Agreed. I won't pass until there's room to completely clear the vehicle in the
right lane, unless your hung up in traffic of course. In fact I tend to wander
when I pass certain vehicles. For instance when passing large trucks, or
smaller trucks with loose or questionable loads, I will move to the left part
of the fast lane to give myself that much more of a safety cushion. Now I have
had someone pull over into my lane while riding my nighthawk, but not on the
Harley. And yes, I do believe there's some truth to the loud pipes theory. But
it's just like people, you can't count on anything except that your going to
see people do things that range from normal, expected and polite, to
outrageous, unexpected and maniacal.
Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
-------- Original message --------
From: Kyle Munz <[email protected]>
Date: 8/17/16 11:49 AM (GMT-05:00)
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Nighthawk Lovers] Re: It took less than two weeks...
I agree about not riding in a car's blindspot, and the fallacy of the "loud
pipes save lives" theory. And while I take the "everyone is trying to kill me"
approach, I don't have an "us vs them" mentality since I still spend the
majority of my time in a cage rather than on a bike. The difference I try to
make with that statement is to be a bit more proactive regarding other
vehicles. Don't ride into their strike zone and think "Oh, he may not see me
here I should move." Instead, with each vehicle identify their possible strike
zones and stay out of them if possible, if not plan to spend as little time as
possible in them.
-Kyle
On Wed, Aug 17, 2016 at 10:19 AM, Kurt Nolte <[email protected]> wrote:
Staying constantly alert and riding defensively is always good advice, but I
personally detest the phrase "ride like everyone is out to kill you."
I've seen far, far too many people turn that into "I'm on a bike, everyone is
out to kill me" and becomes very bitter about "cages" and "cagers." It's only a
very short step from that into open antagonism.
I much prefer "ride like you're invisible" or "ride like nobody can see you."
Same effect, less "us versus them" personal antagonism.
Another important question to ask: CAN they see me? The number of riders who
hang out in that driver's side rear corner blind spot is frustrating. No wonder
they think they need loud equipment to be "safe," they're fobbing their safety
off on someone else because they can't be arsed to ride like a sane person!
Kurt
On Aug 17, 2016 11:04 AM, "Dan Cook" <[email protected]> wrote:
I can definitely sense that countersteering will be second nature at some
point. When I was riding recently I was in a curve *exactly* like the one I
went down in, and I had the exact same brief panicked feeling I did when I
crashed, but knew what to do and it was no problem.
It rained the day before I was out on the road this weekend and there were
several spots with dirt/sand on the road. That was scary.
I read this on a website about motorcycle safety and found it very interesting.
Seems like good advice.
3. Play a mental game where you imagine everyone is trying to kill you and make
it look like an accident. For example, if this person suddenly darted out
into traffic, could I stop in time? If this person swerved to avoid a dog,
would they hit me? If I had to slam on my brakes right now, could I stop
without dropping the bike? If these cars go here, do I have more than one
way out? If this guy got brake checked and then slammed on his brakes how would
I survive behind him? If this person made a left turn right now into my path,
could I avoid it. If that kid suddenly ran into the street. etc... you get
the idea. You must stay 100% alert, always.
On Wed, Aug 17, 2016 at 10:33 AM, Kyle Munz <[email protected]> wrote:
There is a lot to think about, but things like countersteer shouldn't be one of
them. The more you practice it the more it just happens without thinking. The
main thing to think about while riding is how exactly every single other driver
on the road is planning to kill you. MSF teaches you to pretend the driver
can't see you, which is wrong. You should always assume that they can see you,
and are only pretending that haven't yet to lure you into complacency and into
their alleged "blind spot" where they will POUNCE. It can get tiring but every
car I pass I'm constantly thinking of what sneaky move they're going to pull to
run me off the road.
-Kyle
On Wed, Aug 17, 2016 at 9:22 AM, Dan Cook <[email protected]> wrote:
This thread has been immensely helpful to me as I get back on the "horse."
There is so much to think about when riding. I'm still getting used to that,
and perhaps always will be.
This weekend I spent some time in an industrial park riding in circles and it
was extremely enjoyable. I told my wife I was going to ride to work today (20
mile commute, mostly country roads) and she said she thought I should do some
more "short rides" before I take the bike to work. Considering that my accident
was on the way home from work, I think she may be onto something.
My car is parked outside...
Wife does not like this new hobby, so I have to give sometimes.
On Tue, Aug 16, 2016 at 12:42 PM, <[email protected]> wrote:
I like where this discussion has gone. It also proved a helpful little seed in
the back of my mind recently.
I've been riding for a pretty long time now.I'm old, experienced and capable of
some occasional cocky behavior, leading some to believe that I am accomplished.
But there is always something that will help you recall what scary feels like,
how precarious two-wheeled travel really is.
They are patching roads around here, and sometimes they decide they will fill a
gap between old road surface and patch with a little strip of tar. NOW they
have decided to dribble some coarse sand over the top of these lines of tar.
This makes them look like the older hardened patches, but they are not. On a
hot day they are little road traps waiting for motorcycles.
I was on one of our local two-lane curves, laid over the appropriate amount and
hit one of these lines. Like a banana peel, that crust on top of the tar slid
right out from under my front tire. It catches you so very off-guard and shoots
adrenaline everywhere.
The normal response, in that split-second of panic, is to come off the
throttle, come out of the turn/lean which will take you into oncoming traffic,
or off the road, depending on which direction you are turning at the time.
Fortunately there was no oncoming traffic, it was a curve right.
It is right after this that I needed the reminder of this whole thread lurking
in my mind. In the next split second, still in panic mode now because I am
going into the other lane, I had to tell myself to stop reacting and continue
to counter steer to re-align myself and get out of the path of oncoming.
I am very confident with the application of, and even the mechanics explaining
counter steering. However, I am not so experienced that I can handle all of
those "hitting a banana peel" moments as though they are routine. I'm not sure
I really want to get that experienced at it either.
This thread is timeless.
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