Читать книгу Street Rider's Guide - David L. Hough - Страница 12

Bumper Bikes

Getting rear-ended can ruin your day.

Traffic has been heavy today on the freeway, and you’re glad to finally be on a surface street headed for home, alongside your riding buddy. You’re overheated, fatigued, and frustrated at traffic, and you’re looking forward to a hot bath and a cold beer.

You’d prefer to have more space ahead and behind, but other drivers seem to want to tailgate. And, if you drop back far enough for comfort, someone swerves over in front of you. So, you just do the best you can and hope no one does anything stupid. You do cover the brake lever, move over toward the left side of the lane, and make sure you squeeze hard enough to activate your brake light. You realize you’re not going to get home on time, and you steal a glance at the clock to see how late you’re going to be.

When you look up again, you see the brake lights of the car ahead. You quickly squeeze on the front brake to bring the bike to a stop. But the driver behind you doesn’t seem to comprehend what’s happening and slams into the back of your buddy’s bike, pushing it ahead into the stopped car. Neither of you are injured, but now you’ll have to stick around to deal with the accident and maybe help transport the damaged bike.

Even if you’re almost home, don’t let your guard down. Moving over to the left side of the lane was smart and covering the brake lever was good, but squandering attention on your late arrival distracted you from the situation. In heavy traffic, you must look several vehicles ahead to monitor traffic and brake early when you know you’re going to have to stop, to better warn the driver behind you.