Never trust a cager

[popgazer]

Watch this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZluAhQXfVw)and please keep this in mind when you are riding. Never, ever trust a cager.

[Deans BMW]

Motorcycle was going way too fast, IMHO.

[DJ Down Under]

Nasty..very nasty..always ride to expect the worst..you can't trust them to see you.

DJ

[arkline]

I'm with Dean. Too fast. And it doesn't look like the rider does much to decrease speed. Like no brakes applied. Hope he/she didn't die...

[popgazer]

And it doesn't look like the rider does much to decrease speed. Like no brakes applied.

Yup! The biker trusted the car won't make that swift turn in front of him.
There's no center lane. And notice how hard the brown SUV hit the brakes behind the car that got hit. Everybody was probably going a bit too fast for traffic conditions, but certainly the white car didn't take the precautions to warn cars behind or consider traffic in the opposite direction. IMHO the blame goes squarely on the driver of the white car. But, it doesn't matter it is still the biker that got hurt.

[DarthRider]

"...IMHO the blame goes squarely on the driver of the white car. But, it doesn't matter it is still the biker that got hurt..."

The "blame" is arguable I guess...but the "responsibility" lies squarely with the dude that ate bumper..then concrete...then curb...then ditch...then telephone pole...then...

[Bones]

I am quite confident that we have all had at least one experience that resulted in at least a sphincter pucker and the desire to flip the bird to a cager. Regardless of that, the one thing that resonates in my head whenever riding is a statement made by one of my MSF instructors, even though that was quite a while ago. He basically said that often, there is no "right" or "wrong" when discussing who should have/would have done something on the bike. But the bottom line is that YOU must take full responsibility for the actions that you take every time you get on the bike. His basic point was the "right of way" may be a law or rule, but that doesn't mean that is makes sense to rely on it.

Recently we had a thread on whether or not to ride with fingers covering the front brake lever. Whenever I am in any kind of area with cross streets, etc. I ride with the expectation that I will have to make an emergency stop. I assume that every on coming vehicle may make a turn across my lane. I just hope I am paying enough attention to take evasive action if and when the need arises.

That video: forget what the driver of the car did that was stupid. It was probably Brittany Spears reaching for her cell phone while sipping a latte'. The rider was going way too fast for a road like that, clearly did not even attempt to use the brakes and I will bet he never saw the car until the last moment. I sure hope he is OK.


Jeff

[Deans BMW]

+1 to what Darth said.

[supermotoC]

Everything is eventual. Shite happens, and sometimes you're not lucky.

Be responsible for your self, and the results of your actions, and no one can criticize you.

[jamming]

I was reading the letters to the editor of Motorcyclist Magazine and one of the letters had some advice given to him by an old biker. It was:

"If you ride a motorcycle often, you will be killed riding it. That much is as sure as night follows day. Your responsibility is to be so vigilant and careful as to push that eventuality so far forward that you die of old age first"

Good advice.

Roger

[DarthRider]

I was reading the letters to the editor of Motorcyclist Magazine and one of the letters had some advice given to him by an old biker. It was:

"If you ride a motorcycle often, you will be killed riding it. That much is as sure as night follows day. Your responsibility is to be so vigilant and careful as to push that eventuality so far forward that you die of old age first"

Good advice.

Roger

Roger, that is way too cool!
I've understood this a long time but I never tried to put it into words, or explain it to a "non-believer" like my dear mother, now gone to her reward, or my wife.
As a kid, I watched my dad try to explain it and wondered why he finally let his dear mother, and his wife, and boss wear him down, then sell the Indian Chief. I think the wreck may have had something to do with it too. That was when I learned to disdain the nice, practical family sedan.
The closest I've come to explaining the reality of that amusing quote to non-believers is to mention "The Art of Doing Dangerous Things Safely".
No one ever bought that, save fellow life-riders who don't need convincing anyway, certainly not my dear mother or wife. Miz Betty just rolls her eyes...can you imagine that?
But now, she's doomed! I just wish I could lay this on her and my mother and grandmother!
So, I'll just inform her of this new-found wisdom, and with a smile on her sweet lips and a twinkle in her eye she will say, "When you leave for that ride, take out the trash"...

Hey Abhijeet -
Could you snag that quote from Roger for the homepage rotator? We need to save that.

Thanks guys!

[Promethean]

I don't know how the quote rotator works. I just added the code to pull the script. Ron might know.



Hey Abhijeet -
Could you snag that quote from Roger for the homepage rotator? We need to save that.

[jamming]

Dave, yea, that's one of those things that as soon as you read it, it makes you stop and think.
There was a line in the movie World's Fastest Indian" which is a GREAT movie BTW that got me. It was

" I've done more living on that bike in 5 minutes than most people do in a lifetime"

that had me smiling, and nodding in understanding.
Like the saying goes.... If I have to explain you would'nt understand.

Oh, BTW that saying came from a BMW rider, according to the letter

Roger

[DarthRider]

" I've done more living on that bike in 5 minutes than most people do in a lifetime"
- Burt Munro
Roger

Another great one for the rotator!

[supermotoC]

"If you ride a motorcycle often, you will be killed riding it. That much is as sure as night follows day. Your responsibility is to be so vigilant and careful as to push that eventuality so far forward that you die of old age first"

So, it also follows that "if you surf the internet often enough, you will be killed surfing it. That much is as sure as night follows day. Your responsibility is to be so vigilant and careful as to push that eventuality so far forward that you die of old age first".

Insert basically any activity, and enjoy.

[DarthRider]

"...So, it also follows that "if you surf the internet often enough, you will be killed surfing it. That much is as sure as night follows day. Your responsibility is to be so vigilant and careful as to push that eventuality so far forward that you die of old age first"..."

No, it applies only to riding motorcycles. It's some kind of rule, I think it's in the Bible...

[Dallara]

Jack Connolly... A true mentor of mine, and who taught me more about motorcycles than just about anybody... Once told me that any motorcycle street crash you were involved in was your own fault. If you put yourself in a position to get hit then no one was to blame but you if you got it.

He also said to view every car as though the driver was premeditatedly trying to kill you.

Those two rules have stood me in good stead for the past 3 and a half decades. Jack was a smart man, and though he said it a bit differently, he resonanted pretty much the same thought as Roger put forth.

I like it, Roger! Thanks!

Cheers!

Allan (Dallara - NAABSCD)

ps - Jack died of cancer, in his bed at home, in 1978.

[arkline]

The quote has been added to the randomizer for the front page.

[DarthRider]

"...Once told me that any motorcycle street crash you were involved in was your own fault. If you put yourself in a position to get hit then no one was to blame but you if you got it.

He also said to view every car as though the driver was premeditatedly trying to kill you..."


Roger that!
Jack and my Old Man must have known each other...

[jamming]

Huh???
I totally agree to treat every car as if they trying to kill you. A friend of mine's father once told me " Ride Paranoid"
I do both.

Roger

[pilesofmiles]

It appears that the m/c rider was not thinking about the rider education concept of "SIPDE" Scan Identify, predict, decide, execute.

Scan- for road -hazzards
Identify- road -hazzards
Predict- what the road hazzard is going to do
Decide- what your going to do
Execute- your decision on how to avoid the hazzard, be it a car, truck, pot hole, debris, whatever.

Not trying to arm chair quarter back here, but when ever I am riding a gas station ALWAYS comes up on my radar as caution this is a very busy "cager" area. Most of all the last thing most "cagers" have on their mind is a motorcycle approaching or moving through the parking lot. Gas station parking lots suck, and you have to watch out 360 degrees.

If I had to bet, I would say the rider never had any motorcycle safety training. I hope he made it.
JMHO.

[socalrob]

Look at the timer on that video. From the time the car noticably begins its turn the rider has 2 whole seconds before impact. I'm with Bones, I would have been covering my front brake if I saw a car in the center turn lane or stopped opposite a driveway (much less a gas station). I don't see how the rider hit the car at the apparent speed they did unless they were non attentive / daydreaming or were going 80mph. At 45 mph I don't see what the problem would have been.

Sure hope they are ok, at least they didn't blunt force into the car but flew over it, still I saw some tumbles. Not good at all.

[MRB]

Hi Guys
That video was posted on another discussion board (I think BM Sport touring) some months ago. One person actually calculated the speed of the bike as in excess of 50mph. They did that by knowing the length in inches of the SUV in the video and by the time shown on the video - that is distance travelled from the time the bike appears to impact and time on the video. It was also reported that the rider was not seriously injured!!
Martin

[bmwdave52]

I'm glad the guy was not seriously hurt.
"Ride Paranoid, because I'm invisible".

That is my motto.
I have a different take on "Fate". I don't believe it is inevitable that we will get into an accident if we ride long enough. I don't believe we draw from a 'decreasing pool of luck' and then one day we are overdrawn.
Every ride is a new start.

[geechie]

I don't believe we draw from a 'decreasing pool of luck' and then one day we are overdrawn.

Indeed. Statistically speaking, every draw is at exactly the same odds. The trick is to get as many of the "mitigating factors" working for you instead of against you.

George

[popgazer]

Indeed. Statistically speaking, every draw is at exactly the same odds. The trick is to get as many of the "mitigating factors" working for you instead of against you.

George

You are right. In my riding school I learnt that you can estimate the chances of having a crash by looking at how many close calls you had in the past few months. If you have more than one close call it means there's something you need to be woking on, like the distance you leave between you and other cars, speed, how far away you scan the road etc.
I do a lot of city driving, and I had several close calls at night when other cars suddenly started moving onto my lane.
Ever since I started running with high beam even at night, I have had no close calls.