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Yes - reflective road paint has tiny glass beads that are laid into it when it's painted. You can slip around walking on the extra that they spill on the road.
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Jun 9, 2014 12:53
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| # ? May 16, 2024 12:05 |
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Had a heart pounding moment on my way home from work today when a lady pulled out right in front of me from a cross street. I grabbed my brakes and locked up the rear wheel, but brought everything to a stop just in time for her to leisurely turn across my lane, right in front of me. I feel so loving stupid because I saw her, and she was looking right at me. I completely misread her behavior, figuring there was no way in hell she would pull out in front of me. So instead of being smart and easing off the throttle, I gunned it, only to be rewarded with a steel wall blocking my lane. The whole experience made me realize how corpulent the KLR's brakes are... I can't decide whether I want to bother with steel brake lines or whether it's just time to pick up a bike with, well, more pickup... why did you have to ruin me CA, why?? I was so happy with my KLR and you had to take that away from me 
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Jun 10, 2014 03:54
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OSU_Matthew posted:Had a heart pounding moment on my way home from work today when a lady pulled out right in front of me from a cross street. I grabbed my brakes and locked up the rear wheel, but brought everything to a stop just in time for her to leisurely turn across my lane, right in front of me. KLR brakes are pretty lovely. Stainless steel lines will help along with more aggressive pads, but when push comes to shove, a reasonably modern bike has waaaay more stop than the KLR.
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Jun 10, 2014 14:27
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OSU_Matthew posted:
She wasn't looking at you. She most likely didn't notice you. She was looking for cars and you didn't register in her brain as a thing that was a danger. (I'm glad you braked in time).
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Jun 10, 2014 17:07
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Do the weave and prepare to evade if there is a shadow of a doubt.
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Jun 11, 2014 00:06
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Well. That's about as close as I think I've ever come to crashing without actually committing the act. Went out for a blast on my lunch hour round my favourite short loop, I must have ridden this stretch of road hundred of times, and I think I got a little greedy with the throttle coming out of this corner. See the patch of mud on the left? I started to fixate on that when I realised I was going wide, wrenched my eyes back to the inside of the turn but the front clipped it. Had a horrible couple of seconds where the bike was basically on the divide between the tarmac and the grass with the front end snapping from side to side until it sorted itself out. I think the only reason I didn't come off is that when I felt the front end connect with the mud pile I kind of resigned myself to coming off and relaxed which gave the bike chance to sort itself out. Massively annoyed at myself, I've not been riding any where near as much as I usually do since my wife started working at the same place I do. I'm rusty and was pushing way too hard, letting the empty road and the sunshine lead me on. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
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Jul 10, 2014 13:50
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OSU_Matthew posted:Had a heart pounding moment on my way home from work today when a lady pulled out right in front of me from a cross street. I grabbed my brakes and locked up the rear wheel, but brought everything to a stop just in time for her to leisurely turn across my lane, right in front of me. Lesson about traffic: they're never thinking of the smart, decent thing to do. They're never out to protect other road users. They're all semi-retarded, phone-using, licenseless, blind and senile. One of my driving instructors taught me this, and it's the best advice on road awareness anyone's ever given me. If you think everyone else will gently caress up and do the wrong thing, you'll ride a lot more defensively and won't put yourself in those situations.
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Jul 17, 2014 01:59
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I recently had an encounter that was pretty scary, and I'm not sure what I could have done better (though I'm sure there's something). I was waiting to take an unprotected left hand turn across two lanes of traffic. I spotted a break, and went for it... but then a parallel parked car pulled out just as I started to go. Forcing me to stop in the middle of the intersection with 45mph traffic bearing down on me. Luckily, the guy stopped at the last second, allowing me to proceed. But how can I keep safe in this situation in the future? The car was the last car along the curb before the intersection, so scanning for turning tires/heads didn't work, and he didn't signal either.
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Jul 24, 2014 20:26
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Not much you could do about him pulling out, I wouldn't have stopped, either kept going and swerved around him or shoot over to the side of the road and wait for another break to pull onto the road.
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Jul 25, 2014 00:16
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I try to skip as many unprotected lefts as possible with both the bike and car. There's too many dumb things that can go wrong that wouldn't be an issue if you were at a light with an arrow plus they tend to take forever when traffic is busy. I tend to do the same with intersections that I need to go left. I'd rather go a block out of my way or to get a light or go right then do a safe U turn than try to squirt across three or four lanes of traffic to get where I need to be.
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Jul 25, 2014 04:55
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Thanks guys. Makes me miss southern California where it seems every left is protected (and only protected)!
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Jul 25, 2014 12:57
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Is an unprotected left a left turn w/out an arrow? If so, they're almost a majority around here.
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Jul 25, 2014 14:28
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Radbot posted:Thanks guys. Makes me miss southern California where it seems every left is protected (and only protected)! Really? My brief few weeks of driving in LA taught me that you had to ease into traffic and wait for the light to turn red before ever making a left turn. I didn't enjoy doing it in a car, and I would hate doing it on a biek. MoraleHazard posted:Is an unprotected left a left turn w/out an arrow? If so, they're almost a majority around here. Yes that's what they mean.
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Jul 26, 2014 05:32
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Protected lefts will have a turn arrow that goes red when the opposite direction gets a green. Unprotected lefts (which we've started getting here finally) flash you a yellow arrow so you can turn when it's clear instead of sitting.
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Jul 26, 2014 05:34
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I really like the flashing yellow arrow unprotected lefts. So many people just see green and think they can go regardless of oncoming traffic.
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Jul 26, 2014 14:19
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Yep, I'm a dummy. I was waiting in traffic on a curved road, and getting impatient I went to overtake the lot and ended up pulling out in front of another bike coming up behind. Normally I'm fine on this road to cut past the blockage from road works, I was in front of a bus and looked behind it > stopped because of another bus in the opposite lane coming > looked again > Pull out > *BEEEEEEP* The guy yelled at me to check my mirrors next time then took off, punched right in the confidence. I wasn't sure if he had medical insignia on his gear but he wasn't wearing Hi-vis, so I felt bloody awful and slowly pooted along home contemplating.
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Aug 8, 2014 19:08
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Whaling on my front brake today to test the feel, while going at a low speed on spotty road surface like an idiot. Front tire lost contact, handlebars flung to the side, but my arms were loose and I just let go of the lever and everything sorted itself out. Kinda anticlimactic really.
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Aug 12, 2014 02:15
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Two near misses today. First one was me going a few car lengths behind someone on a rural 55 MPH road. Road was sorta wet. They hit their brakes hard because the person in front of them brake checked them. I hit mine too but started to lock up the rear. I let off the rear brake as soon as I felt it thankfully. There was traffic in the opposing lane and there was no way I was gonna stop in time so I veered off to the 2 foot wide gravel shoulder to the right as I came to a stop slightly ahead of the rear bumper. Good reminder to keep your distance in the wet. Later on in the night I was on a two lane 40 MPH road. Car behind me was a good distance away. I flipped on my signal to go right and slowed down to make a right into a gas station. Just as I was about to lean over and turn I hear a loud screech and this loving car is right up on my rear end locking up his brakes. I signaled my turn early enough and braked slowly so I'm guess the driver was loving around on a phone or something. Glad he saw me in time.
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Aug 13, 2014 04:49
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Middle of the day, i'm on my bright blue Kawasaki wearing a bright red jacket and i'm on the freeway #1 lane cruisin along, as i'm going by a blue ford focus, the person in it decides to change lanes into my lane when I am right next to her. I am thinking WTF and laid on the horn for a solid 2 seconds as shes slowly coming over, she doesn't even look in my direction, and as I of course give way we are side by side and I am nearly on the shoulder with my horn still on looking at her thinking WTF, after she finished changing lanes I am just bewildered, she finally notices that theres a blue motorcycle next to her near the shoulder and I just said gently caress it and went past her with judicious use of the throttle. I mean I had plenty of room to avoid being hit but she was absolutely oblivious to the motorcycle near her driver door as she changed lanes?
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Aug 22, 2014 20:53
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infraboy posted:I mean I had plenty of room to avoid being hit but she was absolutely oblivious to the motorcycle near her driver door as she changed lanes?
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Aug 22, 2014 22:42
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I treat every driver as if they have less awareness than a stunned deaf cow. If you see someone doing dumb poo poo like that, you should lay on the horn but also simultaneously pull some kind of evasive/avoidance manouver - just reading that you beeped without doing anything while kinda passively being forced to the shoulder made my palms get sweaty. Muy malo, amigo. Never be passive on a bike.
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Aug 22, 2014 22:58
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Main problem with speeding up initially was that there was a car not far in front of me, otherwise I would have accelerated earlier.
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Aug 23, 2014 09:00
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Wooo, I almost ate it bad yesterday and it was my own stupid fault. I was riding in the mountains and got distracted by a cool building on the roadside. Looked forward to traffic having stopped in front of me to make a left and (probably) not enough time to brake. I managed to split between the car stopped in my lane and oncoming traffic, but it was still a stupid thing to do and a bad situation that I could have avoided by paying attention. I'll post video later today or tomorrow once I sort through all my footage from yesterday. So yeah, I'm a dummy.
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Sep 8, 2014 21:10
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I had a nice moment of rear end-puckering last night, entered a right turn, halfway through, happily committed to my line, I realised there was a fist-sized rock dead center of the line I had picked. I didn't even think to alter my line, just tightened my knees and felt the front lurch to the left and the bike give off a horrible sense of about-to-fall. Thankfully, I kept my throttle on and recovered with instant cramps in my everything. I definitely fixated, and probably could have changed my line without much drama. Things I think I did right was definitely not panicking (much) and gripping with my knees rather than my arms. The steering went uncomfortably weird as the rock bounced underneath my front tire, but if I had stiffened my arms, I get the feeling it would have caused a pretty immediate drop onto the bikes right side. I still have a mild twinge in my thighs from the cramping as a reminder about fixation.
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Sep 10, 2014 11:19
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Fist sized? You could have pretty much ignored that.
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Sep 15, 2014 11:33
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Backov posted:Fist sized? You could have pretty much ignored that. In retrospect, yeah, probably. In the moment though, with new bike nerves and thoughts of "ugh! my farings! FARINGGS!" running through my head, it looked a whole lot bigger than it was.
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Sep 15, 2014 14:12
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Had some close calls between Seattle and Reno. Near Kamiah ID in some great twisties: I missed a deer by inches. One second I'm looking down the shoulders for deer, the next second there's a deer in front of me way closer than where I was looking. I lost sight of its legs behind my instrument panel and could hear its hooves on the road. Got on the brakes pulled the rear wheel off the road for a moment. Close one. Near Virginia City NV: a horse decided to run across 5 lanes of highway between our group. Our sweep guy, Seņor, said he was more worried about the oncoming Sierra launching the stupid animal into his lap than avoiding the horse alone. Appropriately, we were on the Pony Express route at the time. Near Elko NV: some crazy overeducated Californian in a Fit on Seņor's butt decided to pull out and pass IN FRONT OF A SEMI THAT WAS TRYING TO PASS. She almost got creamed, I watched that unfold in my rear view. Then she passed us all, half in our lane, half in the empty-for-miles oncoming. We lectured her about being stupid at the next gas stop. I don't think she learned anything though. She might not get people so polite and level headed next time she tries something like that. South of Bend on US97 (worst stretch of road in existence, it is constant chaos): Oncoming dude passed like 4 vehicles including a semi without even almost enough room. We had to hit the shoulder and stop to avoid being mowed through. The great part is if he'd had maybe 8 more seconds of patience or initiative, the road in front of and behind us was empty for miles. Between the five of us, that guy got six middle fingers. No actual incidents though, so that's good. clutchpuck fucked around with this message at 21:01 on Sep 29, 2014 |
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Sep 29, 2014 20:45
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clutchpuck posted:Had some close calls between Seattle and Reno. All the way to Reno? You know what you are. You're gonna be a star! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHlpWokiduk
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Sep 30, 2014 01:37
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Riding south on NH Rt. 107 last weekend in the middle of nowhere, came to an bumpy, uphill, slightly off-camber lefthander with only about 2ft of shoulder up against a rock face. Not sure where it came from, but this stretch of road was covered in moisture, like condensation or something. It might have been running down the rock face onto the road, I'm not sure. I started the turn but realized pretty quick that I'd overcooked the corner just a little bit considering the surface. I had no idea how slippery the condensation might be since it wasn't like a rain that would have washed any snot off the road, so I wasn't really confident about how much lean I could get away with, plus the road was frost heaved in the center of the lane. I didn't want to risk a lowside, so I stood the bike up and max braked in the right side of the lane until I burned off enough speed to almost come to a stop. I got about 3 feet from the wall before I was able to get the bike slowed enough to finish the corner. I really wanted to just push harder and trust in traction but I would have been pissed if I lowsided and busted off my shifter and clutch lever a hundred miles from home, or highsided myself into a stone wall.
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Oct 1, 2014 04:00
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A friend let me store my bike inside of his apartment this past weekend so we could all compile into one car for a trip. To get my bike to the backdoor of his place, I had to ride across some damp grass. Gave it a little too much throttle and the rear end kicked out leaving a rather impressive skid mark. Laying it down would have sucked, considering that I'm currently trying to sell it 
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Oct 20, 2014 16:03
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This thread has been faltering so I'll put some dumb stuff in it. I like to play a game when I'm riding like an rear end in a top hat (I'm always playing) where if I see a "STOP AHEAD" sign I'll gun it until I get to the sign, then practice a bit of the old emergency braking. Almost ate poo poo when I locked the front up today. I can't remember what thread we were discussing panic stops and how much time you have to save a front lock but here's a nice little example. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8re2e44Ihg
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Nov 5, 2014 05:55
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If that were me, the video would have been on No Prisoners 2015 with me front flipping over the bars and getting run over by the truck
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Nov 5, 2014 06:44
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Razzled posted:If that were me, the video would have been on No Prisoners 2015 with me front flipping over the bars and getting run over by the truck If that were you it'd have stopped at 0:05 after you hit the mailboxes at 0:02 
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Nov 5, 2014 07:29
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You have a lot of time to save the front from tucking under braking when straight up and down... now when you add lean angle. yeah, poo poo disappears into thin air.
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Nov 5, 2014 07:30
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Had a self inflicted close call the other day while passing a slow moving truck going up a mountain pass road. The road comes around a bend to the right into a long straight with uphill passing allowed. As you come around the bend you can easily see if the oncoming traffic lane is clear. I had no oncoming vehicles all the way up the oncoming lane so I went for the pass and immediately realized I was headed on a track to possibly side swipe the guard rail on my left side of the road or eat it in the crushed gravel that resides on the shoulders of the road. I Eased off the gas but didn't brake, got the bike upright and going straight in time not to hit the rail. Went through the gravel, squirrelled the back tire a bit but powered through back into the oncoming lane, passed the truck, got back into my lane, shook my head and yelled at myself for being a complete and utter moron. So many things that could have gone wrong between hitting the rail, falling over in the gravel, an oncoming vehicle hitting me. I'm going through in my head what wrong. Off the top of my head, started to pass too early and the road was still slightly bending to the right. Gave it too much gas at the wrong time when I turned into the oncoming lane which sent me on a run wide path. Forgetting about the concave road shape. Letting off the gas? I can't confidently say that if I stayed on the gas I would have missed the shoulder. I wasn't happy about the idea of going into the gravel with any lean angle. But easing off the throttle probably made me run wider. Pretty sure I'll be having nightmares about this for a while and definitely have earned my boneheaded maneuver of the year award, but I feels better to vent. Arg...
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Nov 9, 2014 20:57
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Moving my motorcycle sideways so we can fit more cars into the narrow/short driveway. Oh god my back is thrown out, I look forward to a weekend of not being able to move.
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Nov 15, 2014 01:43
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I once threw my back out putting my helmet on so don't feel too bad.
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Nov 15, 2014 01:52
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I lift and move the back end of my FZ1 all the time with no issue when parking it along the side of my garage (gotta get it close enough to the wall so that I don't hit it with the car when coming or going in it) but once I made the mistake of trying to drag the rear end of the Goldwing away from the shelves it's parked in front of and nearly gave myself a hernia. Some bikes are harder than others to shove around. 
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Nov 15, 2014 04:11
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HotCanadianChick posted:I lift and move the back end of my FZ1 all the time with no issue when parking it along the side of my garage (gotta get it close enough to the wall so that I don't hit it with the car when coming or going in it) but once I made the mistake of trying to drag the rear end of the Goldwing away from the shelves it's parked in front of and nearly gave myself a hernia. Those little rails on the back are strong enough to shove the bike around? I'm always afraid I might break something if I tug on it while moving the bike. e: Unlike the DRZ where you just grab the subframe and lift.
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Nov 15, 2014 08:57
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| # ? May 16, 2024 12:05 |
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I pick up the rear end end of my cbr500r all the time with he pillion handles, no issue. Trying to keep the bike upright on an incline after slipping in gravel though, hooooly poo poo I thought I broke my back.
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Nov 15, 2014 09:10
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