I've only been riding since early July, and so far I've had four very close calls, all four the fault of cagers:
1. Puttering up the inside of an "S" curve in my neighborhood. Car approaching me veers into my lane, I swerved and hit the gutter and the horn at the same time. Driver of the car saw me at the last split second, she had been dialing her cell-phone. I stopped but didn't fall over, she kept going.
2. I came to a stop at a stopsign and signaled to turn left. Car coming from my left (who didn't have a stop sign) turns on his signals to make a right hand turn and starts to slow. I let out the clutch, and stall the engine. Thank God I did, he decided at the last split-second to keep going straight; if I hadn't stalled the engine he'da broadsided me.
3. Lady stops at a stop sign, signals to turn the direction I'm heading (I'm on the thru-street) and she pulls out right in front of me. I was able to stop in time, and she stopped halfway through the turn.
4. Same intersection, I'm going the same direction, older person coming the opposite direction pulls a left-turn right in front of me. I was able to swerve, although this one wasn't really close.
So, four bad incidents (two potentially fatal), 600 miles, giving me one close call per 150 miles.
Folks, I have to ask, honestly, is that as bad as it always is??? If it is, I won't be keeping the bike. I'm hoping it was just a run of really bad luck, and I have been driving to work the last two weeks (about 300 miles total) on much heavier-travelled streets without incident. I've been told by two of my military friends that they won't ride in Utah (the local culture highly values "original pioneer stock", and there's been a lot of in-breeding; geneticists do a lot of studies here) so maybe I'm out of luck as long as I live here.
Sorry about the long post and thanks for listening. What have your experiences been where you live?
1. Puttering up the inside of an "S" curve in my neighborhood. Car approaching me veers into my lane, I swerved and hit the gutter and the horn at the same time. Driver of the car saw me at the last split second, she had been dialing her cell-phone. I stopped but didn't fall over, she kept going.
2. I came to a stop at a stopsign and signaled to turn left. Car coming from my left (who didn't have a stop sign) turns on his signals to make a right hand turn and starts to slow. I let out the clutch, and stall the engine. Thank God I did, he decided at the last split-second to keep going straight; if I hadn't stalled the engine he'da broadsided me.
3. Lady stops at a stop sign, signals to turn the direction I'm heading (I'm on the thru-street) and she pulls out right in front of me. I was able to stop in time, and she stopped halfway through the turn.
4. Same intersection, I'm going the same direction, older person coming the opposite direction pulls a left-turn right in front of me. I was able to swerve, although this one wasn't really close.
So, four bad incidents (two potentially fatal), 600 miles, giving me one close call per 150 miles.
Folks, I have to ask, honestly, is that as bad as it always is??? If it is, I won't be keeping the bike. I'm hoping it was just a run of really bad luck, and I have been driving to work the last two weeks (about 300 miles total) on much heavier-travelled streets without incident. I've been told by two of my military friends that they won't ride in Utah (the local culture highly values "original pioneer stock", and there's been a lot of in-breeding; geneticists do a lot of studies here) so maybe I'm out of luck as long as I live here.
Sorry about the long post and thanks for listening. What have your experiences been where you live?