[DCinCT]

riding to work yesterday and started thinking "too many accidents again"...another bad one this past weekend here in Ct...don't allow yourself to fall into that comfort zone where you let your guard down...normal this time of the riding season...had to reaccess my own riding habits and to remind myself to stay out of other vehicles on the road blind spots...if I can't see them in their side mirrors, they can't see me if they are trying to be aware of whats around them before they make a lane change...I post this every year at about this time and hopefully it helps to prevent at least one rider here from a scary experience. Lets face it...some times we can be our own worst enemies.
Ride safe everyone and enjoy the rest of the summer.

 

[Lois Mack]

Funny you should bring this up just now...

Hubby and I were riding on Sunday - just an hour and a half - here 'n there, just bootin' around the countryside. Hubby leads, I follow...well, I'm supposed to follow. We rounded a curve, and something 'over there' caught my eye. I took the curve, but looked back over my left shoulder...and then checked over that shoulder one more time. Did I really see that? (doesn't matter what "that" was...) When my eyes and mind returned to bike riding, I was on the shoulder of the road which consisted of one foot of poor pavement next to lots 'n lots of gravel. PANIC! And of course, I happened to also notice a couple of riders were now at my six. OH NO!!! FELLOW RIDERS (strangers to me) were witnesses!

Hubby is totally oblivious to my shananigans (whew!) but at the next light, the riders pulled up and said to me, "Gotta keep it on the road!" We all had a good chuckle, even tho we all knew how serious it was. I had to tell Rich what I did. He just scratched his head.

Teaching others with real-life experiences is the best way to go. I was relating this great example of poor riding to my youngest son, Simon, thinking that it would nice to have him believe his mom is perfect but wanting him to learn from my stupid mistake....and he then shared how he did that very exact same stupid mistake that afternoon as well.

Oh boy --- people, stay focused! Obviously, stuff happens --- let's not lose any more riders!!

I bet Beezer never does anything this stupid, eh?

 

[mdram]

aaahhhh complacency, never a good thing

 

[PAC50]

Great reminder....thank you!!!!

 

[Whiskey]

Great reminder DC. I would add the suggestion that you always want to be passing or being passed. Usually when people lane change into you it's because you were hovering in their blind spot. If you're passing them or their passing you, you won't be in the blind spot for long.

The other reason people change lanes into you is because they're f***tards! But that's another discussion all together.

:shades:

 

[SuzukiRamblinMan]

riding to work yesterday and started thinking "too many accidents again"...another bad one this past weekend here in Ct...don't allow yourself to fall into that comfort zone where you let your guard down...normal this time of the riding season...had to reaccess my own riding habits and to remind myself to stay out of other vehicles on the road blind spots...if I can't see them in their side mirrors, they can't see me if they are trying to be aware of whats around them before they make a lane change...I post this every year at about this time and hopefully it helps to prevent at least one rider here from a scary experience. Lets face it...some times we can be our own worst enemies.

Ride safe everyone and enjoy the rest of the summer.

Good reminder. Another reminder is for us bikers to always look over our shoulders and check the next lane over before changing lanes. I was cruising along for what seemed like hours very early a few Sunday mornings ago on a divided highway on my way from Atlanta to Athens and had not seen any cars for miles. I decided to switch from the right lane to the left , I glanced in my mirror and saw no cars, so I started over and almost ran right into the side of a cager. I have no idea how long he had been in my blind spot but that's where he was. I corrected quickly and got back in my lane before I hit him and he sped up and got in front of me but it was way too close for me. I was mad at him first, but then thought to myself - you dummy. One of the things they stressed in my Basic Rider course was to always look over your shoulder before changing lanes and never depend on just the mirrors. I had a rental car lately that had a small flashing light on the side mirror whenever there was a vehicle in the blind spot. Good idea for motorcycle manufacturers too in my opinion.


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[scorpion46]

Great reminder.
I had always learned that "When you think you have it mastered, something will happen to bite you in the butt and show you haven't mastered anything."

 

[RellaLou]

My battle cry: "Don't look at the guardrail!!!" :shades:

 

[Jeffrobombero]

Don't get hypnotized by the cool reflection of the sky in the dome of your headlight either.

 

[danimal]

Jeff, one of the benefits of a plastic bike like I have, no reflections!

The blind spot riding is a pet peeve of mine, how many riders do you see doing that and then get pissed off when the car starts to come over on them?

Last year I was cruising down the interstate in NC, going about 80 in a 70 zone. I wasn't going to change lanes, and thankfully I didn't, because a guy on a high end sport bike blew by me like I was standing still, he was going at least 150mph. Even a mirror and shoulder check wouldn't have seen him because he came up on my so fast.

 

[Whiskey]

Don't get hypnotized by the cool reflection of the sky in the dome of your headlight either.

I have no idea what your talking about! :bigoops:

 

[kettlinton]

Great post Dennis!!!!

 

[SuzukiRamblinMan]

Jeff, one of the benefits of a plastic bike like I have, no reflections!

The blind spot riding is a pet peeve of mine, how many riders do you see doing that and then get pissed off when the car starts to come over on them?

Last year I was cruising down the interstate in NC, going about 80 in a 70 zone. I wasn't going to change lanes, and thankfully I didn't, because a guy on a high end sport bike blew by me like I was standing still, he was going at least 150mph. Even a mirror and shoulder check wouldn't have seen him because he came up on my so fast.

I actually saw a young guy on a sport bike outrun a Georgia State Patrol officer last year on I-75 near Macon. The guy is probably dead now.


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