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BMW RA #287 |
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Hard Freeze Snaps Tie-Down Straps
A Ride Report by Dan Gately (Brand-X Rider) Thanksgiving, 2001 with the Beaulieu's, Goodalls and extended families in Big Bend National Park, Texas. I am very grateful to still have my 1982, Honda CB900 Custom, no thanks to my brand new nylon tie-down straps. I had trailered my bike to Big Bend for the holiday and was on my way back to Austin Wednesday morning, November 28th, when the first light touches of snow began to fall. At dinner in the Basin Restaurant the night before we had heard that a big snow and possible ice storm was heading our way. You could hear everyone buzzing about it. Its gonna snow ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~!! Our group was staying in the Boquillas Campground, about as far south as you can go and still be in the United States. The Basin Campground (el. Approx. 4,000 ft) gets snow on a routine basis whereas the Boquillas Campground is situated right on the Rio Grande border. It hardly ever snows there. Our thoughts are that the storm won't go that far south. Just in case - I'd made the decision the night before to have all my gear ready to go for a dawn departure Wednesday morning.Everything was stowed, including my bike strapped to the trailer with the front wheel tethered to the trailer frame. I use a four-point strap method, leaving a little room for the shocks to take the bumps. Well, I had a very beautiful exit drive leaving the park. Sun coming up on a snowy landscape and I'm making the first tracks of the day on the narrow, winding road. It doesn't get any better. As I head north to Marathon, Texas, I'm heading headlong into the storm. The road crews are literally closing the bridges after I've passed over them. By the time I get to Marathon, I am only able to travel 15-20 mph on these time-forgotten roads. The temperature is in the low 20's at this point. I stopped at the Gage Motel in Marathon for breakfast and find out that I will be travelling on the leading edge of the front. I can't beat the storm so I decided to wait a couple of hours. I limp from Marathon to Ft. Stockton. "Get to I-10 and things will be better", I thought. "With all of the traffic and big rigs, there won't be any accumulation of ice on the roads, I'll make-up time." Nope. Once on I-10, travelling east, we all had to travel single file moving along about 25-35 mph, big rigs and all. My trailer has a wire-cage flip down ramp that would trap the slush thrown up by the big rigs. A huge mast of ice would form and cause the trailer to whip from side to side. Every 30-40 miles I would have to stop to clear the ice by dropping the ramp gate on to the pavement with a lot of force. The ice would literally shatter and I'd start out again. I'd noticed that all of the vertical on the car and trailer surfaces, including the tie-down straps, had large sheets of ice forming. I didn't think anything of it other than the additional weight I was pulling which the trailer was rated for. Things would've been fine except that a large rig in front of me dropped a huge chunk of ice from its under carriage onto the interstate. I was back about 20 car lengths. You can't go left and you can't go right because of the drifts and this very large jagged block of ice is sliding down the road right at me. Time in this instant slows to a crawl. You see everything play out in ultra-slow motion. I was able to edge the pickup truck over just in time but the right corner of the trailer hit the block, shattered the block, the tire then rode up and over it which launched my motorbike into the air, all in a matter of a half second or so. I looked back in my rear view mirror and couldn't see the bike. "Oh no! - I hope it didn't hit the guy behind me." There was no way to stop; it took about a mile to get to a good pull off point. I got out, hurried to the rear of my truck. Luckily, my bike was on its side lying in the middle of my 4x8-trailer bed. The rope holding the front wheel to the trailer frame kept the bike in the trailer. The front two tie-down straps had snapped in half. The edges were as clean as if they were cut with scissors. The back two straps had come loose. Unbelievably, my bike survived the fall with no scratches or dents. It must've gone up, turned sideways and fell back down, all on the handlebars and the center stand. That bike can tell some stories, it's never stranded me unlike some of my other vehicles. The straps should come with a "freeze-snap warning", but odds are I wouldn't have read it. I'm too busy planning the next ride! |
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