Great video! It's nice to see the rider's perspective, I've never riden in Cali only driven the cage down and watched you guys go by. I'm moving from Western WA to Redding later this summer. I'm an experienced rider but never done any splitting. Do you think the California Experienced Rider Course a good idea to ramp me up to Cali riding? I know Redding doesn't have the traffic like the Bay area, but what do you guys recommend?
Thank you. In my experience, the basic and experienced rider classes do not touch on this, at least not on the range. I think most riders new to it kinda ease into it, slowly gaining confidence. You no doubt have slow-speed skills, which along with good traffic-reading skills is all that is required, I think.
Here's some of the stuff I think I've figured out about it, stuff that I do and think about anyway:
- Two fingers on the front brake; right foot often suspended over the rear brake. Not much swerving room, so your best emergency maneuver is usually a straight, rapid stop.
- Look straight ahead, opening up your vision to take in a wide arc of what's going on immediately ahead (at slow speed what's going on way ahead loses importance).
- If one lane of traffic stops and the next one is moving pretty good, track next to a car in the faster lane, or better yet get in the faster lane; cars will jump over in those cases.
- Put your brights on when you go up the middle.
- Get comfortable going over lane-marker dots (BTW, they're very slick in the rain).
- When you go to the front of a light, make sure your rear tire is not on a lane-marker dot or slick paint (you need grip in case of rapid acceleration).
- Lane sharing and going up between cars on the freeway at freeway speeds or moving in an out of cars on the freeway when at speed are not the same thing.
- "If a car can do it, it ain't a motorcycle advantage; it's breaking the law." JB's Principle of Motorcycle Advantage. This applies, for example, to going up the right-hand bicycle or breakdown lane, over the white fogline.
- When lane sharing, if a car next to you suddenly guns it to "beat you," relax, don't throttle the goose. He ain't going nowhere, and big throttle when lane sharing can get you into trouble fast.
- Always slow when next to convertibles with cute women, and give them the rolling-fingers wave.
- Stay the f**k away from semi-trucks, and any big truck. If you must pass them, do so when they are stopped and there is two-bike widths between them and the car in the other lane.
- As you're approaching the slow and stopped traffic on the freeway and getting ready to go up the middle, wait till the traffic settles and everyone's through flying into different lanes they think are moving faster. To the point where you're doing a little stop and go before going up the middle.
- Avoid going around to the right or left into the break-down lane; you may get caught and not able to get back in between tight cars. Also, see JB Principle.
- Do less lane sharing on weekends when traffic is moving pretty well. I worry that on weekends it seems more obnoxious to drivers.
BTW, a lot of riders will make the statement about not sharing if the traffic is moving faster than X mph, and never go more than Y mph faster than the cars, etc. I don't know what to do with those numbers. I don't spend time doing speedometer calculations when I'm trying not to get hit. I rely more on intuition and experience to know what feels safe.
Welcome to California! Hope to get together soon! We got a local guy moving up to Redding soon (what in the heck was his handle?).
Jb
