Almost witnessed an HD wreck just now

[Claviger]

So it’s nice out, but still cold, in the low 40s here. Was just hanging out taking my gear off outside and watched an HD rider almost rear end the car in front of him who’d come to a stop for a pedestrian.

His first reaction was baaaad. Nailed rear brake, started sliding (no abs).

Second reaction was good, realizing he wasn’t going to stop in time he released, gently powered to straighten the bike, and swerved around the car.

Pedestrian was thankfully paying attention and saw the whole thing.

ABS saves lives, and that’s a fact jack!!

PS: Hard front brake with ABS would have easily stopped him in time.

 

[Tal]

Whew...aND a smell of shyte in the air...

 

[barbagris]

ABS saves lives, and that’s a fact jack!!.

Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene? . Carcinogenic when it decomposes.

 

[R-III-R Turbo]

Whew...aND a smell of shyte in the air...

And that's just off his bike

 

[phar2slo]

I had a moment last night on the way home too.

Car in front sped up to 120kph thought this is good only lasted about 1km then they jumped on the brakes coming into a left hand curve.

I'm thinking WTF then on comes the indicator to turn right into a side road and a car coming towards us. So hard on the brakes all round rear end locked up for about ten feet let it off and pulled up behind the car.

Now if he had indicated before jumping on the brakes so I new they were going to turn I would have pulled back but #hit when it's only about 150 metres before they want to turn.

 

[Steel]

Whew...aND a smell of shyte in the air...

I hope he was wearing his brown pants.

 

[sleeves]

This is why you never tailgate cars on bikes.

You cannot stop faster as physics rule, the car has more mass, more rubber on the ground so it can scrub speed faster than a smaller lighter vehicle with two small patches of grip. You can also only react after you see the lights meaning your behind the eightball already.

On a rider training course they hired a Toyota Corolla and made us do emergency braking tests from 30mph to stop, there were a range of bikes, speed triples, FJ's, ST's, BMW's etc, the car virtually stopped in half the distance of the best bike/rider combo. We then said "ah ha what if the cars loaded with people? So as many people as possible were crammed in, car stopped in same distance. I stopped one of my bad habits that day.

Best to leave the cages a bit of space or at least make sure you can veer around them

 

[Claviger]

Not sure about the applicability of that on modern Sportbikes with their intelligent ABS systems, some stop much faster than cars,.

That said it certainly applies to the R3!!

 

[phar2slo]

I went to a bike event here in Christchurch last year and they did the brake test with a car Vs sports, cruiser, police, small cc bikes and all failed to stop as quickly as the car.

Sports rider was doing one wheel stoppies and still over shooting by 4 metres.

 

[scot in exile]

His first mistake(apart from owning a Harley) was nailing the rear brake, it does seem like he had some skill as he recovered and managed to swerve which is always easier if you can shave some speed off.
What was the cause of him locking up the rear brake????? was not the pedestrian but him probably following to close to the car give yourselves plenty of room guys remember walmart is open 24/7