way too close

[mezap]

...um, guys? Need some enlightenment. Got the s**t scared out of me this weekend, don't know exactly what happened. Was on my way to Suches to ride some curves, got stuck behind a cager. Accepted it for a ways but they were beating their brake pedal to death and killing my ride, so I went to pass them. Took it up a notch or two, not trying to be a smart-ass, just wanting to get around them, about the time I got parallel to the cage a semi appears on the horizon heading my way. I twisted the throttle and the last time I looked down I was still only around 5000 rpm so I wasn't close to redline, but when I saw the truck I started focusing on getting out of the way. I'm not sure where the tach was when it happened, but all of the sudden the engine started losing power, like I had blown a gasket or fouled a plug really bad, like the fuel got shut off. I have never had to push a bike till it hit the rev-limiter, so I don't know if that was it or not. Like I said, I thought I had more room on the tach, but I can't be sure. I backed off on the throttle, and she woke back up and we got our ***** out of the way, but I had completely run out of room by this time. Scared my buddy even worse than it did me. I just thank God he didn't follow me, or he would have either run over me or not made it. I would have tried to drop back and take my place back behind the cage, but knowing how they close the gap once you pull out I didn't want to risk not having anywhere to go so I stayed with plan A. I don't know what happened, if I just hit the limit or what, but I need to know so that this NEVER happens again. I can work within the limitations of the bike, I just need to know what they are. Is this a common occurance, or maybe someone can tell me how a bike (especially the XB12s) acts when you hit the limiter, or am I mistaken, does the buell even have a limiter? She acts like nothing ever happened, still peppy, nice torque, she has a little over 2000 miles now, I observed all the guidelines while breaking her in, and I don't ride hard, I just got my back up against a wall for a second there. I have done the first oil/tranny fluid changes, shes still consuming a little oil, but I figure its still young, a little more seating to do, no smoke, reset the TPS at 1000 miles, shes running fine! Just don't know what the heck happened Saturday. Its like she just choked. I was pretty close to wide open throttle, could it be that there was just too much fuel going in and I started to foul a plug? Any ideas? This one was way too close!

 

[mezap]

Yeah, I should have known by this point where the ceiling was, but I have been babying her since she only has 2000 miles and I just got my back against a wall. This was the first time that tachometer had ever been higher than 5000 in any gear.Truthfully, that was the first time I have ever experienced the "rev-limiter" on any bike. This just goes to show how quickly the typical can turn into a crisis situation. MSF could've sure used the footage from it to open some eyes. I guess another point would be to never pass "easy". If I had hit it from the start like I had to towards the end, I would have had ample time to get out of the way. I just figure some folks get the impression that we motorcyclists are trying to be smart-*****, flying by when we pass them with what could be considered excessive speeds, but I think this was an error on the other side. You said God bless? Man, did he! I'm just glad I get to walk n'chalk. (walk away and chalk it up to experience!)
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