Use those Rearview Mirrors at a Stop!

Wow. Saturday morning, wife, mother in law, and myself were headed down to Gatlinburg to celebrate my mother in law's birthday. They decided that they wanted to go to Cades Cove and since this is close to the Dragon, I decided that I would ride the S'wing and let them enjoy riding in the car. I was leading and they were behind. We came to a stoplight at an intersection just before we got onto I-81 and I proceeded to slow down. As I normally do, I checked my mirrors and instead of seeing my wife, I see an old guy in a sport utility who speeds up and cuts in front of my wife and is now right behind me and is accelerating as I am slowing down (apparently he waited to the last minute to get into the turn lane to merge onto the interstate). I immediately dipped to the left and mashed the throttle and as I was doing so, I began to hear his brakes lock up. Next thing I know, he is beside me where I should have been. After a huge sigh, a deep breath, I turned and gave the guy a "what the heck was that?" look. His facial expressesions and mannerisms seemed to suggest that he was sorry for what had happened but it almost got me hurt. What really made me mad was that when I stopped for gas later on down the interstate, they told me that he appeared to be texting on a cell phone before he cut in front of them. Anyways, moral of the story..... Drive now.... text/talk later.... It may save a life.... possibly your own. Secondly........Leave lots of space between you and the car ahead as you approach a stop so that you have room to make an emergency maneuver and ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS check your mirrors in case someone doesn't have the common sense or consideration to practice the above safe driving practice.......... It may save your life!!!!!!!!! Not entirely sure how it would have went down had I got hit. At the very least, Silverwing bye-bye and me probably hurt. Safe driving practices such as these which are taught in MSF Safety courses do save lives. Consider taking a course if you haven't already.

Glad to hear you're ok

Glad your OK.

People that drive and text have "HUB" and should be off the road. Just to dangerous to be aloud to drive, They kill people.

HUB = Head Up Butt!

That's just my opinion.

Hi "ron"

That IS scary... Good on ya' for keeping yourself abreast of your
surroundings and acting accordingly! I had my own "less' scary situation on Saturday on the way to a Veteran's Day parade.

Luckily it was a 55 mph 2-lane highway and I was complying. Oncoming traffic of 4 cars and the lead minivan decided to swerve into my lane to dodge a road-kill. I'm glad I have the ABS because that was my only alternative (other than an "acceptable" grassy ditch) and I got on them hard. This allowed the van to get back in its own lane on the fly. The other cars went toward the shoulder on their own roadside.

Aside from setting my heart all atwitter, it did make me additionally observant to traffic for the rest of the day and served as a reminder for me to use constant vigilance at
all times; much as you so keenly observed (and executed) in your incident.

I think this story points up a fault that many drivers as well as riders have and also a habit that bike riders especially are prone to; that is we often become fixated on just staring ahead of us, or worse yet, staring at the ground a few feet in front of us. As riders of two wheelers we are often unseen by cagers and we should all get in the habit of constantly looking down the road in front of us, to the right, to the left, in both mirrors, and most important, NEVER looking in any one direction for more than ten seconds at a time. In addition to the obvious safety reasons of this practice, contantly moving one's gaze helps to avert the hypnotic effect of a steady gaze, especially when riding highways.
I learned to develop this practice many years ago when riding the desert at speed in order to see wild life & domestic animals and approaching bikes.

Ron,

I'm glad everything turned out ok and no one got hurt. It really gets me mad when I see stuff like this. I'm glad there are laws that prohibit this and which it was against the law in all the states.

A near thing indeed, glad you're OK.

I keep checking my mirrors even when stopped at a junction as you never know who's controlling the idiot behind you.

ronjr009 wrote:

Leave lots of space between you and the car ahead as you approach a stop so that you have room to make an emergency maneuver

Absolutely. I also check which way I can safely "exit" and have the SWing already angled for that direction ... which allows me to throttle and get out if needed.

ronjr009 wrote:

ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS check your mirrors

The moment I start braking to stop ... I am watching behind me.

On the rear I have the Knight RiderZ ( http://www.customdynamics.com/knight_rider_led_light_bar.htm ) LEDs and Backoff Wig Wag ( http://www.customdynamics.com/signal_dynamics_back_off_brake_light_modulator.htm ) attached to StingerZ (http://www.customdynamics.com/stingerz_led_accent_lights.htm) LEDs. As I am slowing I now subconsciously count the number of seconds to keep my lights flashing and release my brakes for a moment and then re-pull the brakes to keep the red flashing led lightshow continually running EVEN WHEN STOPPED. You can literally see the effect of the "unique" red flashing LEDs have on the drivers behind you.

Check those mirrors often and especially when you're stopping at an intersection. I always either angle my bike a bit or stop off side a bit when there's a car ahead of me at a traffic signal. A few years ago I was stopped behind a car and saw a vehicle coming up fast behind me. It became obvious this guy wouldn't be able to stop so I pulled out beside the car ahead and the guy behind me hit him instead. Once the dust settled I got chewed out by the guy who got hit because he said if I hadn't moved he wouldn't have gotten hit. I told him I much preferred that his car got hit instead of me on a bike being the meat in a rear ender sandwich. Also that if he'd been looking behind he'd have been able to get out of the way himself.

Typical cager, I suspect, chewing you out for not cushioning his collision! Amazing!

People like that shouldn't be driving... maybe there should be some sort of test and licensing requirement. Wait there is... hmm...

Glad you are OK Ron. Gee, and TWD (Texting While Driving)
is against the law here in TN. Good thing to "Out Fox" a moron!

Ride safe!
Wes

you did well. space control, that's what it's all about

Indeed one an learn two things from that, always watch your six and old men text too. I thought that was a kids thing. Glad you weren't hurt. Here's hoping the old far learned something to... but probably not.
Remember everyone - All those people on the road are out to get you and most of them are bigger.