The unavoidable and unexpected does happen

[FJRider]

k well my point is shit happens, and he is lucky, they should have looked though. he now rides like hes invisible, as in he assumes the person ahead hasnt seen him.

A good way to be...

[Jantar]

A family friend once said you haven't learnt to ride till you've crashed 7 times, would you agree?

Not completely. I know of some people who have crashed many more times than that and still can't ride.
The main thing is to learn from any crashes that you may have, and to realise what the rider could have done differently: What was the primary cause? What were the contributing causes? What could the rider have done to avoid the accident?

It is my belief that more than half of all riders will crash within their first six months of riding. http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...ad.php?t=87458 However that dosen't mean crashes are inevitable. Most riders do learn from their mistakes and from the mistakes of others, and the average time between crashes increases immensly. However there are 7 main types of accident, and the theory of crashing 7 times before you've learnt to ride assumes that you have personally experienced and learnt from each of them.

What are the 7 main types: Low side at speed; High side at speed; Running off the road; Hitting an obstacle; Being hit by another vehicle; Dropping a bike at very low speed; and being thrown by a tank slapper. Note that only one of these is primarily due to another driver's fault.

[Ocean1]

there are 7 main types of accident

Fookin' novice.

[vifferman]

He's lucky, but have any of you had similar experiences?

I had exactly the same thing happen to me. When I came up to the car, it had just pulled out from the curb. So I slowed, and was about to tootle it to let the driver know I was there, when he pulled into the curb again. Naturally, I thought "Oh - he's seen me!" and went to accelerate past. I was just about up to the car when he cracked a u-turn.
I guess it was his normal, brain-dead, "I haven't had a coffee yet but I'll get one on the way to work" routine.

Did about $6800 of damage to my VFR750, and I spent about 5 hours in hospital getting checked out.

[vifferman]

Happens all the time.

Your friend's error was in failing to anticipate that the car pulling to the left might precede an attempted U-turn.

It was not unavoidable, and should not have been unexpected.

He just hasn't learned how to ride safely on the road in traffic yet.

That's all very well, and quite true. But for me it was a case of having commuted for umpty years and therefore having learned to read drivers actions very well, yet drawing the wrong conclusions from them, due to the timing. Plus not listening to that small voice that said, "Blow the horn to let him know you're there".

[MSTRS:Me]

The thread title is useful as a reminder to all of us...
There are little in the way of unavoidable situations, but if you don't expect something then avoiding it becomes much harder.
Your mate has learned a valuable lesson, one best learned early on in a rider's career.
That 12 second rule is great advice, but should probably be a shorter amount in an urban environment?

[ManDownUnder]

Something I've found is a disproportionate amount of benefit from backing off the gas - just a little.

Pushing it along, knee down, no chicken strips and riding right on the egde is a blast but has a higher rate of accidents (quelle surprise). Backing off 5 kph seems to have a HUGE reduction in accidents... and another 5 kph another huge reduction.

I'm especially talking about backing off in built up areas and corners.

Of course if you have something to prove then gas it - no worries. Expect the higher injury and accident rate, expect to pay through the nose for insurance, tickets coming out your wahzoo and the ocassional fatality. At least you'll have proven something... not sure what - but you will have proven it...

[DarkLord]

Happens all the time.

Your friend's error was in failing to anticipate that the car pulling to the left might precede an attempted U-turn.

It was not unavoidable, and should not have been unexpected.

He just hasn't learned how to ride safely on the road in traffic yet. We all do eventually; the ones who don't generally either die or get scared off of riding motorcycles.

Glad to hear he's in one piece.

Agreed. From my experience the way to ride, especially in traffic is to be continually thinking "what if?" Don't EVER think "nah, that car/bus/pedestrian/other biker won't do that, he's not that stupid". Assume that they are that stupid, as unfortunately more than likely your assumption will be proven to be correct. Your friend should get into that manner of thinking - it may well save his life someday.

[firefighter]

So your friend moved out of the drivers line of sight, to where the driver did not expect him to be... and you wonder why it happened, and totally blame the cage.

Seen it happen, heard of it happening with more serious results... your friend was lucky...

IMO it was totally and utterly the cagers fault for failing to indicate his intentions, and driving like an asshole ,if he was checking his mirrors etc he would have known a bike was behind him before he pulled over, and if he turned his head and checked properly before turning he would have seen said bike..........

but yes it was avoidable and i'm sure most of us would've seen that coming.