What saved us yesterday

[HIGHLANDER]

Me too. Setting up on the outside into a right hander would allow you to see him sooner. Outside, inside, outside?

Complete wrong way of riding TIGHT twisties ! You gain a foot or so of sight line, going 30 / 40 mph that's a nano second..does you no good at all.............Out, in, out.......That's only good if it's wide open sweepers.... Stay Right Stay Alive.. well done Skibum!!!

Hmm, I guess we have to agree to disagree on this one. I would do out-in-out regardless. It gives me more time and space to see what is coming. If you are not out first then you have to do much more drastic turning at the same speed. Go prove this one wrong.

Spoken like a MSF instructor would ! It's the MSF mantra " out,in,out " . Do the math on paper, speed over ground, even five foot of extra sight line is less than a second reaction time @ 30mph not enough to avoid a bumber in your lane !! As long as your not already at max lean, there's more lean room left to make the corner. If your already moved right your already ahead of the oncoming ***.

 

[FuzzyRider]

I don't know what in hell these idiots are thinking-- often in pickup trucks-- who drive down the centerline so they can what? Keep from steering the vehicle? Go faster in their overweight pigs through the curves? Completely baffling considering the potential for disaster to motorcyclists. Someday, I hope someone has the time and inclination to turn around and wreak havoc on their ugly faces.

I just hope these iq-challenged drivers end up pulling that stunt (dirving their pick ups along the center line) around some blind curve at 55 MPH when some Freightliner is coming around the other way at 55 MPH. Not that I wish that kind of inconvienance on drivers of 18-wheelers or anything.

 

[blackarrow]

Suddenly I see a large pickup coming the other way, going really FAST and when I see him, he has his differential on the center line. It happened so fast that all I remember is pushing the bar down and trying to cut harder, harder . . . as I imagine for a second that he is about to hit me in the left knee with his left front bumper. I believe we missed getting hit by about a foot. After that happened, I remember thinking that what I feared would happen would probably have taken my leg off, and Judy's -- IF we were lucky enough to be alive.

It's great to hear you had a happy ending. Something very similar happened to me recently while on one of my favorite rides through the Illinois River Valley. I credit the excellent handling of the FJR for helping save my bacon. My last ride, a 1st gen. Gold Wing, wallowed badly in this type of situation and probably would have slammed me into the overhanging bluff.

 

[Ric in Sac]

Right tighty - - lefty loosey.

Highlander is correct - - of course. 60 mph is 90' per second. Increase sight distance 30' and you see .33 seconds earlier. However, perception/reaction time is approximately 1.5 seconds. Therefore, the out-in-out rider needs 1.5 seconds to begin his riding line adjustment plus the time it takes to actually move to the inside position. Why not just be there to begin with?

Do the "righty tighty" so you don't have to change the doo-doo diapee.

Good job Exskibum! :clapping: You forgot to mention that the Muzzy system weight savings and power gain helped save your *** so I can explain to my wife why it is an important safety item! Heh, Heh!!

 

[cougar8000]

aga, and what do you do about that deer that is waiting on the righty in the righty turn right next to the shoulder? or that truck that is parked there withe 3 feet of **** sticking out?

My position has very little to do with MSF in this case. I used to race bicycles in my early years and it is still the same.

If you are going at 60mph in the blind turn. Only GOD will help you regardless where you are going to park your rear. You are working harder tom make the turn if you are on the inside before the right hand turn.

The only thing I would agree with you is staying on the middle for the left turn. Yes middle not outside mid turn. Why? SO i have some room to move just in case.

And yes .33 seconds is huge if you are paying attention.

 

[jeremybhm]

Spoken like a MSF instructor would ! It's the MSF mantra " out,in,out " . Do the math on paper, speed over ground, even five foot of extra sight line is less than a second reaction time @ 30mph not enough to avoid a bumber in your lane !! As long as your not already at max lean, there's more lean room left to make the corner. If your already moved right your already ahead of the oncoming ***.

Well, if you read Hough, it's out-in-out with a late apex (OIOw/aLA), not out-in-out with a mid-turn apex like on a race track. Even though site lines are better with the OIOw/aLA your lean angle is much lower at the point where you would be entering the 'blind' part of the turn. I think some others have also mentioned that an oncoming car partially in your lane isn't the only danger. Boulders, parked cars, animals on the left can all eat up some of that traction.

So if it's a descending decreasing radius turn to the right, and you enter the turn all the way to the right without the knowledge that it tightens up, you can get more lean out of the bike to negotiate the turn, but what if you have to get around a pile of rocks? or brake? How much traction is left at that point? How much ground clearance would there be if you needed to hit the brakes? If you stood it up to go wide of the rocks, would you run wide into the other lane? You might be better off just downshifting to first and idling around the curve...

 

[OrangevaleFJR]

Sure seems very few of us are pros in these matters. Even the pros disagree on this one. The bottom line is that we aren't racing on the road, and if we are then our next accident is just a matter of time. I don't care where you are in the turn and how you position yourself, please just do it with little enough speed to be able to maneuver the bike if need be.

This is the hardest thing for me to do. I LOVE taking the twisties very aggressively, but I have learned to really only push it when I know the road well. Even then I run the risk of finding some debris in my path so I know I'm taking my life in my own hands.

We do this. Like someone wiser than me once wrote, "If we cared that much about safety, we'd all be driving Volvos."

 

[rogdeb]

Sure seems very few of us are pros in these matters. Even the pros disagree on this one. The bottom line is that we aren't racing on the road, and if we are then our next accident is just a matter of time. I don't care where you are in the turn and how you position yourself, please just do it with little enough speed to be able to maneuver the bike if need be.

I agree ------ +1 --------- ditto --------- gunny! Take yer pick.

 

[Toecutter]

These type of incidents happen so often there, that I expect it. Usually they aren't more than half way into my lane.

And that's why I always try to stay out of the left half of "my" lane. It isn't "my" lane. I'm only borrowing it. I figure the right half is the lowest risk, given the law of averages. YMMV

Check in with the link in my sig for another related discussion. Nothing good ever comes from tangling with an oncoming vehicle, unless your SO didn't care much for you anyway and gets a nice payoff from your demise....

 

[Hawk28]

Exskibum,

I live in your area and am on these same great roads all the time. Sat. , before last was my most recent time. Seems that the best chance to reduce the number of these encounters is to set out at sunrise. Maybe all those new folks moving into the foothills has contributed to the problem.

Hawk