Before anyone starts flaming me for this post, I think there are some obvious illustrations here of how to survive out there, which is why I have chosen to post.
This morning I had the dubious experience of seeing a guy bin his bike...
Was walking into the supermarket when I heard the unmistakable sound of sliding tyres, closely followed by the equally unmistakable and expensive sound of plastic sliding along the road.
A guy had tried to overtake a car that turned out to be turning right into a side street. Bike clipped the wing of the car and down he went. Thing is, he was wearing shorts, sneakers and a fabric jacket. No gloves...did have his helmet on.
Because it was in an urban street, at relatively moderate speeds, the damage to the rider was not that bad. He will be sore, has medium levels of road rash on his right leg and elbow plus whatever the clothing was covering up. But essentially, he was OK. The bike was more munted than the rider. Side cover wore through and oil went everywhere. RH side of fairing did not fare well. Brake lever broken off. But probably all fixable. The fairing will probably cost most to repair/replace...
I don't know the rights and wrongs of the situation, although rider did state that it was his fault. I do not know if the car was indicating a turn. I think biker was in a bit of a hurry and he definitely made the wrong call trying to overtake where he did. A couple of seconds of patience and nothing would have happened.
Several lessons to be learned from the experience.
1.) As we all know, wear your gear. Even the cheapest cow suit would have meant no damage to the rider.
2.) The road code has a point when it says not to overtake through an intersection...
3.) Hurrying through town is not a good idea.
Certainly made me think about what I do out there...
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Originally Posted by slofox
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