Filtering and NASS saved my life this morning

[unstuck]

If you need a training day to teach you that you were in a dangerous situation, and you should fuck off, the only tool you need is a hammer to the forehead.

[Swoop]

Moral of this post - is that never underestimate training

If only the public servant's and the gubbinment would take on this stance. It is not just about "licencing" a driver/rider but fooken training them.

[SMOKEU]

I hope you gave the muppet a good hiding for not driving to the conditions.

[TheDemonLord]

I hope you gave the muppet a good hiding for not driving to the conditions.

I think the car that they rear-ended did a better job than I would have done....

[thehovel]

So this morning - riding along the Silverdale - Albany stretch of HW 1, Outside lane, weather is shitty so I am riding with the traffic at around 110 kph. Up ahead, I see a clump of red lights and so ease off the throttle a little as I am not sure what is happening, as I get a bit closer, its clear the traffic is stopped and that there has been an accident, so I start slowing down (I have plenty of room and plenty of grip, despite the shit weather) then all of a sudden I hear the lovely sound of rubber skidding on Tarmac, the car behind me has locked up and locked up hard. Very calmly - I look at my options, see the hard shoulder on the right side is free and as the sound gets louder I decide that I don't want to be the gooey meat in a Steel Cage sandwich.

I pull to the right and start to filter up the hard shoulder, as I do so I start thinking 'When the car behind me hits the car in front of me, I don't want to be hit by any debris or get clipped if the car gets shunted' so I give her a quick flick of the wrist and sure enough about a a quarter of a second later, I hear the car behind me slam into the car in front of me, I'm still rubber side down, I see the original accident so drop down a gear or too, think about stopping, but I can see other people are already helping and at this point the Adrenaline and realization of how close to serious injury/death I came kicks in and I decide that the clear motorway offers more in the way of protection as opposed to being a stationary target - so I head off leaving the destruction in my wake.

If it wasn't for my confidence filtering and some of the skills I learned at NASS, I truly believe I wouldn't have had the calm presence of mind to avoid the crash, I would have either panic braked, locked the front and slid into the car in front, just before being sandwiched by the car behind, or I would have stopped and been rear ended and thrown to god knows where.

Moral of this post - is that never underestimate training, the people who teach at the NASS are worth their weight in Gold, I am now a firm believer that Filtering can and does save lives (it sure as fuck saved mine) and that hazard identification and developing your Spidey sense is key to staying alive.

\m/

Good to here of experience without pain.

[R650R]

Good save, may not have heard it coming if it had ABS, check dem mirrors!

Good point.

[pritch]

Pat yourself on the back. Katman should be along shortly to congratulate you on your excellent situational awareness.

It bothers me to see the school kids on their scooters stopped right behind the car in front at the lights. If they hear skidding tyres there'll be SFA they can do about it.

[Dogboy900]

Well done.
It is nice to hear about an accident that didn't happen rather than one that ended badly.
And thanks for sharing hopefully it helps people think about their options in those situations and maybe consider some more training.
Cheers

[MarkH]

ABS kicks in after the tyres have locked.

Maybe so, but you still can't hear the tyres sliding.
On my bike I've tried braking very hard in the wet, I can't hear or feel any sign of lock-up.
Clearly ABS works fast enough to beat any of my senses.

[TheDemonLord]

Maybe so, but you still can't hear the tyres sliding.
On my bike I've tried braking very hard in the wet, I can't hear or feel any sign of lock-up.
Clearly ABS works fast enough to beat any of my senses.

In my (ex) cage - I could definitely hear and feel the ABS kick in - not sure how it would sound outside of the vehicle though....

[G4L4XY]

Buy a Go-pro and record it

[SVboy]

I dont get it-here is a rider describing a situation where awareness and training helped him avoid an accident...all things you advocate, and yet you go for a sarky putdown? Enlighten us?

[R650R]

So that's not Katman in the picture then ;p

Re ABS noise, drivers might hear the solenoid pulsing in a car but there's SFA/nil tyre skid noise. A perceptive ear might pick up the Doppler effect of a rapidly decelerating engine though.
The first time I ever properly engaged ABS was on a fully loaded Scania artice coming down a greasy offramp in the UK. Sound levels were suddenly very quiet, infact more noisier than anything would have been the sound of the seat cover being sucked up my arse as I approached a busy roundabout.

[caspernz]

Don't tell me I'm the only one who understands the Katman type of sarcasm? Ah ok, youz fellas all have broken bullshit detectors...

[Larksea]

I got in a similar situation

big lockup in front of me

in a fraction of a sec all these thoughts went through my mind.

can I stop in time? I think so yes
will the car behind me stop in time? not worth the risk and dont have the time to look and judge
room to the left for me to filter? yes enough room to filter but not change lanes
slow down and look for cars that want to change lanes.

was quite a good feeling getting through the first situation like that with all my bits intact!
it wasn't wet but people generally don't leave much following room. I always leave more room behind urban tractors because the obstruct the view of whats happening ahead