I didn't see it - lesson learned

On a spirited ride with locals yesterday, I discovered a .65L motobike just can't make the instant passes that 1.2L motobike can... and the 1.2L's were just barely nudging it back in over centerline..So I said fuck it and let the pack roar on.

Approaching Vineyard drive and Hi 46, I looked both ways... but my mind was on how the 'guys' didn't even wait at the stop sign. They were nowhere to be seen.. So I launched.. right in front of a grey sedan. Fortunately for my ass the driver had seen me, recognized I'm a true fucking idiot and had scrubbed enough speed that he didn't get to see me die.

It's a very strange and bad feeling to realize you just made a serious mistake.. and got away with it.

I don't know the driver, but he did everything right.

I, on the other hand, did everything wrong.

.. Preoccupied with the where did the fella's go?

.. Thinking of what I was going to get done around the ranch when I got home

...Wondering what that new knock was and where it was coming from

....Doing everything but keeping my focus on the immediate job at hand, to safely ride the bike.

Lesson learned.

Thank you sedan driver, Thank You.

Here's the view

Look twice save a life.

(Might be your own.. )

rushes said:

Look twice save a life.
(Might be your own...)

Click to expand...

+1, Gunny; We are so damn glad that you are OK Don, I was obviously not focused when I crashed! JSNS, Shit Happens!

We all fear doing what you did. Glad yours proved to be just a learning experience. I fear being the cage driver who "just didn't see" some poor rider.

I almost hit a man crossing the street this past week. He ran right in front of me. He held-up a bit and I braked and swerved enough so we did not meet.

Scary $hit for all involved.

So true… you can make the right decisions 99% of the time, but that 1% can wipe everything out in one quick moment.

Glad you had a non costly learning experience instead of a worse posting coming from you… or even worse… ABOUT you.

Take care, and IF you really want that passing experience - you will get your chance when I get out there.

Been there...stupid move...done that. Glad you're alive. Period.

Another thought.

Years ago my wife pulled out in front of a gray sedan. She said she just didn't see it. Luckily nobody was hurt.

Maybe gray cars should be required to run headlights daytime too?

Dammit Don. Glad you weren't hurt. Jeeze. I learned a long time ago that it's better to be lucky than good.

BTW, your "friends" are douche bags.

Misery loves company. Took my head out of the game for one second and off the road I go.

Glad your luck was much better.

So glad that you are here to tell us the tale.

Best regards

Steve

Glad you are OK Don. Many thanks to your lucky stars and the sedan driver for that.

+1 to what AJ said. Those 1.2 riders are douchebags. You don't leave a man behind like that, no matter how familiar one may be with the roads.

Group rides are overrated.

"Maybe gray cars should be required to run headlights daytime too?"

I drive/ride to work, usually before sunrise, often in fog, rain or

snow.

I play this game, where I try to keep a running count of all the

grey/silver cars I see in these conditions running without

their lights on. I occasionally count up to twelve in 26 miles.

Am I the only one who thinks these cars are particularly

invisible in these conditions? It's difficult to distinguish them

from asphalt.

DCarver:

Glad you are OK! Sounds like you didn't even dump the bike, which is even better. Plus you had a smart, alert car driver...BRAVO FOR HIM!!

I've always worked on the assumption that 9 times out of 10, the cager is at fault, but since I KNOW that and should expect it, it's my fault for not anticipating it. When I did go down, a cage had stopped illegally to make an illegal left turn. And no, I hadn't planned for it and I probably should have.

I agree: Group rides are overrated and guys start racing and vying to be the coolest and toughest. Every rally I ever went to ended up with at least a couple of people going down, which sucks.

Grey vans, hmm. A few years ago I drove a pale grey/blue rental van to Northern BC to collect some belongings for a friend. I managed to wipe out 4 birds on 4 separate occasions in the course of that day trip. They just flew into the side or front of the van. One rather large flicker damn holed the radiator.

Of course, birds also fly full tilt into house windows, apparently because they see the sky reflection and it confuses them.

I surmised that the colour of that cursed van was also sufficiently similar to sky shade, at least for the winged ones.

A study a couple of years back found:

During daylight, black vehicles are 12 percent more likely than white cars to be involved in an accident. Not only are cars with low-visibility colors more likely to be involved in any crash, they are also more likely to be in a severe or life-threatening accident. Other low-visibility colors include blue, silver, gray, red and dark green. White cars are the safest cars to drive due to their high visibility during daylight and at dusk and dawn.

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But I think distraction and inattention play a much larger role in those cases where we simply fail to see that train!

Our perception equipment is highly prone to mistakes and misses, and is peculiarly dependant on the relative vector of a moving object. Things that are in motion at or near to 90' relative to us are more readily noticed than those nearer to 0'. iirc it's referred to as the 'looming' phenomena.

One of the reasons I tend to ride mostly alone is because there are fewer demands on my brain. For me, riding is a species of mindfulness meditation. I enjoy the timeless time where the internal dialogue melts away at the twist of the wrist.

SLK50 said:

"Maybe gray cars should be required to run headlights daytime too?"
I drive/ride to work, usually before sunrise, often in fog, rain or

snow.

I play this game, where I try to keep a running count of all the

grey/silver cars I see in these conditions running without

their lights on. I occasionally count up to twelve in 26 miles.

Am I the only one who thinks these cars are particularly

invisible in these conditions? It's difficult to distinguish them

from asphalt.

Click to expand...

Nope. That's why I prefer cars that are VISIBLE. Unfortunately, silver, black and white seem to be the favorite colors out there, with some dark greens or blues.

I would imagine most, if not all of us have been there and done that at one time or another. I remember a similar incident when I pulled out of an Asheville gas station in front of a NC state trooper (to this day I don't know where he came from - I checked both ways before pulling out). Like you, I was fortunate to be dealing with a competent driver and got off with a warning. I remember wondering for some time afterward if I wasn't getting to old to be on two wheels...

By the way, I always have my car lights on when I drive. Always.

Yep, I've done that. I try to remember that when somebody else does something equally stupid around me. Glass houses and all that.

Happens to the best of us. Ive been riding for 20yrs and make mistakes. If you live through it and learn from it it makes you a better rider.