike for the 1st time. I was traveling at about 50-60km/hr and a stop sign was coming up. Sat back down and realised a guy was riding my ass and the stop sign was coming up way to fast. Pull in the clutch and hit the front brake hard with no rear so it felt like my rear came up...panic kicks in hard remembering the guy is on my ass. The in drop the clutch and open the throttle now it feels like I just popped a wheelie for a second. Hard on front again, maybe rear comes up again, and then I tip over to the left side...almost dropped it but was able to get it up right. Just my luck there were cars at every single stop sign just looking at me as if I was nuts.

Also tried hoping off the bike and just holding onto the bars and being pulled. I chickened out last second and when i was going to swing my foot back over the bike it be in normal riding position my foot knocked the bars hard and went into a hard wobble 40ish km/hr with my body turned to one side of the bike. I think Ill leave this trick to the guys in the movies

The one that really got my heart beating was early in my riding career.  (Before I hit the cow, I hope.  Otherwise, I was a bigger fool than I remember.)

I was stuck behind a LONG line cars, RVs towing boats, etc. on an arrow-straight 2-laner out in the desert.  (Note for davipu: This was US 6, on the way home from Moab, along the Book Cliffs between I-70 and Wellington).  We were approaching a long, gentle hill in the distance.  I got sick of waiting, and pulled out to pass.  When I was about halfway up the line, some cars crested the hill from the other direction.

"No problem", I thought, and cranked the throttle.  Only not much happened.    Well, I guess I sped up a little bit, but as I finally came up next to the leading RV/boat it occurred to me that I might not get around him before the first oncoming car and I had a head-on.  I started to let off on the throttle, thinking that I would drop back and fall in behind the boat, but I wasn't sure if I even had time for THAT.  And I didn't really have the luxury of looking around to make sure there was going to be room between the boat and the vehicle following it.

So I cranked on the throttle again and wondered just how wide my bike was, and if I could fit between the oncoming car and the RV.  

I don't know if the RV slowed down or what, but I inched past him and got over JUST before the car coming down the hill whooshed by.

After reflecting on the tenuous nature of life for a few seconds, my next thought was to stay on the throttle and pull away from the RV, whose driver probably thought I was crazy (I was, of course) and was no doubt cussing up a storm.  

I take it back! I did have a close call.

This was maybe two weeks or so after buying my GS back in January. At this time, I was riding only to gain experience. Well this was the first time I combined night riding with freeway riding. It was about 9pm and I had my high beams on. I was coming off of a transition from one freeway to another. A long bend to the right and I was doing about 60 mph. I have no idea how I was not able to spot it, but there it was. A metal latter in the middle of the road. It was laying flat and maybe 4-6 inches high while lying at a 45 degree angle. I hit it dead on. The bike went flying over and the bars and front wheel immediately started jerking back and forth violently for several seconds. Felt like it ripped my arms from my sockets at first. So after the jerking stopped and I finally regained control, I had a new problem to deal with. I was breathing so damn hard that my visor completely fogged over. I couldn't see anything. I immediately lifted it a couple of clicks, pulled off the freeway, and stopped at the nearest gas station. Did a quick check of the GS. Everything was good. I needed to calm down so I probably sat there for a half hour before I got back on it and went home.

So a couple of things that I took away from this little experience. I was very lucky there weren't any cars around me. I was also very lucky that the bend finished and I was on a straight by then or I would have went right off the road. Another thing I've taken with me and noticed for these several months of riding is the high beam light. It's great for seeing above and around what is in front of you. It's terrible for seeing ground level and any obstacles that may be on there to avoid.