The build-in distraction...

I agree wholeheartedly with the text posted by @ST1100Y. Most every, 'duh, that was a dumb move' that I've made on my bikes has been when I reached for my phone's touch screen, gps touch screen, or tried to change something on the TFT display. Every single example required my eyes off the road and my attention elsewhere. Fortunately none of those had any untoward experiences, but each was a heads up reminder I had done something wrong - maybe I drifted over in the lane, maybe I lost some speed, whatever. For the last couple of years I've given up playing with those toys while riding. If a call comes in, I pull off the road, down the kick stand, then look at the phone. No more fiddling w/ the gps. If I forgot to reset the trip meter on the TFT, such is life. I know I'm older, my reflexes are slower, I take longer to heal, and I'm trying to ride more safely. We all know there are enough dangers out there, no need to make more.

@ibike2havefun - I used to ride w/ our BMW club. We ride in staggered formation and a recommended 2 seconds apart. From the start, I felt that was way too close and have always given the rider or car ahead much more space. I've posted that I have no idea how folks cruise along during rush hour at 65 - 75 mph 3 car lengths behind the car ahead. I come from the school of thought that you give 1 car length per 10mph, and at around 50mph and up, double that. I'm usually the guy who someone pulls in front of because there is so much space. I've also stopped riding with the group and ride w/ one or two guys...well spaced apart.
 
Weaselinsuit said:
Curious, were you also able to reduce speed by braking or laying off the throttle? I think braking would be the natural reaction even if swerving which might reduce control during the avoidance manoeuvre.
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The important thing if doing this, is to SEPARATE the swerving and braking.
In a sudden, evasive maneuver you can do either safely, but remember that in the best of situations, we have a finite measure of traction.
Swerving while braking hard can easily - and often does - overwhelm tire grip.
Uh-oh. Lowside.
Practice both, in a safe environment. .
(Not the lowside.)
 
Having a cold morning track ride in a 500+ hp Charger at over 110 mph, the driver was trying to find how to turn off the heated steering wheel on a touch screen because it was getting too hot. Too many thing to navigate through all the while my wife is yelling from the back seat "both hands on the steering wheel please!"
So distractions are also built in cars maybe even more. :nuts:
 
Wow! distractions; I remember when the biggest distraction and or confusion on a bike was trying to figure out which of the 3 finger levers on the handlebars to use. One was for the choke , One was for the compression release and the other was for the manual spark advance. The last one required a gentle touch, it seemed the more you gradually advanced it the faster the bike would run. (until it didn't)
 
dduelin said:
I agree an escape route is not always available but often they are but our brains don’t see them or perceive them wide enough if we don't train for it. In no way am I trying to critical of ibike2havefun. I wasn't there and don't know the exact circumstances. In the referenced book there is an interesting set of graphics showing a freeway or Autobahn two lane width road with the travel lane ahead ‘blocked’ from POV of an approaching vehicle from behind. Interestingly our brain will perceive the car much bigger than it actually is, filling the entire lane when is really isn't. (A standard lane is 12' wide, a full size pick up is less than 9' wide with mirrors, the body width is less than 7', a full size car smaller and a compact car or truck smaller yet.) The picture is marked in meters either open or blocked. Only 30% of available space is blocked with 1 vehicle braking hard and 70% is available. Another pic shows the same two lane road with two vehicles blocking the lanes. More than 2/3rds is still open. It would take 6 cars parked door handle to door handle to completely block the paved surface. In 2013 I was riding on I-10 in urban Jacksonville. I was in the leftmost lane of 3 travel lanes. Over a rise and around a slight left curve a wrong way driver in a 70s Lincoln Continental appeared in my lane. The paved shoulder on my left was partially blocked by construction but I had no choice - anything to avoid a head-on collision. I moved left as far as I could and the Lincoln passed on my right. The driver was killed instantly when she collided head-on with the pickup truck following me. Several years ago I was riding 60+ on a 55 mph rural road in Georgia. Approaching me were several cars going the other way. As we closed the last oncoming car swung out in my lane to pass the cars ahead. I had only a second to react but it was over in that second. I had enough room to move right and all three of us had plenty of room to pass on a two lane road.
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you were lucky you werent on the "Blue Bridge" on hwy 17 at Florida Georgia border.
 
For some reason I seem to notice most everything nearby while riding.
One behavior that irritates me is sitting behind or beside someone in a turn lane and noticing the direction depicted on their GPS is pointing the other way. What do they usually do?
Jump across traffic, of course. Many without looking and NO thought for potential consequences.
I'm seeing this behavior nearly every trip out of the house now.
 
ibike2havefun said:
It was precisely the same mathematics that doomed me to crash my ST, back in 2019.

I was going about 45 mph and had allowed what I *thought* was adequate following distance to the vehicle (a pickup truck with a cap on the bed, which completely blocked my view of the line of cars ahead of it) in front of me- three to four carlengths, perhaps more, as I remember it.

45 mph = 66 fps.
Absolute minimum stopping distance from 45 mph is 124 feet under ideal conditions. 124 feet is perhaps six carlengths, I reckon.

Partway across a tall, two-lane bridge with no shoulder and traffic in the oncoming lane, I made the poor decision to check speedometer, mirrors, and GPS (not built-in but also not in my line of sight; I had to look down to see it). Such checks were / are a long-ingrained habit, repeated more often than I really need to make them.

In all, I estimate my gaze was diverted from straight ahead for one to two seconds, during which I would have traveled between 66 and 132 feet without looking ahead.

Somewhere in that space of time the pickup truck was forced to slam on its brakes; there had been a chain-reaction panic stop ahead of it.

By the time I looked back up, diagnosed the situation, and started to brake it was far too late.


Remember, I was trailing by only half to two-thirds that amount, assuming that if the truck had to stop I'd have its stopping distance plus my own in which to control the situation.

Because I was not looking ahead at the critical moment that additional space and time were denied me. When I slammed on my brakes in panic mode, I was ejected from the bike. I recall bouncing and rolling and sliding face-down for some few feet.

FORTUNATELY it was to the inboard side of the bridge and not over the side railing, onto the rocks a couple hundred feet below. The bike carried on and crashed against the back bumper of the pickup.

Takeaway lessons:
  1. ATGATT, ATGATT, ATGATT. My helmet, jacket, and riding pants did what they were supposed to do and protected me. They were all destroyed but no matter, I was unharmed.

  2. Allow more following distance than you think you need, especially in situations where there is no obvious, credible line of avoidance.

  3. When in traffic, PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT'S IN FRONT OF YOU ON THE ROAD, not to the electronic gizmos on your bike regardless of whether they're OEM or aftermarket farkles you or someone else added later.
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I had the same type of get-off on my VFR100F. On a bridge in a construction zone. I wasn't checking anything, but failed to look further ahead for brake lights that would have alerted me to the chain reaction of braking coming my way. I was in heavy traffic with only about 8 feet between me and the car in front of me. All I remember is laying in the road on top of my bike and wondering what the heck happened. It all transpired so fast my brain did not have time to compute any of it. I only got a little quarter-size bit of rash on my knee, but the bike crabbed all the way home since the forks were badly tweaked. Lesson learned.

Currently, I have a diversion on my ST caused by a little rocker switch for the heated grips that I keep bumping with my right knee and turning on. The detent is so soft that I have to look down to turn it off. Not good. I try to do it as quickly as possible in the best place possible, but we all know that life can change in a split second.
 
Weaselinsuit said:
I have my phone on a Quadlock on the "shelf" I added to my bike. It's been rock solid and I have never had an issue with the phone coming free.

But with the rain lately, I have been increasingly putting it inside my jacket. I am leaning towards making that a full time habit. I think I have read here that doing so permits you to have a phone with you that you can reach and use in the event of an emergency. Granted it may suffer damage while skidding along the asphalt with you, but it also won't be much use if it's undamaged but attached to a bike metres away and you have orthopedic, or other, injuries that prevent you from being able to move.
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Do you have any pictures of the “shelf”? Just registered an 06 ST1300 and I’m trying to decide how to mount either the phone or a CarPlay display.
 
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