Well that was a bit close

[Rawwr]

Ah, 3rd day of new bike ownership and very nearly Chilli'd it into the side of a Fiesta van.

Coming home down the A1 on the inside lane, 50mph, not taking the piss, etc etc. Got to the Buckden roundabout and started going around as any sane person would, when an older guy in a white Fiesta van decides that he needs to enter the roundabout... right in front of me.

And I do mean RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME.

Both brakes. Hard. I really, genuinely thought; "Great, I'm really going to get the piss taken out of me for stacking it on the 3rd day."

It was close. Really, really, really, too ing close for my liking - we're talking about millimetres away as opposed to centimetres - but trying to catch the nice balance between shedding speed in a hurry and locking the front kept my brain busy for a few picoseconds. I actually thought my front tyre came into contact with his van.

He headed over the roundabout (which would've been the exit to my right) and I followed with a black rage brewing and adrenalin up. Maybe I should stove his face in with my right boot? Anyway, I was all ready to follow this nimrod as far as he was due to go but to my suprise he pulled over when it was safe and I pulled in infront of him.

Usually when people almost kill me, they either just ignore me or give me the finger. The guy got out of his van and was shaking. I think it was at that point I decided not to kill him. He couldn't apologise enough.

"I'm really, really sorry. I wasn't paying attention and can't believe I did that. I'm just so sorry. I used to be a biker but had to give it up a few years ago. I'm so sorry. I can't believe I did that."

He repeated that paragraph about 300 times and he looked genuinely distressed and shaken up - more so than I was. The black rage disappeared quite quickly. Common sense and reason took over. I was still alive, the bike was still in one piece, nothing had happened but this guy was practically in tears at the roadside. So, I thought, at least he stopped, many wouldn't have done. Many would've probably just tried to off even if they'd knocked me off.

So fair play to him for stopping and at least realising what he'd done. Everyone makes mistakes after all. But it was close. Starting to realise that perhaps riding a black bike at night isn't wonderful for visibility.

[anonymous-user]

Sounds as if the gods were smiling on you then - lucky escape! Sadly what the bloke did was all too common, but fair play to him for pulling over - another biker under similar circumstances might have kicked the stuffing out of him or at least verbally torn a strip off him - brave of him to stop and risk that.

[black-k1]

Well done RAWWR for keeping your cool and keeping the bike upright. While it is no excuse for "Mr Fiesta", we all make mistakes and when driving these mistakes can endanger others. The "big men" (and women!) are those who admit their mistakes.

Nice bike BTW. I'm glad it didn't end up a different shape to that shown in your pictures.

Ride safe and enjoy

Edited by black-k1 on Tuesday 14th November 06:23

[chilli]

Rawwr said:

Ah, 3rd day of new bike ownership and very nearly Chilli'd it into the side of a Fiesta van.

Oi!
Glad you came out of it ok mate, sounded too close for comfort. I know it sounds funny, but you kinda get used to it. I mean , you get used to people thinking they'll just nip into that space in front of that bike, or I'll just pull out in front, he'll stop.
I had an HGV pull out in front of me on the A12 this morning, whilst travelling at about 110 leps. He pulled out cause there was a recovery vehicle with yellow flashing lights on the hard shoulder (lane 1 empty).
Cue me braking with everything I had, back was locked, front couldn't have been far off. He moved back over after about half a mile and a told him what I thought, with the use of various hand signals. Then on came all of his lights etc, and I thought about stopping and dragging the fat, old, bald, 40 players a day smoking, pie eating bloater, from his cab and slapping him about for a bit, but then thought well if I did that for every time I get "abused" on the road, I'd be late for everything!
Glad to hear you're ok though.
Cheers.

[Carrera2]

chilli said:

Rawwr said:

Ah, 3rd day of new bike ownership and very nearly Chilli'd it into the side of a Fiesta van.

Oi!
Glad you came out of it ok mate, sounded too close for comfort. I know it sounds funny, but you kinda get used to it. I mean , you get used to people thinking they'll just nip into that space in front of that bike, or I'll just pull out in front, he'll stop.
I had an HGV pull out in front of me on the A12 this morning, whilst travelling at about 110 leps. He pulled out cause there was a recovery vehicle with yellow flashing lights on the hard shoulder (lane 1 empty).
Cue me braking with everything I had, back was locked, front couldn't have been far off. He moved back over after about half a mile and a told him what I thought, with the use of various hand signals. Then on came all of his lights etc, and I thought about stopping and dragging the fat, old, bald, 40 players a day smoking, pie eating bloater, from his cab and slapping him about for a bit, but then thought well if I did that for every time I get "abused" on the road, I'd be late for everything!
Glad to hear you're ok though.
Cheers.

In all fairness Chilli - from what you've said (obviously not being there myself) I'd say that you were in the worng in that situation.

It's pretty common for people to move from lane 1 to 2 if there's a recovery truck on the hard shoulder - quite often they park at an angle and more often than not there are people milling around the sides of the vehicle. Obviously, there's never an excuse for pulling out without indicating, but yuo can pre-empt these sort of things for an easier life

Ride safe!

[chilli]

Carrera2 said:

chilli said:

Rawwr said:

Ah, 3rd day of new bike ownership and very nearly Chilli'd it into the side of a Fiesta van.

Oi!
Glad you came out of it ok mate, sounded too close for comfort. I know it sounds funny, but you kinda get used to it. I mean , you get used to people thinking they'll just nip into that space in front of that bike, or I'll just pull out in front, he'll stop.
I had an HGV pull out in front of me on the A12 this morning, whilst travelling at about 110 leps. He pulled out cause there was a recovery vehicle with yellow flashing lights on the hard shoulder (lane 1 empty).
Cue me braking with everything I had, back was locked, front couldn't have been far off. He moved back over after about half a mile and a told him what I thought, with the use of various hand signals. Then on came all of his lights etc, and I thought about stopping and dragging the fat, old, bald, 40 players a day smoking, pie eating bloater, from his cab and slapping him about for a bit, but then thought well if I did that for every time I get "abused" on the road, I'd be late for everything!
Glad to hear you're ok though.
Cheers.

In all fairness Chilli - from what you've said (obviously not being there myself) I'd say that you were in the worng in that situation.

It's pretty common for people to move from lane 1 to 2 if there's a recovery truck on the hard shoulder - quite often they park at an angle and more often than not there are people milling around the sides of the vehicle. Obviously, there's never an excuse for pulling out without indicating, but yuo can pre-empt these sort of things for an easier life

Ride safe!

Na, I'd never be in the wrong!! I was just riding along unmolested, when he decided to pull out with about 50 or so yards to spare..... He could and should have waited.

Interesting point actually...Pre-emptinmg peoples moves. There is only so much of this you can do. Whilst commuting you have to have an element of "he'd never do that" or "he can't do that" whilst evaluating a cars' options.(ie 2 cars side by side aren't gonna try and change lanes. However, they might but you have to weigh up the probability). I know this sounds bonkers, and I expect a few people to give me a bit of a pasting on this, but I bet most people think it. If you never put yourself into that situation, you just wouldn't get anywhere...don't you think?!

Right, back to business law...exciting stuff this.

[Carrera2]

chilli said:

Carrera2 said:

chilli said:

Rawwr said:

Ah, 3rd day of new bike ownership and very nearly Chilli'd it into the side of a Fiesta van.

Oi!
Glad you came out of it ok mate, sounded too close for comfort. I know it sounds funny, but you kinda get used to it. I mean , you get used to people thinking they'll just nip into that space in front of that bike, or I'll just pull out in front, he'll stop.
I had an HGV pull out in front of me on the A12 this morning, whilst travelling at about 110 leps. He pulled out cause there was a recovery vehicle with yellow flashing lights on the hard shoulder (lane 1 empty).
Cue me braking with everything I had, back was locked, front couldn't have been far off. He moved back over after about half a mile and a told him what I thought, with the use of various hand signals. Then on came all of his lights etc, and I thought about stopping and dragging the fat, old, bald, 40 players a day smoking, pie eating bloater, from his cab and slapping him about for a bit, but then thought well if I did that for every time I get "abused" on the road, I'd be late for everything!
Glad to hear you're ok though.
Cheers.

In all fairness Chilli - from what you've said (obviously not being there myself) I'd say that you were in the worng in that situation.

It's pretty common for people to move from lane 1 to 2 if there's a recovery truck on the hard shoulder - quite often they park at an angle and more often than not there are people milling around the sides of the vehicle. Obviously, there's never an excuse for pulling out without indicating, but yuo can pre-empt these sort of things for an easier life

Ride safe!

Na, I'd never be in the wrong!! I was just riding along unmolested, when he decided to pull out with about 50 or so yards to spare..... He could and should have waited.

Interesting point actually...Pre-emptinmg peoples moves. There is only so much of this you can do. Whilst commuting you have to have an element of "he'd never do that" or "he can't do that" whilst evaluating a cars' options.(ie 2 cars side by side aren't gonna try and change lanes. However, they might but you have to weigh up the probability). I know this sounds bonkers, and I expect a few people to give me a bit of a pasting on this, but I bet most people think it. If you never put yourself into that situation, you just wouldn't get anywhere...don't you think?!

Right, back to business law...exciting stuff this.

Yep I know what you mean. I swear there's a kind of 6th sense when riding though - I've looked at cars before and just *known* they're going to do something and half the time I'm convinced it's before they realise

[Steve_T]

Chilli, I appreciate what you say about weighing risks, but if you've already worked out what a driver might do, why would you not act upon it? Here's my read on your situation. You're hard to see on a bike and it's also hard for other vehicles to judge your speed of approach. You're the one that's chosen to travel at however many leptons, so it's your responsibility to take account of what other road users might do. They might do something really stupid, but there's no point being in the right as someone takes you out. Sorry if that sounds a bit preachy, but I think your attitude makes a big difference in riding.

Steve.

Edited by Steve_T on Tuesday 14th November 08:43

[Rawwr]

If I was in Chilli's situation and saw the recovery vehicle, in about 5 nanoseconds I would've computed:

- Recovery vehicle recoving or assisting?
- If assisting is the car he helped indicating to pull out but obscured from the van?
- If yes, the inside lane is going to clear and lanes will compress
- Back off

But maybe that's just me

[Kiwi_uk]

Rawwr said:

Ah, 3rd day of new bike ownership and very nearly Chilli'd it into the side of a Fiesta van.

Glad it worked out mate. Round abouts are the best place to be doing emergency braking considering all the crap on them so well done!!!!!

[chilli]

Valid points.
ps - I didn't eve see the recovery vehicle till I was doing 50mph behind the HGV.

[LittleMissPetrol]

I think that bikers shouldn't have to pre-empt drivers moves... however if you get squished its a bit late to argue. Maybe as the biker is gonna end up worse off its up to them to go the extra way to look after themselves?

Glad you and the bike are ok

[Carrera2]

LittleMissPetrol said:

I think that bikers shouldn't have to pre-empt drivers moves... however if you get squished its a bit late to argue. Maybe as the biker is gonna end up worse off its up to them to go the extra way to look after themselves?

You've just argued against yourself there! Well done

[virgil]

Carrera2 said:

LittleMissPetrol said:

I think that bikers shouldn't have to pre-empt drivers moves... however if you get squished its a bit late to argue. Maybe as the biker is gonna end up worse off its up to them to go the extra way to look after themselves?

You've just argued against yourself there! Well done

Exactly...having now seen how bad car drivers are, deliberately or just with no care, the few times I have been on a bike just show me how masively vunerable I am. I certainly look for bikes nowwhen I'm in the car which I never really did before.

Motherin Law 'got hit' by a bike on a roundabout a few weeks back. Pulled onto a round about 'and suddenly from no where there was this bike there'. She stopped...second fatal flaw...and the girl on the bike hit the SIDE of her car. Biker and pillion were thankfully OK, but MIL still can't see it was her fault. Have tried nicely to point out that bikes don't just appear from vacuums by magic, but also don't really want to fall out with her!
Insurance is being disputed.

Rawwr - glad you did not come a cropper, for your sake and the bike.

Virgil.

Edited by virgil on Tuesday 14th November 10:05

[aeropilot]

Rawwr said:

Both brakes. Hard. I really, genuinely thought; "Great, I'm really going to get the piss taken out of me for stacking it on the 3rd day."

Yup, know the feeling, except it happened to me on the way back to the training school from the test centre after having just passed my test 10 mins before......
It was an old Doris that did it to me.

Glad you came out of it OK too.......

[Rawwr]

What I find interesting is how the brain deals with stuff in those kinda situations. For me everything going into super slow-motion and it seems like I have minutes to think about everything before actually actioning it. Kind of like Neo. I'll shut up now.

[Carrera2]

Rawwr said:

What I find interesting is how the brain deals with stuff in those kinda situations. For me everything going into super slow-motion and it seems like I have minutes to think about everything before actually actioning it. Kind of like Neo. I'll shut up now.

Rawwr is 'the One'!

[hiccy]

Glad you're okay mate, even more impressed that you kept your cool with the guy and even MORE impressed with the guys reaction! Sounds like he was more scared than you.

Know what you mean about the slowmo stuff: I regard it as a rare moment when the brain is working at or near 100%: the adrenalin kinda sparks it all into life.

Do u reckon guys like Vale and Schui get that all the time?