[IanC]

I’ve been riding about 2 months now (Honda Rebel) and I’ve been feeling a little cocky about how well I was doing. So yesterday had my first close incident. I went for a ride yesterday and for the first time ended up on a pseudo freeway in heavy traffic; I was paying attention to the car in front of me (BMW) who kept riding his brake lights. Because I wasn’t scanning ahead I didn’t see a traffic light go yellow, the car in front of me stopped and I slammed my brake on, I guess my training paid off, because luckily I was in the right lane so I could move over into the bike lane, I didn’t lock up the front wheel, I did lock up the back but kept it locked, so kept the track. I stopped before going into cross traffic which hadn’t started yet but I would have hit the BMW if I didn’t move over. I felt pretty stupid, new lesson learned about always scanning and if the guy in front of me is driving weird back off.

So today, I’m like I need get back on the 22 bhp. I was getting everything ready and rolled the bike out, onto my slopped driveway and put the garage door down then mounted the bike. As my leg was going over it hit my tail bag and the bike started to come down (side stand was already up). I held on and gentle laid her down (advantage of a light bike). I got her back up, checked every out, nothing was damaged except my ego. Went out to Barnes and Noble to use my gift card and bought Proficient Motorcycling. This was one of the best rides I’ve had in a while, I was being more cautious with shifting, putting my feet down, turning, traffic handling, etc. and got rewarded by on one stretch caught all the lights for about 15 minutes.

[megaspaz]

Dun worry… tomorrow’s a new day for having the same humbling feeling…

At least it sounds like no one was around to witness the lay down. Which is more than what I can say for my luck…

—
If there’s anything more important than my ego
around, I want it caught and shot now…

[kirk]

Ah don’t feel bad. About a year ago I was driving in front of my work building. As I passed I saw several of my coworkers out front. I looped around and drove into the parking lot. I stopped and got ready to put the kick stand down. I somehow missed the kickstand, lost my balance, and had my bike crash onto the ground. After quickly picking it up I noticed quite a few scratches on the side and loud howls of laughter from my coworkers!

[Jiriki]

at least it wasn’t a duc… the gentle lay down would have cost your first born

[Amoryl]

glad to hear it was pretty painless for ya. don’t let yourself get into the mindset that “It had to/has to happen” though, accept that it might, and be ever vigilant, but don’t let yourself stress out thinking that it absolutely will happen again. that kind of mentality can be very self fulfilling. just don’t forget the lesson learned, glad you got right back on the bike, this time….keep the rubber side down

[Rab]

Keep two seconds between you and the car in front (four in the wet).

It’s called “stopping distance” and most car and motorcyclists don’t know what it is.

[smokeizfire]

The DMV motorcycle hand book tells you that, at least in the state of California. Anything less is considered tailgating.

HE WHO DIES WITH THE MOST TOYS WINS

[Andrew]

Pretty sure the distance in a car is 3 seconds that I was told should really be 3 in the defensive driving course I had to take here in IL.

[CBennett]

Hey, I know what your saying..I locked up the FRONT brake on one of the MSF bikes..luckily it was their bike not mine . That wont be happening again any time soon .

[Anonymous]

Yes, I should have said “at least two seconds”, however, with three seconds, you just know that some smart alec will jump in the space causing you to feel like you’re going backwards. I think two’s about right (in my area anyway).

Rab.

[NikoT]

That cocky feeling is very dangerous. To give an example I heard that most skydiving accidents involving chutes that didn’t deploy happen to people who have around 100 jumps. They start feeling like they really know what they’re doing and end up cutting corners.

[megaspaz]

yeh, dropping the duc would suck ass… >.< —
If there’s anything more important than my ego
around, I want it caught and shot now…

[IanC]

There seems to be a misunderstanding from my post. I wasn’t following closely. I was at least 3 seconds behind. But since the guy was on and off of his brakes for no apparant reason I was watching them and got lulled. The realy problem was that I wasn’t scanning ahead of him so I didn’t realize that the last time he hit his brakes he was going down to zero.

By the time I realized I was closing the distance awfully quickly I was to close.

[Budd]

I hate people like that. The best thing to do is to get around them. Not only is there a chance you are going to hit them, but a chance you are going to get hit from behind.

“I am the best there is at what I do, and what I do ain’t nice.”-Wolverine

[Rab]

What you were doing is called target fixation. You should look where you want to go and not where you don’t.

Actually, what the car driver was doing *may* have been good practice. MSF and others tell us that we should flash our brake lights when slowing down as a flashing light grabs the attention of the drivers behind more. I think you proved that.

Anyway, a lesson learned…

[Author]

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