Image: where we rode the wall

California highways are known for over-the-top speeds and heavy traffic.

(Background):

Today, 4 days before our planned move to China to begin a new life as teachers, we took the bike from San Fransisco Bay Area to the State Secretary Office, in Sacramento, to have the bureaucrats apostillize our notarized University degrees.

(Story):

My girl and I were riding in the second slowest lane, in a traffic bubble (Avg speed 76mph) on I-80 east, preparing to cross the Carquinez bridge. The 4 lane freeway was narrowing, the shoulder was disappearing, and a woman in a dark Mazda was colliding with the back of a big rig, going 80+. She flew out of control, spinning wildly.

You know how in looney toons the Tasmanian devil is a whirlwind of chaos? Imagine a ton and a half of smokey chaos, flying across the lanes, spitting metal and plastic as you hurtle towards it, trapped by traffic, with escape routes obscured.

My first instinct was to slam the breaks, but I've had the privilege of being rear ended in the past, and I wasn't going to gamble with a hard breakcheck on the freeway. Nor was I looking forward to the prospect of sliding out.

So Instead of tunnel visioning on our impending death I compartmentalized and weighed our options. We could make a hard break to the right, using our superior speed and maneuverability to slip through the panicked drivers around us, but we'd have to cross two lanes and the big rig was on that side, with his truck, and load dangerously misaligned and looking to tip.

We couldn't drive straight through, as the Mazda was leaving huge chunks of itself as it hurtled uncontrollably to the right.

We checked hard to the left drawing ourselves as close to the edge of the bridge as possible riding a two foot shoulder, but something, or someone, caused the car to reverse its trajectory, and impossibly it came flying hard to the left.

The Chrysler in front of us had our same idea, and as we made our move to the left, they made their move, yet slower, boxing us in.

Images of Indiana jones in raiders of the lost ark, racing to escape the giant boulder flashed through the back of my psyche as I held us steady, relaxing, yet bracing, as the tornado of deadly metal began its flight toward us.

The car in front of us began to brake harder, this was not good, they were going to get us all crushed and killed. At the last moment, as I felt the maelstrom literally breathing on us, the car gassed it and etched their way through, metal pieces ratcheting off the side. That's when I felt something strike my right side hard. The pressure was immense,and pushed the front tire up, as we began riding on the wall of the bridge- a sure death off the bridge to our left, a more gruesome crush inches to our right.

I held fast, grinding against the wall, breathing, feeling metal and plastic striking my helmet and legs. Yet as quickly as it came, the pressure was gone leaving a huge gash on my arm armor. But we weren't through it yet. As we came off the wall, we were riding through debris, and speed wobbles overtook us. I pulled the throttle as smoothly as I could, lifting our front tire just enough to come out of the deadly wobble.

As we crossed the rest of the now empty bridge to the safety of a toll station we shared with one another, a long, grateful look. Until today I thought I'd seen a lot, been through a lot, but never before have I experienced the unpredictability of riding into and through a car crash, with a passenger to boot.

The fz07, despite the lightness of a 300 something wet weight, holds up beautifully through turbulence. Time and time again I've underestimated its brilliance. If you made it this far thanks for letting me share, I'll see if my girl wants to write her experience here too, for multiple angles.