A cager almost got me today.

[earlfor]

Had I applied full brakes with the intent of coming to a stop at the time the SUV's brakelights first flashed. I think I could have stopped. Half a second later, it was definitely too late to try.

My last two close calls have only been survivable if riding a motorcycle which affords the ability/possibility of avoidance. Driving a cage would have gotten me killed both times. The bike has saved me twice, so I have something of a wry smile when someone starts telling me how dangerous motorcycles are. I'll just launder my underwear and keep on riding I guess. :-)



Earl

If you had begun a quick stop when he suddenly pulled off, do you think you would you have had time to stop or would you have hit him?
Good thing you weren't in a cage yourself that day. There would have been two totaled vehicles. The other driver might have paid for his stupidity with his life, and you'd have air-bag burns and messed up limbs.

[DanTheMan]

Earl,
I have to agree with your last posts, however, my last two close encounters have been of the "deer kind(or when I lived in Hawa'ii da deer kine",\\/) and I would've been more protected in a cage. That being said, I avoided both of the suicidal deer close encountered,,,.. and still live to tell about it....:-D

[earlfor]

Yeah, a cage will protect you from an onrushing deer, but a charging Escalade is a different problem :-) The only similarity I see is that both are driven with minimal brain activity. hehe

Earl

Earl,
I have to agree with your last posts, however, my last two close encounters have been of the "deer kind(or when I lived in Hawa'ii da deer kine",\\/) and I would've been more protected in a cage. That being said, I avoided both of the suicidal deer close encountered,,,.. and still live to tell about it....:-D

[jbs80106]

Chalk it up to experience....

I think my 2+ yr riding experience instinct would have been to brake and brake hard. Probably would have meant crashing into the side of the SUV.

Accelerating saved your ass.

Its not exactly instinctive to think about speeding UP in such a situation. Happened to me in my car once...deer coming across the road...could have sped up and swerved opposite to his direction of travel and gotten by but instead jammed on the brakes only to clip him with my passenger side fender.....

My take way from your experience is a reminder to consider ALL options when shiet happens. Swerve, emergency brake, accelerate, alternate path of travel or some combo of them all. I think a newbies 1st reaction is to lock up the brakes. I remember them drilling that into us at MSF....hard braking will only work if you A) have sufficient space to stop, or B) plan on making contact and want to be moving as slowly as possible. Emergency braking with swerving is a good combo...but so would be your move...

[tkent02]

Good to hear your skill and experience was up to the challenge presented by this moron... And your restraint, I would have turned around and killed the idiot, or worse.
Most cager's feeble attempts on my life are amusing, I can almost always see them coming. A few are good enough tries to be startling and require quick evasion. I think from your previous posts you ride like I do, not ever giving these clowns a chance, this guy got past this defence.
This one would have pisesd me off.

Just happy you got away with it, this forum would not be the same without you flipping me schit all the time.

[earlfor]

I didnt use the brakes at any point. The complication with brakes is you can have 100% maneuverability or 100% braking, but not 100% of both at the same time. Any combination can be had, i.e 10% maneuverability and 90% braking etc. My feeling on the subject is when you need maximum avoidance agility, the one thing you dont want is anything that decreases that ability, consequently, braking is not normally my first response. The downside is if you dont win the bet, and take a hit, it will be at maximum speed and impact.

I think braking, unless done vigorously and early, would have resulted in a low speed crash into the side of the SUV.

Earl

I think my 2+ yr riding experience instinct would have been to brake and brake hard. Probably would have meant crashing into the side of the SUV.

Accelerating saved your ass.

Its not exactly instinctive to think about speeding UP in such a situation. Happened to me in my car once...deer coming across the road...could have sped up and swerved opposite to his direction of travel and gotten by but instead jammed on the brakes only to clip him with my passenger side fender.....

My take way from your experience is a reminder to consider ALL options when shiet happens. Swerve, emergency brake, accelerate, alternate path of travel or some combo of them all. I think a newbies 1st reaction is to lock up the brakes. I remember them drilling that into us at MSF....hard braking will only work if you A) have sufficient space to stop, or B) plan on making contact and want to be moving as slowly as possible. Emergency braking with swerving is a good combo...but so would be your move...

[earlfor]

The clown got past my recognition profiles because I could not predict soon enough what he was going to do. I plan on putting some more effort into psychic predictions. LOL

Not to worry, I still have a big bucket of Schnitt put aside especially for you. :-)

Earl

Good to hear your skill and experience was up to the challenge presented by this moron... And your restraint, I would have turned around and killed the idiot, or worse.
Most cager's feeble attempts on my life are amusing, I can almost always see them coming. A few are good enough tries to be startling and require quick evasion. I think from your previous posts you ride like I do, not ever giving these clowns a chance, this guy got past this defence.
This one would have pisesd me off.

Just happy you got away with it, this forum would not be the same without you flipping me schit all the time.

[earlfor]

On a more humorous note, and YES! this really had me laughing like a madman. :-) I was out for ride this afternoon, nice day, nice quiet ride, no cager confrontations and was heading home. I turned onto the road I live on about 1/2 mile from my house, accelerated to the 40 mph speed limit and......................... you ready for this one? A deer ran out of the woods in front of me. LMAO Jeez! It was about a 4 foot miss though and I had plenty of time (probably almost a whole second) to take evasive action, so it was comparatively a "ho hum" situation after the SUV thing. eheheheh
I just cant wait to see what tomorrow's "bullet" will be. LOL

Earl

[tkent02]

I still have a big bucket of Schnitt put aside especially for you. :-)

Earl

A big bucket of Schnitt?
Is that what they make Schnitzel out of?

[Killer2600]

Man that was a close one, glad you made it threw without a scratch. In hind sight the pick-up driver having to swerve would have indicated the SUV driver was unaware of what was behind him/her or just didn't care what they hit or got hit by. Either way that SUV driver is one that didn't need to be on the road, they obviously shouldn't drive if you don't wanna keep an eye on traffic but that's another lazy driver rant.

[earlfor]

I have thought about why it happened and my conclusion is.................

It was along a straight stretch without any oncoming traffic. The pickup was tailgating the SUV and would not pass even though he had unlimited opportunity to do so. The SUV was going slower than the speed limit because he wanted to turn around and go in the opposite direction. The SUV driver became irritated at having the truck glued six feet from his rear bumper for no reason. His attention was on the truck and the longer the truck was up his butt, the angrier he became.
Finally, the SUV driver jumped on his brakes to get the truck to either hit him or back off. He was PIS SED, so he jumped on the brakes, cut his wheel to pull onto the right shoulder and skidded onto the grass. The pick up brakes hard, then releases his brake and swerves around the SUV using the clear oncoming lane to do so. Then the SUV whips a hard U-turn and the accident sequence begins. The driver at primary fault is the pick up truck driver. Had he given the SUV a normal and reasonable amount of space, none of the events would have happened.

Earl

Man that was a close one, glad you made it threw without a scratch. In hind sight the pick-up driver having to swerve would have indicated the SUV driver was unaware of what was behind him/her or just didn't care what they hit or got hit by. Either way that SUV driver is one that didn't need to be on the road, they obviously shouldn't drive if you don't wanna keep an eye on traffic but that's another lazy driver rant.

[Killer2600]

I have thought about why it happened and my conclusion is.................

It was along a straight stretch without any oncoming traffic. The pickup was tailgating the SUV and would not pass even though he had unlimited opportunity to do so. The SUV was going slower than the speed limit because he wanted to turn around and go in the opposite direction. The SUV driver became irritated at having the truck glued six feet from his rear bumper for no reason. His attention was on the truck and the longer the truck was up his butt, the angrier he became.
Finally, the SUV driver jumped on his brakes to get the truck to either hit him or back off. He was PIS SED, so he jumped on the brakes, cut his wheel to pull onto the right shoulder and skidded onto the grass. The pick up brakes hard, then releases his brake and swerves around the SUV using the clear oncoming lane to do so. Then the SUV whips a hard U-turn and the accident sequence begins. The driver at primary fault is the pick up truck driver. Had he given the SUV a normal and reasonable amount of space, none of the events would have happened.

Earl

You give the SUV driver too much credit, if the SUV driver was getting mad at the truck tailgating him there would need to be a reason. Best reason would be it's unsafe and the truck could end up hitting him. Thus if you are getting more irritated that the truck could hit you it's not likely (if your a good and sane driver) that you'll be like the hell with it hit me. Now if you were insane you would go ahead and do that but there's no reason why you'd swerve out the way and help the truck not hit you, you did just decide the hell with it and let him hit you didn't you? And even IF you did there's no reason why you would then make a u-turn. If you miss your turn you don't drive endlessly, do all the above, and then head back.

Fact is the SUV driver was a terrible one and likely not paying attention as so many drivers do. My scenario is the SUV driver was driving slow because they were yakking on the cell phone, the truck driver ended up catching up to the slow driving SUV but decided he rather have the idiot suv driver in front of him rather than behind--possibly getting upset that the suv is too busy on the phone to drive the normal speed. The suv driver too busy with the conversation on the phone misses his/her turn and as soon as he had time to realize he/she did so he/she abruptly makes a u-turn to correct the mistake without putting full attention on the road but instead some attention on the turn they missed and the rest on the oh so important phone call. At least that's my thoughts :-D

[earlfor]

To be equally fair to both, my choice (had it been available) would have been to launch one Exocet missile at each of them. No more problem. :-)

Earl

[quote=Killer2600;
835203]You give the SUV driver too much credit, i

[Ramminron]

Well after having the "Honor" of riding with Earlfor on a few occasions ,his actions are not surpising and his abilities on a motorcycle are well documented...if any one was able to make it thru a hair raising situation as described it dosen't surprise me it was him...good work Earl=D>

[earlfor]

Well, all I can say is I enjoy hanging around here and persecuting the unsuspecting to be leaving just yet. :-)

Earl

Well after having the "Honor" of riding with Earlfor on a few occasions ,his actions are not surpising and his abilities on a motorcycle are well documented...if any one was able to make it thru a hair raising situation as described it dosen't surprise me it was him...good work Earl=D>