to inconsiderate drivers.

i was riding down macarthur blvd. towards pch tonight on the leftmost lane with my buddy following me in his r6. wide open 4 lane road. a silver minivan on the rightmost lane decides to cut into our lane without signaling. i quickly downshifted and gradually applied both brakes but wasn't getting enough stopping power. so i step down harder on my rear brake because the road was curving and i didn't want to lock my fronts; my rear brakes lock and i start to fishtail as my buddy is breathing in my tire smoke through his shoei helmet. i held my rear brakes and quickly regained control, pulled to right of the minivan and extended my middle-finger-gratitude and just shook my head in disbelief. 

my friend also pulled to the right and gave them a good cursing. i'm asian, so i'm allowed to say this: I CANNOT STAND OLD ASIAN DRIVERS!!!  it was a whole van-ful of them with an old guy that didn't seem to know his way around irvine/newport. now, i'm thinking, the only reason anyone would cut to the leftmost lane would be to make a u-turn or turn left into a street. the whole freakin' stretch for 2 miles was an island blocking the opposing traffic lanes! only god knows what was going on in his pea-sized brain. i should report his @$$ to take the "mature" driver dmv exam just so he can fail and lose his driving privileges.

anyway, i'm glad i lived to vent about this. time to sleep. good night, all.

how does your buddy fit inside his R6?

Crazy.




Oh yea.  that experience, while shocking to you, was nothing.  You will learn to experience worse.... wait until you're on the freeway at rush hour! WOOT!

we are all idiots on the highway, it just depends on your perspective

woops, thanks for pointing out my improper grammar. (i'm a stickler for writing accurately and properly.) "on" his r6. it would be crazy to see some guy fit in an r6, though.

agree, about the freeway bit. that's why i'm always far away from cars on the freeway and i avoid riding during rush hour. i live in fullerton and ride 3.4 miles to brea for work everyday. no need to ride on any damn cali-freeway during traffic. i have the m3 for that. 

i dunno frankie, i've been driving for 13 years and have never done anything that inconsiderate. people just need to learn to communicate their intentions on the road. whether that driver noticed me or not.

I agree drivers are idiots, but you need to practice your braking.  I will get flamed for saying so, but I really want people to be as safe as they possibly can.  So you can all think I'm a mean despicable bastard for offering my advice and I don't care.

Get to a parking lot right away and practice your emergency maneuvers.

1. Even *thinking* of down shifting in an emergency braking situation is ludicrous.  Your reaction time is the most critical thing in such a situation, and doing something other than braking leads to a dangerous delay.

2. You locked the rear wheel because you didn't want to lock the front?

3. You will not lock your front.  If you can, you need new tires.  I did a freakin stoppie the other day (flock of ducks  )  It has to be raining or some serious road debris for the front to lock up.  Even if it does, the corrective action to a locked front wheel is to release some braking pressure and unlock it.

4. The roads don't have shoulders over there?  Was braking really what you wanted to do?

This guy is smart: http://heath.agdog.com/fzr/safety/  Go down to the "Rider mentality" section.  The most important part:

Quote
A good rider will always find a way to blame himself for an accident or a near miss. In fact, there is almost always something s/he didn't do to help create the incident. Don't complain about poor drivers, rather learn by your experience of the encounter and how you can be ready to avoid it next time. The sooner you learn to accept the fact that you could have avoided your crash, the sooner you'll become a better rider.

As bad as idiot drivers are, YOU are responsible for making yourself safe.  I hope instead of learning more clever insults to throw at idiot drivers you are thinking about tuning your reflexes to do the right thing safely in a similar situation.

1. didn't need to think about downshifting, been driving manual transmission for 10 years. engine braking while normal braking gives you more stopping power. doing anything else other than braking would be to press hard to the right and pass on the right (there's an island to the left of the leftmost lane). <- that in itself contradicts number 4. braking was the only proper action, i thought about cutting right to pass but the car could've suddenly changed it's mind and taxed me on my left.

2. yes, the road was curving and i wasn't about to mash on my front brakes to lock it on a lean. i lost traction from locking the rear and i can easily regurgitate msf procedures, too. i remembered, if the rear locks let it slide, releasing will result in a high side.

3. tires have 2000 miles on it and i checked the tire pressure the night before, it's still fresh.

4. island to the immediate left, no shoulder, no escape route. passing on the right is too dangerous with an already unpredictable driver.

i understand that anytime i get on my bike and start my engine that i'm responsible for anything that happens to me. blaming anyone but myself for my actions would be ludicrous. clever curses are silent to those with their windows rolled up anyway. that's why i have you guys to vent to. 

i appreciate the new perspective, chuck, and i've read the site that you linked from top to bottom. we, as a fraternity of riders, can complain amongst ourselves as much as we want about idiot drivers, but on the road, the rider mentality is in full effect. thanks, i'll try to find a large-enough parking lot to practice my safety maneuvers at higher speeds. the 20mph drills on flat surfaces for the msf course is less than adequate for a real highway situation.

Quote from: minos36 on August 10, 2007, 06:58:38 AM
woops, thanks for pointing out my improper grammar. (i'm a stickler for writing accurately and properly.) "on" his r6. it would be crazy to see some guy fit in an r6, though.

agree, about the freeway bit. that's why i'm always far away from cars on the freeway and i avoid riding during rush hour. i live in fullerton and ride 3.4 miles to brea for work everyday. no need to ride on any damn cali-freeway during traffic. i have the m3 for that. 

i dunno frankie, i've been driving for 13 years and have never done anything that inconsiderate. people just need to learn to communicate their intentions on the road. whether that driver noticed me or not.

i heard a statistic about the road from my drivers' instructor when i was taking my riders class. 80% of car drivers don't pay attention to us and the other 20% ride or know what's it is like so they give us room. so 8 out of ten cars are likely to not even see you when you are GOING DOWN THE EXPRESS LANES AND PULL OUT GOD DAMN I GET THAT ALOT. sorry vent. one time i was going about 70 and the side traffic was going about 45 ish and this guy pulls out in front of me. thank god i saw him coming or i would have hit him. i was soooo pissed i wanted to just beat him with something.

Let me introduce you to my little friend.  He comes in many sizes: .380, .357, 9mm, .45, and for those of you wishing to inflict maximum damage he also comes in .454

Holy crap, no shoulder?  I think here in NYS that's illegal or something, because I've never seen a multi lane road with no shoulder.  That's why the shoulder has always been my getaway.

Quote from: spcterry on August 10, 2007, 10:13:32 AM
Let me introduce you to my little friend.  He comes in many sizes: .380, .357, 9mm, .45, and for those of you wishing to inflict maximum damage he also comes in .454

My favorite has to be the .50cal

But that is a little impractical for carry!

no shoulder, unless you consider a concrete island planter with shrubs and trees a shoulder.

i like my friend's suggestion of cutting all four of their valves stems when the driver is parked to keep him off the road for awhile. 

That sucks.

Fullerton? Me too

live in fullerton, work in brea, and was riding in irvine/newport beach area. cool, a fellow gs500'er in fullerton. awesome.

Quote from: minos36 on August 10, 2007, 01:21:25 PM
live in fullerton, work in brea, and was riding in irvine/newport beach area. cool, a fellow gs500'er in fullerton. awesome.

where do you live? im over by CSUF

     

slowerinthestraights> i live on yorba linda where the 57's at. the homestead across from target.

Nice, i live about 3 blocks from there, on the otherside of the fwy off yorba linda