Potential u-turn: Evasive action?

[breakaway]

I JUST got home from a morning class, and just as I came around a blind left hand corner, at 40km/h, and some douchebag pulled a U turn, RIGHT in front of me. It was wet, I thought I would T bone him right there. But he saw me coming and shot forward, and I was able to go around him.

Sigh. Dumbass cagers. If they are gonna get you, they will get you. There's not much you can do about it.

[Dave-]

I had some doll do this to me a few months back, I had anticipated her getting out of the car without looking.

I was on the right, if i had been on the left I may be slipped around the back.

problem is you break the road code by riding passed recently passed traffic on the left side of your lane...

[Roj]

Alot of what has been said can be summed up with a few words, "experience" is a good one, as you get more expereince you get a better idea of what is happening around you, and are better able to react.

I have found that I travel slower now than when I was in my teens / 20s, but also can anticipate better now than back then.

Keep your eyes open and if you aren't sure what someone ahead of you is doing, slow down, this immediatley gives you more time to deal with the situatiuon.

[avgas]

Make sure you go through the window cos if you hit the a pillar it bloody hurts.
Some things cant be taught on a web thread

[babyblade250rr]

First thing I do is check the on-coming lane for traffic etc. Generally people don't u-turn into on-coming traffic so if there is some you're pretty safe.

If there's no on-coming traffic I position myself basically on the centre line so that my headlight should be clearly visible. At the same time I'm starting to slow and have covered both brakes.

Ideally I've slowed enough that I'm not passing them while they're still moving. I'll be watching their head the whole to see if they do the half arsed mirror check which is a dead giveaway that they're about to do something.

I always make sure I pass them with as much space as I can. If that means crossing into the other lane so be it.

Good theory i do roughly the same!! kept me out of trouble so far fingers crossed!!

[klyong82]

Alot of what has been said can be summed up with a few words, "experience" is a good one, as you get more expereince you get a better idea of what is happening around you, and are better able to react.

I have found that I travel slower now than when I was in my teens / 20s, but also can anticipate better now than back then.

Agree with you. Experience is the thing. This thread reminds me of that bright enginnering student riding his new Honda in front uni (symond st.) and a chinese student without a NZ licence made a U-turn without signalling.

Biker dead and he had community service as one of the punishment...still pisses me off when one of his reason was "I did not understand what it meant when the office said I was disqualified" or something like that.

[Raelynn]

aside from slowing down... someone else also mentioned look to the front wheels, this is an AWESOME indicator of a cars intended path - which frankly is not always under the conscious control of many cage drivers. If the wheels are pointing parallel with the road - it's going to be a lot harder for them to pull into your path. The moment they're angled out towards a possible collision, that's when you know to be extra vigilant :/

mentioning Symonds they thought the effect of the over hanging trees impaired the cagers ability to even see the rider (if he looked..) when you get alternating shadows and sunbeams, it's hard to see SUVs sometimes let alone bikes especially on longer stretches of road

it's just all about being aware on the roads and assuming everyone else is blind, deaf and stupid right?