Near Miss

[Dinnes]

I'm not that great at telling stories, and I tend to do a lot of hand-wavy things while I do it, so this might be a little confusing.

So I had a bit of a tumble on the way home the other day. I was turning left through one of those 'turn left at any time' corner lanes at a red light. I figured because the street I was turning off of had a green right hand turn light, there wouldn't be any cars traveling south (they would have a red) and I should be right to take the corner (maybe going 20km/h). So I was turning south onto west tce, in Adelaide, which is about 4-5 lanes across so when I saw the guy in 4wd coming towards me from the west (he was doing a right hand turn from the opposite side of the street) I just assumed he was going to pick a different lane (he had seen me) and I could keep coming. Unfortunately he wasn't going south, he was trying to turn into a servo on the corner where I was coming out of.

Luckily I realised in time what he was doing, (and he realised what I was doing) because we both stopped, I ended up coming off the bike, but missed riding straight into the side of his car. He got out and helped me get the bike back up and off the road. Another rider behind me also helped and made sure I was ok before leaving. The guy in the 4wd stayed around with me to make sure I was ok, and made sure the bike would start back up again (it flooded after getting tipped on its ass). Turns out he rides as well as was very understanding despite me nearly smashing into the side of him. Entirely my fault, and I felt like a right dick the whole time, but luckily no-one was hurt and the bike only needs a new left indicator (this is the second time I've had this kind of fall - the first time was in the hills with no other cars around - and both times the gpx came out with hardly a scratch. Or at least, without noticeable scratches compared to what was already there).

Anyway, just wanted to thank the driver and the rider behind me for making sure I was ok and helping me get back on the road.

[King Nicholas]

I am pleasantly surprised at this story.
I thought you were going to blame someone for something.
2nd time you've had this type of accident hey.
I guess I'd better touch some wood.
I am glad you are able to tell the story how it was.

[ducati_paul]

I just assumed he was going to pick a different lane

The only thing you should Assume when you're on a bike is that every other bastard on the road is out to kill ya!
glad to hear that it was a fairly good outcome and hopefully you've learnt something along the way, Stay Safe and enjoy your riding

[robracer]

Nice ending to a potentially bad situation, all I can say is its a never ending learning curve & I guess you are finding that out you need to be thinking 100% of the time & try not to make the wrong decesions or bad ones that put you in harms way

[seiko1]

Assumptions get people killed, (unless your assuming the worst) lucky for you he was paying attention.
Good to hear you got out of it unscathed

[Glen]

Like the other guys have said or alluded, the only assumption you should make is that every car on the road is being driven by a blind homicidal maniac who is out to kill you and then make your decisions based on that. You were lucky the other guy had an idea what you were going to do and adjusted accordingly.

Glad to hear your OK, be careful.

[Dinnes]

Yeah the first one was going around a corner in the hills, I decided I was taking it too fast and tried to slow down mid-corner. The front wheel didn't feel like leaning and stopping at the same time.

I'm hoping that these two will be enough, and I wont have to actually hurt myself before I learn my lesson.

[Reedy]

good you're ok mate, dont brake round corners , downshift if you have to. I was talking to some guys today and we were looking at some of those stay upright courses. Apparently they're a lot of fun and teach you good pionts about surviving in traffic. I can shoot you some details if your interested.

[Nelso]

good you're ok mate, dont brake round corners , downshift if you have to. I was talking to some guys today and we were looking at some of those stay upright courses. Apparently they're a lot of fun and teach you good pionts about surviving in traffic. I can shoot you some details if your interested.

Careful downshifting mid corner as you can get compression lock up and lose the rear end. Use your rear brake to wipe off speed first, then downshift if you need to to accelerate out of the corner, just stay the hell away from that front brake mid corner. Chances are you are not leaning the bike very far so if you do run into a corner a bit hot just counter-steer and lean it over further and trust the bike and the tyres, as they will stick. They are far more capable than you think.

[Dinnes]

Reedy; The stay upright courses sound like something I would be interested in. Are they run by the one company around aus, or would the guys who did the learner course be the ones to see about it? I have heard about them, but haven't got around to looking them up.

Nelso; It happened a fair while ago, but I must have spooked myself a bit going into the corner. It was a lot sharper than I thought it was and I panicked, jumping the front brake. Leaning over like that is still a bit unnatural to me, it really does feel like the whole thing is going to tip over, which I guess is why I baulked at it and tried to lose speed instead.

[smithy5]

Glad to here your OK.

Here is a link to Stayupright, you can read all about the courses available, but they currently don't run any courses in SA WA or NT.

http://www.stayupright.com.au/