I've been reading this forum for a while and haven't read any posts complimenting cage drivers who's vigilance sometimes saves our lives. While we all like to believe that we are perfect riders and that it is always the cage that is at fault, sometimes it's not. I speak for myself of course.
This evening, when I was, ironically, riding to get insurance for my bike (the allstate people required me to bring my bike in so they could look at it), I was so intent on looking for hazards and riding safely out of blindspots that I somehoe managed to run a red light. This was of course my error. I was scanning like I should have been, looked left then right, saw the cars were stopped, looked up, realized the light was red as I was crossing under it, made the decision that a panic stop would be unsafe and gunned it through the intersection (the most favorable of two unfavorable options).
There were horns and one of the cars, a aqua blue prius pulled up beside me and yelled at me after I had parked. I deserved the scolding. I had just made a serious error in running a light that had just turned red and partly owe the pleasure of this post to the cage drivers that decided not to jump the gun and accelerate off the line.
So I'd like this opportunity to say thank you to the gentleman in the aqua blue prius in Palo Alto, CA who did hit me this afternoon when I made a rider error.
While we should ride like the cages are out to kill us, take some comfort that while they may indeed be trying to take our lives, they don't mean to and if they could, some of them at least, would rather not to harm to anyone.
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I've almost done the same thing many times myself, I blame it all on my car driving course heh. In the course they want you to check so many things and constantly be calculating and reacting that its easy to forget some of the most important things. I said screw that bs, now I pay more attention to whats going on infront of me, I'd rather have someone smash me from behind than do it to someone else. At intersections I check left, center, right like I should but I just glance now and pay more attention to the lights, shifting properly and pedestrians.
so a guy driving a Prius scolded you hahahahahahaha
I too have a harder time judging yellow light times when on a bike. Probably because even though the gs can *theoretically* stop sooner... I fel that it doesn't have the stopping power my car does.
I think the stopping is just like the accelerating - better than most cars, not as good as some, but you feel it much more. I've had my car skid a bit in stops, and slide out a bit when taking turns too hot, and fishtail a bit in the snow. But none of that can quite match the pucker factor of when you're braking hard on the bike and the rear wheel locks up and you feel the tail skipping all over behind you.
Quote from: miloI think the stopping is just like the accelerating - better than most cars, not as good as some, but you feel it much more. I've had my car skid a bit in stops, and slide out a bit when taking turns too hot, and fishtail a bit in the snow. But none of that can quite match the pucker factor of when you're braking hard on the bike and the rear wheel locks up and you feel the tail skipping all over behind you.
I have a much higher pucker factor just leaning the bike over more than my comfort zone currently allows - I can e-brake all day with the ass end skipping around and as long as the bike is near vertical it doesn't bother me. Trying to take an exit ramp with just a *little* more lean scares me quite a bit, as is evidenced by the chicken strips on my tires. There's a point at which the bike just seems to fall over into a more progressive lean, and it's unnerving. Probably because I'm riding a higher-profile, wider rear (140/80) tire.