A near death experience...

[Kneedragger]

[justjoe]

[Pete_Tallahassee]

Scary Sh#t Charlie! Nice that you lived to tell the tale.

[K1DUDE]

Damn Charlie. That sounds way too close.

[jargon]

[wildbears]

I'm more cynical these days. I'm betting the driver just expected you to get the hell out of the way.

[Lee]

I know the feeling.
In 2000 early morning on the California coast we were in thick fog on hwy 1. Right before meeting a car a following car jumped out and passed.
I jerked to the right and the car being passed must have moved right at the same time.
Debbie behind me said it looked like the three of us met at the spot.
Scared the crap out of me and really scared me when it took a few second before I could see her headlight again.
The next town we got off the road to let the fog clear.

[Martin_D]

Sounds scary as hell !
Great to read that luck , but also your riding experience were on your side .

[justjoe]

A few years ago I was late getting back to lodging, on a long straight road. There was a long line of people going in the opposite direction. As I passed the slow car leading that parade, a car jumped into my lane to pass. As he saw me, instead of braking and getting back in his lane, he continued to the shoulder on my side. I had cars on either side of me, going in the opposite direction with about half a lane to work with. Scared the shit out of me.

[Riverfurm]

Joe, had the same thing happen to me except it was a dually pasing side by side bicycle riders. Lucky for me there was a large shoulder on my side of the road for the dually to go. This was about 1000' from my home. This is so true. "anyone who has been riding more than a week probably has a story to tell" I have since installed HD cameras on both my bikes. So if anything happens to me there will be video evidence of the incident.

[Mattias_R]

Had a car come up from behind on a 2-1 lane road, legal speed was 100km/h. I was doing 110km/h.
when the 2 lanes in my direction merged to 1 a car came up behind, passed between me and the barrier, i was just a hair from being knocked by his car, if so i would have ended up in the wire guardrail. Essentially like a meatgrinder for bikers. Pissed and in shock i gave chase, he was doing 145km/h.
Here is a pic of what b7kers in sweden have on both sides of the roads.

almost 100% fataltyrate for unprotected roadusers, but government says they are safe. Reality is they are cheap to build.

[justjoe]

You are very lucky. That is death.

[beech]

They use the same wire cable barriers in the USA. I mainly see them in my home area in between multi lane highways here. Numerous law actions against them but they are cheap and continue to be used. It would be a fatality to hit one on a bike at any speed. I have written several times to state engineers.

[Pittsdriverwes]

Scary to think that no matter how careful you are some idiot like this could take you out. Another reminder of how quickly your trip can be over. Just recently a buddy who's the imagine of athlete and health - travels to Hawaii to surf in the winter, snowboards, rides motorcross - he was paddling out to catch another wave and became unresponsive and was recovered by friends and the life guard. Rushed to the ER where it was determined that he had a torn aorta. 3% survival rate and he did because they were close to the hospital. Still touch and go for him and when the blood flow was cut off he had a stroke leaving him uncoordinated and impaired speech. You just never know when your "use by" date will pass.

[Pittsdriverwes]

Speaking of damaged aorta, I know from my aviation related knowledge that seats in aircraft are designed to handle a 19 G impact. Why 19 G? Because any more than that and the cause of death is nearly always a detached aorta - your heart literally rips itself from the aorta and you're done. That gets me wondering how close to that 19 G threshold I've been subjected like when I ended up 15' from the bike on single track trail high side with a bunch of busted ribs. I guess I should be thanking those ribs for absorbing the impact but it makes me think I should go back and look again at some of the airbag technology that's getting more mature.

[Kneedragger]

Wes, Revzilla has a killer price on the Dainese D-Air jacket but sizes are limited... $1000+ off retail...

https://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle/...forated-jacket

"I guess I should be thanking those ribs for absorbing the impact but it makes me think I should go back and look again at some of the airbag technology that's getting more mature."

[beech]

Charlie, I have had an almost exact replica of your passing incident. I was on a rural road but with only a few places to pass as it was semi residential country road, but a main highway. A car pulled out, I was 100 yds. away and he did not pull back in. I had to move to the fog line and be careful because of all the mail boxes right there. The guy just smiled and shrugged as he passed. I too thought about turning around and finding where the person lived, imagining all levels of retribution. I just went on home. This was 40 years ago and I'm still pissed. I now go on extra alert when I see a slow mover and cars behind. I tend to think the safest area is to go between the truck and the offending vehicle. This based on thinking both will scoochie over a bit. I used to do that when both trucks were going in my direction. Like on the freeway when it takes two miles for one truck to pass the other. Nothing like being young and dumb.

[802Mike]

Scary Charlie !
I do like the Clearwater lights with amber lens covers for this reason.

[R111S]

Thanks for sharing this harrowing experience Charlie and sorry you had to live through it (or die - GLAD NOT!). IIRC you have yellow LED Skene Lights on the front of your K1300S?...or were you on the R1200RS?

I recall the MSF Training I took said "Lane Positioning" is crucial to letting other drivers seeing you in the traffic mix and I suspect you were already positioned on the right tire track of the road...it seems the car driver could clearly see you but could care less about you.

I too, but thankfully rarely (330k miles on two wheels so far), had cars share my lane going in the same as well as the opposite direction. How can I say it?...it's a steely mind that decides to occupy what little pavement you have left versus running off into a ditch with unknown but maybe devastating consequences?

For sure Tomorrow is not promised to us. I've been fond of saying "Every Day over 50 years is a Freebee!". I hope we all can live to a ripe old age with two wheels between our legs for as long as possible.

P.S. I'm getting a set of Skene LED Taillamps for Christmas.

[Kneedragger]

Thanks, Dan... I was on the K1300S... I don't have any front lighting other than the HID low beam and LED high beams... they're pretty bright, but I only had the low beam on at the time...

[wildbears]

It may be that all crashes and near crashes provide a chance to learn how to ride more safely.

The situation in the intial post could be at least parially abated by two manuvers that many of us already use but not consistently (at least in my case).

One is the "Drunken Sailor" manuever. Our visual cortex is not so great in dectecting motion towards or away from us. OTOH, it does a great job when the movement is accross the visual field.

This manuver is simply teeter totering the bike from the vertical axis, side to side. It does't require much movement and in fact over doing it can put oncoming traffic into panic mode with unfortunate avoidance manuvers.

The other is lane position when faced with an oncoming truck/van/bus with trailing traffic (usually containing frustrated/anxous drivers).

This is critical on two lane highways.

Some feel that moving your lane position towards the outside of your lane provides a better sight line for the trailing traffic.

I imagine this works best when combined with the fist manuver.

Other ideas???