The Perils of Heavy Traffic

Well, it finally happened.

After 6 years of riding to work every day, rain, hail or sunshine....
The traffic got the better of me and I had my first 'commuting'
incident....

Picture Punt Rd, Melbourne, between High St and Commercial Rd, just
South of Grattan St. Heavy traffic, but flowing at about 15-20kmh with
me heading North.

I'm the zone between the parked cars and the moving traffic,
necessarily keeping an eye out for people who might open doors, and the
occasional loony who pulls out without looking, when suddenly...

Said loony does exactly that, and about a car length in front of me,
with me travelling slightly faster than the traffic, he/she pulls out
to apparently squeeze a Red Citroen hatch in a motorcycle sized-space.

Naturally, I brake. Also naturally, because it's wet, the front wheel
loses traction and I go down like a sack of spuds!

Soooo... what's to be learnt from this one? Of course I could take the
obvious approach and never split between parked cars and moving
traffic, or, maybe I could've split a little more slowly (I wasn't
going fast, by any stretch of the imagination... not even fast enough
to tear my wetpants when I the bitumen!) or maybe I could just not do
it in the wet.

At any rate, next time I'm riding in the rain, I should probably wear
my leathers.... my knee hurts (again).

Cheers everyone and stay safe.

Phil

 

Ooops.. that should've read 'Greville St', not Grattan...

 

try splitting on the right side. less likely to get smoked by cars
pulling into the traffic as well...

 

yeah, trouble with that is... Punt Rd is 4 lanes only, so I'd be
splitting up the middle of the road ;-)

I agree though, whenever I have the option of splitting between moving
cars or splitting between parked cars and moving cars, I'll take the
first option every time.

 

In aus.motorcycles on 31 Jan 2006 18:12:28 -0800

Not because it was wet... But because you haven't practiced braking in
the wet.

If you went down all the time if you used brakes in the wet, what
would be the use of riding?

Now it's not *always* rider error, sometimes there really is deisel on
the road. But, especially on modern bikes, it's more likely that
extra panic that hits the brakes too hard.

So what have you learned?

1) go slower in the wet so you have more time and less panic reaction.
2) practice your emergency braking in the wet as well as in the dry.

Zebee

 

Zebee,

You might want to re-read my introductory comment: "After 6 years of
riding to work every day, rain, hail or sunshine.... "

This would suggest to me, that, maybe it has a bit less to do with
inexperience at riding in the wet than you have proposed. As I thought
I had pointed out quite clearly, I ride in the wet all the time. I have
had to brake suddenly in the wet numerous times. Never have I come off.
I think this has more to do with the proximity of the car to me when
they pulled out, and possibly, as I also said quite clearly already,
the fact that I might have been travelling a little too fast
considering the conditions. On reflection, it's quite possible that my
front tyre was on the white lines when I braked - who knows.

Phil

 

Thanks Moike

Punt road in the morning is one of those things - traffic generally
travelling at snail's pace, and often plenty of room to squeeze between
the parked cars and the moving traffic because it's quite a wide road
(hence the odd car also trying to squeeze in that space). It's a
temptation that's very hard to resist, especially when sitting in the
traffic will mean a good 5-10 minutes extra added to the journey.
However, I suspect that doing it in the wet, certainly at a speed
faster than the traffic is moving, is a recipe for disaster. Not much
room to react, and too many added dangers around - parked cars (which
both I and the bike were lucky not to hit) on one side, moving cars on
the other, potential pedestrians etc etc.

Also, the section of Punt Road that I was riding on was one with no
side streets, as it was adjacent to a large private school (Wesley
college, for the Melburnians). I will almost never filter like that
when I'm on a section of road with side streets, again, for obvious
reasons.

Cheers

Phil

 

It's in situations like this where ABS can be helpful...


G-S

 

Yeah, ABS or a soft mattress for when I hit the ground ;-)

It just occurred to me.... when I said 'pull out' in my original post,
what I probably should have said was 'change lanes'... just for all
those people thinking 'how can someone 'pull out' when there's no side
streets?' ...

So what in fact happened was that someone ducked to their left quickly
in front of me, so they could get a look up the gap between the parked
cars and the moving traffic, presumably to see if there were more
parked cars up ahead, thinking they might be able to squeeze through
the gap and get ahead themselves...

Hope that makes it more clear.

Cheers

 

I've lost traction 3 times, once for no discernable reason, once
because of oil (I found oil on my tires and on the road, so it's a safe
bet that was the cause) and once on a metal expansion joint on a
freeway exit during wet weather.

Suffice to say that the experience of going down due to oil is in my
limited experience, a very different kettle of fish: The 2 times it
was not due to oil, I had time to shift my weight and recover from the
slide (ok, the wet metal issue was more blind luck than good
management, but I had quite a bit of time to panic in) whereas the time
I hit oil it was like one moment all's well, the next, me and the bike
are sliding down the road emitting sparks (the bike) and curses (guess)

 

In aus.motorcycles on 31 Jan 2006 19:44:19 -0800

It's not the riding. It's the emergency braking.

Have you regularly practiced that in the wet?

Zebee

 

Hmmmm I might want to do that soon. Hell of a while since I have locked
a front wheel up and scared myself.

 

Emergency braking in the wet?

ABS do your duty!

Boxer

 

ABS didn't help me when I crashed the R1100GS last year....

 

Ahh yes it does; now it's 100% your fault!!
(And you've probably given our enemies some ammunition in the
anti-lane-splitting movement too!)

I hope the bike's not too damaged.

 

But but but doesn't the draft law state that splitting between parked
cars and moving traffic is legal?

 

And the cabin mirror in cars gives a better view to the right rather
than the left, and the outside mirrors in the car were probably tuned
for reverse parking rather than maximum rear view; even if the driver
had looked in the mirrors you might have been invisible.

I don't think you should have been lane splitting at all, let alone at
the extreme left, but if I'd been riding a pushbike that's where I would
have been, possibly with a similar (if less expensive) result. I don't
think you'd get any sympathy at all from a group like Pedal Power.
Their riders have to contend with parked cars opening RHS doors,lane
changers. etc. without worrying about motorcycles moving at twice their
pace charging up behind them.

There's a convention that the slowest occupy the left (elderly
pedestrians on the footpath) and the fastest occupy the right (demented
bikers next to the median). You were way out of your range; the problem
that suddenly emerged exceeded your skill in the conditions.

I'm sorry you fell off, and I'm sorry you hurt your knee. But since you
don't imply any real fault on your part, I'm less sympathetic than I
would be if you'd misjudged a bend in the twisties and dropped it.

--
Cheers

Andrew

<--- Remove The NO and SPAM When Replying --->

 

I do practice 'sudden' braking in the wet, but of course I'm never
going to push it to the point when I lost traction - certainly not on
the road in any case!

That said, I have done it on grass on a TU250X - which was kinda fun.

To be honest, I really don't think I braked that hard. Like I said,
having braked suddenly plenty of times in the past in the wet, I've
never ever come even close to losing the front end. I got a wee
squiggle *once*, but nothing more. I'm not in the habit of really
clamping on the brakes, so I do wonder if maybe I hit a patch of
something, or that my front tyre was on the paint.

 

Andrew,

I won't disagree with anything you say, except for the 'not implying
any fault on my part' bit... I do recall saying the following: 'I could
take the obvious approach and never split between parked cars and
moving traffic'...

IMHO, misjudging a bend in the twisties and dropping it is really no
different - riding outside the restrictions imposed by the road,
weather or traffic conditions.

Cheers

Phil

 

And how is the bike?