Yesterday I left for work with the wind in my face and the rising sun at my back. Unfortunately the rising sun at my back means the sun is directly in the faces of motorists looking to pull out in front of me. I know this is the first mile of my daily commute and I am extra careful while on this particular road. Every morning I see the faces sheilding there eyes from the sun, knowing full well they dont see me coming. I only hope they can hear my python 3 pipes.

Yesterday it finally happened.....

A lady in a van crept up to the stop sign squinting toward me and the sun. I am doing 35mphon this narrow two lane busy road.
Cars are coming at me across the double yellow lines. When I am about 20 feet from the intersection, She darts right out in front of me. My instant reaction was to lock them up!!!! When she hears my tires squealing toward her, SHE STOPS right in my path!!! My back tire came out to the right of me as I was going down, but somehow Istopped and then started to highside toward her. I was able to put my foot down and keep the momentum from my bike hitting the van. My leg hurts!!! I think I pulled my groin. I ended up stopped with my face about 6 inches from her face shouting obsenitys into her open window. I think I scared her as much as she scared me.

I know she did not see me and I almost feel bad about screaming in her face. What really bothers me is that when I replay the event in my mind, I had a perfect escape route and I didnt take it. I could have dove to the right and made it behind her. I have taken the safety coarses, read all the books, trained myself very well, but still I missed my escape route. In the heat of the moment I feel like I choked.

Sorry for the long post, I have to now leave for work again. Its another sunny day.....wish me luck!!!

 

Just glad you made it without any bodily damage.

 

I'mglad you are still here to rethink what happened, many of our brothers aren't. This is a good lesson for us all, ALWAYS BE LOOKING FOR A WAY OUT, and, ALWAYS ASUME THE CAGE WILL PULL OUT IN FRONT OF US.

 

Very lucky.

 

You may not have taken the escape route BUT because you were alert and anticipating what she was going to do you avioded a much more serious accident so give your self credit for that and we can all be reminded how carefull we need to be, also hope your leg heals quickly and glad to hear your not writing this from the hospital.

 

TIDE, glad you are still with us. As already stated, many aren't. You gotta stay on your toes 110% of the time...

 

Air Horn.......................I use and endorce It.............Even if things just look like they might happen

 

You done good to notice your escape path.......but there is another little secret that you gotta learn to make INSTINCT:

LOOK where you want to go and you will go there......Tear your eyes away from the gage and LOOK where you need to go.

 

glad to see you made it out ok..i know a guy that just bought a new fat bob about a month ago and it only had 19 miles on it when an old lady pulled out in front of him..he made a bad choice and used only his back brake and slammed into her front fender,which caused him to fly like superman for about 20 feet..the bike took 7,500 bucks in damage and he broke a rib..very lucky he is still here..

 

You did a good job, hindsights 20/20 don't look back