"I never saw him officer"

lame excuse... I heard the same one from a grandma that made the exact same gist as your mate... She was so traumatised that I needed to pull her out of her own car. My bike landed under her car and cracked my tank.

You always need to drive and look for the others because they don't act responsible enough. Especially if they don't ride a bike, they don't realise how unresponsible they are reacting.

Thank God your're alright.

what Carharts were u wearing? I use the dbl knee duck canvas ones.
thanks

She never saw Rick!

PSHAW! f that noise. sounds like that bike ain't for riding on interstates. if she don't have the beans, don't put yourself in that position. just my 2 cents. glad you're ok.

Top gear at 65, Most bikes (including My Hayabusa) wont have much in the way of acceleration. at 100+ in 6th My Busa will leap forward (but at 65 its lugging)

Important point. An excellent instructor I had one time said that you can't live without a head or a spine. SAS-TECH might be even better than Knox. It is a high tech foam that is fairly soft with slowly compressed and is hard when rapidly compressed. The usual mail order outfits have these and others, and they can be trimmed with a knife to fit 'most any jacket. Under $50.

Real4Life1 - Glad you're OK.

Some thoughts on Interstate riding and passing:

When there are more than two lanes, I like to stay in the right track of the left lane going a bit faster than traffic. This puts me on the the rear view mirror of cars as I come up from behind them. As I go past, I move the the left track to give me some room if they suddenly decide to be in the left lane.

If there's only two lanes in each direction i might use either one but I stay in the track closest to the middle most of the time. Again I am in the mirrors of cars I come up on and I don't appear to be a blank spot for a fast mover to pull into (as you might if travelling in the outside tire track.)

This is based on maybe 150k interstate commuting miles on variety of bikes including a DR650. Fortunately i do less of that now.

Keep riding and keep thinking.

I never ride in top gear in Interstate traffic. I'm usually in 5th or sometimes even 4th. I want the powerband to be available if I need it.

I hate it when people play "should'a could'a would'a" in faceplant... so take this as just a discussion of possible solutions.

Here in California, lane sharing is legal. One benefit I've discovered about lane sharing after moving here 3.5 years ago, is that it opens your mind to alternate routes of travel.

When I lived in Maryland, I didn't realize how constricted I was in my lane choices. I had, in the past, I realize now that I nearly allowed people to hit me because "they were in MY lane". I was mentally not flexible enough to just get out of the way. Now, with some lane sharing practice, I feel that my collision avoidance awareness is much more alert and the responses fluid.

Anyone else experience that?

We just had a car pull directly in front of the path of a semi that had just came off of the interstate and was hauling 80,000 LBS. This dumbass car driver pulled straight across in front of him at an intersection. The truck clipped the car which sent the truck in to and almost completely through a resturaunt, 2 people were killed in the resturaunt.
I just bought a new pickup truck and have 4k miles on it. Some dumbass kid turned left out of the right lane at the last second the other night and I plowed him. Did $5k in damage to my truck. Glad I was not on the bike!
We have had wreck after wreck in our county lately and it is all just stupid shit. People are not paying attention to driving. It is either cell phones or ???? It seems they just decide to turn and don't look to see if someone else is around their mission is to turn and that is what they do. I am beginning to get spooked about riding. That really sucks!

+1
I get tired of hearing myself say it, but it was safer to ride a motorcycle in 1994 than it is now. My theory? Cars were not as safe, people still were afraid of dying in them, and pretty much nobody had a cell phone. Now? 14 airbags and a literal home theatre on the dashboard mean paying attention to others on the road is a distant 3rd concern. Sucks. Cars should have a big spike sticking outta the steering wheel. Not trying to derail the thread, I love to hear stories of riders walking away from spills, especially at this speed. Knowledge shared is priceless.

Some people seem to get complacent once they start wearing hi-viz and/or adorning their bike with lights. I try not to, and I have both. I drove an EMS rig for several years, and even with BRIGHT strobing/rotating lights all over, a siren, an airhorn, reflective decals and bright paintjobs all over, people will still pull right into you.

Ride as if you're invisible, even if somebody handed you a bundle or roman candles, doused you with gas, lit you on fire, and shoved a trumpet up your bum. Some braindead people STILL won't have half a clue that they're on the road with somebody else...and some people just don't care.

You just have to have eyes everywhere and expect the unexpected. That is about all you can do. If they don't see you I don't think that any number of extra lights or florescent jackets will make any more difference.
I have seen a number of bikes with pulsating headlights and pulsating brake lights. I hate this, as when you see a bike with pulsating headlights coming at you the first thought is that it is an emergency vehicle. Regular headlights work so why try to tweak it.
And pulsating brake lights gets the driver that is behind you accustomed to seeing a bright dim frash, and when the bike rider puts on the brakes it takes a second or two extra for the following car driver to determine that the brake lights are not just flashing. Sure, it is his fault for running into you - but you can still be dead.
Just my thoughts!

I think the key is anticipation of potential problems. Frex, I've noted that many folks who wish to change lanes drift toward the lane they're headed for when they check the mirrors or turn their heads. This is a variant on target fixation - they are moving the way their head moves like a horse.

Anyway, this tips me that the cage will probably soon change lanes (signaling or not) and that I need to make sure not to get in its way. Another danger signal I've seen is when a cage is entering your roadway either from the right (or the left to turn in front of you) and you note that they are NOT looking at you. To me, this is a huge red flag.

I have seen a number of bikes with pulsating headlights and pulsating brake lights. I hate this, as when you see a bike with pulsating headlights coming at you the first thought is that it is an emergency vehicle.

And this is bad why? At least they noticed you

Regular headlights work so why try to tweak it.

They don't work for shit...people look right past a single motorcycle headlight. I put headlight modulators on all the bikes about 5 years ago....I ride about 30k a year and literally have not had ONE PERSON turn left in front of me or pull out of a driveway or sidestreet since installing and it used to happen all the time.

Pulsing or bright lights are like loud pipes. They create hostility against us. It's impossible to quantify, of course, but one has to wonder how many aggressive or discourtesies have been done to us because cagers were angry at being blinded by these nasty lights or deafened by loud pipes.

Personally speaking, I have to hold it in when I hear those loud bikes or am blinded by bright or pulsing lights and I'm a lifetime rider. It's hardly a stretch that a non-rider won't hold it in.

.....the most I've ever seen is someone go for the mirror if I am behind them...if I see that I switch to low beam and shut the modulator off. Even if they are annoyed, AT LEAST THEY KNOW there is a motorcycle behind them and may glance back before making a sudden stop or changing lanes.

I have never experienced one pissed off cager doing anything aggressive to me as a result of the modulator. The most I've had is folks occasionally leaning out the window at a light asking me if there is something wrong with my headlight.

I'm pretty sure my high beam, oscillating between 80 and 100% which is what the Kisan does has never blinded anyone, as it only works during daylight hours and shuts off automatically at dusk with a photocell.

What can I tell you, having the odd cager pissed off (as you claim) sure beats the hell out of all the crap that used to happen when no one could see me.

I think the headlight modulator (especially if it deactivates at night) is an overall benefit. The argument against it is that people will panic, thinking you are an emergency vehicle, and end up crashing themselves or you. Does that happen to genuine emergency vehicles very often? I don't know.

Flashing tail lights are a great addition too.

I have also heard people say that a triangle of lights dramatically improves visibility. Even more so if the two lowers are amber. I also really like the reflective stripes on motorcycle gear that manufacturers are using these days. They cannot be missed at night (except by the most inattentive drivers).

Often they look, see you but it doesn't register in the brain because what they are looking for and anticipate seeing is another car so the bike becomes "invisible". The go/no go reaction to pull out or not is predicated on there being car coming or not. Their brain does a quick check, says "nope no car, good to go" and away sends the signal to the muscles to make it happen. Awareness campaigns need to look at training people to anticipate seeing bikes.

I was hit when I was a new rider on the street.it was a woman in the on coming direction decided she was going to take a last second left in front of me.I almost made it around her but planted front tire in her rear quarter panel.by the time I hit was pretty slow but still went down.she admitted she seen me but thought she had time.
Don't think I could have avoided it even today.never could of anticipated it.
What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger