Was riding last night, first time in nearly a week because of rain.
I am rounding a gentle curve with a T intersection in the middle. At
17th and Airport rd. I was south bound at 50, which is the advertised speed limit. FWIW, the street view here does a very good job at illustrating what I was encountering.
From the right side I see a Harley Sportster. I have gotten into the habit of watching intersections closely, just because people don't see me well. I figured a guy on another bike would be just as wary. Nope. He just pulled out in front of me. I only had about 20 feet to decide what to do. The whole distortion of time thing happened. Was thinking about the "slide or roll" thread I started, and like several said, you have lots of full thoughts when these things happen. I remembered that braking up to impact and bleeding off speed was smart, and not locking up the rear brake. So I started to swerve to the rear of his bike, hoping to pass behind him, but didn't have enough room.
I guess when I screamed "Gee whiz Wally!" (not an exact quote) he heard me. The look on his face was hilarious, after the fact. He cobbed the throttle and we missed by about a foot. He aborted his left turn and went straight through to the airport parking lot. whew.
After seeing the look on his face, I bet his shorts were kinda soggy. He parked the sportster and got off, and bent over like the breath had been knocked out of him. I stayed slow for a minute and waved. I figure he knew to look next time.
When I got off the bike, it took about 30 minutes for the pucker marks to disappear from the seat.
I am rounding a gentle curve with a T intersection in the middle. At
17th and Airport rd. I was south bound at 50, which is the advertised speed limit. FWIW, the street view here does a very good job at illustrating what I was encountering.
From the right side I see a Harley Sportster. I have gotten into the habit of watching intersections closely, just because people don't see me well. I figured a guy on another bike would be just as wary. Nope. He just pulled out in front of me. I only had about 20 feet to decide what to do. The whole distortion of time thing happened. Was thinking about the "slide or roll" thread I started, and like several said, you have lots of full thoughts when these things happen. I remembered that braking up to impact and bleeding off speed was smart, and not locking up the rear brake. So I started to swerve to the rear of his bike, hoping to pass behind him, but didn't have enough room.
I guess when I screamed "Gee whiz Wally!" (not an exact quote) he heard me. The look on his face was hilarious, after the fact. He cobbed the throttle and we missed by about a foot. He aborted his left turn and went straight through to the airport parking lot. whew.
After seeing the look on his face, I bet his shorts were kinda soggy. He parked the sportster and got off, and bent over like the breath had been knocked out of him. I stayed slow for a minute and waved. I figure he knew to look next time.
When I got off the bike, it took about 30 minutes for the pucker marks to disappear from the seat.
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