Positioning your bike at a traffic light
*You pull up to a red light at an intersection and come to a complete stop. There is a vehicle directly in front of you (also stopped and waiting for the red light to turn green) and a vehicle stopped to your left and right, with no vehicle behind you.
How do you guys do it? What part of the lane do you recommend? This is what I like to do: I will leave enough of a buffer zone between my bike and the car stopped directly in front of me. (in case the bike decides to roll backwards....for example, we are stopped in traffic on a hill and the car has a manual transmission. Or say, the driver decides to reverse toward me) If that happens, I will ride around the car...or if that is not possible, I will have more time to react and maybe beep my horn and if there is enough of a buffer zone between my bike and the reversing car, the driver of the car will stop reversing at me. I will also position my bike so that it is at a slight angle.....and not pointed directly (perpendicular) at the vehicle in front of me....instead my bike will be at a slight angle...and pointed either slightly to the left or right. I am basically pointing the bike at any area where I can have an escape route, should someone from behind me decide to run into me...and it is a very slight angle...so that when the light turns green I can still adjust the bike quickly to drive in a straight line again. At the same time, I will have my eyes on my mirrors with the bike IN 1st GEAR and never in neutral (unless my clutch hand is really sore/tired) and ready to move into either escape route...basically I can go left or right and between any cars that are in front of me. Only when a vehicle has come to a dead stop BEHIND my bike, will I put her in neutral. Of course, sometimes by then the light will turn to green. lol |
yes
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Yep, pretty much it.
Except I rarely ever use neutral, even after cars stop behind me. |
+1 Except for being on an angle. Most of the lanes here a pretty wide so I stop outside grooves which is usually enough room for another car to be next me and still be in the same lane.
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My hand gets so sore after riding, I still sometimes pop her in neutral and break my own rule lol.
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Originally Posted by dmcb2120
(Post 912225)
+1 Except for being on an angle. Most of the lanes here a pretty wide so I stop outside grooves which is usually enough room for another car to be next me and still be in the same lane.
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Originally Posted by kilgoretrout
(Post 912192)
Yep, pretty much it.
Except I rarely ever use neutral, even after cars stop behind me. |
You simply have to be aware of your surroundings & anticipate possibilities, as you are doing. I never stop directly square behind a vehicle at a light. I like to have an escape route via one corner or the other, of the car in front of me.
There have been a couple of stories in motorcycling news recently that have really brought this issue to the forefront...the most recent were the cyclists killed sitting at red light in AZ...http://www.kvoa.com/news/3-phx-motor...n-truck-crash/ . There was another story a few mos back of a couple of middle-aged riders on their dream ride cross-county to the CA coast. While sitting at a red light, they were rear-ended by an idiot & one rider was killed. They had ridden all the way from the eastern U.S. to their destination just to have this happen. |
Excellent advice gotcbr!
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AZ. is about to, or has had, a lane splitting/filtering debate, I am curious of your opinions, AZ. story reminded me of it, should pass now.
I want lane splitting in TX. but I do not know if the highways in California are wider, looks like newer Texas roads' lanes' are narrower than the old ones, so maybe that is not as easy as passing a law Has anyone seen how they do it in Taiwan? Watch some of Mordeth13's stuff on youtube.com and you'll see. That is cool. Are other countries like this? |
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