Thank you God...

[SS Junk]

On my way home from work yesterday I was riding the bike when dude on a 750 gixxer snaked past me, splitting lanes and riding the bumper of the car in front of him. We get to a light and I am actually ahead of him. He splits lanes to get next to me. Get a closer look a the bike and it's flawless. Looks brand new. I tell him it's a nice bike and immediately he says "It's an '08. I want to get a thousand..." I continue admiring the bike and tell him since he's in a hurry he can go ahead. I told him I'd follow. I guess that meant it was a competition because when the light turned green he was gone even though we were 10 cars deep from the intersection. I tried to follow him, but he was going way beyond my limits. As we were going downhill and approaching an intersection he was extremely close to the car in front of him. They slammed on their brakes. Sparks and limbs flailed everywhere. Flow of traffic was around 50mph when this happened. We were both in the left lane and he rolled all the way to the right shoulder. Luckily there was no one behind him or he would've been a grease ball. He caught a lucky bounce and was up on his feet at the end of his travel. Fortunate for him he was wearing good gear.
As we watched the antifreeze leak from the bike and dangling handlebar he started to ponder how much it would cost to fix. The left side did not have a clean part left on it and was wondering if coolant was coming from a crack in the block or radiator. Either way it looked totaled. Person who he was behind was also stopped on the shoulder. I was too far back to see if he'd hit them and he didn't know. I offered to go talk to them but he said he had everything under control.
I was real tempted to try and keep up with him and this is one of those ways where I was reminded not to be a dumbass. Thanks God!

This is exactly what the bike looked like and just as clean:

http://www.mcnews.com.au/Wallpaper/Suzuki/GSXR750/2008/Wallpaper/5.jpg

[beefed88]

Squids.

[futant]

I always try to remember no matter how bad ass it feels on a bike that car drivers can brake VERY EFFICIENTLY.
They only have to do one thing, step as hard as they can on one pedal and slide to a stop. Which normally ends up somewhat controlled.

Just try crushing your front and rear brake on at the same time hard and see if your luck is so good. It's not that our bikes can't out brake them, it 's that its so much easier for them to do it controlled.

sucks for him. Good for you for keeping it real!

my buddy told me something once that has stuck with me :
'no matter the accident that is about to occur there is only one thing you can't change then, the speed you were going'
I guess it's just a backward ass way of saying slow the fuck down FIRST, manuveur next

[beefed88]

I always try to remember no matter how bad ass it feels on a bike that car drivers can brake VERY EFFICIENTLY.
They only have to do one thing, step as hard as they can on one pedal and slide to a stop. Which normally ends up somewhat controlled.

Just try crushing your front and rear brake on at the same time hard and see if your luck is so good. It's not that our bikes can't out brake them, it 's that its so much easier for them to do it controlled.

sucks for him. Good for you for keeping it real!

my buddy told me something once that has stuck with me :
'no matter the accident that is about to occur there is only one thing you can't change then, the speed you were going'
I guess it's just a backward ass way of saying slow the fuck down FIRST, manuveur next

I don't know what kind of bike you are riding but I can brake more efficiently than about 99% of cars on the road. Practice braking.

[tribaltalon]

........... Okay. so when the guy in front of you has stomped his brakes and you're too busy trying to get the girls next to you to notice how cool you look, are you still going to be able to "brake more efficiently" then the guy who's already stopped? Ah ha... and by the way, you wont feel like such a champ when you're trying to stop, and hit some gravel/oil/water/etc when the car in front of you isnt affected in the least bit by it. Been there done that. Thats when always keeping an out becomes critical.

[futant]

I don't know what kind of bike you are riding but I can brake more efficiently than about 99% of cars on the road. Practice braking.

believe me i practice always with both brakes.
the fact of the matter is sometimes you can slow down un believably fast sometimes you cant. like mentioned, it is heavily dependent on conditions, unlike a car generally having 4 wheels that is a huge advantage.

needless to say what happened in this OP is the car slammed on the brakes unexpectedly , that is always a problem. Also like i mentioned, if you slam on both brakes and just one (especially the rear!) is just a little bit off you will slide out and low side.

but dont believe me , youre superman. show us all how cool you are! your day will come too.

I've brake so hard to slide out almost twice. once i was cut off by a fed ex truck , it seemed impossible to miss him, both brakes on, bike sliding right a hair . My right boot clipped his rear bumper, and i was still in the middle on my lane. He was making a left and obviously he did not see me.
other times , like ive said : i've slowed from seeming unbelievably hot entrance speeds with room to spare. Especially on the motard. BREMBO, man's best friend!

[Rlhay2]

A skilled rider can stop a motorcycle in a shorter distance than any car.

Most riders do not possess this level of skill.

Stopping a car is not as skill dependent thus, the average car driver will stop quicker than the average rider.

FYI: I've been doing rider training for 10+ years.

[SS Junk]

The only thing that matters regarding skill in this situation is having the smarts to refrain from riding nearly on top of the car in front of you. If he was as close to the car when he went down than what I witnessed there was no time to react to clear the car. I saw him in some cases at most three feet off the bumper in front of him going 50 or more mph.

[Rlhay2]

The only thing that matters regarding skill in this situation is having the smarts to refrain from riding nearly on top of the car in front of you.

Very true.

No amount of skill can overcome sheer stupidity.

[Jonny00GT]

Rule number 1, ALWAYS expect the people around you to do the dumbest thing possible that just might kill you and plan ahead.

Top 5 trophies for street racing:
5th place, Broken parts you get to pay for!
4th place, a free trip to jail!
3rd place, a wheel chair complete with colostomy bag!
2nd place, brain damage and a feeding tube!
1st place, TOE TAG!

That's just my 2cents. You wanna show how bad ass you are, put it on the track! MUCH better trophies onthe CMRA! IMHO

-Jonny

[SMKR]

Quit riding so aggressive and be more defensive on the streets

[futant]

A skilled rider can stop a motorcycle in a shorter distance than any car.

Most riders do not possess this level of skill.

Stopping a car is not as skill dependent thus, the average car driver will stop quicker than the average rider.

FYI: I've been doing rider training for 10+ years.

EXACTLY

to this I would only add that a motorcycle only stops SHORTER than the car in GOOD pavement conditions. You do not know where that next itty bitty spot of gravel is , or moisture around the next corner. Even one pavement lay to the next, feels a lot different on a motorcycle when you nail the binders on. I know what youre thinking , even in the rain you can stop faster than cars, right ? MAYBE. You ever practice just slamming on both brakes in the rain ? I didn't think so...
Basically im saying changing conditions dictate that braking is hard to be perfect at on a motorcycle. ABS has made that unbelievably easy in a car.

Only an idiot thinks he can ALWAYS out brake a car. What they do takes little to no skill to smash the brakes as hard as they can. Plus four wheels provides superior sliding and brakeing control. 4 contact patches nearly elimate the need to worry about pavement conditions too.

[futant]

Rule number 1, ALWAYS expect the people around you to do the dumbest thing possible that just might kill you and plan ahead.

Top 5 trophies for street racing:
5th place, Broken parts you get to pay for!
4th place, a free trip to jail!
3rd place, a wheel chair complete with colostomy bag!
2nd place, brain damage and a feeding tube!
1st place, TOE TAG!

That's just my 2cents. You wanna show how bad ass you are, put it on the track! MUCH better trophies onthe CMRA! IMHO

-Jonny

Quoted for truth!

[Hobie]

I guess it's just a backward ass way of saying slow the fuck down FIRST, manuveur next

I could be reading this wrong, but this is 180* off. Avoid first, brake second.

If you're going 160 or even 60 and I throw a pallet out 100ft in front of you and you brake you'll brake all the way to impact. Or you can swerve around it at full throttle and grab another gear.

It's what they teach at some riders schools

[Hobie]

A skilled rider can stop a motorcycle in a shorter distance than any car.

Most riders do not possess this level of skill.

Stopping a car is not as skill dependent thus, the average car driver will stop quicker than the average rider.

FYI: I've been doing rider training for 10+ years.

I've been riding 12 years and over 100K miles on sportbikes and I bet I can stop shorter from 50mph in my fullsize 4 door sedan than I can on a sportbike. I've got $20 that says I can stop shorter from 50 in my DD on the road behind my house (concrete, three lanes in each direction) than anyone on this board riding a motorcycle.

Low speed panic braking on a hilly stretch of uneven pavement, shiiiiit, lol. That reminds me, I flipped a stoppie on that road 9-10 years ago, fuck, when did I get this old???