Besides the obvious "I own the road" mentality that some truckers have, exploding tires. I was riding a bike for a friend today (he doesn't like cold or long distance... and now I HATE his bike for long distance) on the interstate when a tire shredded on a truck in front of me. Luckily, he was about 100 yards up and I had time to check the left lane and move over before I hit anything huge, but I was still pummeled with debris and had to dodge a few medium chunks. If I had been closer, I think it could have been nasty...

and I probably should have slowed down instead of trying to hurry and pass it.

I think on the show "Mythbusters", they did a test to see how much damage would be caused by a truck tire tread hitting a person. I think they used a dummy stand in or something. From what I recall, a tire tread at speed could be lethal. :shock:

...they had a CSI episode where two kids were racing each other on highway on hopped up go-carts and one kid got decapitated by a re-cap flying off. Scary stuff.... :shock:

Well, I could feel the tiny bits stinging very, very slightly through my leather jacket, so I figured bigger pieces could have at least disrupted my positioning and/or steering. Not too much drama, but I was just hoping I wouldn't find out...

Just think of what those little pieces that you felt hitting your jacket would feel like hitting your face if you were riding without a helmet.
I've seen what those re-treads can do to the front of my truck, needless to say, I'm very conscious of what could happen when following a tractor trailer on my 599.

I was watching Cops or Highway Patrol stories or some such mess and they showed a Cop get nailed by an exploding tire from a big rig that was passing by as he was giving someone a ticket. Without his BP vest he would have been in a world of hurting. That made me decide to stay as far away from big rigs as I can. Also keeps me from getting too close behind SUVs in case they are hiding a shredding tire in the road up ahead. Yikes!!!

... and now I HATE his bike for long distance).
What kind of bike was it?

A Gixxer... sooo glad that I didn't get the R6 I was wanting. I couldn't enjoy that thing for more than maybe 30 minutes at a time unless I was on some really curvy roads, the type that don't exist in Louisiana. I'll give it two things, though. I used the power a bit excessively to pass a car and got to the top of third... it felt really, really nice to have the power keep building all the way to redline. And despite the odd-to-me riding position, I almost immediately felt comfortable leaning the thing over... just not so much braking, stopping, and starting.