Close call, thanks MSF

Was coming home on 635 the other day. I was in the HOV lane, so there was a barrier to my left. It was 4pm on Friday in Dallas, so traffic was getting heavy through town. I was coming from the airport on 635 where it merges with 35 for those of you in this area.

I was doing about 50 when up ahead I saw the traffic in all 4 right lanes stopped. HOV lane was moving. I decelerated cuz cars tend to change lanes quickly, and from a stop to 50, I'd be in a world of hurt if one of them cut in front of me. As I was slowing, I checked my mirrors.

Sure enough some nutball in a Ford escape comes screaming past me on my right. He doesn't see the stopped traffic. He's going 60 and doesn't have time to stop before he rear ends the car not less than 100 yards in front of him. Even if he locks up his brakes, there's no telling where he's going. And at my rate of speed, the wreck is going to happen right next to me. There's nowhere for that asshole to go to his right, so I figure he's fixin to swerve into my lane.

So, I hit the front brake - locked it up momentarily. Front wiggles left, right, left (anyone had this happen?) and I'm thinking I just bought the farm. Release and pulse the brake, front straightens out quickly just as Mr. non attentive cuts over in my lane about 20 feet in front of me. I can feel his breeze. Near miss to say the least.

I want to thank MSF and all you MSF coaches for sparing me a very painful experience. Had I not gone to MSF, I would not have been as attentive in situations like that. I had sized up the situation quickly and when the threat appeared, I was able to act in a quick and controlled manner. It would have been ugly had I not seen what was coming and acted appropriatly.

Note: Today is laundry day. Believe I'll just throw out this pair of tighty whities that ain't so white any more.....

Steve I'm glad you were paying attention. Happened to me yesterday...

Jerry

Yep! Glad it didn't end worse!



.........................bobby

.

Today was my turn. Getting used to the Vredestein, and getting pressures close to sweet spot, I've spent a lot of time scraping boards lately. Coming on a twisty back street to my house, I took a curve a little too fast (forgot which one I was on) and drifted to the center line and a car was oncoming.
I looked up the road where I wanted to go, (almost forgot and looked at HIM) and began to add lean, but hit the crash bar and couldn't go any more, so I passed him with my tires just in his lane.
I think I'm gonna ease off this thing a bit; that was a bit too much adrenalin. Almost made me wanna go out and buy a crotch rocket. But I'd probably push that too far too.

You guy gotta live up by me....burbs west of Chicago. I go through maybe 5 near misses a year and defiantly THANK YOU MSF!

BTW I'm happy everything went well.

Short story from this year; On my way over to my buddies house, we're leaving for a trip around Lake Michigan. As I'm approaching the intersection (about 35 mph) a women make a left turn in front of me. All I can say is my MSF training and my CT saved my life. The funny part in this was because I had to hit it so hard to keep from going to the hospital or morgue the rear locked up and made lots of CT skidding noise just like a car would. The other funny thing was the look on her face. Talk about see the whites of her eyes.

(BTW I did pulse the brake to stop the skid)

You should ALL go one step beyond the MSF. Get the RLAP video and about 25-30 cones, cups or whatnot and go hit a parking lot to practice, in the order that the course sets it up. Your slow speed skills will quadruple, you will never drop your bike in a parking lot, and suddenly all your "skilled rider" friends will look like a bunch of newbie goofs, as you notice them duck-walking, foot-dragging, toe-pointing their bikes around in wobbles.
As Jerry Paladino said, "30 years of riding is one year of riding done 30 times."
The kicker is to do it. Just watching the video does nothing whatsoever save maybe teach you where to look, but to be automatic about it all, you need the neural learning you get from working in cones. I do the police level setup with the wife on the back with no problem, save an occasional cone hit if I don't practice it every couple months. If you think you're a "good" rider, just check to see if you ever have your feet off the pegs when moving.
If you do, you have lost true control of your motorcycle. Luck gets you by for a while.
After learning the techniques, you'll notice that it carries over to high speed riding too, and can save lives. BTW, I got the RLAP Dragon video and learned nothing whatsoever from it; it's all in the original video, so save your money. There are twistie riding tricks that you can use that he doesn't even cover. Even the Motorcop lessons cover these.

Get the RLAP video and about 25-30 cones, links of london braceletscups or whatnot and go hit a parking lot to practice, in the order that the course sets it up. Your slow speed skills will quadruple, you will never drop your bike in a parking lot, and suddenly all your "skilled rider" friends will look like a bunch pandora charms pandora jewelry ugg boots babyof newbie goofs, as you notice them duck-walking, foot-dragging, toe-pointing their bikes around in wobbles. Laughing
As Jerry Paladino said, "30 years of riding is one year of riding done 30 times."
The kicker is to do it. Just watching the video does nothing whatsoever save maybe teach you where to look, but to be automatic about it all, you need the neural learning you get from working in cones. I do the police level setup with the wife on the back with no problem, save an occasional cone hit if I don't practice it every couple months. If you think you're a "good" rider, just check to see if you ever have your feet off the pegs when moving.
If you do, you have lost true control of your motorcycle. Luck gets you by for a while.
After learning the techniques, you'll notice that it carries over to high speed riding too, and can save lives. BTW, I got the RLAP Dragon video and learned nothing whatsoever from it; it's all in the original video, so save your money. There are twistie riding tricks that you can use that he doesn't even cover. Even the Motorcop lessons cover these.

Now that's funny! This clown pops in and tries to link his pandora adware into the forum but the link didn't make it in his copy/and/paste work - screwed himself outta business - time to ban one very stupid spammer.

mark_1bx - I'll see yer 5 a year and raise you 5 redlight runners from Atlanta!

one step beyond the MSF. Get the RLAP video and about 25-30 cones, cups or whatnot and go hit a parking lot to practice, in the order that the course sets it up. Your slow speed skills will quadruple, you will never drop your bike in a parking lot, and suddenly all your "skilled rider" friends will look like a bunch of newbie goofs, as you notice them duck-walking, foot-dragging, toe-pointing their bikes around in wobbles. Laughing http://www.cheap-jeans.org/
As Jerry Paladino said, "30 years of riding is one year of riding done 30 times."
The kicker is to do it. Just watching the video does nothing whatsoeverugg boots on sale ugg boots sale ugg boots uk save maybe teach you where to look, but to be automatic about it all, you need the neural learning you get from working in cones. I do the police level setup with the wife on the back with no problem, save an occasional cone hit if I don't practice it every couple months. If you think you're a "good" rider, just check to see if you eve

As an MSF Rider Coach, I have to say that it's stories like these that keep me active.

RLAP videos are good entertainment, but unless you want to spend your life riding in a parking lot trying to figure out why you can not make that turn, or live in LA where weaving through stopped cars is a way of life: At the minimum you need someone :
- who knows what they are doing
- how to evaluate your riding
- how to correct what needs to be corrected
to be there with you, 'The Motorman' does not come with the video.

My advice is take the Basic Riders Course 2 , then after a few months take the Advanced Riders Course (if you can find it). Both are done on your own bike, and involve real life skills improvement.

More is definitely better in this case, except in the advice of the MSF to take the whole road making a turn; we have a guy in our club no one wants to ride near,
because he does that crap in a formation; nearly hit my front tire a couple times before I asked him WTF he thought he was doing.
The parking lot exersizes DO cross over into street riding; the head and eyes get conditioning practice, the friction zone is handy at lights, gas stations, near
people, or whatever, and learning the use of peripheral vision isn't something you get on the road like you do in the cones. But the RLAP doesn't get into the
zen of safety stuff, true.
My cop buds even toss out a couple cones or hit parking lot stripes before going on duty to limber up and get the mojo working. I've found that the longer one
goes without any practice, the worse you'll be when you do.
Lately I've taken to a few practice panic stops to teach myself to not lock up or skid the rear tire. My benchmark stop is hitting the binders at 35 mph at the
"gate" and stopping in 6 parking lines. That's 54 feet. ORMV.
I learned a trick from a MSF rider at one of our skills days myself, so we can all learn from each other. It amazes me how many riders have never, nor ever will
scrape a peg (unless it's going down), so have no clue as to their bikes lean limits. This translates into panicking in an emergency, and fear of using more lean
to avoid something, IMO.

The BRC teaches the basic techniques of Braking, swerving, and turning. It is up to the rider to determine how proficient they want to be at each. I have found that most riders are content at being mediocre.

Once a rider has acquired skills, continuing to practice those skills in a parking lot can build confidence and comfort (especially for a new rider or an experienced rider on a new bike), and increase ones proficiency to a point. But, as I was trying to say earlier, to acquire new skills a video will not due.

Once a rider has achieved the correct technique, to truly become proficient at it one must practice it at real world speeds. I always tell my students, after the braking exercise, "Practice at the speed that you ride. If you ride at 45MPH, practice at 45MPH. If you ride at 90MPH work up to it." I would wager that your LEO friend does the occasional 'emergency lane change' at full speed, when the situation allows it. I practice at 65MPH: there are certain weeds, chips in the pavement, etc that are always there on the road by my house. When no one is around. I choose a marker and when I reach it I brake hard. When I am able to stop before my turn, I move to the next one. I would estimate that I am able to stop at about 90'.

Decreasing ones breaking distance at speed, does more than just increase the possibility of stopping before hitting something. By knowing how far one travels while trying to stop will let you know whether or not you will be able to stop in time, before you reach the !OH S*&T! it's too late to do anything else point.

But, Braking isn't always the answer. Changing lane position, changing lanes, or even splitting lanes are often the correct answer to the problem, so swerving needs to be practiced as well. The dashes on the road are great for practicing this. I practice changing lanes in the shortest number of dashes.

As far as using the entire lane to make a turn, It's his lane! All 12' of it. It's the safest and easiest way to navigate a curve. If you nearly clips you while making a turn that you know is coming, what would happen if he suddenly tapped the brakes and swerved to avoid something? Answer: Pile up on Isle 12. A motorcycle, like a car is entitled to the use of the entire width of the lane in which they occupy, and sufficient room behind (forward is determined by the rider) as to allow for an evasive maneuver should one be needed. If you are almost getting clipped by someone negotiating a curve that you know is coming, then it's your fault for following too close. Unless you ride for the Shriner's or in parades, there is no need to be closer than 1 second behind him.

Professor wrote:, It's his lane! All 12' of it.

you lucky to have lanes 12 feet wide, more often where I ride, lane widths are 8 or 9 feet wide usually no wider than 11

Professor wrote: there is no need to be closer than 1 second behind him.

 , 2 seconds minimum, 3 recommended by any competent driving schools

The Southern Cruisers RC rules are 1 second behind your wing, and 2 seconds behind your lead - This guy cut me close by being the ONLY one of us taking the corners differently, going wide and slowing
too much. I feel that if you can't hold a formation spot, then you shouldn't be riding in one. We are allowed to take more space of course, only over here, that gets cars into the formation, and adding
the dangers of riders trying to regroup.
Just because someone has a garage full of bikes doesn't mean he/she knows how to ride them. When I do put on a RLAP practice, I require everyone to have seen the video, not to learn the techniques,
but just so I don't have to talk to them for an hour when we could be doing the exersizes. As you said; no one will get the skills from a video. But it does give them a clue to start with.

The first meet where we set up a panic stop was a hoot: you should have seen all the skidding tires. NOBODY really knew how to panic stop, because the only times they'd done it before were in
some emergencies, and I'll bet a couple were laid down in the past as well; I know I'd done it...the usual rear tire slide out.

Hey Coldweatherfreak, Yes under normal riding (driving) situations 2, preferably 3 second spacing is ideal, but when riding in a group that distance is the distance to the next bike directly in front of you, allowing the formation to use half the distance of the same number of riders not in formation. This allows the rider directly in front of you to brake or what ever they need to do, and the next rider (in the opposite half of the lane) perform any avoidance maneuvers necessary as they should not not be in your direct path for more than a second.

Quadancer, It's good to know that your groups members want to be better riders. It's funny to watch when you have those who think they know it all, but show they don't know squat when put to the test, then it's all excuses. Unfortunately my chapter of the Legion Riders only want to raise money and give it away: we are more like a bunch of mountain men who gather at the trading post periodically, but rarely hunt together in groups larger than 3 or 4.

I understand that a rider who cannot hold their position is almost as annoying as one who rides your ass, or wants to ride 2 abreast. What, I do not understand how this rider is almost clipping the next rider if they are following your club rules of 1 second back, at 30MPH, the there should be at least 44' between his back tire and the next front tire. What ever the reason, it is the responsibility of each rider to maintain their own air space, and the only space we cannot control is the one behind us.

Whenever we do manage to go for a ride as a group, as Ride Captain, I always call for single file when approaching a corner (curve) that is sharp or might be more enjoyed at a higher speed, I even call for single file when entering a parking lot if the entry/exit lanes are not defined by painted lines. While I am the only crotch rocket rider, we all enjoy getting some speed up on the few twisties that we have, and riding in town is not only boring it's dangerous (too many tourists), and Bar Hopping is about as fun as riding 2 abreast on The Dragon (which in my opinion is more hype than ride,but I digress).

One thing that will cure this guy of his habit is to have him (and everybody else) attend the Advanced Riders Course- ARC (also called the Military Sportbike Riders Course-MSRC). Don't let the name fool you, the techniques that are taught are usable by All Riders.

would that I could even get him to attend one of our sessions. Another case of "I know how to ride". The incidents I referred to were slow speed turns onto other streets,
so we would be rather close at that point, and there was just absolutely no reason to slow down more and use the whole road; everyone else was making it on thier own
side of the lanes. I'm not the only one disgruntled by his riding technique.

Make him a the Sweeper, that way he is always in the back, out of the way.

HAHAAAAAaaaa!!! YEAH, man, I think you nailed it! I also don't like putting noobs behind the RC to set the pace for the group - that pretty much means it will be a ride I'd rather not be on
due to overly slow riding. Left a few for that, so I could ride...like I could ride.