Thank to the social conscience

[Donor]

The KB family is a rare, dysfunctional and close thing.

Lately, I have seen many tips, tricks and hints being given. The most prolific for a while was emergency braking.

Personally, after my handling cert, I hadn't given emergency braking much thought. (That whole 10ft tall and bulletproof newbie thing...)

But then, I thought what the hell, I had a new bike with awesome brakes, so while I'm learning how to brake properly, why not slide some emergency stopping practice in there to boot. And I'll tell you what, it bloody well paid off today!

Coming home Great South Rd this afternoon, I was nipping along at about 60kph through Manukau. I was approaching GSR/Redoubt Rd intersection, though probably a good 600-700 meters away, when I saw a guy pull out of the Finn McCools driveway on the left and turn right.

"Ah" I says to myself, "That's right, there's a sodding driveway there coming up on my left, and sometimes people leaving it do stupid things".

However traffic was such that I could see from about 200m that there was nothing waiting to either leave the driveway, or enter it for that matter.

"Bloody brilliant" I says to myself (Talking to myself is the best way to get anyone to understand me in person mostly...) and reached to give Rosey the throttle she was gagging for.

But I didn't. Weird feeling, and I maintained my now reduced speed (~50kph in a 70 zone) with a cage closing in behind me.

I got to about 20 meters from the drive.

SURPRISE!

Some numbnuts piece of retarded flung monkey dung SHOOTS left out of the drive, crossing into my lane (2nd lane, left hand one heading to Manurewa), sees me, and HITS THE BRAKES STOPPING IN FRONT OF ME!

I fair shit myself.

Went to reach for the clutch to down change rapidly, but suddenly Phil from Riderskills popped into my head, told me in a scary Irish drawl that he would haunt me til I was dead. So I grabbed a healthy dose of braking, felt the nose take a dive, and reacquainted myself with several deities whose names elude me except in times when I think I am going to be in need of a higher plain friend.

I stopped maybe 2 foot from this guys door.

I had a flash about various other retribution threads as well at this point, but opted for another approach. First of all, I screamed with my visor still down, that he was of questionable parentage, and suggested that his appearance was possibly not dissimilar to a female genitalia referred to in a vulgar state.

He proceeded to drive on and stop at the lights. So, I recommenced my ride, and found myself in the lane next to him.

I stopped about 3 foot from his window.

I leaned over toward his window.

I stared.

And I stared 'til the lights changed.

He took off like a cut cat. I took off very gingerly. And caught up to the sod at the next lights, where I leaned and stared again.

In fact, he suffered this for the next 3 sets of lights.

Finally, while going through Manurewa, he swerved all of a sudden, pulled over and ran into a shop. The call he was making after the first lights must have been the wife, probably wanted something from the travel agents he ran into...

So in summary.

Thanks to Phil for his most excellent teachings 4 months ago.

And thanks to the KB crew who selflessly share their life lessons, skills time an opinions, to keep dumb ass newbies like me, from making dumb ass mistakes more often than we need to.

Cheers.

[Drum]

Well done on keeping her upright. Your sphincter will recover with time.

[ravenfeeder]

MAkes a note to herself; DEFINITELY PRACTICE THOSE EMERGENCY BRAKING TECHNIQUES!!!!!

Excellent posting and story. Glad all had a happy ending - particularly the staring at the lights - maybe he will look next time.

[Chickadee]

Awesome technique at the lights, I dare say he had slightly brown trousers after you stalked him for 3 light sequences.

Glad to hear you practised braking and that it saved you and Rosey from eating tarmac.

Your 6th sense seems to be working well.

Take care bud
Chickadee

[Donor]

Awesome technique at the lights, I dare say he had slightly brown trousers after you stalked him for 3 light sequences.

Glad to hear you practised braking and that it saved you and Rosey from eating tarmac.

Your 6th sense seems to be working well.

Take care bud
Chickadee

I don't think it's as much 6th sense as a dash of common sense.

Every time I read about a bin, whether it be a major or a minor, it scares the hell out of me that one day, my turn will come to tell the story of how I came to grief, and that's a story I hope I never have to tell.

...personally I think he was probably more intimidated by the grumbly growl of the bike than he was of me...

[Disco Dan]

No-one can hear a flipping thing your saying with the visor down... in fact its barely audible with it up... I hope you used the internationally recognised hand gestures?? Although if his window was down as well, and you spoke using no more than 2 sylable words he may have understood...


Great to hear you survived being attacked by a cage, despite being lower in the food chain we will prevail! ! !

- You can never practice enough braking, i practice every week and still I learn more. It still takes me longer than I would like to stop, but when the time comes and it is needed the skills will be there - if only to keep me alive so that I can use hand gestures and invoke a loss of consciousness in the driver... ...I always remember a great Klingon proverb: "Revenge is a dish best served cold". Although I would never advise such a course of action...

[Donor]

No-one can hear a flipping thing your saying with the visor down... in fact its barely audible with it up... I hope you used the internationally recognised hand gestures?? Although if his window was down as well, and you spoke using no more than 2 sylable words he may have understood...

This is why I kept the visor down.

What I had to vent at him was for my benefit - I think he had it sussed fairly early on in the piece that he had made a bit of a twat of himself, and was the subject of wrath from a bushy bearded, pissed off biker.

(The 'visor down' technique stems from the 'Mirror breaking' threads... see? KB is EVERYWHERE in our riding!)

[Juud]

Great post, great save. That must have been a real boost to your confidence.
I get a bit depressed sometimes reading about all the bins, people tend to share stuff like that, understandably.

Good anticipation, you could have taken it up to the speed limit but you didn't, because somewhere in the back of your mind you knew what could go wrong.

[erik]

In fact, he suffered this for the next 3 sets of lights.

That reminds me I should probably practice some emergency braking.

[Macktheknife]

Good story mate, well done on the technique. Great to hear that people are listening and practicing what is essential.

[Ixion]

Well done. Always heed the spidey sense. It has saved me more times than I could recall.

The spidey sense is very real, and not confined just to bikers. I remember reading a biography of Stirling Moss where he spoke of the same thing, commenting that it had often saved him from probably fatal crashes. I recall fighter pilots in the Wars speaking of something similar.

[Donor]

Well done. Always heed the spidey sense. It has saved me more times than I could recall.

The spidey sense is very real, and not confined just to bikers. I remember reading a biography of Stirling Moss where he spoke of the same thing, commenting that it had often saved him from probably fatal crashes. I recall fighter pilots in the Wars speaking of something similar.

I concur with Mr Moss.

On many an occasion I have doubted myself, and it has proven close to spot on.

Yesterday, it was right on the money.

If in doubt, assume the worst. This mantra will live with me for the rest of my biking days.