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The second one: there are lots of A roads like this in the flat rural areas on the eastern side of England. (Lots of inland Spain is the same.) They're straight, open, very light traffic, and lots of bikers do motorway speeds on them. I'll assume I would be doing 100 on the approach to this junction, like the dead guy.
I always remind myself that these junctions are used by locals. And a lot of crashes happen near people's homes, when they're driving with muscle memory and thinking about something else. It's just the same with rat runs in London. So I expect drivers to creep over the line and quite often just carry on, into someone else's path. So if there's a car coming the other way, I'll brake from 100 or whatever to 40, whether he's indicating or not.
There's very little space, so the braking needs to be fierce. When there are miles between junctions on these roads, you settle into a high speed, lose awareness of it, and you don't really sense how much speed you're shedding when you brake. So I don't brake just by feel, I'll check the speedo.
There's a risk of being rear-ended by someone who doesn't decide to slow down. I would have been near the middle of the road, so I'd move across, close to the left hand verge. This movement across the road makes me more noticeable to the guy behind and the guy who's about to turn across me. (I think it's IAM approved for this reason?) I often do a lane change in London just to get noticed. It also makes you think about your positioning and other people's awareness of you. Better than zoning out and riding on autopilot.
Being near the verge might also give me a potential escape route if the guy behind doesn't brake, or the guy who's turning goes through with his manoeuvre and we meet.
So I reckon the worst that would happen is that the guy turns in front of me when I'm doing 40, I brake some more and I hit him at 20. Annoying, but could be worse.
nick_h.-
Yes… I don’t disagree with your logic.
Some time ago, paraphrasing, I was told “they might say “that biker was riding like an absolute cock” but at least that means they saw me”… or words to that effect.
One of the test rides with an advanced rider guy last year, I was told I was very active on the bike; the tester thought it was very curious. I move a lot and I make big gestures.
One of the “it’s not a criticism but…” comments was how I’d move my body on the bike and look right out around corners rather than just move my lane position slightly on some of the tight country lanes. I think that it really helps to keep loose and move around. Standing on the pegs over speed bumps and potholes (instead of slowing down) upsets people too.
Did I mention yesterday I got 3 thumbs up and one middle finger within the first half hour or so of the ride?
pdlouche
Yea so the first one, it’s hard to say without biker’s view of the seconds before. The driver seemed to totally lose control and drift across the road. If he hadn’t taken out the first rider he might have taken out the following ones. Doesn’t look like many escape routes, only a question of where you hit the car (or bin it). The others avoided it, but was that only because it was already off the road by then?
Second one is discussed on Biker Down. Used for example of looming, if nothing else. He could have anticipated. Seconds before, the car enters the box. He could have slowed or moved his position, he didn’t. The family were brave to put it out there, and hopefully it helps avoid at least a few similar deaths… but it was avoidable.