Close call

[Hurtin]

I'm riding home from work yesterday, the roads are wet as a pretty good thunder storm had just passed overhead. I'm taking it easy as the roads are a bit slick.

At the 93/28 interchange there is a big 2 lane rotary. I'm comming around at mabye 20-30mph, and am leaned over. I look carefully at my right where two lanes are merging with me. The first lane stops, the second lane goes, no problem they have plenty of room I'll tuck in behind this lady in a red car.

Then for some inexplicable reason the lady in the red car spots me comming in at about 8 o'clock and stops dead in the middle of the rotary. I'm leaned over on wet pavement, and have no choice but to hit the brakes, my rear end starts slipping out like it was on ice. Ironically this helps me a bit as when the rear catchs I'm pointed more to the left and am able to slip by the left side of the car in the same lane.

I can not figure what she was thinking, mabye she didn't see me at first and when she spotted me she pannicked and didn't realize how far into the roatary she had floated. So in some weird way she was trying to yeild to me???

We're always going to have clueless drivers, but I'm more concerned with my reaction to the unexpected. Did I really have to hit the brakes? Could I have leaned further, not sure. For certain I hit the rear brake too hard, and made a second mistake by letting up on it too quickly. If I'd been going faster, I'd probably have high sided. I was certainly short on traction, wet and already leaned. I had fewer options than I otherwise would have. I'm feeling a bit lucky, I'll go change my underwear now.

[legalspeed]

Good show, sounds like you handled it perfectly.

Glad you're OK. Now get back out there!!

[highsider]

Glad to hear you're ok!

People in cars are always unpredictable. Never give them the benefit of the doubt.

[odduc]

Sounds like you reacted just as you should have for the situation. It's amazing how instinct sort of takes over in those situations. The more you ride, the better prepared you will be to deal with these things.

[OreoGaborio]

i don't see how you made a mistake there.... you didn't get hurt, you didn't hit anything and you stayed on two wheels .... sounds to me like ya reacted just fine

[bigred875]

Originally posted by OreoGaborio
i don't see how you made a mistake there.... you didn't get hurt, you didn't hit anything and you stayed on two wheels .... sounds to me like ya reacted just fine hellyeah:

me either..if he did make one maybe it was going a little to fast and following a little too close. but we all have done that...

[Ducrappy]

Sounds like a great save to me, but I do see your point about reacting properly to insane drivers. You never can predict what the hell they will do.

Originally posted by OreoGaborio
i don't see how you made a mistake there.... you didn't get hurt, you didn't hit anything and you stayed on two wheels .... sounds to me like ya reacted just fine hellyeah:

true. you could have ended up plowing trenches with your front tire like some squid on a green bike here did about a month back. Then you'd be bitching on this forum in a month saying that you have a glass chunk stuck in your tire so you can't ride, and that everyone but you needs to start riding on a smaller bike. Who was that guy anyways? Whomever he is, he's an annoying prick

[richw]

Cool

I know flat tracking has saved me a few times.

[OreoGaborio]

Tim, i'm the exception to the case

[Ducrappy]

all in good fun Pete

[Kham]

Originally posted by Hurtin

I can not figure what she was thinking, mabye she didn't see me at first and when she spotted me she pannicked and didn't realize how far into the roatary she had floated. So in some weird way she was trying to yeild to me???

you didn't read her mind correctly. yes=no, no=yes remember?

[Honclfibr]

Originally posted by Hurtin
I can not figure what she was thinking, mabye she didn't see me at first and when she spotted me she pannicked and didn't realize how far into the roatary she had floated. So in some weird way she was trying to yeild to me???

It's actually the standard reaction of the Dumbassus Metropolus. I was in the city this weekend in my cage chugging down a side street when a pedestrian up ahead started crossing the street. She had plenty of time to cross as I wasn't going all that fast at all, but apparently my rather obnoxious exhaust startled her and she turned, looked at me, and froze in the center of the road with this horrified expression of terror. I had to come to a dead stop to avoid hitting her, and it took about 10 seconds before she snapped out of her stupor and finished her march across the street.

City folk are like deer, man. Faced with a scary situation their natural reaction is to panic and freeze up. Fortunately, like deer, there are enough of 'em that if you hit one you just toss 'em in the bed of yer pickup and stick 'em in the freezer when you get home, nobody'll really miss one or two of 'em anyway.

[Kham]

Originally posted by Honclfibr
City folk are like deer, man. Faced with a scary situation their natural reaction is to panic and freeze up. Fortunately, like deer, there are enough of 'em that if you hit one you just toss it in the bed of yer pickup and stick 'em in the freezer when you get home, nobody'll really miss one or two of 'em anyway.

excuse me? i believe you have it backward. she must not be from the city.

[ancosta]

Glad that you managed to get through the situation OK. From what it sounds like, the wet road prevented a possible highside, although if the road was not wet, you probably wouldn't have unglued the rear end.

I found myself in an 'oh shit' situation the other night, dark road with a left turner coming at me. In the end, they didn't go, but it was anybody's guess. I had planned my escape as cutting in front of the car given my speed & proximity, but never had to do it.

What I did was turn around, go back to the intersection, and looked at where I would have ended up (was vy dark out). I probably would have lowsided in gravel/sand and then plowed into a front lawn. Beats the T-bone, but my lesson was that I could have shaved about 10 mph off my speed seeing headlights coming on this rural road. Well that, and I need to adjust my headlight