The wife and I took a long weekend trip around Lake Michigan to visit some friends in the middle of nowhere. On our return ride Sunday we were traveling east on US2 in da UP eh and were behind a large truck and camper going about 65mph in a light rain. I was a little closer to the trailer then I would normally be because I was looking to pass it. Then all of a sudden this huge sheet of plastic from the front of the trailer started flapping against the ground. It was one of those bubble air breakers things that are on the upper nose of some trailers. I moved to the right a little thinking/hoping that if it comes off it would miss me. Then about 30 sec after it started flapping it came off. It flew to the left a few feet off the ground I knew that as long as it held course I/we would miss it. Then BAM it struck the front of an oncoming car about 20 feet in front of me. The thing just exploded. Several pieces shot to the right straight out in front of us. Two of the pieces went high and were on their way back down in my path. I held the throttle on, ducked my head so it at least would not hit my face shield and went thru. Looked in the mirror to make sure my wife was still there and upright. We both made it thru without being hit.
I kept thinking for the next hour or so, “man what if I had been that car going the other way?” Wow that would have been bad.
That whole thing could have gone really bad for me or my wife. She’s only been riding a year and she impressed me how she handled it. Kept her cool and did not panic. I at least had a little time to know it was happening. It was a surprise for her.

Glad you made it through the maelstrom!  I get nervous whenever I see or hear anything out of the ordinary around trucks.

Good job!

Well done!

Good thing you were paying attention! Glad you didn't get hit.

Yeah I had visions of that thing getting kicked up from a trailer tire into my face. And when it exploded I envisioned being impaled by a pointy piece of it.   

Intense! 


Glad you guys made it through that ok. 

Yeah I had visions of that thing getting kicked up from a trailer tire into my face. And when it exploded I envisioned being impaled by a pointy piece of it.

Perfect illustration of the need for "ATGATT"

Glad you both were safe!

 

It just shows that you never know when something is going to jump up to bite you.  Can't let your guard down. 

Sorry, but I gotta ask a question.

From your description you knew that the plastic was going to come off and you said that you were too close. You had 30 seconds between the time you knew of the danger to the time the plastic actually went flying. Why didn't you back WAY off before it came lose?   

It felt like 30 sec but I have no idea how long it was. Not much time really. There was also a long line of cars behind us that were not giving us much room.
I figured I could be screwed either way, stay close and when it comes off the air flow of the trailer could keep it away from me, fall bad and that same air could pull it back into me. Or the other way around. It was a toss of the coin.