Why you don't split

[madboy]

The other day, driving the cage, I had an experience that made me realise just why I will die on a bike.

Sitting at a very busy roundabout, I checked my right, gave way to a car, checked my right again and a gap was just about open, checked left, clear, checked ahead, exit was clear, checked right, gap was there. So I accelerated into the intersection as I quickly checked left, ahead and when I swung my head back to the right... holy shit!!

A bright green Kwaka was a few metres off my driver's door going for the picks.

Who was at fault? Well me of course, I'd obviously not seen him and he was on my right. But where they hell did he come from? He wasn't turning, he'd come straight from my right. But I'd checked the right traffic before I set off and it was a bloody big line of cars, not enough space between them to fit a bike in the queue. So by elimination I figure he'd cruised up the side of the queue, seen a sportsbike sized gap and gone for it... obviously assuming the car driver had seen him, would realise he was going to blip out into the intersection with that power/weight thing and give way to him.

F***ing hate people who ride bikes like me... gonna get themselves killed one day.

[madmal64]

Bloody front pillars dont help in cars either! Feck a bike can easily be hidden by these little hunks of metal.
So... will it slow ya down or make you think twice about splitting coming up to roundabouts?

[Skyryder]

Yep know how you feel. Been many a bike I've never seen while riding.

Skyryder

[Motu]

I often get that - on the motorway I'm checking my mirrors before I decide to do a lane change...look back the other way and a bike cruises past my door - WTF did he come from?! Like going to step out of a dinghy and seeing a shark cruise past.Sometimes they just don't know how lucky they are....

[crazybigal]

rule of thumb i live by!

the car has not seen you!

[madboy]

So... will it slow ya down or make you think twice about splitting coming up to roundabouts?

Nope, falling off at 20k doesn't worry me. Wheelspinning while splitting in the wet at open road speeds (for the cars anyway) does...

[gamgee]

it's not just cages not seeing bikers tho, I'm noticing more and more farken dopey pedestrians just stepping out without looking properly, of course I fully expect this so am prepared, and just do a nice little swerve missing them comfortably, but close enough to scare them into checking properly next time

[Filterer]

So you neaarly had to say to the poor biker opps i didnt see you

I find the most dangerous time while splitting/filtering around the city is when you get to the front of the que just as the light goes green/gap opens up in the traffic. Either the traffic going in your direction hasn't seen you (which you can't expect) or that someone else also tries to hit the gap.

I don't know what you drive for a car but older men in their 911's or late model BMW/Audi/Merc that are waiting at intersections in reasonably busy times scare me. Unfortuanly they have good power/weight ratios and can also hit the gaps.

For most cars a bike can simply zip past but the higer power cars are definitly more then a match for a GN!

[Shadows]

Bloody front pillars dont help in cars either! Feck a bike can easily be hidden by these little hunks of metal.
So... will it slow ya down or make you think twice about splitting coming up to roundabouts?

Just as bad are those monsoon shields. One day I'll get around to tearing them off my car.
I have to bob my head back and forth several times looking in each direction before I'm sure I've seen all that there is to see when I'm coming up to an intersection, I certainly can't see fuck all by looking through them.

Anybody that sees me doing this must think I've cranked up the Sabbath or something

[Wasp]

it's not just cages not seeing bikers tho, I'm noticing more and more farken dopey pedestrians just stepping out without looking properly, of course I fully expect this so am prepared, and just do a nice little swerve missing them comfortably, but close enough to scare them into checking properly next time

agreed, i also do this.

[Patch]

Yeah its a bummer when you get a fright by another biker but we can only practise safe driving, if an idiot doesn't wish to do the same, well . . . we all know too well what happens.

I almost sandwiched an idiot on a bike last week. I (in my concrete truck) was in the middle lane, passing a Semi truck in the left lane. A slow car was ahead in my lane, so I changed to the right lane and upon my entry back into the middle lane, this idiot on a GSXR250?? or a CBR250?? split between us two truckies, scary thing tho, I was almost completely back in the lane, so there would have been fark all room down there.

Said idiot was wearing sneakers, jeans, t-shirt an no gloves, so hardly worthy of being called "a biker". Best bit was he got chased by a mufti-plod after performing that little stunt. Little fuker should count his lucky stars, as there is no way either truckie would have seen, let alone felt grinding a bike between them. Some people just have no fukin' clues.

[Quartida]

I think the problem is not so much 'why you don't split' but 'why you should split intelligently'.

Splitting coming up to a roundabout is a bit iffy really as it's a very intersectory place (yes, I know that's not a word) with lots of traffic trying to go different ways in a very small space of time and road.
Just as splitting between two trucks strikes me as a bit mad.

It's like anything really - there's a place and a time for it.

[skidMark]

hmmmmm i'm a good boy....tui?

i'm sure soon enough somebody off kb who was in thier cage will make a thread about me splitting past them....

[Deano]

Was the rider of the Kwaka riding to the conditions ?

May have been going a little quick perhaps, BUT,

The fact that he was able to stop in time may indicate that he was. (Riding to the conditions, being observant etc)

[quickbuck]

it's not just cages not seeing bikers tho, I'm noticing more and more farken dopey pedestrians just stepping out without looking properly, of course I fully expect this so am prepared, and just do a nice little swerve missing them comfortably, but close enough to scare them into checking properly next time

I know what you mean.
I was standing on the corner of Princes st and Waterloo Quadrant yesterday morning, and witnessed TWO idiots a couple of minutes apart who Didn't see the car or BUS who had the green light and had to stand on the anchors, and horn to stop running them over.

Obviously there is more chance of being run over by a bus than falling off your motorbike with idiots like these around.
It seems MP3 players make it impossible to see traffic signals anymore.

As for the splitting on the motorway (I'll tell you while I'm here), from the back of the van I was in, it looked Spooky!!
I lived in Auckland 5 years ago, and got quite good at splitting (if I do say so myself), but going back to the motorways, and seeing it from the other side, if made me a little nervous. I witnessed a Kawasaki (Yes, a green one... I wonder...?) perform a fantastic maneuver splitting between us and the car to the left, then looking behind and flicking across the lane in front of the car to continue to split the other lane.
Now, I realise this is done by many motorway riders many times a day, but seeing it being done from a Hi-ace van put a very different perspective on it.
Put it this was, I don't think I will be applying for jobs in Auckland any time soon. Call me Chicken, call me old, but I don't care, I'm really not into that anymore. Not even for fun.