What not to wear (the road)

[_intense_]

:: respek knuckles ::

[swbarnett]

It might be cool and it is quicker, but it's also bloody dangerous.

Certainly no more dangerous than the chance getting rear-ended in stop-start traffic. Done properly lane-splitting is as safe as any road riding.

Besides, when this accident happened discotex wasn't splitting.

I've had the exact same thing happen on several occasions and every time the puny horn on my GN was enough to alert the driver and they went back into their lane.

[0arbreaka]

Hey mate, it sucks dosent it? Glad to hear youre relatively ok. By the sound of it heres probably very little you could have done to prevent it. Ive had the same thing happen to me before, except a in my case a bus clipped me. If theres one thing that I can recomend is to use your high beem during the day. When you get a chance put your bike on low beem and go and stand 20 metres away and look at it, then do the same with high beem you'll see why I recomend this, there is significant difference in the visibility between the two settings.

[HungusMaximist]

Disco, do you go to Auckland Uni by any chance?

Anway good luck with finding a new bike and the paperworks!

Btw I have also recently started riding on high beam during the day and at times during the night when it's appropriate. Yea, it ticks them cars off sometimes and they sort of flash their high beam to tell you to switch it off but seeing I am more visible, I could care less.

Anyway, the lesson here is also don't rely too heavily on visibility and always be on the the defensive!

[aer0]

bummer to see dude, hope your feeling ok today.

looks like we both had a bad day eh.

heal up fast

[Griff]

Good Post. Hope the legal outcome is the same.

[vifferman]

Sorry to hear of your bin. (Great write-up, BTW!)

The police have decided the other driver is 100% at fault but that leaves me a little empty. Sure it was as he changed lanes without indicating and looking properly but I wondered if I could have done something different that would have made him see me.

You've got a good attitude.
I know Eggs Zachary where you're coming from. I had three significant bins that were the other party's fault, but still felt bad about each one, because there was something I could've done to have prevented each one (even if it was only being there 30 seconds earlier/later!)
The fact you could basically walk away from this one, AND you've thought deeply about it and learned from it, rather than just saying, "Damned stupid car driver!" is really excellent.

[Patch]

Glad you're ok fulla.

Upgrade your gear to leather - buy the best you can afford, doesn't matter whether you race or not, there is no substitute for it. I would upgrade all my gear (quality helmet, gloves and boots) before I upgrade my bike. The road is not any softer whether you ride a scooter or anything else.

Upgrade the bikes shitty little horn - airhorns or the twin electric horns work great. takes some time fitting etc, but easier to fit those than wait for scars to heal.

Loud pipes, saves lives - get the noisiest, growliest pipes you can legally, financially afford.

Upgrade your stock headlight lamp - go HID or higher wattage with relays.


All this just gives you slightly better odds at being seen and heard. When the envitable happens, at least you are protected with the good stuff, so you may not get hurt too bad.

I'd go with the SV650 especially if you commute alot - wouldn't bother with a thou, given you haven't been riding that long. We don't want your name in the paper - ride safe.

[DMNTD:Me]

The fact you could basically walk away from this one, AND you've thought deeply about it and learned from it, rather than just saying, "Damned stupid car driver!" is really excellent.

100% agree with you there,all too often it appears to be "that bloody cagers fault

[sprag]

Great write up

[discotex]

The fact you could basically walk away from this one, AND you've thought deeply about it and learned from it, rather than just saying, "Damned stupid car driver!" is really excellent.

There only way I'd got to 14 years on the road without an accident (up until yesterday) was through evaluating the near-misses in the same way.

I love watching crash investigation programmes on Discovery and stuff so it's only natural I try to investigate my own.

Disco, do you go to Auckland Uni by any chance?

Anway good luck with finding a new bike and the paperworks!

Btw I have also recently started riding on high beam during the day and at times during the night when it's appropriate. Yea, it ticks them cars off sometimes and they sort of flash their high beam to tell you to switch it off but seeing I am more visible, I could could less.

Anyway, the lesson here is also don't rely too heavily on visibility and always be on the the defensive!

Nah I don't go to uni. Work in the city though.

I've been trialling high beam when splitting the last month or so and it does seem to help. I don't like having it on when their is oncomming traffic though as I'd rather not blind the drivers that are heading towards me.

Hey mate, it sucks dosent it? Glad to hear youre relatively ok. By the sound of it heres probably very little you could have done to prevent it. Ive had the same thing happen to me before, except a in my case a bus clipped me. If theres one thing that I can recomend is to use your high beem during the day. When you get a chance put your bike on low beem and go and stand 20 metres away and look at it, then do the same with high beem you'll see why I recomend this, there is significant difference in the visibility between the two settings.

Will give that a shot. Might do it in the cage too to get a feel for how much difference it makes in the mirrors.

I think in this case I still would have been screwed anyway as the angles were all wrong. Basically I'd have appeared out of nowhere because of the left hand curve in the road and all the stopped cars.

[discotex]

on a serious note, it sucks to hear from a friend in hospital no matter what the injuries are. i was happy to see you walking out this time, not being the guy delivering you. Here's hoping it's the last time eh?

Yeah hopefully I can have a break from hospitals for a while.

Interesting that I hit the road way harder than I did at Woodhill yet have no major damage. The gear clearly absorbed a lot of impact.

[discotex]

Glad you're ok fulla.

Upgrade your gear to leather - buy the best you can afford, doesn't matter whether you race or not, there is no substitute for it. I would upgrade all my gear (quality helmet, gloves and boots) before I upgrade my bike. The road is not any softer whether you ride a scooter or anything else.

For sure mate. I see people out on scooters in no gear and cringe. Was planning to upgrade to leather this summer to get out and do some trackdays.

Upgrade the bikes shitty little horn - airhorns or the twin electric horns work great. takes some time fitting etc, but easier to fit those than wait for scars to heal.

Hell yeah. The factory horns are pointless eh! Waiting for obstacle to pick up his steibel so I can hear how loud they are.

Loud pipes, saves lives - get the noisiest, growliest pipes you can legally, financially afford.

I just love the sound of a good set of pipes so will be doing that on the new bike for sure.

Upgrade your stock headlight lamp - go HID or higher wattage with relays.

Hadn't thought of that one. Will add it to the shopping list for the new bike.

All this just gives you slightly better odds at being seen and heard. When the envitable happens, at least you are protected with the good stuff, so you may not get hurt too bad.

I'd go with the SV650 especially if you commute alot - wouldn't bother with a thou, given you haven't been riding that long. We don't want your name in the paper - ride safe.

It's all about layering eh. Thinking about yesterday some more I can see how things could have been way worse had I not already stacked some of the odds in my favour.

I could easily have been doing 40+ when I hit had not limited my differential speed. I could have had way worse injuries had I been wearing waterproof overtrou and a raincoat instead of armoured gear. My knuckles would have been ground off judging by my gloves yet I never even knew my hands hit the deck. No idea if my boots helped but I'm sure wearing sneakers would have left my feet or ankles sore in some way.

Will give the SV650 a go when I get to test riding. I'm a daily commuter with weekend rides and a lust for getting out to trackdays. Planning to do some longer rides (out to east cape for example) in the next year or two as well.

I'd been considering the SV1000S as on paper it seems pretty much the same power as a 600 IL4. Apparently they have the same 1/4 mile and top gear 60-80mph roll-ons. It's the only thou I even considered and it was only because it seemed pretty mellow (compared to a 1000cc IL4) on paper.

I really don't want to outgrow my next bike within two years which is how long I plan to keep it.

Can't wait to get out test riding and feel the differences for myself!

[avgas]

You fail....na just kidding.
Basically i have had similar things happen to me in the past. You have to change from defensive riding to, lookout everything thing is out to kill you riding
Once adopting that - nothing scares you anymore and you anticipate everything.

[discotex]

You fail....na just kidding.
Basically i have had similar things happen to me in the past. You have to change from defensive riding to, lookout everything thing is out to kill you riding
Once adopting that - nothing scares you anymore and you anticipate everything.

Doesn't assuming everyone is trying to kill you = defensive riding though? The only notch higher I can get on that is getting an eye controlled chaingun mounted on my bike (that'd be handy sometimes!).

I was fully expecting someone to pull out along that bit of empty road and was ready to move and had limited my speed. What totally surprises me was that even expecting it and having already considered escape routes I still didn't have enough time to react and swerve out of the way.