Two mistakes almost cost me my life...

[Adeeber]

To clear up some confusion, the truck and I were on the same road, facing opposite directions. He made a left-hand turn crossing my path of travel.


@ Hondaguy - During the day I ride with my high-beam on, and don't usually have any problems. Unfortunately this was late at night and I was riding with my low-beams. Modulators only help during daylight correct?


@ Adlowe - I guess thinking back on it I feel like I should have committed to either stopping, or swerving. If I was going to attempt swerving around the front of the truck, I should have swerved and accelerated. If I wanted to slow as much as possible before colliding I should have used all traction availabe for braking as opposed to splitting the traction between swerving and braking.

In any case, this event has solidified my decision to take an advanced rider course

[invalidsession]

Split second decisions are just that. Split second. Sometimes our brains are in neutral and natural reactions take over, grab the brake etc. The lesson when riding is to treat every road user as a potential knife wielding lunatic but even so, certain circumstances are unavoidable


Chris.

[PA Dave]

A big cushion of space between me and the vehicle if front of me is one of the best safety rules I've found. Time to react is invaluable.

That said, I've been where the OP was years ago, and no cushion of space/time would have made a difference. I was riding up a street with no one at all in front of me, and coming the other way was a station wagon. He stopped with his signal on to turn left...no surprises there, and he sat long enough for three cars to stack up behind him. Clearly it appeared he was aware of me coming (I still think he was, he just decided he had enough space based on his perception of my speed). When I reached the intersection he turned right into my path. I couldn't swerve in front of him, and if I swerved behind him I'd have been head on into the next car. I braked hard but T-boned the car. I flew over. The bike ended up with a huge dent on top of the tank from the side of the car. Bars were mangled and the front tire was back against the motor.

Looking back, what did I do wrong? Every sign indicated that he saw me and was waiting for me to pass by...why else sit that long before turning if nothing was coming? I wasn't speeding, headlight was on, but I could have slowed a little coming into the situation. I didn't do anything "wrong". But being "right" does nothing to keep us safe.

To this day, on a bike or in a car, that same set up throws me into a high alert. I suspect it always will, which is good. Since getting back on the bike, I practice hard stops once a week, and I'm thinking of doing in in my truck as well. Now I just have to become aware of the infinite other scenarios that we need to be aware of, preferably without making that kind of connection.

[justinmahn]

Nope. You did everything right. If you're gonna go down, make sure it's after you hit the other car. I probably would've slowed down a bit before that on the off chance that he would tunnel vision, with me outside the tunnel.

[adlowe]

Originally Posted by Adeeber

I guess thinking back on it I feel like I should have committed to either stopping, or swerving. If I was going to attempt swerving around the front of the truck, I should have swerved and accelerated. If I wanted to slow as much as possible before colliding I should have used all traction availabe for braking as opposed to splitting the traction between swerving and braking.

Agree with that but... you did not know what the truck driver was going to do. Without that knowledge, your odds of making the right choice are 50/50 -- the same as your odds of becoming a statistic. You took a middle course while collecting more information. Was that the right thing? Probably no way to tell except that you came out intact.

Either of the other two choices might have been better but I suspect braking would have been the wrong choice. You locked your rear wheel while temporizing so I think you were pounding the brakes too hard and would have ended up losing control. I'm just guessing, though.

[John Hopkins]

I just looked at the video and I have to say I have never tried an emergency stop on a dry aircraft runway..I'm pretty sure that under those idea conditions I could stop as quickly as many cars..But in real life I will continue to allow myself four seconds for a controlled safe breaking on my bike and two seconds in the safety of a four wheeled vehicle with seatbelts airbags and side impact bars.

John.

[harpomatic]

Originally Posted by meeve

Turn into where your rear wheel is going. Change your centre of gravity. YMMV.

Thank you, kind of confirms what I suspected, but really wasn't sure - it happens so fast and so rarely(thank God), that there is no time to either get scared or to analyze it.

[vito]

Originally Posted by Hondaguy

Headlight modulator eliminated all of those situations for me a long time ago. Lots of start /Stops now

It was dark at the time. Don't they stop modulating in the dark?

[vito]

Originally Posted by Adeeber

To clear up some confusion, the truck and I were on the same road, facing opposite directions. He made a left-hand turn crossing my path of travel.


@ Hondaguy - During the day I ride with my high-beam on, and don't usually have any problems. Unfortunately this was late at night and I was riding with my low-beams. Modulators only help during daylight correct?


@ Adlowe - I guess thinking back on it I feel like I should have committed to either stopping, or swerving. If I was going to attempt swerving around the front of the truck, I should have swerved and accelerated. If I wanted to slow as much as possible before colliding I should have used all traction availabe for braking as opposed to splitting the traction between swerving and braking.

In any case, this event has solidified my decision to take an advanced rider course

Going the speed limit or a little less would have turned this into a non event.
And before anyone chimes in...yes I speed.........just not when it's wet, cold, and dark. That's the lesson here.

And thanks for a post that wasn't full of animus against the truck driver. Analyzing what happened and what you could learn from it is the best thing you could do to improve.