Brakes Work Great!

Ryan_B

Ryan_B

Joined
Nov 17, 2020
Messages
274
Age
40
Location
Denton, TX
Bike
2016 Honda ST1300PA
Hi all! Just wanted to share a close call with you. I live in and commute in a college town, so I see a fair bit of bad driving and more "unexpected" driving. My favorite is people getting in the left turn only lane to turn right on red... Seems to be a thing done here pretty often rather than wait 20 seconds at the light.

Anyway! I watch very carefully and dodge accordingly. This one was closer than I like. You can't see it from my cameras perspective, but I was watching the silver car when it first pulled out, when it didn't start to make the left I slammed on the brakes assuming it might go all the way across. You can hear the car behind him honking (I guess trying to warn us?). 45ish to 0mph in approximately 2 seconds on really good concrete with pretty much new Michelins if you are wondering. Stay vigilant out there!

YouTube link

Ryan
 
Brakes on bikes sure have improved since I started riding, and tires too. Does pay to pay attention and to know what to do. Good riding.
 
You might also consider to invest into some "latte launchers"...
Just installed a set of aux high/low BOSCH snail-horns into my GF's NT700VA...
 
Ryan_B said:
Hi all! Just wanted to share a close call with you. I live in and commute in a college town, so I see a fair bit of bad driving and more "unexpected" driving. My favorite is people getting in the left turn only lane to turn right on red... Seems to be a thing done here pretty often rather than wait 20 seconds at the light.

Anyway! I watch very carefully and dodge accordingly. This one was closer than I like. You can't see it from my cameras perspective, but I was watching the silver car when it first pulled out, when it didn't start to make the left I slammed on the brakes assuming it might go all the way across. You can hear the car behind him honking (I guess trying to warn us?). 45ish to 0mph in approximately 2 seconds on really good concrete with pretty much new Michelins if you are wondering. Stay vigilant out there!

YouTube link

Ryan
Click to expand...

Good save!

That's probably an example of the motorist "seeing" your motorcycle, but not having it register in their brain that it's actually a motor vehicle.
 
Good job seeing and avoiding! We all should practice our brake and swerve drills so these close calls remain that way.
 
Well handled! Did you engage ABS (assuming your bike has them)? There’s a bunch of you tube videos out there with a different outcome.
 
wjbertrand said:
Well handled! Did you engage ABS (assuming your bike has them)? There’s a bunch of you tube videos out there with a different outcome.
Click to expand...
I don't think I did. The backend got really light, and did squeak right at the start, so possibly? I have done the empty road "test" just to get a feel for the ABS, but I this instance I had really good grip on the road.

I almost followed him into the gas station, but I think that would have been pointless. He either didn't see me or didn't care. I choose to believe it was a case of "not a car" blindness. I just hope he looks closer next time.

Ryan
 
Well spotted and well controlled.

It took me a few plays before I saw where the car was when it started moving. There's only one Youtube frame. One second increments on my ipad. Before that his view of you would have been masked by the pickup. It is common behaviour at junctions like that. The car driver sees the potential gap first, spots one as soon as the pickup has gone past, and the doesn't check again. Or if they do, it is a quick glance to the side. They don't check ahead or behind the windscreen post.

And they often don't see anything that appears stationary. A moving bike coming from your direction, WILL appear to be stationary. The brain is wired to ignore things that appear stationary when everything else is moving. So your eyes see it, your brain discards it. Motion Induced Blindness.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion-induced_blindness#/search

So in circumstances like that - you are not there. Even if they look properly. To become visible, you have to move across their field of vision so that they can detect your movement against the background - Weave. If a car is waiting at the side and I am the only one on my bit of road, I always wander across my lane - towards them first, and then away. Really bright lights don't help in this situation, they glare and still appear to be stationary even if they wander about a bit.

And I look at the drivers eyes.

But you spotted it him early. You braked early. A good save.

It's very rare that I need to do a really hard stop. When I have, ABS has never needed to kick in and the stopping power is incredible.
Two things always spring to mind:
1. I hope these alloy bars can stand the stress.
2. I need to do more pushups.
 
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