Originally Posted by
Old Steve
I'm posting this so our newer riders, and maybe some of our older riders, will see the importance of a couple of safety actions.
Last night, about 6.00 pm, I was within a kilometre of home. I came to a right hand curve, maybe 40 km/hr or so, with a street off to the left right on the apex of the corner. It was well lit, there's a dairy and a takeaway on the corner. A car was coming from the opposite direction but it came through the corner before I entered it. There was a car stopped at the stop sign on the side street to the left.
Coming up to the corner I eased off the throttle, checked the car on the side street and kept an eye on it. There are corrugations on the corner out by the centre line so I was taking the curve in the middle of the lane. And bloody Nora, the car's front wheels started turning, it came out from the side street and I was already leaning for the right hand curve. I emergency braked, front and foot brake, got it absolutely right but that stood the bike upright and while I was stopping the bike I was now steering at a tangent to the curve, taking me closer to the car.
Luckily the driver saw me and braked too. I came to a halt with the car stopped about 600 mm to the left of my left handlebar. That's when I realised that my front wheel was overlapping the front of the car by about 1/4 of the front wheel diameter. If the car hadn't stopped I'd have hit it in the last foot or so of my braking. I sat there with my hand welded to the brake lever, and tasted bile in my mouth. That was close. The car backed out of the intersection and I clicked the bike into first gear and headed off.
So what did I learn?
1. DON'T RELAX! I was within a km of home, I know the road well, cars have always stopped on the side road before, and I watched the car. But there was more I could have done.
2. ALWAYS HAVE A PLAN B, a 'what if?" plan. While I was watching the car on the side street, I hadn't done my 'what if?' planning. I was almost home this was the last corner before the roundabout at our street and our driveway.
3. I made the wrong decision when I was forced to take avoiding action without my Plan B. If the car hadn't braked, by braking my bike would have hit the car wheel arch or driver's door, albeit in the last of its braking but enough so the forks would have folded and the bike would have been a write off. I would have come off at a somewhat slower speed, but I would have come off and maybe suffered some injury. I should have opened the throttle and countersteered to tighten up my path through the corner, the car wasn't moving very fast. I had space in my lane on my right, I even had space on the other side of the road as the car coming from the other direction had passed and there was nothing else coming. I would have pulled across in front of the car, steered back onto my side of the road, and disappeared down the road.
So I want to strongly emphasise those two points. Eternal vigilance, no matter if you're close to home, don't relax. And have your 'what if? plan in your mind for every moment you're on your bike.
I was lucky, I came so close to hitting the car if it continued into the intersection and having someone leaning over me and saying those fateful words, "Sorry Mate, I didn't see you."
Take care out there, don't relax and always have your Plan B.
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