Frank, My motorcycle winter driving wasn't that bad since the bike was light and I was strong - feet for outriggers when coming home from work in the snow.
My near death experiences were on dry pavement in the spring. Idiot lady pulling out in front of traffic comes into the road from the right, sees me coming toward her and slams on the brakes so she stops square in front of me. (And she did have plenty of room to continue her left turn, right past and out of my lane.) Based on my previous 20 years of bicycle riding expertise, I did a skidding, tilting maneuver combined with releasing the brakes just before impact, letting the wheels grab while I was at the correct angle of turn and tilt and was snapped out of my lane into the adjacent lane missing her entirely. The guy behind me though I BOUNCED off her car the maneuver was so violent. Of course I had no idea such a maneuver was possible till after I'd done it. Then, halfway home from that encounter, another dipsey bad driver (I'm sorry to say) lady pulls into my lane in a lane change maneuver that pinches me off the road where there wasn't a good place to go off the road. I don't remember how I avoided that one. I guess maybe it was the defensive driving reflexes I developed from riding a motorcycle for a month through the traffic in Paris. You learn defensive driving there or die. Since then, in my several 4-wheeled vehicles, the only accidents I've had were when I was moving too slowly to evade impact from other dipsey people. (Except for the one time I fell asleep driving and was saved by having my seatbelt/shoulder harness on during those days before hardly anyone used such things.) Lucky, for sure! Ed
