Thursday misadventure. How to win a week in hospital.

[gijoe1313]

Sorry to hear about you and your girl's incident, thank gosh you are both alive and thanks for sharing your experience. Heal up and take time to reflect on the second chance you got to keep living.

I have come across those incidents many times myself. I always get ultra-paranoid and slow right down, even to the point of stopping. And I use the stebel vigorously to indicate my presence. After all, there is plenty of time and opportunity and road to scoot ahead when I feel safer to complete any passing move.

I've always hated the pack rack on my Hornet, think I shall ditch that now for good.

Let us know how you get on with your rehab and outcome of this, it will be a valuable learning point for a lot of riders who may not think of other road user behaviours that indicate this sort of scenario to pass.

And yeah, we are all 100% responsible when we throw our leg over our iron horses and take to the roads. Only we can watch out for our own safety from the other road trolls.

[James Deuce]

... you forgot kiwis, they can be just as bad also.

hahah just becareful folks.. should be aware that all cagers can cause carnage, no matter where they origionate.

All road users, from pedestrians to B-Trains.

[Kickaha]

All road users, from pedestrians to B-Trains.

With the exception of Motorcyclists because we are a superior breed of road user and never make mistakes

[James Deuce]

Alanis Morrisette should put that in a song.

[onearmedbandit]

Alanis Morrisette should put that in a song.

We're in with a chance, she rides a bike so is perfect like the rest of us!

[miloking]

We're in with a chance, she rides a bike so is perfect like the rest of us!

But she got "paul smart ducati" so like any celebrity more money then sense...

(unless its the dude's with the helmet on..hard to tell)

[SPman]

Sorry to hear about that Bruce - hope you and yours are well on the mend with no long lasting results.
Katman does have a point and Bruce does acknowledge this, but, on a law of averages, how often do you "do the right thing", read everything perfectly and save yourself serious injury, compared with, all of life being a playing of probabilities, making a decision that turns to custard? Bruce has acknowledged this, and, KM, hindsight or distance is a marvellous thing, but, the constant stream of micro second decisions you make when riding are not infallible. Bruce, with his aviation background is very aware that mistakes happen, and it is best to share those mistakes with the aviation/biking community, to hopefully, make others aware and not repeat those mistakes - as witness mr PD whatsit's experience.
Whilst Asians, these days, are seemingly more involved in these sorts of incidents, my experience outside the Browns Bay Bowling club on Beach Road involved 3 little old european ladies, who pulled left and indicated to turn left up Woodlands Crescent, then , as I passed them, swung hard right to turn into Bute Rd (for those who know the road....it was a lot more "rural back in 1970)! Luckily they missed the rear of the bike by the breadth of a gnats testicle, but that event has coloured my reading of traffic for the last 40 years. No matter how alert or aware you are, there are going to be times when you just misread or under read the situation and vituperative shit slinging achieves nothing!
What are going to replace the 1100 with, Bruce?? (gotta think positive)

[Buellluva]

Glad to hear your still around to tell your tale of misfortune.

To newbies on bikes, follow one rule.

All other road users are the enemy, trust no-one, expect the unexpected at all times, never let your guard down ever.

@ katman, you're a cock. End.

[Katman]

@ katman, you're a cock. End.

[scumdog]

With the exception of Motorcyclists because we are a superior breed of road user and never make mistakes

Well....on KB they certainly seem to be...

[scumdog]

To newbies on bikes, follow one rule.

All other road users are the enemy, trust no-one, expect the unexpected at all times, never let your guard down ever.

That rule applies to ALL motorcyclists, new or not

[terbang]

Just an update on things. On the 20th Dec I collapsed and was raced off to hospital again. I was very short of blood and had to have a transfusion.

To cut a long story short, my lung hadn't healed since the accident and I was bleeding into my chest cavity. I had to have a "thoracotomy decortication" where they opened up my chest and removed 3 litres of crap from around my left lung and fixed any leaks. Most of it was congealed blood.

Bloody hell it hurts but I'm coming right with an 11 inch scar across my back as a good war story.

Watch those cars ... we bear the brunt of any mishaps.

[p.dath]

Buggar me, you are not having a good run. Even after this much time from the initial accident. Take it easy. Sounds nasty.

[Owl]

Doesn't sound at all mint terbang. Take it easy and heal well dude!

[PrincessBandit]

For all the "asian" drivers being slated here, on our honeymoon (many many moons, pardon the pun, before we started riding) an off-duty cop pulled into the left side of the road, stopped then as we drove past him - in a rental car (on our honeymoon and all that) - he decided to to turn right without indicating and smacked straight into the side of our car. We got shunted clear across the intersection (T-intersection) and into a BIG post on the opposite corner.

For the life of me I can't actually remember the outcome of it (apart from the fact that neither my husband or I were injured in the crash) in terms of what happened to him etc.

Now, this is not meant to start a great side track of police bashing but simply a reminder that no one is infallible. No one has a monopoly on "bad", careless, ignorant or rude driving or riding.