Crashed the GS500F this morning...

FlightService wrote: A trick I got taught by an old timer at the motorcycle shop I worked at is look at the drivers eyes of the other vehicle. You can tell if they see you or are looking around you.

Do NOT trust looking at the other driver. People will look right at/through you and never see you. You cannot trust this. Now, if their head is swiveled the opposite direction, then yeah, that may be a trouble indicator. But endless numbers of guys will tell you "They looked right at me and pulled out!". I focus on the front wheel of the vehicle when perpendicular. I watch it for any movement. That thing starts to roll and I'm on the brake.

Agreed about not counting on eye contact or even driver acknowledgement. In fact, acknowledgement often seems to lead to the conclusion that you are going to yield to them, so they pull out after the head nod.

I also look at the front wheel. Look at the top of the wheel, the 12 oclock position. That spot moves forward at twice the speed of the vehicle. It will leap forward before the car even twitches. Gives you a few extra microseconds.

MSM, glad you are OK!

The rider courses are all a great idea, but the only way to learn how to do something is to practice it. So how do you practice all the craziness that happens in a pre-crash without actually doing it?

Go find a cheap dirt bike with bald tires. Take that bike where you can ride it on sand, wet grass, pine straw, anything slippery (wet red clay is particularly good for this). Then teach yourself to ride that bike as fast as you can under those conditions. I guarantee you that you will bust your ass more than once while doing this, so be prepared. But the more you do it, the better you will get.

Then the next time Mr or Mrs Obliviot pulls out in front of you and the bike kicks sideways under hard braking (or something else equally foul occurs), your brain and body will remember what you did on the dirt bike and immediately take instinctive action. That's called 'sensation conditioning'.

Glad you are ok I had a similar experience when I starting riding street bikes. As you can see everyone has a different way of dealing with it. Here is what I did after I learned from that experience:

1. Took the advance MSF course

2. Practiced panic stops. As I am sure you know the key to short panic stops is to be progressive on the brakes as weight transfers. You have to practice. When initiating a panic stop, start with both brakes. As weight transfers give less rear brake and keep progressively giving front brake. When I learned the techniques at MSF I was shocked at the amounts of braking force that could be generated.

3. Watch the road way ahead. If you see and intersect, driveway, path etc. expect someont to pull out if they can. Don't forget the killer left turn into your path.expect it to happen. Anticipation helps quell the panic feel of the panic situation