(09-01-2019, 05:43 PM)cb1100_dude_imp Wrote: This is a few months [url=https://youtu.be/_HOgTfB5KcE]old vid but it shows the importance of road strategy when riding a bit more spirited..
I've taken some principles with me when riding in the city. Just me 2 cents.
1.) When on a two way road - try your best to stay on the left of left most lane. It'll give you the most visibility to those crossing the intersection to make a left and will be blocking your. It'll also make you most visible to them.
2.) When on a one way road but it has 3 lanes... stay in the middle lane/2nd lane. Lots of cars parked on both sides and lots of cars stopping to turn both left and right. This is a double edged sword however because now you have to worry about being on the blind side of both vehicles on your left and on your right.
If it has two lanes... stay on the left most.. and try to take the left most position in that lane.. although watch out for parked cars 
3.) Don't cross an intersection at the same time while splitting lanes with a car. Might seem obvious but well...
Lots of caveats to these however. Riding slow-er is never a guarantee that you will be able to escape with your life. Sometimes speed and momentum can get you out of trouble just as much. Pick your poison.
Any who enjoy my near wipeout experience 
cb1100_dude, I've enjoyed the other video (videos?) you posted, but this one--just to be clear--is that you riding? This one gives me the willies. I've watched the video a number of times, and I hesitate to play "arm-chair quarterback", but since you posted for the purpose of drawing some conclusions based on riding and conditions, I feel the need to respond. I like these type of vidoes because MC riders can learn lots from analyzing situations, which I believe help us become better riders. In short, I do think the MC rider is going too fast--maybe not crazy speed--but too fast considering the traffic conditions.
(09-01-2019, 05:43 PM)cb1100_dude_imp Wrote: This is a few months [url=https://youtu.be/_HOgTfB5KcE]old vid but it shows the importance of road strategy when riding a bit more spirited..
I've taken some principles with me when riding in the city. Just me 2 cents.
1.) When on a two way road - try your best to stay on the left of left most lane. It'll give you the most visibility to those crossing the intersection to make a left and will be blocking your. It'll also make you most visible to them.
2.) When on a one way road but it has 3 lanes... stay in the middle lane/2nd lane. Lots of cars parked on both sides and lots of cars stopping to turn both left and right. This is a double edged sword however because now you have to worry about being on the blind side of both vehicles on your left and on your right.
If it has two lanes... stay on the left most.. and try to take the left most position in that lane.. although watch out for parked cars 
3.) Don't cross an intersection at the same time while splitting lanes with a car. Might seem obvious but well...
Lots of caveats to these however. Riding slow-er is never a guarantee that you will be able to escape with your life. Sometimes speed and momentum can get you out of trouble just as much. Pick your poison.
Any who enjoy my near wipeout experience 
I'm assuming you refer now to what happens in the video. At the 28-29 second mark, the MC rider is in that "half-lane" where cars are also parked--meaning that the other cars to the right can't use it. Looking ahead, one can see a car turning left--the one that is in front of the blue car that nearly side swipes the MC rider. Then the MC rider attempts to overtake the blue car on the left at the very spot where a car has just turned left.
This is where "speed" does nearly get the MC rider in trouble. As riders, we have to remember that "spirited" city riding gives the rider and other drivers less time to react. I don't see the blue car using a turn signal that might have warned the MC rider of intentions, but maybe that's because the driver doesn't know the area and the turn came up faster than s/he expected, or maybe the driver was simply being too lazy to signal. The point is that the speed of the MC rider overtaking a car in an area where the driver doesn't expect it nearly causes a collision.
Question: had there been a collision and the MC rider goes down, what would an officer have done? Written a ticket for MC rider for "unsafe pass"? Another for the driver for failing to use turn signal? Important for insurance and such, but the end result could have been that the MC rider goes down because a decision was made to ride in a spirted fashion in an area where there was substantial traffic.
(09-01-2019, 05:43 PM)cb1100_dude_imp Wrote: This is a few months [url=https://youtu.be/_HOgTfB5KcE]old vid but it shows the importance of road strategy when riding a bit more spirited..
I've taken some principles with me when riding in the city. Just me 2 cents.
1.) When on a two way road - try your best to stay on the left of left most lane. It'll give you the most visibility to those crossing the intersection to make a left and will be blocking your. It'll also make you most visible to them.
2.) When on a one way road but it has 3 lanes... stay in the middle lane/2nd lane. Lots of cars parked on both sides and lots of cars stopping to turn both left and right. This is a double edged sword however because now you have to worry about being on the blind side of both vehicles on your left and on your right.
If it has two lanes... stay on the left most.. and try to take the left most position in that lane.. although watch out for parked cars 
3.) Don't cross an intersection at the same time while splitting lanes with a car. Might seem obvious but well...
Lots of caveats to these however. Riding slow-er is never a guarantee that you will be able to escape with your life. Sometimes speed and momentum can get you out of trouble just as much. Pick your poison.
Any who enjoy my near wipeout experience 
Speed--again not crazy speed, just too much for conditions--got the rider into a peck of trouble, and speed, quickly accelerating got the rider out of it. Riding a bit slower, or staying behind the blue car, would have prevented the need to use speed to escape trouble. So I would counter that speed can be a poison, but riding slow-er (meaning at speed of normal traffic flow)...not so much.
I think riding fast is fun. But what I see in the video would make me very uncomfortable as a rider, and if that were my son or daughter riding...that would make me really, really uncomfortable.
But thank you cb1100_dude for posting and I hope you take my response not as confrontation but rather as commentary for the purpose of learning from it. It is interesting to take a look at, and serves as a reminder for all; it helps to see these situations so when we encounter them in real time, maybe it sticks in the back of our minds and we ask "is this a good maneuver for these conditions?" before we get into a difficult spot. I'm glad the MC rider did get out of this one.