Chocolate Teapot Posted July 15, 2010 Posted July 15, 2010 Amazing, picked my first bike up today, a yamaha DT125R. Runs amazingly and I'm very pleased with it. Unfortunately 5 minutes into riding it I've already learnt a lesson. I was signalling to turn right into my drive, another motorbike was approaching so I slowed down, turned my head to check behind me and some VW Golf driving muppet pulled out and overtook nearly taking me and the other biker down. Excellent. Thankfully I looked behind and luckily the other rider had experience to deal with it, I guess you have to get used to unpredictable behaviour from some car drivers!
Paulwhite Posted July 15, 2010 Posted July 15, 2010 yes m8 you do, guaranteed you will have at least 1 near miss EVERY time you go out on your bike but thats all part of the experience just be safe m8
barkwindjammer Posted July 15, 2010 Posted July 15, 2010 And wait til you see what BMW drivers are like
Paulwhite Posted July 15, 2010 Posted July 15, 2010 lmao yeah there was a whole topic about them not so long ago lol
Moderator Cynic Posted July 15, 2010 Moderator Posted July 15, 2010 The rules i follow, 1 is to treat every other vehicle on the road like its going to try and kill you. 2 On any blind bend assume a big spikey tractor is parked just round the corner unless you can see otherwise. My life was saved by that alone a few years back. I stopped with a couple of inches to spare (i'd shut the throttle on the way in cos of rule 4), face to face with what i think is a gizmo for carrying hay. 3 Look anybody at or on a junction right in the eye, not the stupid tenage i'm harder than you stare your looking for recognition, obvious when you know what to look for. Finally 4 Trust your insticts. By no means exhaustive but you have to look after number1 on the roads these days. Even other motorcyclists can be knobbers. I had one try to goad me into racing him, on a very ropey looking retro 550 i think. Wearing.....an england football strip trainers and a cheapo helmet
johnsnownw Posted July 15, 2010 Posted July 15, 2010 Amazing, picked my first bike up today, a yamaha DT125R. Runs amazingly and I'm very pleased with it. Unfortunately 5 minutes into riding it I've already learnt a lesson. I was signalling to turn right into my drive, another motorbike was approaching so I slowed down, turned my head to check behind me and some VW Golf driving muppet pulled out and overtook nearly taking me and the other biker down. Excellent. Thankfully I looked behind and luckily the other rider had experience to deal with it, I guess you have to get used to unpredictable behaviour from some car drivers! Yup, one time I was riding on a 4 lane road that also had a middle turn lane. I was going east in the lane closest to the center turn lane. This guy coming West in the lane farthest away from the center turn lane decides he wants to turn on a side road, so he makes a turn accross two of his lanes and the center turn lane right into my path. He sees me at the last second, at this point I had slammed on the brakes and was sliding down the road with both wheels locked up, he turns back into the turn lane at the last second and I go sliding by with about 1 inch between my bike and his front bumper. That was my first near miss, scared the bejesus out of me.
Moderator Cynic Posted July 15, 2010 Moderator Posted July 15, 2010 Is this him ? Couldn't really see the face with the helmet but i think he had brown eyes sorry.....
Ttaskmaster Posted July 16, 2010 Posted July 16, 2010 guaranteed you will have at least 1 near miss EVERY time you go out on your bike Not the way *I* ride, you won't!!
Paulwhite Posted July 16, 2010 Posted July 16, 2010 Not the way *I* ride, you won't!! sorry should of said potential near miss
Gas up - Let's Go! Posted July 16, 2010 Posted July 16, 2010 THere is a potential hazard with every turn of the wheel. The trick, well it's not realy a trick, it's just experience and education, is to spot this well in advance and not to be there when the hazard becomes real. It's real easy, nothing difficult about it at all. Look ahead at the road you are riding, take in <all> the information Use the information Give out information Ride to a plan; Observation, Position, Speed, Gear, Acceleration Read, learn and re-read at least once a year -> Motorcycle Roadcraft Any idiot can ride a bike, any moron can ride a bike fast, any fool can ride faster than you. It takes skill to ride safely, It takes a good skilled rider to ride fast and safe. As for other road users, there aren't many diliberatly bad ones, most just don't look and they see what they expect to see. Through Roadcraft you can do things that make you stand out (I'm not talking about bright clothing, lights etc) such as using the whole width of the road, changing position etc. Take this as an example; Often I find when overtaking in traffic, cars don't see you 'sneak' in behind them. I've found that covering the whole width of the road, in other words going into the gap then move to the inside, then back to the offside creates a moving object in thier mirrors, suddenly they see you! Be aware that other vehicle have blind spots, learn what these are and stay out of them. I only recently appriciated how little a truck driver can see what is directly in front of him, never thought about a front blind spot! Now I know and ride accordingly. Think, if you can't see the driver, he can't see you - even if he is looking. At road junctions, blind crests, even just going down the road, ride in the safest part, equal distance from the hazards. At junctions (on your side) move out to the center (or as close as is safe) to create a 'safety' zone should a car push it's nose out into the road from the junction. At crests, corners and anywhere else you can't see, think to youself "what if", what iff there is a stationary truck taking up the whole road....... You should always be able to stop within the distance you can see to be safe. 80mph around a blind bend is taking a risk. Look around you, what can you see? fresh grass cuttings on the road? fresh animal droppings? oil? all of these give you a clue what could be ahead. Riding a bike safely is all about using every scrap of information available to give you some idea of what is happening. Anticipation, so you know what to expect Observation so you expect what you see Really, staying safe on a bike is easy, it's all in the mind.
Moderator Cynic Posted July 16, 2010 Moderator Posted July 16, 2010 ^^^That should be stickied ^^^ I agree, just to add though. Yes a truck is blind to a degree at the front when bikes are filtering but most people would be mortified at the vision i have of the NEARSIDE of the truck. IE the kerb. I have a mirror over the door that lets me see some of the front wheel and the step and 2 mirrors that give a distorted view back (this is the important bit) from just behind the rear wheels of the unit. If cars can dissapear into this spot, bikes can. If you stop at the nearside of a truck or the far bigger worry, the off side of a continental truck and these are not always foreign registerd, you are in very real danger. Even more worrying there is the very real fact that you could be hit by a truck and the driver wouldn't even know he'd done it.
Ttaskmaster Posted July 16, 2010 Posted July 16, 2010 Another tip for when approaching a junction: Say you see a minor left turn off the road ahead of you, with a car waiting to pull out. As you approach, you'd normally do so in a straight line, but to the car you appear to be moving slowly. You don't have the twin headlights that a car does, the increasing distance between which is used by the waiting driver to assess your incoming speed. As a result, the driver thinks you're going slower than you actually are, thinks they can pull out and WHAM!!! Instead: If it is safe to do so, Move to the left-most position of the road and then to the right-most position, ie next to the white line. To the car, you will appear to get closer a lot quicker and they will better judge your speed. I do this a lot and sometimes even see the car start to pull away, but halt when I move out toward the white lines.
Gas up - Let's Go! Posted July 16, 2010 Posted July 16, 2010 Even more worrying there is the very real fact that you could be hit by a truck and the driver wouldn't even know he'd done it. Yep, this was the gist of the conversation I had last weekend. Instead: If it is safe to do so, Move to the left-most position of the road and then to the right-most position, ie next to the white line. To the car, you will appear to get closer a lot quicker and they will better judge your speed. it's all about using the width of the road to your advantage. A final point, when the car (as they will sometimes) pulles out, remember that he is moving forward (from left to right) so aim for the increasing gap. the natural reaction is to swerve away from the hedge/gutter, but you need to move towards it. I did some rallycross training years ago, and one thing sticks in my mind. the instructor told me, if a car is out of controll in front of you, aim for it, by the time you get there, it won't be! works on bikes with moving hazards too.
mike1949 Posted July 16, 2010 Posted July 16, 2010 Another tip for when approaching a junction: Say you see a minor left turn off the road ahead of you, with a car waiting to pull out. If your not sure if he is going to pull out, keep an eye on his front offside wheel trim, that is the first thing that you will see move. Also if you are following a lorry/coach, remember that if you can't see his mirrors, he can't see you.
Chocolate Teapot Posted July 16, 2010 Author Posted July 16, 2010 Excellent advice everyone and taken on board. Thank you.
mike1949 Posted July 16, 2010 Posted July 16, 2010 Excellent advice everyone and taken on board. Thank you. What it comes down to at the end of the day CT is being more vigilant and aware of what's going on around you, believe me, I could have been "killed" at more roundabouts that I can remember. Anyway, that's only 1% of biking, 99% is get out there and enjoy the freedom of the open roads.
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