Came about as close to wearing a car today as I ever wish to.

[Ken aka Oil Burner]

My son (almost 10) likes to ride with me. Not long rides, for the most part, but short-ish rides. I try to make them fun by having a destination whenever possible. Today was stopping for ice cream. We've had several days of intermittent thunderstorms with real frog-strangling type downpours. Stir crazy, we were, no doubt. We suited up and headed out. Less than 1 mile from the house (statistics; yeah. I know) we came damn close to taking a Mitsubishi to the left front. We were heading down a wide main road with nobody in front of us. Coming up to an intersection that I know is sketchy, I covered the brakes and approached with caution. As half expected, a car turned left in front of us a little too close for comfort. I braked and they completed their turn in front of me. I made full eye contact with the woman behind that car, and she was also waiting to turn left. We were literally in the intersection when she hit the gas and began to occupy the same space as us. I don't know if she had some sort of brain malfunction that made her hit the gas, because she definitely saw me and slammed on her brakes almost as quickly as she accelerated. I was still covering the brakes, but honestly, it caught me off guard, because I knew she saw us. I partially locked the front and rear tires grabbing a handful of the front brakes and giving the foot pedal a workout. The rear of the old girl slid a little sideways and the front sliding under full fork squat made the bike pitch out and lean to the left. How we didn't hit, I still don't know. I instinctively put my left hand out (not like I'd be able to push a car away, but it's the same thing that your Mom used to do in the car to keep you from going through the windshield when she had to stop fast). My hand actually touched the LF headlight of the car. I released the brakes as soon as we were clear and the phat gurl righted herself like nothing even happened. I pulled over and stopped. She, of course, kept going on her merry little way.

My heart was definitely pounding for a bit. I guess I've trained the boy well, though. The first thing he said to me when I asked if he was alright was "That's why we wear gear, right dad?". I have explained many times that we dress for the slide; not the ride. I don't always adhere when I'm by myself, but I'll at least teach him the right way. He can make his own choices later on in life. We continued on our ride, ending with an ice cream stop.

Don't let your guard down. Even when you're sure they see you, they may still try to get ya'.

[Farside]

  Wow, sure glad you know that intersection. Deffinently too close for comfort especially with your son on board.  Sounds like you might of had a little angle looking over you two. Gald all turned out well. I hope the ice cream cooled things off. 

[old2soon]

     Things are NEVER what they appear to be. I always play in my mind-what is the most idiotic asinine off the wall thing a cage driver can do. Rarely am I disappointed at what transpires. Other times it's how on earth did they miss each other. Glad you and more importantly the youngling are O K. And high on the list glad y'all were geared up and kitted out. I've also heard good sense keeps us from tracking down the perps and puttin a hurtin on em. RIDE SAFE.

[Jess from VA]

About 40 years ago, I got a chance to ride another guy's nice bike, and the guy asked me to take his young nephew for a ride.  I never take riders I don't have to, but it seemed the right thing to do.  Thirty minutes out in the country, a car came over a hairpin turn into my lane, and I went wide off the road into a farmer's yard (flat and mowed) just to be absolutely sure we didn't make contact.  The bike skidded in the grass a bit left and right, but we didn't go down.  Then the farmer came out on his porch with his shotgun ready to repel hippie boarders.  I shouted an apology, and got turned around headed back to the road.

The nephew, now scared sh!tless, wanted to get off the bike and have me send his mother back in her car for him.  I said no, stay on, how will she know where to go?  (I was not in a familiar area).  So we returned home with no further incident.  But he saved up his tears for when we got home, and ran to his mother crying that the crazy man tried to kill him, and wouldn't let him get off the bike when he wanted to.  Mom gave me dirty looks.  My buddy understood.  This is just another reason I don't take riders (except around the block).    

[Willow]

I'm glad you made it through.  It's especially frightening when you have the young one on the back.

It never ceases to amaze me that when I'm on a motorcycle looking at me does not equate to seeing me.   

[Bret SD]

It's a spooky feeling.. glad you didn't hit her.

The only thing I look at is the front wheels of the car anymore.. had the same thing happen a few years ago, I was on my buddy's Road King, the driver and I made eye contact, then he pulled right out in front of me. He snapped awake when I laid on the horn, luckily I had some room to maneuver.

Seeing where the car wheel's pointed, and seeing if it's moving at all is the best we can do it seems. Many people look but their mind is on something else, which translates to danger for us riders.

[..]

One of my many riding fears is the second left turning vehicle. They will assume all is clear because the vehicle ahead made the turn.

That's why there are so many pulling out accidents. Vehicle ahead starts to go. 2nd driver doesn't look left to check for a gap. Front slams on brakes and 2nd one rear ends them.

Seen it happy many times with bikes on group rides.

[Valkorado]

Whew!  I'm always happy to read these stories because a living, breathing author wrote them.

I dont trust cagers either.  I assume they're looking at something in my general direction.  I can' t tell if they're looking at me, around me or beyond me.  I figure they all are out to kill me.

[Ken aka Oil Burner]

I'm still trying to figure out the physics of how far the bike must have been leaning to the left for me to have laid my hand on the front of the car, but my hard saddlebag didn't hit anything. Not that I wish to re-live it, but I'd love to see a video so I could critique my response. I'm already feeling like my emergency braking practice didn't work out in this actual emergency. I know the braking limits on the Valk from practicing, but I locked both wheels up for a moment or two. I keep telling myself that my years of experience kept the bike from going down, but part of me feels it was just dumb luck that we didn't get hit or crash trying to avoid it. Better lucky than good, as they say.

[old2soon]

       Should everything on the M/C be in tip top shape and near perfect mechanically luck or what ever the individual cares to identify it as Do play a part in our survival or our demise. Mere inches split seconds and Yes Divine intervention. 4 years in the Military and most of my adult life drivin big truck and lotsa years on a M/C far too many instances still not rationally explainable. And the very Fact I'm still here amuses me greatly at times.  Happy you and the youngling came thru unscathed.  RIDE SAFE.

[cookiedough]

did you make it a TRIPLE scoop of ice cream?   

[Jess from VA]

A couple things I do for people right turning in front of me.

On two lanes, I tend to ride in the right lane, unless passing.  But even alone with no traffic, as I approach cross street intersections, I get over in the left lane (well in advance of every cross street), so the asswipes that do the slow roll (never stopping) and pull out, are not right in front of me (unless they also illegally swing wide into the left lane).

And when I see cars rolling out past their stop sign on cross streets, I either flash brights off/on several quick times, or just leave them bright.  (I run 80/100 H4 off-road halogen bulbs in my interstates, so I never run with brights full time.)