SMIDSY..... why we're not seen.

[Snowy]

Excellent article and makes a lot of sense. One reason why I ride with auxillary lights on (making a three points of light approach) under certain ambient lighting conditions. I think this gets picked up under peripheral vision much better than a single headlight does which in turn makes drivers move their heads to concentrate on the moving object just like in the article. Good find Kev.

Ken, I don't think Swanny understands the personal implications of his jokes - I'm sure if he did he wouldn't make them.

[SupeRDel]

Don't matter how many lights you have on your bike or clothes ultimately it comes down to you as the rider to look out for yourself.

Every car at a junction has the potential to pull out - I have regularly taken pre-emptive avoiding action when a car at a junction looks dodgy.

Not one of us here can say we have not had that moment where you have done some kind of manouvre then thought afterwards "Did I look - I can't remember if I did"

[Swanny]

Ken, I don't think Swanny understands the personal implications of his jokes - I'm sure if he did he wouldn't make them.

Well being deaf myself I do understand what what I'm saying.
Sorry if I upset you Ken I was only joking

[Swanny]

When I pull out of a junction if the road is wide enough I stay way out in the centre leaving an escape route for a bike just in case I didn't see it.

[Snowy]

There are many ways you can help to reduce the risks of being hit by other vehicles - visibility is one but as Del points out, our own anticipation and awareness of what's happening around us is another major factor. In my opinion, there's little substitute for experience to help in this regard which if you don't have would be helped by some training on knowing what to look for. There are lots of clues out there but you need to know which ones are relevant.

[Jon_W]

I was tught (possibly by Mark) that if your not sure give 'em a quick blast on the horn. If you get the finger back then you know they've seen you!!!!

[goz1960]

Very informative.

[Jacde]

If a vehicle is pulling out from a junction I don't look at the driver anymore, I look at the wheels, if they start moving I know the driver hasn't seen me (and hopefully I'm not too close to the vehicle and can take avoiding action)

I was told that I wouldn't go far wrong if I rode like I was invisible to all road users.

Yesterday on our little bimble round the Wiltshire countryside, we had a car just cut across our path in Pewsey, and in Beanacre a driver on the wrong side of the road with the reactions of a dead sloth, and a driver who decided to finally give right of way at a roundabout in Swindon >

It's always refreshing when drivers do see you, like the lovely chap just outside Devizes who waited for 5 bikes to bimble past, when ever someone has noticed me I always acknowledge them.

[redken1]

Swanny, perhaps I overreacted.

I am very thick-skinned and wasn’t upset, it’s just after 20 years of hearing the same old deaf jokes in my working and social environment, I find them a bit tedious. No problem though and I’m 8-)

Getting back on topic, I could not agree more with Del and Graeme’s comments.

I ride looking well ahead, allowing time to identify potential hazards in advance of approach and assume that every other road user has not seen me. I have always said that in my view road users of all modes of transport would benefit from spending a short time on two wheels.

Graeme makes the excellent point, “There are lots of clues out there but you need to know which ones are relevant.”

Bus shelters-Will a child step out? All junctions - Will a vehicle pull out into my path? Passing parked vehicles - Have I given a wide enough berth allowing for the driver or rear passenger opening a door without looking? When waiting at a junction - Never assume that a vehicle coming from the right and signalling left will actually turn. Wait and make sure. And so on…….

[SupeRDel]

Tiz a subject with so many variables and to be honest motorcycling is a very dangerous hobby anybody who says it is not is a fool.

In reality for our own safety (and out of respect for our families) we should all give it up tomorrow and the government should ban it tomorrow. Last year the accident rate for killed and seriously injured motorcyclists rose by 6%.

But this is just the same as banning cycling, smoking, alcohol, sport and many other pastimes.
Forget being sensible, life has got to have some excitement or what it the point.

To me EXPERIANCE is a big word to do with riding motorcycles safety. Some may dissagree and will say good training is the key. It does help but most training is aimed at getting you ultimately thru your tests so you can jump on a hyperbike with relative no EXPERIANCE of real experiances of hazards you will come across

Well I started riding 50cc mopeds at 16 in 1974 because it was all the rage back then. We hurtled around like lunatics at 45-50mph.
So my first EXPERIANCE's were falling off was very easy and getting hurt was a possibility. I have scars on my knee's now. My mate broke an ankle in calne. I can still remember him hoping around on one foot with his foot swinging about. Another mate had a cut on his foot (thru rubber wellies) from a off that went gangreen!

Anyway we soon progressed onto 250cc machines at 17. I crashed mine about a month later destroying the top of a helmet.
Swindon hospital had a ward in the 70's that was full of 16,17 year olds who had bike accidents. They would all sit in beds side by side regailing stories of their accidents.
Anyway their were deaths. I lost a good mate at Hilmarton who went under the back wheels of a tipper lorry when he slid off his 250 Yamaha (Richard Iles)

We got our initial EXPERIANCE from the fact that law said we had to ride slowish 50cc bikes and we were also limited insurance costs. I nearly bought a 650 bonnie at 17 but the insurance was a staggering £260 (1976).

There were a few that could jump the EXPERIANCE - I was at college with a kid who was left some money by granny. Back then you could take a test on your 17th birthday in the moring and ride anybike out of a dealer. Well in the afternoon of his 17th birthday the lad a knew was on the road on a brand new Suzuki GS750 after passing his test in the morning. Within a few days he had ace bars fitted to it and was riding around like a god. A GS750 back then was one of the superbikes to have with a top speed of 120mph.
He was sadly killed about 2 months later in a head on collision overshooting a bend on the Sutton Benger road.

Who knows - would more EXPERIANCE on a small bike saved his life. A few overshoots of a bend on a 125cc bike at 50mph might have given him some valued EXPERIANCE than the 100mph overshot that he only did once and claimed his life. The variable in this case was the oncoming vehicle though. 9 times out of 10 the road would have been clear.

Due to the rocketing national accident figures for motorcycling the government were duty bound to do something. Hence the restricted 30mph mopeds and the 125cc limits for 17 year olds around the 80's

Bugger me I better stop as I am rambling and nobody ever reads long boring topics :-X