Left Hand Turn in Front of...

I was in a Home Depot parking lot when an oncoming car made a sudden left hand turn in front of me to grab an empty parking space. Now this wasnt on the bike but in my truck. The driver saw me before he got into the spot and stopped, completely blocking the road ahead of me. As I slammed on the brakes I had a sickening feeling "Im not going to stop before hitting him." Lucky for him I was only going 20 so when I hit him it was less than 5mph. Still...the dammage the T Boning did to his passenger side was considerable! The dammage to my 20 year old truck wasnt hardly anything.

But...

After the accident I said to myself "Thank God I wasnt on the bike!" And that made me think. Because of the linked brakes I always use just the hand brake lever. Had I been on bike bike thats what I would have done. So Id have had 66% of my braking capacity. What Ive been doing all these years is training myself to use 66% of my bike braking capacity in a close call braking situation!

Im going back to using both the foot AND handbrake lever 100% of the time! I cant remember the last time I did a panic stop on the bike...if I ever did. I never ride in town or to work in rush hour only on the freeway on trips or back roads. Im pissed off at the false sense of security those linked brakes gave me. Could have been real trouble!

Makes you want to reach out and slap someone

Trump said:

.the dammage the T Boning did to his passenger side was considerable! The dammage to my 20 year old truck wasnt hardly anything.

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They don't make like they used to. No injuries to you or The Other Guy. Little damage to your truck. Significant damage to his vehicle. Win-win-win. Not that I'm recommending going Road Warrior on anybody— because I don't.

Trump said:

Im pissed off at the false sense of security those linked brakes gave me.

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I really don't have the street cred but I'll say it anyway— the brakes didn't give you a false sense of security... just sayin'

And in a panic stop most of your braking is up to the front brakes anyway so you need to modulate (yes ABS guys have that advantage over us) the brakes anyway to avoid lockup especially rear wheel lockup. You don't want to 'have to lay 'er down!'

Grizzly said:

foot and hand 100% of the time! Sorry to hear about your accident! Glad no one was injured.

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+1 Sometimes I'll start with just for front brake for a second or two and then follow up with the rear brake. Or I'll let up on one or the other (usually the front) as I reach the decel rate I want. This way I always am using both brakes fully in a hard stop and hopefully will release them accordingly if things go sideways.

Tdinova said:

Makes you want to reach out and slap someone

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Ain't that the truth!

You were going 15 mph. The speed limit for parking lots is 15 mph, at least in KY. Remember that when you give your statement.

Not quite, the ST1300 will lock up the rear tire with just the use of the front brake. I've done it twice in real life 70 mph+ panic stops. Both were when I would have definitely hit the dumb *** pulling our right in front of me. Interesting side note would be both of these times were when I DIDN'T have a car tire on my bike. I do wish I had ABS on the bike.

I'm sure someone will be right along to counter this statement but I know the fact. I have a right foot that doesn't work so well and frankly I don't even bother with the rear brake very often as I'm afraid my poor foot control will lock up the rear wheel and that folks puts you into the classic motorcycle high side get off. I usually only touch the rear brake while riding on sand or gravel (don't use the front on sand or gravel).

Take it easy on that rear brake, the front linked system works pretty darn good.