Modern Vespa

Just a reminder for all of us to stay away from the side of cars when riding on the hwy, try and stay in front or the rear of the cars and out of the blind spots, Today when leaving work I seen a mortorcycle rider run off the road and in a ditch of Ice plant he was lucky and walked away.

A rider was killed here, recently, through a nasty chain of events. A husband and wife were arguing in the car, while driving on the freeway. She reached over and jerked the steering wheel, causing the car to swerve into the center lane. The van that was occupying that lane swerved to avoid it. Unfortunately, neither the van or the car were aware of the motorcycle in the right lane. He was forced onto the shoulder, losing control and going over a bridge rail.

The woman is on trial for his death.

Wow to both. I never even get on my scooter/car if i'm not in the right frame of mind. Got on pissed at something one day and almost did myself in Luckily i live out in the country and have some space. Wake up call for me. All it takes is one second Sad about the MC rider a totally avoidable accident

http://www.motorcyclebasics.com/blind-spots.html

better informaton for you then I can give

Thanks for the info. As I was just informed I spend too much time there and now I am reminded not to. It's always nice to get a refresher.

Thanks, I seen it happen twice this week and I was just thinking. how we all tend to get to confident when riding. and forget the basic safety rules. I confess I do it too. I want riding to be fun and safe for all of us new and old.

I will share the short version of my story...

I currently have a 2007 honda 919 (or the hornet 900 to those of you over in europe). I am getting rid of it because of the high insurance costs and high payments (the insurance got raised twice since I got it with no explanation from the insurance company and other companies will not even look at me... weird to say with a clean driving record and ok credit like mine).

I have went down on it twice. Once was when a guy pulled out in front of me when I was in a turning lane coming to the light and the other was when a guy in a suv pulled out in front of me and I was thrown from my bike (and the amazing part of it was my helmet never hit the ground or anything else once). He didn't stop and when I went to try and get a plate number or something I could give the cops, he had floored it and got away by the time I got up.

That combined with the costs of owning this bike is why i'm driven to get a scooter (a 2009 piaggio fly 150 by the way is going to be the ride of choice). For what I pay a month in insurance on the bike, I can insure the fly for a whole year. And I can get all over austin on it (which is where I go 95% of the time).

Anyways, thanks for reading my "rant".

Defensive driving takes on a whole new dimension when riding a two-wheeler.

I've experienced the blind-spot situation myself, except I was traveling at around 35-45 mph and was able to escape into a center turning lane and gun around the four-wheeler SUV in time to survive it without wrecking.

The left turns are hell as well ... as I approached a green semaphore to make a right turn, a four-wheeler waiting to make a left decided to go as I was negotiating my right turn. I squeezed my turn tighter an rode the right margin line and gunned ahead of her. She actually looked angry with me! Last I remember, left turns have to yield to right turns.