Nobody else seems to have mentioned it

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,4057,20101370-421,00.html

Five minutes from my place. Anybody know who it was?

 

Nope but I'm jealous of you living up there. Discovered some nice roads
around Maleny when we were up there in June.

Nev..
'04 CBR1100XX

 

Nice area Malaney

 

No but I guess if he hadn't learned
"don't overtake a group of slowing vehicles until you know WHY they're
slowing"
by 53 he wasn't gonna'!

Still; it was a beautiful day and a lovely road so if you've gotta'
go......

Condolences to the ones left behind.

 

Better to take square aim at some concrete abutment at 180k doing it on
purpose than mess up some poor truck driver's life just by making a bad
call. Take yourself out by all means if that's your thing, but you leave
enough grief behind anyway without using complete strangers for 'target
practice'.

 

Having driven past the site a couple of times now (it's my regular route
into town), and even stopped for a look at the tyre marks, oil trail,
etc, I speculate that he clipped the front right corner of a
right-turning truck as he was passing it.

ASCII art:
| <- blind crest
|
| <- Maleny-Kenilworth Rd
|
|__________________<- Witta Rd
| <- accident site
|
|
|^ travelling in this direction

That particular right turn is not very visible, and locals (like me)
take extra care when driving along that section for precisely that
reason - always checking and double-checking the rear-view mirror,
indicator on way early, etc. It's the only legal passing stretch (i.e.
dotted road lines) for a couple of kilometres in either direction, and
by the time one gets to it, travelling behind tourists/locals in
vehicles doing 20km/h *less* than the limit, one is *very* ready to pull
out and pass.

Speculation again, but I suspect the poor truck driver didn't check the
rear view, or use his indicator before turning. It happened to me on one
occasion - I was in the car on the way home, slowing to turn right,
check rear vision (right wing mirror), and a bright headlight flying up
behind me in the opposite lane. I had to step on the brakes to let
him/her pass before I turned.

That stretch isn't really long enough to pass four vehicles, even on a
motorbike.

 

I suspect an even better defensive technique would be to abandon the turn
and maintain course with as little deviation as possible including braking.
You can always go back.

 

Yeah right, all that extra width of rubber and the frame bracing for the
rear has *totally* wrecked the handling...not.

JL
(you do still have those woeful HD brakes though

 

Strange that you would say not to mess up some person's life
accidentally but condone messing up other people's lives intentionally.
Odd.

Nev..
'04 CBR1100XX

 

Either of the people who love you, Nev, might get messed up by your
demise. I was criticizing riders who use other road users as a way of
finding the wipe out. Have you never launched into a massive overtake
and had second thoughts half way through? Everyone else has. This guy
didn't choose to pull back. It's not a high side, it's a "I don't care".
And that's close enough to suicide as makes no odds.

 

Yep, it's a nice spot - but it's getting popular - lots of
"tree-changers"