Agreed. I won't pass until there's room to completely clear the vehicle in the right lane, unless your hung up in traffic of course. In fact I tend to wander when I pass certain vehicles. For instance when passing large trucks, or smaller trucks with loose or questionable loads, I will move to the left part of the fast lane to give myself that much more of a safety cushion. Now I have had someone pull over into my lane while riding my nighthawk, but not on the Harley. And yes, I do believe there's some truth to the loud pipes theory. But it's just like people, you can't count on anything except that your going to see people do things that range from normal, expected and polite, to outrageous, unexpected and maniacal.
Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone -------- Original message -------- From: Kyle Munz <kyle...@gmail.com> Date: 8/17/16 11:49 AM (GMT-05:00) To: nighthawk_lovers@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: [Nighthawk Lovers] Re: It took less than two weeks... I agree about not riding in a car's blindspot, and the fallacy of the "loud pipes save lives" theory. And while I take the "everyone is trying to kill me" approach, I don't have an "us vs them" mentality since I still spend the majority of my time in a cage rather than on a bike. The difference I try to make with that statement is to be a bit more proactive regarding other vehicles. Don't ride into their strike zone and think "Oh, he may not see me here I should move." Instead, with each vehicle identify their possible strike zones and stay out of them if possible, if not plan to spend as little time as possible in them. -Kyle On Wed, Aug 17, 2016 at 10:19 AM, Kurt Nolte <vturbine.po...@gmail.com> wrote: Staying constantly alert and riding defensively is always good advice, but I personally detest the phrase "ride like everyone is out to kill you." I've seen far, far too many people turn that into "I'm on a bike, everyone is out to kill me" and becomes very bitter about "cages" and "cagers." It's only a very short step from that into open antagonism. I much prefer "ride like you're invisible" or "ride like nobody can see you." Same effect, less "us versus them" personal antagonism. Another important question to ask: CAN they see me? The number of riders who hang out in that driver's side rear corner blind spot is frustrating. No wonder they think they need loud equipment to be "safe," they're fobbing their safety off on someone else because they can't be arsed to ride like a sane person! Kurt On Aug 17, 2016 11:04 AM, "Dan Cook" <drylightn...@gmail.com> wrote: I can definitely sense that countersteering will be second nature at some point. When I was riding recently I was in a curve *exactly* like the one I went down in, and I had the exact same brief panicked feeling I did when I crashed, but knew what to do and it was no problem. It rained the day before I was out on the road this weekend and there were several spots with dirt/sand on the road. That was scary. I read this on a website about motorcycle safety and found it very interesting. Seems like good advice. 3. Play a mental game where you imagine everyone is trying to kill you and make it look like an accident. For example, if this person suddenly darted out into traffic, could I stop in time? If this person swerved to avoid a dog, would they hit me? If I had to slam on my brakes right now, could I stop without dropping the bike? If these cars go here, do I have more than one way out? If this guy got brake checked and then slammed on his brakes how would I survive behind him? If this person made a left turn right now into my path, could I avoid it. If that kid suddenly ran into the street. etc... you get the idea. You must stay 100% alert, always. On Wed, Aug 17, 2016 at 10:33 AM, Kyle Munz <kyle...@gmail.com> wrote: There is a lot to think about, but things like countersteer shouldn't be one of them. The more you practice it the more it just happens without thinking. The main thing to think about while riding is how exactly every single other driver on the road is planning to kill you. MSF teaches you to pretend the driver can't see you, which is wrong. You should always assume that they can see you, and are only pretending that haven't yet to lure you into complacency and into their alleged "blind spot" where they will POUNCE. It can get tiring but every car I pass I'm constantly thinking of what sneaky move they're going to pull to run me off the road. -Kyle On Wed, Aug 17, 2016 at 9:22 AM, Dan Cook <drylightn...@gmail.com> wrote: This thread has been immensely helpful to me as I get back on the "horse." There is so much to think about when riding. I'm still getting used to that, and perhaps always will be. This weekend I spent some time in an industrial park riding in circles and it was extremely enjoyable. I told my wife I was going to ride to work today (20 mile commute, mostly country roads) and she said she thought I should do some more "short rides" before I take the bike to work. Considering that my accident was on the way home from work, I think she may be onto something. My car is parked outside... Wife does not like this new hobby, so I have to give sometimes. On Tue, Aug 16, 2016 at 12:42 PM, <mark.wf...@gmail.com> wrote: I like where this discussion has gone. It also proved a helpful little seed in the back of my mind recently. I've been riding for a pretty long time now.I'm old, experienced and capable of some occasional cocky behavior, leading some to believe that I am accomplished. But there is always something that will help you recall what scary feels like, how precarious two-wheeled travel really is. They are patching roads around here, and sometimes they decide they will fill a gap between old road surface and patch with a little strip of tar. NOW they have decided to dribble some coarse sand over the top of these lines of tar. This makes them look like the older hardened patches, but they are not. On a hot day they are little road traps waiting for motorcycles. I was on one of our local two-lane curves, laid over the appropriate amount and hit one of these lines. Like a banana peel, that crust on top of the tar slid right out from under my front tire. It catches you so very off-guard and shoots adrenaline everywhere. The normal response, in that split-second of panic, is to come off the throttle, come out of the turn/lean which will take you into oncoming traffic, or off the road, depending on which direction you are turning at the time. Fortunately there was no oncoming traffic, it was a curve right. It is right after this that I needed the reminder of this whole thread lurking in my mind. In the next split second, still in panic mode now because I am going into the other lane, I had to tell myself to stop reacting and continue to counter steer to re-align myself and get out of the path of oncoming. I am very confident with the application of, and even the mechanics explaining counter steering. However, I am not so experienced that I can handle all of those "hitting a banana peel" moments as though they are routine. I'm not sure I really want to get that experienced at it either. This thread is timeless. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to nighthawk_lovers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to nighthawk_lovers@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/nighthawk_lovers. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to nighthawk_lovers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to nighthawk_lovers@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/nighthawk_lovers. 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