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Riding Safe: Crash Avoidance
 

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Riding Safe: Crash Avoidance

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You can say that again.

First time ever I rode with the PGR at a Funeral, I was nearly ass-packed by a woman on her raked Sportster.

We were in the procession going to the cemetary, and bikes were strung-out for a couple of miles of rural backroads, all following-behind the Family and Friends of the Soldier. The pack was traversing the next-to-last major intersection before our destination (which the Sheriff Dept. was blocking for us); a left-turn onto US71. Most merely slowed-down and rolled-through the light (at the urging of the Deputy), and the procession gained-speed and "gapped" a few-hundred feet or so - nothing a moto couldn't catch easily, without even "speeding", so each bike accelerated to catch up as the got on the highway.

I happened to see a flash in my rearview out of the corner of my eye (the headlight of her bike wildly ziz-zagging back and forth), and I turned my head just barely in time to react and swerve to the shoulder as she rocketed-by through the space I had vacated only a few tenths-of-a-second before: she was hard on the throttle, moving about 25mph faster than me, and accelerating. (Open pipes tell no lies)

She finally gets it back under "control" (loosely-used term, here) by chopping the throttle and locking the back brake, almost kissing the bumper of a Cadillac three bikes up (they were all luckily in the left side of the lane). As I think she was too embarassed, she didn't fall-back into her previous spot, just stayed glued to the bumper of the Caddy until we got to the cemetary.

After the ceremony, she sought me out and apologized. I conceded that no real harm was done, but advised her to practice throttle and clutch control a bit before group-riding again.

"Oh, it warn't THAT!" she exclaimed. "It wuz that GODDAM FRONT BRAKE - th' thang liked to KILT ME!!"

Riiiiiiiiight.........

It makes me embarrassed to be a motorcyclist when I know there's riders like that around us...

Good article. Another thing I pay attention to is proper maintenance and high-quality parts. Sintered brake pads give me more (and quicker) stopping power, and good tires let me trust my bike's maneuverability during avoidance swerves, for example.

Good article, and I always ride with all the gear, but 50% of the photo's on MO the rider is wearing blue jeans. And not the kevlar lined blue jeans. Might be a fine idea to take your own advice too.

Glad you liked the article, but I have to take issue with your calculations of how often we're wearing jeans and your assessment of whether or not they have Kevlar linings.

I currently have four pairs of blue jean riding pants and all are of the motorcycle-specific, kevlar-reinforced variety. Any action photos published on MO of me wearing jeans are while wearing one of the four.

Me, too!!!!!!!!!

SMIDSY: "Sorry Mate, I Didn't See You."

I don't like the "they're out to get you" mentality.
I'm in the "drive like you're invisible" camp.

I think the most important thing on the street is to ride way inside your comfort zone. I try to leave more space between me and the car in front of me than I think I need. I slow down for all corners. I slow down at night. I have to force myself not to "push it a bit".