[wareham]

Yesterday while visiting my brother I was riding home. There was a lady in front of me in a minivan. I was about 2 car lengths behind her when she all the sudden put on her brakes and stopped in the middle of the road. I did my best to downshift and brake. My bike started to skid and I ended up slowing it down to about 10 miles per hour before I laid it down in order to not hit her minivan. Luckily the ONLY thing damaged was my right turn signal, imagine THAT.... No scratches or anything done to my ferrings. She took off and the guy behind me asked if I was alright. I said yes but was pretty pissed off as you can imagine. The guy behind me even said what the hell was she doing. I said I have no idea, it wasn't like I was riding her butt or anything. He said you want me to go get her license plate number I said don't worry about it.

Just goes to show, you have to always be aware of what is going on even when driving conditions seem normal. I have no idea why she stopped. It wasn't like something ran out in front of her because trust me I looked to see if a deer or dog or whatever caused it.

I just thank god i am alright and my bike isn't messed up.
I wonder how much a turn signal will be?? It is just the housing that is messed up. The wiring and bulb are still intact and work. I will use some superglue until I can replace it.

Geesh.

Has anyone else experienced a**hole drivers like this???

 

[nickowood]

yeah dude .. every car driver is an arsehole the best ones are those who try and tail gate bikes , just have to learn to deal with it and leave space ......or you could cut through the traffic and start kicking off mirrors

 

[Felix]

Well, not to sound cold.... but "I was about 2 car lengths behind her" there's your problem.

Maybe next time you will leave a bigger gap, which will also give you a better chance of reading the upcoming road surface. If you were in a car and you rear ended her, it would be your fault no matter what, that doesnt change with a bike.

Glad your ok though.

Felix

 

[wareham]

Well, not to sound cold.... but "I was about 2 car lengths behind her" there's your problem.

Maybe next time you will leave a bigger gap, which will also give you a better chance of reading the upcoming road surface. If you were in a car and you rear ended her, it would be your fault no matter what, that doesnt change with a bike.

Glad your ok though.

Felix

Thanks Felix, I will definetly leave more space from now on. I thought 2 car lengths was enough, I guess I was wrong.

 

[Shnook]

Just use this experience as a learning tool. I am glad that you did not get hurt.

 

[wareham]

Just use this experience as a learning tool. I am glad that you did not get hurt.

Thanks Shnook, I will definetly chalk this up as a learning experience.

 

[l39_pilot]

In my MSF class they said 2-4 seconds. So your following distance will change with speed. This is usually pretty easy to do if you keep in mind to stay out of blind spots and to pass at a pretty good speed when you have to go through a blind spot. Always assume everyone is out to kill you.

 

[Felix]

Look at it this way, generally bikes take longer to stop than cars, not always but they can. Cars can have 4 disc brakes, 4 large patches of rubber in contact with the road, ABS, and a number of other things that assist in braking. All a cager has to do is jump on the brakes. A bike on the other hand, has one disc front brake, one crappy rear brake, and two little stripes of rubber on the road. You have to use both hands and both feet at the same time, while keeping your head up, so it can be pretty hard to out brake a car even though you're lighter.

If you tail, you cant see what the surface is like, and if they roll over a pot hole, its going to come out from under their car to quick for you to ever see it. At 100kph I leave at least a 3 second gap, and if someone is tailing me, i'll make that bigger so I can brake slower.

Car lengths for following distance doesnt help, needs to be a time frame, 2 - 3 seconds.

Just my 2c, but yes you are in your rights to be pissy at the driver, people just have NO idea about driving. Here in Aus, people have NO idea about roundabouts, indicating, lane changing... no abilities, thats where I got cleaned up last.

Be safe, and just treat EVERYONE as retards on the road, and avoid everyone, make your buffer zone as big as possilble.

Felix

 

[redmagnolia]

Felix had lots of good advice as usual, and here's my 2 cents as I couldn't resist.

In a situation like that, don't downshift, just pull in the clutch and brake as hard as you can with both brakes. They teach emergency braking in MSF classes for just that reason.

Oh, and just FYI: please don't say "I had to lay it down." LOL, I can't stand hearing that, as it's never true. If you'd been back a little farther and braked as hard as possible, you would have been able to stop. If you're safe about riding your bike and paying attention all the time, you'll never have to "lay it down." Once again, just my two cents, so take it or leave it.

And just so you know, I've low-sided a bike before, but it wasn't cause I had to, it was b/c of my own inexperience: going too fast around a turn and lost it. So don't feel alone about making mistakes, we all do it. You just have to be able to learn from those mistakes, which it sounds like you have.

 

[wareham]

Felix had lots of good advice as usual, and here's my 2 cents as I couldn't resist.

In a situation like that, don't downshift, just pull in the clutch and brake as hard as you can with both brakes. They teach emergency braking in MSF classes for just that reason.

Oh, and just FYI: please don't say "I had to lay it down." LOL, I can't stand hearing that, as it's never true. If you'd been back a little farther and braked as hard as possible, you would have been able to stop. If you're safe about riding your bike and paying attention all the time, you'll never have to "lay it down." Once again, just my two cents, so take it or leave it.

And just so you know, I've low-sided a bike before, but it wasn't cause I had to, it was b/c of my own inexperience: going too fast around a turn and lost it. So don't feel alone about making mistakes, we all do it. You just have to be able to learn from those mistakes, which it sounds like you have.

I didn't take anything you said as being bad. I value any feedback I can to help me out. It really freaked me out, and I will be keeping a bigger distance from anyone in front of me. 2 Car lengths is not enough i guess.

Oh I did use the brakes while downshifting. She just starting to skid really bad so the brakes didn't help.

 

[mia-ninja]

I had the same situation happen today. I didn't have to lay down the bike though. I always leave a big gap between me and the car in front. Just to give myself some room if I have to brake suddenly. Well, here in road rage capital of the world, that, apparently, is an open invitation for anyone to, that's right JUMP RIGHT IN AND SLAM ON THE BRAKES BECAUSE THEY ARE TOO CLOSE TO THE CAR IN FRONT ME!. A$$holes. So, I'm trying to be careful and leave me some breathing room but these ass munchers don't care. They're all takers! Me Me Me, Me first Me first. Fackin babies. Ok, I feel better now.

 

[solixa]

Wow that sucks, I'm sorry.
At least you and your bike is intact, and you can ride again, learning from this.

Just be careful out there, keep your awareness up.

 

[racerboy629]

One of the first, and most important things that I ever learned in all of my years of racing motocross..... never, never, NEVER follow right behind someone.
If someone goes down in front of you, and you can't stop or go around them.... you go right into them. Eiether hurting them, you, or you and them both.
Which also goes hand in hand with looking way down the track, so you can anticipate what is coming.
I think you can see where I'm going with this....
No matter what, if you have the ability to, always follow to the side. So if someone pulls a stunt like you had happen to you, and you know that you won't be able to haul your bike down in time.... you can go around them w/o any type of heart attack.
Which is why you follow to the side.... so you can see in front of them. Especially bigger vehicles that obstruct your view. So when you're close to the center line, or the berm... you can see past them, and anticipate any sudden and rapid change in the flow of traffic.

See my point?

Hopefully you learned something from your close call. Glad you walked away from it.

 

[Felix]

Not that we are all having ago at you, which just all care! I think you know what happened and what you need to do to make sure it doesnt happen again.

You know what we all need now...

Felix

 

[headhunta252]

IMO rather be safe than sorry, like felix said 2-3 seconds why not make it 5

 

[zartan]

that group hug thing freaks me out

Also thanks for sharing because it reinforces things sometimes we get lax about.!

 

[Ratty]

Sorry to hear bro, Haven't been put in that situation yet but I'm weary about it, Pay attention to what kind of car is in front of you, what condition its in, the drivers skill, and fuck it, their gender.

An older car, Say a run about little car with some age on it, and some dirt, means the driver probably aint to interested in taking care of it, or what it is, so probably has the same mentality towards driving.

And while we're on the tether of "what gets me is..!"
Fucking service stations. I don't care you make me take my helmet and gloves off before i can pump gas, What fucks me off is the TRUCKS, CARAVANS, and cars that pull up behind your bike in an EMPTY service station and impatiently wait for you to pull out.
A truck did it to me today, place was literally empty so there was what 4 other bowser's he could've used, I took my time to fuck him off and he tooted his horn,, jumped off my bike cause i was about to take off, went to his window and knocked on it, he locked his door and i walked off laughing.

Good times.

 

[Delta107]

Ratty, the dude in the truck was scared that you were going to kick his a$$. Haha lol

 

[ninja250rlover]

lol nice story. good thing he wasn't a complete dillweed cause then he would've just rammed your bike and took off. that would b enough to bring a man to tears. oh and that sucks about having to lay the bike down. i definitely agree with felix. the more room the better and it should b measured in time and not distance.

 

[Ratty]

lol nice story. good thing he wasn't a complete dillweed cause then he would've just rammed your bike and took off. that would b enough to bring a man to tears. oh and that sucks about having to lay the bike down. i definitely agree with felix. the more room the better and it should b measured in time and not distance.

Meh, Cameras in service stations and I was only on my Yammy. If it happend in a months or so time when i was on my next bike I'd of been pretty upset, But I dare say I'd of caught up with him and resolved that issue eventually. >