T-Boned a car this past Tues :(...

Safehaven

Happy you are doing good!

I must say that I "enjoyed" reading your take on things and the description of what went through you mind at the time.

The patience thing is noted.. I'll try remembering your story the next time I am 99% sure about a situation.

Take care,
Kris

lostgringo

Bagg,
im kinda amazed reading about your wreck, glad you made it with so little damage to your bod tho.
what amazes me is that to me the best, and nearly the only, good thing about buells is thier brakes. i had an ulysess and good lord the brakes on that thing!!
wonderful, cant say enough about them. ALL bikes should have as good a system, even if it looks ugly.
So, the question.
how much of your salvation is really due to the brakes on your bike?
Would you have faired as well on another bike?
One of the greatest rushes of riding is anticipating whats going to happen and being prepared for it. glad youre still with us.

Darmon

Thankfully you are ok and lessons learned the hard way can sometimes be the best way to learn. Well written post and I appreciate you sharing your story as we can all learn something from this.

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Ghost Glider Girl

Road King 1

Glad your ok. This is good advice since these are usually my favorite roads to ride.

Baggh

Hey all,

A little over a week since my accident and I'm close to 110%. Wrist and ribs still a tad sore. Considering the accident I feel very fortunate that all I needed the past week was to eat some advil. No crutches, casts, stitches, or worse... just advil. I still can't believe it.

I enjoyed reading all your posts... and am glad you enjoyed my what-turned out-to-be novel I appreciate that some of you shared your stories as well. I think that once in awhile everyone can use a little reminder to take it a bit easy out there while riding... and to look out for other riders when we are not. The car I hit had no idea I was coming... that experience had to be horrible for her.

As far as the Buell brakes... I think they did a heckuva job. I'm not a brake expert or anything but... the truck was going about 30 mph... when I went to go around it I "hit-it" to increase my passing speed... I quickly accelerated to 40~ish mph... as soon as I started passing the truck the car started its turn in front of me... (EDIT) I was still in accelerate mode... so I immediately went from accelerate mode to braking... this takes X amount of reaction time. I went from about 40~ish to 15-20~ish mph at pretty much the blink of an eye... if I had to guess I would say it took about 20-30 ft worth of travel. As I said.. .I'm not an expert but that braking seems pretty solid to me... and I didn't lock them... perhaps i had a bit more squeeze that I could have done...? I should have locked the rear... and I may have... I remember the bike feeling a bit squirrely during approach.

If any of you have stories of your own experiences to serve as "take it easy" reminders please share

My bike should be back next week

Please read this...

paulmack

Thank God you're ok. We all could use a little more patience than we have. Your post really made me start thinking about the things I do when riding. A couple of weeks ago we had 2 riders killed in accidents here. One lost control of his bike and hit a guardrail, the other had a cager pull out in front of him on a 4 lane road and he T-Boned him. Makes you take a close look at ways to be more pro-active and safer. Thanks for the post and I hope you are at 100% real soon.

Darmon

The same day I responded to this post I had a close call with a van! At a 4 way stop - I arrived first with my signal on to make a left turn - trying to make eye contact with the van ahead of me (no luck) - I begin to make left turn and the van in front of me begins to pull ahead and almost hits me! It was my turn to go but I should've known this person hadn't seen me as I couldn't get eye contact with the driver. Some drivers just DON'T see bikes no matter how big they are or how visible you try to make yourself. Don't "go" unless you've made eye contact and absolutely know the person sees what you are doing...another lesson learned today!

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Ghost Glider Girl

MWGB

I utilize a different concept learned from another thread on HDT. Don't bother to make eye contact with other drivers. Just watch their front wheels. The premise is that you can determine what they will actually do faster by watching their wheel. If the tires ain't stopped, plan accordingly.

With tinted windshields, sunglasses on the other driver, or simply a moron at the wheel, you can get better info faster and more reliably by watching their wheels.

That's how I ride.

And it's how I'm instructing my 16 year old as she learns to drive a car. Watch the wheels, not the driver.

I also reinforce the "Look twice, save a life" mantra to her. I got pretty agitated with her last weekend during a driving lesson, to the point where I made her pull over and quit driving. My words were something to the effect that she must always be looking for motorcycle riders. At every stop sign, at every traffic light, at every turn.

Two days after she gave me the mega silent treatment for chewing her out, a bicyclist was struck at the same intersection she messed up. I got two more days of the silent treatment for pointing that out.

I can tolerate that if it makes her a better driver.

martin14

interesting.. I find I use eye contact on the bike, and wheel watching
in the car.

I guess I'm more used to being not seen on the bike, and I ride slow enough
to make sure I can see the eyes.

RetiredJake

Sorry I missed seeing this earlier. Glad to hear you came out of this incident in one piece, and relatively unscathed. Your post contains several words of wisdom and made me think about my impatience.

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Roaming the country, Tasting the wine,
Having fun, Life is good