6 days with a R1

A tale of woe,

Picked up my new bike Last Friday, black R1 '05. Got knocked off
it this morning. Driver turned left from middle lane and didn't see
me. Luckily I was only going about 30-40 Km/h and landed on the
pavement.

Bike pretty damaged, but my injuries are limited to few scrapes,
my pride and b@lls...

Rob

 

Good luck and bad luck rolled into one eh? Those 05 R1s are absolutely
beautiful.

You'll be pissed off if they decide it's repairable, it'll never be a
new bike. Good luck dealing with all that shit.

And next time, stop buggering around and get a Honda.

 

Cox's Corollary is cruel.
http://evilurl.com/CRAPSEXbuttNADS

 

Since I've never been knocked off by a car, but have come close millions of
times with it always being their fault, can I ask how the driver handled the
situation? We're they profusely sorry?
I helped a fellow rider up off the road one time after a car did a similar
thing except there was no collision. The rider did an emergency swerve and
ended up arse over breakfast on the footpath, while the car ignorantly
carried on their journey.
I'm wondering what excuses these people can possibly have for such lame
driving?

 

She was very sorry and apologetic, even dropped me off at work after
Ghost riders (great service guys!) picked up my bike. Let's see how nice
she is after her insurance informs her of the 21K claim...

 

Really hope they'll judge it a write off and give me a new one. The
swingarm is dented in quite badly and the crash knobs took a bashing
as well which might have warped the frame.

A Honda? Not after having ridden a R1, mate. The ZX-10 is a better
ride than the CBR, IMNSHO.

 

EvilURL is crueler, apparently:

"The alias you tried to use is not in our database. If you
would like to create an EvilURL, please visit our main page."

GB

 

"Sorry mate, I didn't see you."

GB

 

They're asleep half the time, and blissfully unaware the other half :-/

<rant>

Just coming home tonight, approaching the Westbound paystations on the
M4, a dropkick in a Mini cut across three lanes to get on top of me. A flick
o' the high beam got him to turn around just as he was coming into my lane,
whereupon I saw he was obviously too busy holding onto his mobile 'phone to
bother looking where he was going.

Then up Mamre Road, getting close to home, another dropkick decides to
try gunning out of a petrol station before the onset of traffic from the
hitherto red lights. A blast o' the horn got him to stop (midway into the
road, mind you), but what I found strange was the look of "what're you
honking for?" on his face.

Two simple solutions come to mind - either make driver licensing as
stringent here as it is in Europe, or make it compulsory for everyone
applying for a driver's license, to first be a rider for at least six
months. Either method'll weed out the dozers who shouldn't be on the roads.

</rant>

- Bob.

 

I got "you came from nowhere" (when I was just driving along a suburban
street at about 40kph)

 

****; it must've fallen over or something!
http://tinyurl.com/bqqh2

 

Why didn't you take some evasive action when you saw what that driver was
about to do?

Nev..
'03 ZX12R

 

Why would her insurance inform her of the extent of your claim? That's their
problem, not hers.

Nev..
'03 ZX12R

 

Last week on a Melbourne freeway I saw a Corolla try to occupy the same space
as a Landcruiser he didn't see.

Nev..
'03 ZX12R

 

Bob Milutinovic wrote:

Both would be better.

regards,
CrazyCam

 

OK, it being day 600 and something of Harsh Week and all, the top
question has to be "What could you have done differently that would
have enabled you to avoid the accident" ?

While she was obviously legally in the wrong, that doesn't meant it
wasn't avoidable...

- Were you riding in her blind spot ? How far behind her were you ?
- Did you see any indication she was thinking about coming across (that
slight twitch of a head that passes for a lane check in Sydney) ? Were
you looking in the right place to have seen it at the time ?
- Where were you in relation to her field of vision in the mirrors - if
she did the Sydney traditional "have a quick glance in the mirror
before changing lane and indicating afterwards" would she have seen you
?

What else could you have done or watched for ?

Having had exactly the same thing happen to me on the TRX in '01
(except I dodged and rear ended another car in the next lane which made
me totally at fault legally - it's ironic but you're often better off
financially NOT avoiding the accident :-( ) I can say that there were
too things I shouldn't have done in that instance - I shouldn't have
been in the left hand lane moving faster than the traffic in the centre
lane - in hindsight it was obvious someone would slam across in front
of me to "improve their position". The learning for me was to be ultra
careful where there's a speed differential between lanes, and to avoid
the left hand lane when the road is congested.

JL

 

I was slightly behind her on the left. The first and only warning I got
for her turning
left, was the nose of the car veering left into my lane. I grabbed a
hand full of brake
(and no I didn't lock my wheels), hit the car and bounced onto the
pavement.
She didn't check her mirrors, she told me last time she checked I was
still behind
her. I changed into the left lane at least 30-40 meters before the
accident.

I guess I could have spent time perfecting my "turbo-boost jump over
car trick"
last weekend. That's about the only thing which would have prevented
this. If
a driver doesn't check or indicate before turning left from the middle
lane, there's
not much you as a rider can do IMHO.

In future I will be even more careful and paranoid about drivers and
their erratic
behaviour. I am not a perfect rider and am not saying I don't make
mistakes or
misjudge situations, but I am very careful on the road after over 2
years of
commuting through Sydney traffic.

Rob

 

You've morphed into Zebee!

Theo

 

not much you as a rider can do IMHO.

Either you're only rider who's ever not been seen by a car driver who changed
lane suddenly (no such thing as without warning... as long as they're in
control of their car, there'll always be a warning) or are you just the last
to learn that you don't ride in blind spots. I thought they taught that stuff
in the Learner course.

The evidence would suggest otherwise.

Nev..
'03 ZX12R

 

Three simple solutions. Make driver licensing as stringent here as it is
in Europe, make it compulsory for everyon applying for a driver's
license to first be a rider for at least six months, and leagalise
motorcycle mounted surface to surface missiles...

big (amongst the many simple solutions...)