I am curious to see if cars are actually as close or as far back as they seem in the mirror?  I do a shoulder check, but at 50+ I don't get a real good look.  When do you know that you have enough clearance to get over?  Thanks.

1. you should always look over your shoulder anyways before changing lanes.

2. The mirrors are either concave or convex, i do not remember wich, it distorts the vision in either way.

I'd park the bike in the driveway with your car behind it and sit on the bike.  Check the mirror and see how far back the car looks.  Then push the bike forward with your feet a distance that you would feel safe merging in front of a moving car.  Then check the mirror again and try to see small the car looks in the mirror.  

Use various cars.   Check several different models for size and fit.  

I'm actually quite fond of checking models for fit.  

Irregardless of the mirrors, I wait until I can see both headlamps in the mirror, signal, headcheck, and if it's clear, move over. This partly ensures that you will not perceivably cut someone off. To me, lane choice is everything.

To be aware of everything that is going on around you takes alot of time and experience. It seems overwhelming at first. Example: You're in the second lane of a three lane highway. There is an onramp followed by an exit coming up. There is a car in the first lane you are overtaking that may speed up to take the same exit. You have noted a car coming up fast behind you that was in your lane and is now in the #3 lane, he seems to be going fast enough to overtake you and may attempt to take the same exit. Also, there may or not be a car (if you didn't catch it in your peripherial vision) getting onto the freeway via the onramp. All three of these vehicles may take the exit that you want! Now, what if, the speeding car got behind you and decided to cut between you and the slower car? He'd cut you off, disallowing you to pass the first car safely, and make your exit!

Prior planning prevents poor performance. And, I don't like to inconvenience others for my mistakes. Thus my choice, would have been to slow down and drop behind the slower car, thereby, I am in the lane that I need well in advance, and am going slow enough to brake quickly if needed. Flashing the rear brake light to let the speeder behind me know that I'm slowing. It's up to him to move over to pass, or slow down to make the exit. We all have to slow down for the exit anyway. And this allows the oncoming car to have enough space to accelerate onto the freeway. This ensures a 'flow'...and I wouldn't piss off the slow car by cutting them off to get my exit, leaving a bad impression of motorcyclists in that driver's mind.

Now you might say, why didn't you drop a gear and overtake the slower car to take your exit? Let's say I did: the slow car now has to slow down to allow enough following space to fall in behind me, to take same exit, this then also causes the speeder to either cut him off entering the exit and riding my @r$e, removing that 'cusion of safety' between all three of us, I am now entering a turn hot, and if it's raining=not good, not to mention the oncoming car will have to slow down to allow this whole mess to get out of his way so he can accelerate the best he can onto a FREEWAY.

Thank you for the tips.  I will try the driveway mirror check just to get an idea of the distance.  I do shoulder checks, so I think I check my blind spot well enough, my main concern was even if I could see the entire car in my mirror is that enough space.  Scratch I definitely agree with you on getting into the lane you want ahead of time, it saves everyone a lot of heartache.  And hopefully they will not want to run you down getting off the exit.

i know on my 2002 that the car seem fruther back there then it is so if  try to swich lanes using just my mirros i might get my back wheel on the front bumper of the car behind and in the nest lane of me  

Quote from: Daniely
2. The mirrors are either concave or convex, i do not remember wich, it distorts the vision in either way.

Funny, my bikes seems to have 'flat' mirrors - that is, all the cars seem big and close and I get to see a lot of my elbows. These mirrors are rather useless in tight traffic.

Maybe both mirrors were broken and the prev owner replaced the glass with some cheap stuff?

Is it possible to get concave or convex (the one that would make the objects seem smaller) glass cut (or made) to size to fit into my existing mirrors? Or should I go and get whole new mirrors?

D.

GS mirrors are almost flat ... but usually they are convex ... one of those blind spot stickies works well on my truck ... Maybe should try it on the GS.
Cool.
Srinath.