Old Steve had an off

[neels]

I've almost had the same accident, had a van turn right in front of me and block most of my lane, and the distance meant braking was not an option. Sounds like the difference was ground clearance of the bike that meant I could change direction, and pulled up on the roadside with mrs on the back having a badly bruised ankle from collecting the bumper.

Hopefully you have witnesses, from my experience it sounds like a possible careless driving causing injury and failing to stop and ascertain injury. Just because there was no contact doesn't mean they didn't fuck up.

[mossy1200]

I am the second person who felt the type of bike which may have been a cruiser was a contributing factor.

I know my cruiser could not dodge anything. It can barely go around a planed corner without trying dig something into the ground.

[WristTwister]

I've yet to see anything more than a road sign to raise driver awareness of bikers in NZ.

[swbarnett]

That is true. Which reminds me that I should invest in some. But even if you ride faultless and all that there's always going to be a dumb ass who'll think of some creative way to fuck you up. So I'd like to cover my ass with evidenceof them being in the wrong.

I understand the sentiment but have never felt the need to "cover myself". I prefer to concentrate on taking responsibility for my own safety (and that of those around me at times). I ride with the attitude that ALL crashes are avoidable. I know that this is not absolutely true but find that riding with that attitude vastly increases my alertness and ability to forsee a bad situation developing.

[jafagsx250]

I understand the sentiment but have never felt the need to "cover myself". I prefer to concentrate on taking responsibility for my own safety (and that of those around me at times). I ride with the attitude that ALL crashes are avoidable. I know that this is not absolutely true but find that riding with that attitude vastly increases my alertness and ability to forsee a bad situation developing.

That is a good attitude to take. A lot of the near misses I've has have been partially or wholly my fault. Nearly all of the time if I'd done something slightly different I reckon they'd have never gave happened.

[Berries]

We only have T1 lanes in Dunners but my view of T3 lanes is they are for vehicles with three or more passengers, so car and buses etc. Forget the legalities or not about motorbikes using them it is what the car drivers expect in that lane.

When turning through stationary traffic I will take extra care for my own safety. If on four wheels I will think about bikes because I ride and because this is such a common crash type. You can be doing everything legal using a bus lane or T2/3 lane happily riding passed stationary traffic, chuckling to yourself about all the idiot cagers but someone will leave a gap or someone will change lanes quickly and if you aren't switched on you are fucked.

Cars can only turn through gaps that are there, gaps that are visible if you are looking. You'd be amazed how many riders get bowled overtaking stationary traffic on flush medians for the same reasons.

Finally, taxi drivers may all be cunts, like truck drivers, but they don't want to get involved in an incident because time is money for them.

[OddDuck]

Sorry to hear about your off, Steve... hope the recovery goes well and you're riding again soon.

+1 on practice.

For years I've been riding with the assumption that they're not actively hostile, it's just that they have no idea that I'm there... it's served me well more times than I can remember. Keeping sight lines open and clearances wide has worked too.

[pritch]

We only have T1 lanes in Dunners but my view of T3 lanes is they are for vehicles with three or more passengers, so car and buses etc. Forget the legalities or not about motorbikes using them it is what the car drivers expect in that lane.

I didn't even know what a T3 lane was so I had to look it up. I see I'm not the only one who is not clear on the concept.

Condolences to the OP, shoulders can be seriously painful. The suggestion re training courses was a good one. In an emergency situation we get about 1/3 of a second to decide what to do. Better to be searching recent memory than trying to remember back to 1959 or whenever.

[Luckylegs]

...trying to remember back to 1959 or whenever.

It was the summer, Summer of 69

Bryan Adams said so

[Old Steve]

Think I should give an update:

I thought I was a cautious rider, and knew the limitations of my cruiser. I will be even more cautious in future.

Training; I am a firm believer in training. I have done the RideSafe (Prorider) Silver course, and was lucky to have onlt five riders doing it that day so we got pretty one-on-one instruction. Earlier I had done a course with Ian Templeton of Wellington (?). I have also done course on Urban riding sponsored by Auckland Transport and ACC. I also do the 'happy biker weave' whenever I can, not in any way for the fun of it, but to strengthen the reflexes that you have to countersteer to get out of trouble.

Conditions: Road was dry, lane ahead was perfectly clear, the last vehicle in the stopped traffic (the other side to me of the 'keepclear' gap) was an SUV and the first vehicle in the lane after the 'keepclear' gap was another SUV. I think that affected the vision of both the taxi and myself -a Prius isn'yt the tallest of cars. However, witnesses said the taxi was coming up at quite a speed and just swerved through the gap and into the clear inside T3 lane.

The incident: I had eased off the throttle approaching the intersection as there were cars queued waiting out come out from my left as well, I don't think my attention was focused on them but they could have been a distraction. I was doing probably 40 to 45 km/hr, I wasn't hooning down the T3 lane, but the Prius appeared so suddenly - it was just there and my immediate reaction was to brake. Everything seemed in slow motion, I realised that if I continued I would go into the side of the taxi so let go of the brake and countersteered to go around the front of the taxi to the left. I remember thinking that I wouldn't actually turn left into the side road because I'd most probably end up T-boning one of the cars waiting to come out of the intersection. Yes, the type of bike probably contributed to my inability to remain upright, But I thought I rode according to the type of bike I had. I had the feeling of being lifted as I was heeled over, I thought I was going to high-side but went down on my left hand side and distinctly recall getting punched in the ribs by my left hand grip. Both the bike and I crossed in front of the taxi, albeit both of us sliding on the road as I'd parted company from the bike.

The bike has sliding damage on the left hand side of the headlight surround, broken clutch lever, ripped saddlebags and smashed top box, all on the left hand side from a low side fall. Holeshot Suzuki picked it up and have the insurance repairs underway - I've asked them to leave the small graze on the LH heated grip endcap as a reminder that I should be more alert.

I was sliding on my left front side, head forward. My helmet has grazes on the left side of the visor and left side of the chin piece, my jacket's left elbow is grazed, the left knee of my pants is worn through, the leather on the left toe of my boots is worn through and the steel cap has wear marks on it. Then my right shoulder hit the gutter on the other side of the intersection, I was rolled over on to my back and came to rest on the grass strip. Damage to me is a posterior dislocation of the right shoulder, where the ball comes out and rises up behind the socket - this is unbelievably painful, especially if you have to wait 6 hours after you've last eaten to go into theatre so you can have an general anaesthetic. Bruised LH ribs, and deep bruises now coming out in places that I never realised I had places. So I'm pretty lucky.

What have I learned: I've said that we should always have a plan B, in this case I didn't and mine had to be developed at the last minute and didn't work. I might have made it if I'd had a plan that I'd go left around the front of a car if one came out of the gap in the traffic right from the start. Slow even more where there are gaps in traffic. Don't assume other motorists will do the right thing like making sure a lane is clear. I'll definitely be slowing more before intersections, I had slowed down from about 55 to 45 but this wasn't enough - however we can't come to a complete stop at every corner or gap in the traffic so there's always going to be risk involved riding a bike. And I'll remember that you can't see everything, this taxi really did seem to come out of nowhere, low vehicle shielded by an SUV - just as I was shielded from the taxi driver's view by another SUV.

I'm a committed ATGATT wearer and I thought I was riding to the conditions and the surrounding, I was wearing a fluoro hi-viz vest and might try and get a fluoro yellow helmet to replace this one. But to everybody, wear All The Gear All the Time, as they say dress for the slide not for the ride.

Thanks for the best wishes, and for all the comments made on the post - none of them are inappropriate, all raise some area of our riding that should be evaluated.

Old (and sore) Steve

[Big Dog]

Excellent post.

Sent from Tapatalk. DYAC

[aws]

I understand how easy it is for this kind of incident to happen. I had one myself on the Mt Eden Road bus lane one morning that was eerily similar, albeit with a rather different outcome. I'll admit that I was a bit too comfortable in the bus lane and probably wasn't as aware of this particular hazard as I should have been. I'm certainly aware of it now! My view of the opposing traffic was blocked by a large truck that was parked at the head of the line before the gap in the traffic. The car must have seen the gap and assumed it was OK to go, but wouldn't have been able to see me until they were fully in the gap. As the car appeared I was hard on the ABS and getting ready to jump thinking "this is going to leave a scratch". I think what saved my bacon was the truck driver must have seen me in his mirrors and waved out to the driver, because while he entered my lane at speed, he did manage to stop only half blocking my lane - just enough that I was able to let go and get around the front of him. Heart raced a bit after that one, and I'm not going to forget it in a hurry. Bus lanes really do call for an extra dose of caution!

I actually think that the current trend for placing bus and cycle lanes against the kerb has opened up a whole new hazard that car drivers haven't caught up with yet. Cycle lanes I think are particularly hazardous when they cross an intersection. I just don't think drivers are expecting there to be a free-flowing lane there behind a line of parked traffic. We have a cycle lane down the north side of Cartlon Gore Rd in Newmarket and I'm dreading the day when a cyclist coming down the hill at speed gets collected by a car trying to turn right (or particularly left) into the Domain or George St.

[pritch]

I think you're being a bit hard on yourself. Your Plan A would likely have ended in you T Boning the taxi. You avoided the trap of target fixation and went for plan B.
OK it didn't result in a complete escape, but it's probably preferable to centre punching a Prius.

[jasonu]

I'm struggling to figure out how some of you are automatically placing the blame on the taxi driver.

It's because taxi drivers are and have always been a bunch of cunts. Prolly a stinky curry muncher or doon coon too.

[5ive]

I believe the chances of avoiding the crash would have been far greater if you had been riding a taller bike for the simple reason they give you better perifial vision. If you are tall enough demo an adventure bike and ride exactly the same route and if you feel instantly safer you will know the problem is with your bike. No need to put any more money into further riding school training then. I have demoed a crusier myself and was well aware the lower ground clearance could present a danger but they do have a neat look about them though.