In the car today I had someone stop suddenly in front of me and (thanks to driving like I ride) I had time and space to react and stop, but not so the two cars behind me. result a badly mangled rear bumper. No biggy except it made me think how I'd have been in strife if I'd been riding. What's your feeling on that riding situation? You know you can brake in time but the car behind looks like its going to clean you up. Options?

1. Try to overtake the car on the left and risk clipping it and coming off in the next lane of traffic? (Worse to the right if there is oncoming traffic - a rider died in Sydney a while ago when the car ahead stopped suddenly to allow ducks to cross the road (!) and he swerved into oncoming cars).

2. If the circumstances don't permit that, and the car is slowing ok but can't stop, choose to end up on the bonnet ? Not the greatest idea though if he is hooting like my driver today who simply didn't see me stop.

What's your tactic?

 

 

 

i dont really think you can have one set game plan for a situation like that , the senario will always have different factors

you just have to be on the ball and hope you make the right choice on the day

I was sitting in the left lane stopped at a light on leach highway in Perth one time when i was shunted from behind.
middle of the day bright sunlight, CX 650 so pretty visible to the naked eye.
As a mate of mine says ya just cant help some people.
No damage to the bike as i guess the dude was slowing for the line that i was sitting at.
and of course he had no insurance...

I think being on the ball is the one. I always keep my eyes glued to the mirror these days.

When I sit at lights I am constantly scanning my mirrors. If I have an approaching vehicle from behind I constantly apply my brakes to make my brake light strobe/flash on and off. If they are coming a little fast and too close for comfort I start looking for an escape route option.

I always have enough stopping distance between me and the vehicle in front. More in the wet. You can't afford to switch off

Don't trust the bastards!!

It's the only thing that concerns me about riding a bike. I'm a postie and i can tell you that i am always looking in the mirrors when i pull up at lights and always trying to look for an escape route + as Magilla said, use your brake light. Other than that there's not much you can do.

 

 Most people in Oz aren't taught how to drive,,, they're taught how to get a drivers license.

Ya can't afford to trust any of em out there nowadays.

 

After 38 years of riding mainly in this country, the best tactic I've been able to come up with is to become part of ya bike so things happen natural and ya don't have to think about what you and machine have to do, it just happens.

 

Then ya can put a lot more effort into riding for the five up front, the five behind, and whatever comes at ya from either side, up top or down below.

 

As far as the rear ender goes, I make a habit of pulling up on the extreme right side of the lane so the guy in front has a rear view mirror full of me, and if anything comes up too fast from behind there's always a slot to escape through.

 

(Edit: forgot to tell ya about the bonus with this, quite often something will pull up right along side ya and the window comes down,,, be surprised sometimes at what gets presented !)

 

And for what it's worth, ride like ya the invisible man, cause that's how a lot of the folk out there see ya.              Not at all !

 

 

 

 

me i lane split so i dont have traffic coming up behind me ..........

but i do watch all around me when stationary at lights......

some ppl wanna race ya at the lights

Congratulations Taffy, that makes two of us. First some jerkoff reversed into me while I was stopped in a loading zone on Friday. He had a bad case of little man syndome, but lucky he reversed into me, so I could sort it out for him. He came to realise pretty quickly that I dont give a fuck about him or anything he has to say. Fuckwit. Still pisses me to think how dumb some people are. My trucks not white enough? my trucks not big enough? Too fucken short to see over the steering wheel? I ended up telling him to buy some fucken high heels so you can reach the fucken brake pedal! fuckwit.

Then yesterday a whole string of cars kiss each others arse. Lucky I was in the oversized ute, as I could see straight over the top of all the cars, so was prepared when the car in front went from 60 to 0 in about 6 feet. I missed by about 3 inches. Then I get the thump from behind. Foot firmly on the brake, so saved his arse from paying for the damage on the 10 cars in front. He wasnt insured in his brand new little poofy silver thing. Lucky I got the ants pants towbar installed, except its now at about 45 deg pointing at the ground.  

Anyway Taff, back to the thread, without hijacking your moment of glory, getting banged from behind on Mardi Gras day . Hope no one got hurt mate.

I gotta agree with rider "Most people in Oz aren't taught how to drive,,, they're taught how to get a drivers license." How many P plates do you see racing up behind with front end damage? In fact how many cars do you see with front end damage? 5 tokens from a corn flakes packet, straight to the RTA and licence granted to anyone.

And you need to learn to do what MJ says. You need to learn to lane split. Even if you dont do it all the time, you need to be able to know how to zip in between the cars when its necessary. Sometimes the car behind the driver can be a worry, so lane split and get them away from you. Then they are 4-5-6 cars away. Someone elses problem. And yeah, also be wary, some idiots then think its a race, as "your not getting in my lane". Like we will be doing 60 when the lights go green?!?!?

I never sit in the middle, and always off to one side ready to change lanes or squeeze in between when necessary, and given the way drivers are now, I have found in necessary a few times. Looked behind and seen the upcoming speed, changed lanes at the last second to hear the screech and see the car pull up right where I just was. And when I have zipped between and come up to the front, I have had people trying to move forward and around me to push me out of the way as the lights change to red on the opposing side. Need some balls there, as if they're stupid enough to do that, they're stupid enough to try to run you off the road. Lane splitting can be very useful, but you need to make it second nature, so you have no concerns and just do it naturally. Like everything, learn to do it over and over in a controlled environment, emergency stops, quick lane changes, lane splitting, so when you need to do it, its something in your head, no fear, and it just happens.

from rider
"As far as the rear ender goes, I make a habit of pulling up on the extreme right side of the lane so the guy in front has a rear view mirror full of me, and if anything comes up to fast from behind there's always a slot to escape through."

thats a good tip, I pretty much do that anyway, just natural for me i guess, gives you a better view of what is happening ahead as well as the points you covered.

hitting the brakes to flash the brake light is a good idea too from magilla.

I know some riders go to neutral when at the lights but i stay in gear ready to get out of there in a hurry if i have too.

I always tend to sit to one side of the car ahead if I haven't lane split to the front....gives the car driver the shits having the headlight directly in the mirror but who cares .... sitting to one side gives the follow fools that little bit more space to miss ya in the event of a fuck up....never ever sit right behind the car ahead.... unless ya with someone else then it's a tad hard.....

There's a fair bit said here for sitting to the right of a lane when at a set of lights but, there isn't always going to be room on the right side between cars if you have to move quickly. I reckon you are better off sitting in the middle of the lane and a fair way back because you then have a choice of going right or left around the cars in front, and if you give yourself more than a car length gap to the car in front then you have room in case someone is locking up the brakes behind you. If you don't wanna do any of that then lane split and sit at the front of the traffic.

Good advice all round.
I always get freaked by the thought of someone backing into my bike while parked on the street too.
Dragons story reminded me of that.
if you park on the footpath next to the bike racks is that legal ??

usually lane split to front or as close to front as I can... wherever I stop I make sure that I am level with the outside of the car in front and keep bike in gear so that I can either get away from a car that looks like its not going to stop or if anything else happens, I am not sandwiched

yesterday on the F3coming back from the central coast it was pissing down as usual real bad spray heavy traffic for my own safty road in breakdown lane

Guys.......I was down Mansfield way, Vic on the weekend...........just up the road form where i was staying there was a nasty accident......It is a sad story..(made the front page of the Mansfield local paper)..........A local who worked for the council as an engineer was given a new Harley as a gift from his kids. In a hurry to get to work.......was riding in a 100kph zone and was closing in on a truck ahead of him. He mis-judged that it was only travelling at 50k up the hill and had to swerve around it in the last metres as there was no way he could pull it up in time. Problem was.......there was a local lady heading the opposite way taking the kids to school. He ended up going through her front windscreen and died at the scene.....She was airlifted to Melbourne and is in a serious condition. I pondered over this all weekend.......sorta put a damper on a nice time. I guess i am writing this as i don't want it to happen to anyone else. Take care...............
brian

ohh yeah!! gotta love the footpath for parking here in Vic......even get right up next tp the doors at the big shopping centres at christmas

On the Stay Upright course they teach you to always have an exit strategy when stopped behind someone, ie give yourself enough space to accelerate away, also as said before keep checking mirrors and only have the rear brake on so if your shunted you have a better chance of staying on 2 wheels.

Hmmm, if ya first in line at an intersection ya usually a sitting duck but if ya lucky and need to move hopefully ya can, i say always keep ya brake light flashing until a vehicle is pulled up behind ya, always stop level with the side of the vehicle in front to allow an escape to the side of it and always in every situation scan mirrors constinently to see whats happening behind, these apply weather ya stopping or just slowing, rear enders are the most common accidents by far, be prepared.

 

So now you should have a swag of very good information and advice,,,,,, but if you're still feeling a little insecure about the whole issue,

 

You could advance to the next step in powers of suggestion for tailgaters,,,,,

 

 

One of these hangin off the arse end would quite possibley deter anything from getting even remotely close.

 

 OPTIONS