A "Heads Up" for Newbies!!!
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Joined: Feb 2006
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RE: A "Heads Up" for Newbies!!!
ORIGINAL: kiltiemon
Appropriately titled, as you'll soon find!
Coming home from a friend's house after dinner last Sunday (My first ride at night)... I came upon a small "round-a-bout". A "Traffic Circle". It was something I've navigated at 30mph in the car and slightly less (perhaps a lot less) on the bike... during the day. Road posted at 30 mph entering and exiting and posted at 15 mph through the round-a-bout.
I'm a new rider (less that 1000 miles at this point, so all of this is quite interesting to me.
As I've said, I've done this many times on the bike during the day, but this time... I found myself staring at the outside curb as I attempted to exit the obstruction. i.e. I failed to make the turn and had to straighten the bike and decelerate (REAL FAST)! I did a one-foot-on-the-ground "Save" and straightened things out and continued on my way. Quite CHAGRINED!!! Wow!!!
Called my friend (former NY Motor Officer, good buddy, and "Trainer"
) and told him of the error. I guess I allowed myself to become mezmerized by the beam of the headlight. I think that rather than looking at WHERE I wanted to go (as I would have during the day) I allowed myself to be distracted and looked at where the headlight was pointing. And of course, headed in THAT direction... the Curb!!!
What an aggrevatingly graphic demonstration of the admonishment to LOOK WHERE YOU WANT TO GO!!! I'm posting this to ask if any others of you have experienced the same error at night and to warn any new folks of the problem I allowed myself to fall (Fortunately not literally, this time) into.
Jim aka kiltiemon (with continued appreciation for all that I've learned for the more experienced folks on this forum)
Appropriately titled, as you'll soon find!
Coming home from a friend's house after dinner last Sunday (My first ride at night)... I came upon a small "round-a-bout". A "Traffic Circle". It was something I've navigated at 30mph in the car and slightly less (perhaps a lot less) on the bike... during the day. Road posted at 30 mph entering and exiting and posted at 15 mph through the round-a-bout.
I'm a new rider (less that 1000 miles at this point, so all of this is quite interesting to me.
As I've said, I've done this many times on the bike during the day, but this time... I found myself staring at the outside curb as I attempted to exit the obstruction. i.e. I failed to make the turn and had to straighten the bike and decelerate (REAL FAST)! I did a one-foot-on-the-ground "Save" and straightened things out and continued on my way. Quite CHAGRINED!!! Wow!!!
Called my friend (former NY Motor Officer, good buddy, and "Trainer"
) and told him of the error. I guess I allowed myself to become mezmerized by the beam of the headlight. I think that rather than looking at WHERE I wanted to go (as I would have during the day) I allowed myself to be distracted and looked at where the headlight was pointing. And of course, headed in THAT direction... the Curb!!!What an aggrevatingly graphic demonstration of the admonishment to LOOK WHERE YOU WANT TO GO!!!
I'm posting this to ask if any others of you have experienced the same error at night and to warn any new folks of the problem I allowed myself to fall (Fortunately not literally, this time) into.Jim aka kiltiemon (with continued appreciation for all that I've learned for the more experienced folks on this forum)
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Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 10,853
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From: Maryland
RE: A "Heads Up" for Newbies!!!
What he said!
ORIGINAL: 87lowrider
Nice to see a new rider share an almost bad expierence.Hopefully another newby will learn from a near mishap.Thanks for posting this kiltemon
ORIGINAL: kiltiemon
Appropriately titled, as you'll soon find!
Coming home from a friend's house after dinner last Sunday (My first ride at night)... I came upon a small "round-a-bout". A "Traffic Circle". It was something I've navigated at 30mph in the car and slightly less (perhaps a lot less) on the bike... during the day. Road posted at 30 mph entering and exiting and posted at 15 mph through the round-a-bout.
I'm a new rider (less that 1000 miles at this point, so all of this is quite interesting to me.
As I've said, I've done this many times on the bike during the day, but this time... I found myself staring at the outside curb as I attempted to exit the obstruction. i.e. I failed to make the turn and had to straighten the bike and decelerate (REAL FAST)! I did a one-foot-on-the-ground "Save" and straightened things out and continued on my way. Quite CHAGRINED!!! Wow!!!
Called my friend (former NY Motor Officer, good buddy, and "Trainer") and told him of the error. I guess I allowed myself to become mezmerized by the beam of the headlight. I think that rather than looking at WHERE I wanted to go (as I would have during the day) I allowed myself to be distracted and looked at where the headlight was pointing. And of course, headed in THAT direction... the Curb!!!
What an aggrevatingly graphic demonstration of the admonishment to LOOK WHERE YOU WANT TO GO!!! I'm posting this to ask if any others of you have experienced the same error at night and to warn any new folks of the problem I allowed myself to fall (Fortunately not literally, this time) into.
Jim aka kiltiemon (with continued appreciation for all that I've learned for the more experienced folks on this forum)
Appropriately titled, as you'll soon find!
Coming home from a friend's house after dinner last Sunday (My first ride at night)... I came upon a small "round-a-bout". A "Traffic Circle". It was something I've navigated at 30mph in the car and slightly less (perhaps a lot less) on the bike... during the day. Road posted at 30 mph entering and exiting and posted at 15 mph through the round-a-bout.
I'm a new rider (less that 1000 miles at this point, so all of this is quite interesting to me.
As I've said, I've done this many times on the bike during the day, but this time... I found myself staring at the outside curb as I attempted to exit the obstruction. i.e. I failed to make the turn and had to straighten the bike and decelerate (REAL FAST)! I did a one-foot-on-the-ground "Save" and straightened things out and continued on my way. Quite CHAGRINED!!! Wow!!!
Called my friend (former NY Motor Officer, good buddy, and "Trainer"
) and told him of the error. I guess I allowed myself to become mezmerized by the beam of the headlight. I think that rather than looking at WHERE I wanted to go (as I would have during the day) I allowed myself to be distracted and looked at where the headlight was pointing. And of course, headed in THAT direction... the Curb!!!What an aggrevatingly graphic demonstration of the admonishment to LOOK WHERE YOU WANT TO GO!!!
I'm posting this to ask if any others of you have experienced the same error at night and to warn any new folks of the problem I allowed myself to fall (Fortunately not literally, this time) into.Jim aka kiltiemon (with continued appreciation for all that I've learned for the more experienced folks on this forum)
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