Close call... again

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Hey Gary, really glad you are ok. I'll just say what I'm thinking, which is this: You got comfortable behind your lights and became complacent about the other necessary skills to avoid distracted drivers, all mentioned by Bounce. I have learned over years in this job to never have too much reliance on just one tool. You got a scary reminder and lived to tell about it.

Be careful...see you again soon!

 
Gary,
Glad to hear you came out unscathed. Hopefully this person learned a little something about her driving skills and can change her habits. I bought my Erica's largely on what you wrote up and they and you have helped me tremendously. Be safe out there.
Appreciate that my friend. With Ericas, you don't have to worry about oncoming traffic. They're so bright they'll burn a hole through anything that gets close enough to hit cha...

I kind of agree with Geezer about the headlight modulators. I don't like them when I see them. They're just annoying. But I always notice them, which I why I've been thinking about adding them to the Kristas (and amber-lens Glendas) I already have. One helps you see better at night, but both help you be seen all the time. Too much is almost enough.
Wonder if Glenn over at Clearwater Lights ever considered modifying dimmer circuitry of his lights to create effective modulation for daytime running? Seems like a simple enough idea. I know what cha mean about "not liking them when ya see them." They are indeed irritating, and for that reason, maybe a REALLY good idea??

Hey Gary, really glad you are ok. I'll just say what I'm thinking, which is this: You got comfortable behind your lights and became complacent about the other necessary skills to avoid distracted drivers, all mentioned by Bounce. I have learned over years in this job to never have too much reliance on just one tool. You got a scary reminder and lived to tell about it. Be careful...see you again soon!
Zilla,

Yeah, I'm pretty glad about it too. Now that's a switch: since when do you just come right out and say what you're thinking? Are you feeling OK?
smile.png
I should add that based on my description above, I can see why you might have come to this conclusion, but you're wrong about this one. Oh my soul, I can't believe I said that. Nobody tells Z that and gets away with it... Honest officer, she really came outa nowhere. Like some Martian spaceship just dropped her in the middle of the road... Oh well, so much for my skills at lying.

Anyway, I was indeed watching and being cautious and all that good stuff. That's a big part of the reason I'm NOT writing this from a hospital bed. And by the way, you said you agreed with Bounce. Since when do you agree with anybody? You're not getting soft on us, are ya buddy?

 
Personally I prefer a headlight modulator. I believe the modulation is what gets people's attention, not the brightness. If you don't want that then I suggest you crank up those Cristas during the day. What blinds oncoming traffic at night won't be as bad during the day. Too much is still too much, but you can safely brighten them up quite a bit more during the day.
Not sure about the headlight modulators since they are on all the time, but my accessory lights are wired to my bright switch. When I'm not entirely sure what the person (who is always trying to kill me, as far as I'm concerned) in going to do, I turn on the brights. Not flash them, turn them on. My 100+ miles a day has avoided an unknown number of terrors this way, I'm sure of it.

 
"Y-not" horror stories:

About 10 years ago I was riding my Ducati Monster through the semi-rural NH bedroom town that I live in. I was going past a park area and there were a lot of cars parked on both sides of the road, so I had slowed waaay down from nominal Ducati hooligan speeds already. Spidey sense was on high alert and I was being attentive to the parked cars because I thought there was a good possibility someone would fling a door open and scoop me into their back seat.

What I did not prepare adequately for was that a Y chromosome impaired adult would rapidly surge her giant assed Chevy Suburban SUV from its previously parked position on the right side of the road to completely blocking the road, whilst lamely attempting to initiate a three point turn from the parked position to exit in the opposite direction, She then promptly stopped out there when she realized her mistake, blocking both lanes of my possible escape.

I used every bit of my non-ABS Italian Brembo brakes, the rear wheel actually lifted some from the ground, but the road was clean and dry and the tires were of the sport (not-touring) variety so had very good bite. I had a good body position and grip on the bars and pushed down and back away from them for maximum effect. I came to a stop within 24 inches (or less) of putting a 17" diameter Dunlop shaped divot into the shiny black passenger door, where I could clearly see her offspring staring out through the medium tinted window with eyes the size of saucers. Lucky he still had his (faggy little) team headband on, so he didn't drip any sweat onto his Mom's leather seats. But I think that in the end that I probably disappointed him by not giving him the show of reckless human carnage, and his ambulance trip to the ER, that his Mommy had attempted to precipitate.

It was also probably a good thing that I did not own a modular helmet at the time, else I would have flipped that chin bar open, and she (and her precious spawn) would have heard the most shocking stream of profanity they had ever witnessed. But, I had a full face on so the initial stream of consciouslness was muffled.

After I had fully stopped, miraculously found neutral (no easy task when adrenaline amped and/or on a Ducati), and put my kickstand down to give my quivering legs some assistance at holding the bike up, she rolled down her window (never opened the driver's door) and asked me: "Are you OK?"

"Aiiiyyyaaaiiiggggh!!! Why don't you look where you are going? You could have killed me!"

I hope that she got the message. To Bounce's point: I did. While it was not my "fault", I saw that I needed to increase my safety margins if I want to keep riding.

The XX files, Round 2:

A year or two later I was motoring along gently through Keene, NH on my FJR. They had recently installed a new fancy multi-laned rotary (roundabout) in the intersection of NH Rte 101 (the primary E-W highway) and the main N-S route 10, where there had previously been a stop light. I was heading straight through, westbound on Rte 101 headed to Albany, NY. A few hundred yards after I had cleared the rotary, by traveling in the left of the two lanes (which is where through traffic should be), I spied a car on the right side of the road with its brake lights on. Not a normal place for people to stop.

Engage spidey sense

Just as I came up upon this stopped heap, it suddenly accelerated and lurched to the left, horizontally across the roadway right in front of me. And once again, as soon as the XX behind the wheel realized the error in her ways, she did what all women do, she clamped on the brakes and stopped right there in the worst possible place, effectively blocking any escape routes without riding into the 2 oncoming traffic lanes.

In this case the ABS activated and I stopped well short of the Y-not's Hundai shitbox, this time with probably 5 or 6 feet of comfortable air space to spare. I could clearly see that the woman driver was elderly, and her passenger was another Y-not but of fewer accumulated miles. The passenger was screaming at the driver (I figured it was her Mom) for her total stupidity, but then gray haired driver proceeded to cross the other two lanes of oncoming traffic from the west, so she could go back towards the rotary.

In retrospect, I'm sure that what happened was she got in the wrong lane of the rotary and found herself going westbound on Rte 101 when she meant to do something else (probably head down south on Rte 10, which is not a particularly affluent part of our rural state.

If there is any moral to these stories I guess it would be to never ever let your guard down. Even when you are just cruising along sedately. But especially when you notice the operator of the weapon car is a woman. Expect them to do the completely, ridiculously; unimaginably unexpected. Then you'll have about a 50/50 chance of making it. ;)

 
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Geez, Fred:

You need to find yourself a nice rocking chair and play it a little safer from here on out. Maybe get it outfitted with roll bars.

Glad you lived to tell the story. And I'll be there's more where those came from. Matter of fact I'll bet we could all tell a number of them. I know I've certainly got a lot to be thankful for.

 
I'm sure that you are right about a lot of folks having had similar experiences. As long as there are car drivers on the road that have no grasp of physics, they will have no clue that they are essentially driving around in a loaded weapon. These kind of things will continue to happen.

 
Gary, the fact you remember so much of the details, says that you had an idea of the possible situation. Don't underestimate your defensive driving capabilities. Way to go!

 
Glad you're OK, Gary, sounds as if you did everything you could... unfortunately we have to ride to the lowest common denominator factor for those with a poor grasp of physics as Fred said. Of course, that driver should never have pulled out in front of you if they were not certain.

Not that this was a factor, but I just want to mention that those riding with high powered lights or high beams on, this makes it far more difficult for other drivers/riders to judge your oncoming speed and distance. To maximize your chances of being recognized as a bike, my opinion is just to have fork lights on in daytime so you have a more recognizable shape, and points of reference behind or beside you (broken lines, utility poles, etc.) can be seen so others can more adequately judge your speed and distance. I'm only saying all this because I have seen riders with full freight train lights on and I couldn't tell what they were from a distance until they got much closer. Flashing the brights when approaching unusual traffic situations is also good.

I'm also not a big fan of modulators when left on all the time. A buddy of mine for example religiously practices turning on his modulator selectively in heavy traffic or approaching intersections where a car might pull out, and this increases his normal visibility as drivers realize something changed.

Anyway, be safe out there.

 

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