The face of horror

Today I got affirmation as to why I do not want a motorcycle...

As I was coming down a major road towards a shopping centre I needed to go to, I noticed a harley out enjoying the warm weather coming towards me. Obviously I was the only person who did.. as I moved into the turning lane to pull into the shopping centre, A large Black Suburban pulled out right in front of the Harley, leaving him no room to stop. To avoid the clueless, he swerved into the turning lane.. which I had just entered... To avoid getting the imprint of a harley (and rider) into the front of my only working car, I swerved back into traffic (thankfully nobody next to me..

For a moment, the look of horror on the Rider's face was all I saw.. I doubt it is going to go away any time soon.

mad_machine wrote: Today I got affirmation as to why I do not want a motorcycle... As I was coming down a major road towards a shopping centre I needed to go to, I noticed a harley out enjoying the warm weather coming towards me. Obviously I was the only person who did.. as I moved into the turning lane to pull into the shopping centre, A large Black Suburban pulled out right in front of the Harley, leaving him no room to stop. To avoid the clueless, he swerved into the turning lane.. which I had just entered... To avoid getting the imprint of a harley (and rider) into the front of my only working car, I swerved back into traffic (thankfully nobody next to me.. For a moment, the look of horror on the Rider's face was all I saw.. I doubt it is going to go away any time soon.

Ugh.

Joey

Thanks, I was just searching for used bikes

Glad no one was hurt.

He probably had to go home and change his shorts...

I'm curious... Did he have his lights on? That seems to be the standard for HD riders around here... No helmet. Lights off.

Turning the lights off on any Harley built since the mid '70s would require a bit of rewiring, or pulling the bulbs (or, of course, a total lack of attention to maintenance). No idea why someone would do such a thing.

"Car takes a left into rider who has nowhere to go" is the leading cause of dead motorcyclists. I, by the way started w/ mini bikes, became a legal street rider in 1985, and have been a motorcycle messenger, road racer, and worked in the industry in the ensuing years.

This is going to sound uncharitable, but any motorcyclist who enters an intersection, or passes any vehicle which has the physical possibility of hitting them or requiring them to make a course correction, without taking initial steps for readiness to avoid that vehicle, isn't doing all they can to be safe.

Successful long-term motorcycling is not a passive activity - EVER. If you're anyplace but an empty road in Montana with infinity view ahead and behind, you have to constantly scan the far and near distance and mirrors. Every car cannot see you, and DOES intend to kill you. Not sometimes - always.

If you're approaching an intersection and there's a vehicle coming toward you - whether or not they're signalling - or even in the lane they'd normally turn from, you have to be aware of how much grip there is in the event you need to use maximum brakes or steering, position yourself off the centerline of your lane for more room and grip, cover the brake if you're not - and you should ALWAYS cover the brake - and be ready to take evasive action.

The lessons learned on track pay huge dividends on the street - familiarity with brake, throttle and steering limits and most of all KEEPING YOUR EYES ALL THE WAY UP! if a threat is recognized 2 seconds sooner it can make the difference.

When I worked in the industry the shop I worked in sold Harley, BMW, Ducati, Yamaha, Buell, Bimota and Triumph. Next to young riders on Yamaha sport bikes, Harleys were the most frequently crashed. BMW riders, who as a demographic spend the most time in the saddle and have the greatest likelihood of having advanced training crash quite infrequently.

It's possible to get caught out. I was about to pass what appeared to be a parked pickup some years ago. It was off the road and pointed slightly away. This is why I couldn't see the left steering input dialed in 'til I was 25' away, and the driver, looking down at his phone, initiated a U-turn nearly directly in front of me. I had the exceptionally good fortune to have taken my old BMW air cooled boxer that day - the right valve cover protecting my leg and mangling a full-size GMC steel front bumper pretty effectively. I was on the ground and sliding 30mph down the oncoming lane instantly. I still feel bad for the poor woman who's car I slid to a stop directly in front of. I was then enveloped by her impressive cloud of tire smoke. I got up to make sure she was ok, and she was mute, ashen white, and death gripping the steering wheel. She wouldn't respond to verbal commands for a few minutes.

The sad part is that Harley rider will brush it off as a near miss, and not anything he could have taken an active role in preventing.

I had a woman in a new Charger R/T try to back up into me at an intersection today. For some reason, she thought she needed to back up 6 feet after the light changed. Fortunately for her, I was paying attention and was able to back up while using my horn.

Five will get you ten she thought she originally stopped too far into the intersection, so she backed up a bit, then sat with her foot on the brake like always, waiting for the green. Never shifted back to Drive. I sometimes think that's the reason cars have backup lights – not for the driver to see what's behind, but for the car to notify what's behind.

motomoron is exactly right: ride defensively. The vast majority of drivers/cagers just do not watch for bikes.

I am in the habit of getting away from traffic 'packs' as quickly as possible, that's where a lot of craziness happens and bikes sort of 'blend into' the background of all the cars. The ol' XS, while nowhere near as quick as all the crotch rockets will easily outrun normal traffic up to the posted speed limit on acceleration. I want them as far from me as possible.

If I see something that at first seems normal, like a car waiting to turn into the road, two fingers go on the front brake lever. It's not a good idea to assume they have seen me.

Watch other drivers carefully, see if they are distracted or are just plain not paying attention.

Around here I stay off the Interstates during peak hours. No way will I get in the middle of that idiocy without a cage. I do not care if it takes me an extra 20 minutes to get home, the point is that I made it.

This: Should be required reading for everyone, even if they don't ride.

MadScientistMatt wrote: Turning the lights off on any motorcycle built since the mid '70s would require a bit of rewiring, or pulling the bulbs (or, of course, a total lack of attention to maintenance). No idea why someone would do such a thing.

FTFY

You have to ride like their all out to kill us. You must have a heightened senses the trick is to keep the senses on alert but not to drain your brain.

After squashing a motorcyclist or a bicyclist, people always say the same thing: 'I just didn't see him'. Small comfort.

So ride as if you are invisible, because in a very real sense you are. I don't care if you are riding a Chinese moped or a Big Dog covered with every chrome geegaw there is, they will not see you.

Well, "I just didn't see him" is all they need to say to get away with carelessness.

In Japan, saying "I didn't see the motorcycle" is legally considered admitting guilt to negligent driving. A pity we don't have the same law here.

My worst close-call experience occurred a few months ago. I had a green light; I could see the crosswalk sign counting down from five (until the signal turned to yellow). I had a bad feeling about the intersection, so I slowed down early instead of going the speed limit, which would have allowed me through the intersection with plenty of time to spare.

My light was green, and I was traveling at about a crawl. At that very moment, a Cadillac Deville blows the very stale red at about 35 mph right around where I would have been if I proceeded through the green at the speed limit. It was a strange feeling, knowing that I was so close to getting gored by a 4000 pound bull. Then again, would I have proceeded with the same caution if I was in my car? Probably not.

Having been on the giving end of the "face of horror" more times than I can count in 2+ years of riding, its amazing how soon you get used to people trying to kill you on a near daily basis. I don't even get mad anymore, just chalk it up to another data point to file away in my "E36 M3 cars do" mental file I constantly reference while riding or driving.

Leaving my old apartment, not even out of the complex yet, I had a girl in a Liberty turn in front of me to pull down one of the side streets of the complex. Only reason I didn't crash was being on a dirt bike that gave not a single berkeley about the curb I hit at 20ish mph. She fortunately slammed on her brakes after making the turn instead of dead in front of me.

Which reminds me of my favorite catch-22 scenario... Approaching the exit of a shopping center, you see a car obviously waiting for a gap in traffic to pull out. You realize that you are almost alone on your side on the motorcycle, and that there is a gap in oncoming traffic that coincides with about the time you'll be passing in front of said car pulling out of the shopping center. You've got that funny feeling she doesn't see you, could be the cell phone glued to her ear, could be the glazed over glance she gave to your lane before she starts creeping out of the driveway as you're approaching at ~40mph. You start slowing down but if she pulls out you're both going to be occupying the same part of the road at the same time. Do you swerve right, hoping she completely misses you and continues on her merry oblivous way allowing you to cut behind her? Or do you think she'll see you at the last second and slam on her brakes, meaning you hit her square in the rear quarter panel? Or do you swerve left, hoping she'll see you and panic stop instead of running you over? Fortunately for me I guessed right, mostly... I slowed and cut right, she saw me and slammed her brakes to a stop in the middle of my lane... but with enough room for me to get by behind her car/on my right.

A neighbor of mine who is a cop had a very similar experience to Mitchell's only not on a bike. He was driving his wife's car, was second in line at a red light, when the light turned green the car ahead of him pulled into the intersection and turned left. He said something in his head told him 'hold on a second'; sure enough a Mercedes came zinging through the intersection from his left. He said the brake lights never even flashed.

Had he followed the first car blindly into the intersection as many people will, he would have been T boned at about 45 MPH.

I don't care how much safety equipment is on a car; getting T-boned on the driver's side will surely lead to an expensive ride in a van or a helicopter.

skierd wrote: I don't even get mad anymore, just chalk it up to another data point to file away in my "E36 M3 cars do" mental file I constantly reference while riding or driving.

This. I've seen so many close calls that if anyone tells me they want to get a motorcycle, I tell them that it's a bad idea. They should want it bad enough that what I say doesn't mean anything.

As a rider myself, I'm going to say If he could swerve around an SUV and end up facing you head on, he could have braked hard enough to avoid hitting the SUV in the first place.

Long ago I learned to ride as if no one can see me, and those who can, are going to try to kill me. This has worked well for me over the many years.

Not saying I don't screw up and sometimes place myself in very bad situations while riding. But almost 100% of the time this happens, my lack of attention and focus allowed a situation to arise that I could have mitigated or minimized earlier.

In reply to mad_machine:

ddavidv wrote: This: Should be required reading for everyone, even if they don't ride.

Worth it's weight in gold!

What is fun, is when you stop at a 4way stop, and the car following you doesn't. I ALWAYS check my 6 when I apply my brakes.

I grew up on bicycles, and still do ride bicycles in the city quite often. I can easily move at the speed of traffic (25mph), my bike is neon colors, and folks still try to pull out in front of me. They think "bicycle...going slow" and try to beat me into traffic.

Riding a bicycle on the road definitely makes me very aware of how drivers act.

It also gives me a really good perception of speed.

On a motorcycle, I think of myself as riding a heavier and faster bicycle with lights.

You don't DRIVE a motorcycle, your RIDE a motorcycle, and therefore should apply the rules of riding, bicycles, horses, or any exposed vehicle in traffic to that end.