Yes, You/We ARE Invisible!! Part1

[62xs]

I started riding in 69 trail bikes road bikes you name it. The one thing I see happening more and more are bikes that are stopped to turn left setting there with there wheel turned to the left instead of straight. 2 bikers were killed doing this. 2 years ago the one was killed turning into his drive way. He was hit from the rear by a van which pushed him into the path of an oncoming truck doing about 45 mph, while his wife stood on the porch watching. I always kept my wheel headed straight just in case someone hit me like that or I had to floor it to ease the hit.

[CatatonicBug]

I started riding in 69 trail bikes road bikes you name it. The one thing I see happening more and more are bikes that are stopped to turn left setting there with there wheel turned to the left instead of straight. 2 bikers were killed doing this. 2 years ago the one was killed turning into his drive way. He was hit from the rear by a van which pushed him into the path of an oncoming truck doing about 45 mph, while his wife stood on the porch watching. I always kept my wheel headed straight just in case someone hit me like that or I had to floor it to ease the hit.

Yeah, that goes for cages too. Never a good idea to turn the wheels into the curve until you are actually ready to go that direction.

[TopCatGr58]

My Feet aren't that big!

T.C. - I took the liberty of copying the images and the text from your original thesis for this thread, and created a bit of an informational booklet out of it. It's formatted to be printed, double-sided, on standard paper, and allows the reader to get around the "forum look" of the original post. I really liked the information you put together, and I know that the sentiment is shared by just about everyone else here. I have linked to the PDF file on my website here. If you would rather I not post it, I would not feel at all upset. Just let me know, and I will take it down.

Hey Bug, no problem, the stuff wasn't copyrighted or anything, whatever it takes for folks to be able to view, understand, gleen the information to help them be better safer riders is fine with me! I haven't looked at it yet, did I get a "BY LINE" in it?
T.C.

[CatatonicBug]

Of course! You're right there on the front cover, along with the XS11.com logo!!

[b.walker5]

Spreading the word..

I've just made my son read this article and it's opened his eyes, if you'll excuse the pun. When I was teaching him to ride I always said to him before he went out to keep in mind that every other vehicle out there was trying to kill him and consider every other driver as an idiot who doesnt know the road rules, because you have no way of knowing if they do. He forgot these simple rules one day a couple of years ago and assumed he'd been seen when he hadn't and wound up lying on the road with two broken femurs and a smashed right hip. He's riding again but he's a lot more aware of other drivers now.

[Rasputin]

I passed this on to my dispatcher who in turn passed it on to our company safety dude. I imagine that as Drivers we will be seeing it soon in our safety bulletins as he was very impressed with it. He is a rider as well. We did have an incident where one of our drivers was hit by a biker and the biker was killed. Ruled "no fault" to our driver but he will never drive a commercial truck again. He can't get over the fact that the rider died in front of his eyes. I drive for a living and I ride as well so I look a bit better than most, but hell I can lose a whole car (Blocked by my mirrors) so on a bike you are very vulnerable.

[CatatonicBug]

I can lose a whole car (Blocked by my mirrors) so on a bike you are very vulnerable.

There is a Semi demo rig that goes around proving that point to the public. I've never personally seen it, but we discussed it at my MSF class. They set up 4 cop cars and 28 bikes around a truck, and have regular people get in and sit in the cab. They look in the mirrors and realize that they can't see ANY of the vehicles because they are all in the blind spots.

I printed out several copies of the little booklet I made out of this post, and gave them to the MSF instructors. They liked them so much they handed them out to the class and asked for the URL so they could find it again.

[DJinNH]

That's one of the things I remember from the Defensive Driving Course I took way back around 1980. "Assume other drivers can not see you."

That's pretty much the way I have ridden all these years.

Don