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Reminds me of something I did a couple of weeks ago. Four lane highway. Lane 1 goes to place A. Lane 2 & 3 goes to place B, lane 4 to place C. On the leftmost and rightmost edge of the road are concrete barriers. I was in lane 2 and on my way to place B, but lane 2 & 3 were jammed for several hundred metres, so I thought I'd just step out into lane 1 and then get into lane 2 as far up as I could go. A BMW 5-series passed me quite fast in lane 1, so right after he went by I changed to lane 1 and rolled on the gas. I didn't punch it wheelie-style, but I gave it a good amount of gas. I started looking up ahead for a good spot to get back into lane 2, when suddenly the BMW discoveres that the road splits up ahead, and he's supposed to go to place B. BMW-dude slams on the brakes as hard as he can, and then my reptile brain tried to kill me. I grabbed a fistful of front brake, and felt the front start to wash out. I released the brake, grabbed it again and *locked it again*! By now I had maybe 10-15 metres to the now stationary and very solid BMW. I released the brake a second time, and when I squeezed it this time I managed to not be a dumbfuck and lock it again. When I was stationary behind the BMW (we were both standing still in a motorway lane with a 90 kph speed limit, great going Mr BMW), I was close enough to touch his bumper with my hand. Somewhere along the way, I think the first moment I felt the front start to go, I for some reason threw both my legs out in some insane act of trying to keep my balance or whatever the gently caress. My legs are wobbly as gently caress as I put them back on the pegs and roll back into lane 2. As I filter away, the BMW is still standing still, trying to get into lane 2. So, what did I learn from this? No matter how many times I've actually practiced emergency braking, my reflexes will still try to kill me. gently caress you reflexes. And I really should stop following so goddamn close.
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# ? Jun 17, 2012 02:06 |
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# ? May 16, 2024 05:03 |
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Well, this one isn't so much me, but it was on my bike and I was standing there. I recently bought a Speed Triple after riding around on a boring Harley for the last year. I talked to my father in-law about selling the bike and he expressed his interest in riding. So today him and I got together so I could show him the bike and go over how it works. His riding experience consists of two previous rides which were about 35 years ago while he was in the air force. I had the bike parked at the top of the driveway and stupidly left the key in the ignition while I went inside to grab my helmet so I could drive it around the block to let him see it in action and get a general idea of how to engage the clutch, shift, brake, etc. On my way out the door, I see him sitting on the bike, which is now running. I start to run up the hill to stop him and he pops the clutch and takes off. He shifts into second without closing the throttle and as he reengages the clutch the bike takes off like a rocket, sending him almost off the seat and causing him to twist the throttle even more. At this point all I can hear is the bike full bore, all I can see over the top of the neighbors car is him cutting across the road while hanging on for dear life. Then I lost sight of him and the engine went dead. My mind just sort of went numb and I tried to frantically reach into my pocket for my cell phone which wasn't there. I ran inside and told my wife that her dad just crashed the bike and then ran back outside. Sure enough, here he comes riding up the road, the bike is perfectly fine from what I can see, and he's not bleeding profusely. "Thank god" I think to myself. I still owe about eight grand on the bike and my insurance premiums are already high enough without having to file a claim for him getting throttle happy and riding a machine that he has no clue about. He pulls up and puts the kickstand down and has a look of pure terror on his face. He says that he thinks he hit the mirror and walked down into the house with my wife. I check out the mirror and it's fine, but notice the clutch lever has a pretty big smear of white paint on it. My heart sinks down into my stomach as I fear that he hit one of the neighbor's cars. Before I can go inside and ask him what he hit, a guy comes running up to me screaming at me that I just hit his mailbox. I explain to him that my father in-law took my bike without permission and had no clue what he was doing. We take a walk down to his house and the mailbox is destroyed, laying in wooden pieces everywhere. I offered to pay to replace the mailbox and post but he refused and thanked me for the offer. After a friendly chat about motorcycles and a good laugh at what had just happened, I apologized once more and went back to survey the damage to my bike. When all's said and done, the bike still looks immaculate, save for the clutch lever which has the paint smudge on it. I have no clue how just the clutch lever managed to murder a mailbox and it's 4x4 post. I gave my father in-law a huge scolding and later on he followed me in his truck to a local bike shop to buy a helmet and practice at their closed course training lot. He's currently going over the Pennsylvania Motorcycle Operators Manual and is barred from touching the bike unless we're at the training lot and he's wearing the proper safety gear. I learned a very valuable lesson about leaving the key in the ignition. Thankfully the only thing that got hurt was a mailbox.
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# ? Jun 17, 2012 05:28 |
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This is why having someone else ride one of my bikes is my greatest fear (I realize your story was without permission). I won't do it unless I've seen them riding, and trust their skills, and know they can pay to replace the entire bike if they do something idiotic.
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# ? Jun 17, 2012 06:21 |
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Bloody Queef posted:This is why having someone else ride one of my bikes is my greatest fear (I realize your story was without permission). I won't do it unless I've seen them riding, and trust their skills, and know they can pay to replace the entire bike if they do something idiotic. Call me heartless, but I only really care about the last. Mikemo, glad your father in law was ok, rampant stupidity aside!
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# ? Jun 17, 2012 08:13 |
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Z3n posted:Call me heartless, but I only really care about the last. Mikemo, glad your father in law was ok, rampant stupidity aside! That's how I feel as well, I don't think it's heartless at all. If they break it, they buy it.
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# ? Jun 17, 2012 10:23 |
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KozmoNaut posted:That's how I feel as well, I don't think it's heartless at all. If you can find somebody (preferably some older guy with a weak heart) loaded with cash and willing to take a test ride on an almost mint RD500YPVS, I'd like to test how well a 600 Bandit handles a few Evel Knievel stunts.
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# ? Jun 17, 2012 12:18 |
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Sir Cornelius posted:If you can find somebody (preferably some older guy with a weak heart) loaded with cash and willing to take a test ride on an almost mint RD500YPVS, I'd like to test how well a 600 Bandit handles a few Evel Knievel stunts. I have a list of bikes that I would consider reasonable trades for my Bandit and the phone numbers for a large and diverse group of kickboxing, BJJ and MMA enthusiasts, in case of any such shenanigans.
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# ? Jun 17, 2012 12:26 |
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Z3n posted:Call me heartless, but I only really care about the last. Yeah, but I'm unreasonably emotionally attached to my bikes as well. I'd tell someone that wadded up my bike that the replacement value was 3x market price, because well.....emotional trauma?
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# ? Jun 17, 2012 23:29 |
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KozmoNaut posted:I have a list of bikes that I would consider reasonable trades for my Bandit and the phone numbers for a large and diverse group of kickboxing, BJJ and MMA enthusiasts, in case of any such shenanigans. Reasonable trades for a Bandit include: An unrepairable pedal bike Chewed Gum A punch in the dick Old newspapers The Herp
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# ? Jun 18, 2012 07:40 |
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Until you've made every mistake imaginable and can understand the limits of the motorcycle you're on, you can't really make any judgment on a bike's capabilities. Bandits are excellent bikes and handle pretty well with suspension upgrades.
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# ? Jun 18, 2012 07:43 |
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Xovaan posted:Until you've made every mistake imaginable and can understand the limits of the motorcycle you're on, you can't really make any judgment on a bike's capabilities. Bandits are excellent bikes and handle pretty well with suspension upgrades. I am currently being forced to ride a Bandit. Therefore I can have an opinion on it.
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# ? Jun 18, 2012 07:55 |
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mootmoot posted:I am currently being forced to ride a Bandit. Hurry up and get your gaytona back, I have money riding on how long it takes you to dump it again.
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# ? Jun 18, 2012 07:58 |
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Raven457 posted:Hurry up and get your gaytona back, I have money riding on how long it takes you to dump it again. Written off brah. With personal injury claim monies going on I'm going to get something with more grunt. They don't make 675Rs in red yet so it'll be an upgrade.
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# ? Jun 18, 2012 08:06 |
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mootmoot posted:Written off brah. With personal injury claim monies going on I'm going to get something with more grunt. They don't make 675Rs in red yet so it'll be an upgrade. That's the ticket. More grunt should definitely help keep you upright in the future. Gyroscopic effect and all that. Gyroscopic effect is a lie
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# ? Jun 18, 2012 10:43 |
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Mootmoot, I feel like backpanther/abunchofnumbers's post history would be good for you to read.
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# ? Jun 18, 2012 15:11 |
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I'd rather if he just maimed himself. It would save him a lot of tedious reading.
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# ? Jun 18, 2012 15:38 |
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Picking up a heavier bike after he lowsides it certainly will result in more grunt
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# ? Jun 18, 2012 17:11 |
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I thought I'd contribute as I've been riding on my own for a whole week now! I was riding down the aptly named Cemetery Road (from top to bottom on this road). I made the left turn fine, and as I switched over for the right turn I thought it would be a good idea to add more throttle (about where the van is) and it basically went downhill from there, the bike started to run wide, I grabbed too much brake and locked the front. Fortunately I remembered to release it and re-apply more gently so I didn't drop the bike, just coasted to a halt next to the curb. Lessons learned; - Don't add throttle before the corner. - Practice trail breaking as opposed to "Oh gently caress!" breaking. - Stop assuming I can drive round corners on the bike just as well as I can in the car!
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# ? Jun 19, 2012 14:49 |
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Just don't get hard on the gas on the way into a decreasing radius corner. Back brake also good for tightening your line without upsetting the front end. ReformedNiceGuy posted:I thought I'd contribute as I've been riding on my own for a whole week now! I was riding down the aptly named Cemetery Road (from top to bottom on this road).
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# ? Jun 20, 2012 11:18 |
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mootmoot posted:Written off brah. With personal injury claim monies going on I'm going to get something with more grunt. They don't make 675Rs in red yet so it'll be an upgrade. You have no sense of self-preservation do you? I think you're funny and all but you are seriously bad at motorcycles and you're going to die pretty soon. Get your rear end to a racetrack and learn something before you gently caress up for the last time. aventari fucked around with this message at 23:18 on Jun 20, 2012 |
# ? Jun 20, 2012 23:15 |
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ReformedNiceGuy posted:Lessons learned; Don't complicate it, it sounds like you lost control of the situation and weren't sure what the bike's attitude should be to safely navigate the curve. I guarantee you that you could have made the corner if you knew what was going on and how to react to it. Bikes are so much more capable than even a reasonably "fast" rider can make them do. We just need to get out of their way and not do stupid poo poo like run them wide or lock the brakes. I'd recommend focusing on predictability rather than any particular throttle/braking pattern. Begin with a path that you know you're comfortable taking through the whole curve, factoring in whatever it may do out of sight. Then crank it up a little bit each time you go around. Not sure what you ride, but the trouble with fast bikes is that they shoot people so far past the envelope of predictability with the least throttle input that people become superstitious about what to touch when--and that's really beside the point. You need to look, feel, and listen and be able to react naturally. Allow yourself time and space to learn.
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# ? Jun 21, 2012 01:06 |
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iwentdoodie posted:Hit a rabbit doing 65 today. I thought I was going to loving die. I also immediately felt terrible (I hunt but somehow hitting stuff makes me feel bad.) I had critter problems when I was doing my tour in Vietnam and Laos; not so much wildlife as farm animals left to their own devices. I built up mental dossiers: Chicken: Will decide it needs to beat you across the road at the last possible second with depressing regularity. After the first 3 days I quit bothering to swerve or emergency brake for the crazy fuckers, never hit one although I might have gotten some tailfeathers once. Pig: Probably the most dangerous; can be as mercurial as a chicken, but big enough to ruin your day. Watch out. Water Buffalo: Will wreck your poo poo if you hit one (and further wreck your wallet if you have to pay a farmer for hurting one enough that it has to be put down). Fortunately, slow and pretty predictable. I guess the closest call I had was when I came around a blind corner and some idiot had tied his water buffalo to a post on the left side of the road, with enough rope to stretch across the right side of the road. The buffalo had decided the grass was greener on the other side and stretched its rope completely across the road, in midair. There was no way to stop in time but fortunately the rope was just low enough (and not completely taut) to go under my tire as I rolled to a stop, although if it had been a car going at speed it might have torn out its nose ring
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# ? Jun 21, 2012 06:44 |
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Don't know if this counts as a crash but a guy edged out into traffic and then backed up into my WRX, pinching my tire to the road with his bumper and bending my front fender. He's apologized and drove off with a little cup-shaped dent in his car while my fender returned to it's original position.
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# ? Jun 21, 2012 22:20 |
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Gnaghi posted:Don't know if this counts as a crash but a guy edged out into traffic and then backed up into my WRX You were riding a WRX Must be awkward to throw a leg over
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# ? Jun 22, 2012 01:48 |
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aventari posted:You were riding a WRX You should see that thing wheelie though.
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# ? Jun 22, 2012 14:03 |
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Had a little one today, riding down a street near my house with my mind on other things and a little Honda Civic decided to do a U-turn in front of me. Forced me to do a little emergency braking but that's no biggie - been practicing endos / stoppies lately so could have gotten on the brake much harder. Lessons i learnt are to a) not ride down that street so quickly (was about 10-15 km over the limit. B) pay attention in areas i know people are constantly parking.
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# ? Jun 26, 2012 00:31 |
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I was wondering when I'd do something stupid with my new bike... I was coming up to a stop light today on my way to work (so of course this means I spent the first half of my shift trying to unclench my butt cheeks), and the light turned yellow. I had just enough room to brake, and noticed there was a cop car stopped at the other side of the intersection. I started braking kind of hard, and hit oil. My bike went all over the loving place, and I reacted by grabbing a big old handful of brake because ohmygod!brain thought avoiding a ticket was the most important thing here. I somehow kept the bike upright, and stopped right before the pedestrian crossing area. I braked so hard my bike shut off. And then, since I was kind of stunned and freaked out, I forgot that I hadn't kicked my bike back down into 1st yet, and tried to get going in 3rd. GO ME. Plan: More emergency brake practice so I don't react to problems with fist full of brake. And obviously could have been avoided if I'd noticed the oil; I had room next to me to get into the other lane. modify_evolution fucked around with this message at 06:01 on Jun 27, 2012 |
# ? Jun 27, 2012 05:53 |
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modify_evolution posted:I braked so hard my bike shut off. You mean you forgot to clutch in? However, there was nothing broken or hurt so that's a successful manoeuvre in my book! Freaking out when doing an emergency anything is because you haven't practised the act enough to commit it to muscle memory. Or at least brain memory. I'm not a saint in that regard and I should do them too, but that's the answer to your question. And better awareness but that's not something you can really train for. That's a mixture of close calls, butt-in-seat hours and a healthy dose of adult decision making.
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# ? Jun 27, 2012 08:55 |
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This one happened to me a couple of months back when I was ferrying my mate's new-to-him CB400 over to his place (he was not yet licensed for it), I forgot to post the video. Nothing too dramatic, just the usual poo poo, a driver not being aware of a motorcyclist's presence, and not making any special effort to check for one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DdP7SHaWOU&hd=1 In hindsight, that's a popular pie joint coming up on the left, and I should have seen the car ahead stopping and anticipated that the guy behind him may get impatient and try to go around, even though it looked like he was going to stop. Here4DaGangBang fucked around with this message at 16:09 on Jun 27, 2012 |
# ? Jun 27, 2012 16:05 |
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KARMA! posted:You mean you forgot to clutch in? It's entirely possible my hand slipped off or something and I didn't notice. Because once I was actually at a stop, both hands had death grips on the clutch/brake, and my bike was off. With normal braking, I've definitely got the clutch part down, and since this started off as a normal stop, I'd assume I was fine at that point.
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# ? Jun 27, 2012 16:57 |
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Well I just the most embarrassing laydown yesterday. I was getting some final practice on the evasion course part of the swedish driving test. I'm waiting for my turn to drive about 100 meters down the course with the bike in neutral and my right foot down. For whatever reason I decide to switch my weight to the left foot, and as I do I accidentally nudge the gear lever, which causes the bike to jump forward before stalling and slowly tipping over.
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# ? Jun 27, 2012 17:28 |
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Here4DaGangBang posted:This one happened to me a couple of months back when I was ferrying my mate's new-to-him CB400 over to his place (he was not yet licensed for it), I forgot to post the video. Nothing too dramatic, just the usual poo poo, a driver not being aware of a motorcyclist's presence, and not making any special effort to check for one: This is a great example of where it's much better to use the brakes then it is to use the throttle.
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# ? Jun 27, 2012 17:53 |
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Collateral Damage posted:Well I just the most embarrassing laydown yesterday. I was getting some final practice on the evasion course part of the swedish driving test. I'm waiting for my turn to drive about 100 meters down the course with the bike in neutral and my right foot down. For whatever reason I decide to switch my weight to the left foot, and as I do I accidentally nudge the gear lever, which causes the bike to jump forward before stalling and slowly tipping over. Did you emit a strangled cry as you slowly toppled to the ground?
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# ? Jun 27, 2012 19:44 |
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Here4DaGangBang posted:This one happened to me a couple of months back when I was ferrying my mate's new-to-him CB400 over to his place (he was not yet licensed for it), I forgot to post the video. Nothing too dramatic, just the usual poo poo, a driver not being aware of a motorcyclist's presence, and not making any special effort to check for one: I always come across as hoiler-than-though with videos like this, and I assure you it's not actually intended; but, that black car was obviously slowing down, at which point you stayed in the White cars blind spot. You should always aim to avoid blind-spots, fuckit tug the throttle a little over the speed limit or sit back till you can see the driver in their mirrors. You always, always want to avoid sitting where you're not seen/expected. The car moved over slowly enough for you to avoid any problems, but if s/he swung into your lane, you would have been positioned awfully for the situation.
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# ? Jun 27, 2012 20:47 |
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Here4DaGangBang posted:This one happened to me a couple of months back when I was ferrying my mate's new-to-him CB400 over to his place (he was not yet licensed for it), I forgot to post the video. Nothing too dramatic, just the usual poo poo, a driver not being aware of a motorcyclist's presence, and not making any special effort to check for one: I've gotten so used to that poo poo by Sydney drivers now that its almost an instinctive reaction to start covering the brake and looking for a place to run off when i see cars start to slow in the other lane. Actually had one the other week, coming along the road to work and there's a car turning right ahead. Bimbo in pajamas and on the phone in her SS Sportwagon obviously isn't going to see it so i wasn't too surprised when she merged completely into my lane without slowing. Id given myself a little extra room and was prepared for it when it happened so no biggie but i still gave her a blast of the horn and a little single finger salute to let her know what a dumbass she was.
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# ? Jun 28, 2012 00:55 |
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_Dav posted:I always come across as hoiler-than-though with videos like this, and I assure you it's not actually intended; but, that black car was obviously slowing down, at which point you stayed in the White cars blind spot. You should always aim to avoid blind-spots, fuckit tug the throttle a little over the speed limit or sit back till you can see the driver in their mirrors. You always, always want to avoid sitting where you're not seen/expected. The car moved over slowly enough for you to avoid any problems, but if s/he swung into your lane, you would have been positioned awfully for the situation. Yeah, I get that. As I said, I should have seen the car ahead slowing down and made preparations accordingly - I would say that I wasn't sitting in that white car's blind spot so much as passing through it at a very bad time. It's academic when the poo poo hits the fan and you're in the wrong place, of course. Aargh posted:I've gotten so used to that poo poo by Sydney drivers now that its almost an instinctive reaction to start covering the brake and looking for a place to run off when i see cars start to slow in the other lane. Yeah, this was my first time riding in a couple of months so my fuckwitdar and general observational skills would have been a bit rusty. Hoping as I get some more kms on the bike (after getting some warmer gloves, jesus) I'll be much more eagle-eyed.
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# ? Jun 28, 2012 14:45 |
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Here4DaGangBang posted:(after getting some warmer gloves, jesus) I'll be much more eagle-eyed. I've discovered silk liners definitely make summer gloves better for the chilly mornings.
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# ? Jun 29, 2012 00:29 |
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Aargh posted:I've discovered silk liners definitely make summer gloves better for the chilly mornings. Awesome, thanks for the tip. Went liking for something to combine with my gloves last night but had pretty much resigned myself to buying winter gloves. Where did you get your liners?
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# ? Jun 29, 2012 01:52 |
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Had a lay-er-down recently, completely stupid and completely my fault. We have an electric gate at my complex which has a raised pavement before it. I pulled up and angled it wrong, put my foot out to stabilise the bike and met empty air where I expected pavement. I imagine I could have saved it if it hadn't been so completely unexpected, and my crash bobbin got the brunt of the damage. Stupid, but lesson learned I suppose - pay more attention to what may or may not be underfoot when stopping!
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# ? Jun 29, 2012 10:05 |
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# ? May 16, 2024 05:03 |
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Here4DaGangBang posted:Awesome, thanks for the tip. Went liking for something to combine with my gloves last night but had pretty much resigned myself to buying winter gloves. Where did you get your liners? I have these http://www.motorcyclegear.com/street/gloves/glove_liners/tour_master/silk_motorcycle_glove_liners.html and they are so much better than bulky, unwieldy winter gloves. They help against the cold a lot more than you would think by looking at them.
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# ? Jun 29, 2012 20:12 |