Saw a dude get rear-ended on his RK this morning on my way to work. Just a low speed tap...he kept the bike up, but it put a wrinkle in his rear fender.

I was next to the car that hit him. The rider had a large flag attached to his rear bumper which covered all of the RK's rear lights. The headlights from the car lit up the flag, (it was still dark) which made the brake lights on the RK completely invisible.

I have seen many bikes flying flags, and never gave thought that they might impede tail and brake light visibility.

Not sure how much the flag came into play here, but y'all be careful out there.

 

regardless, if the guy rearended him, in the eyes of the law, he was following too close. doesn't matter if his lights were obscured or not.

glad the guy wasn't hurt.

 

My wife just got rear ended while she was “sitting at a drive up window” at a pharmacy.
Some people just don’t pay any attention and can’t drive.

I had always heard that Texas had high auto insurance before I moved here. I thought it was because of stolen cars going to Mexico "WRONG".
It's because these Texans can't drive worth a damn.
My wife and I have lived here (in Texas) for 10 years and we average getting run into more than once a year in that time.

 

I think my 3 waving flags actually get me more attention than all of the lights on the back. Fly the flags!

 

I hear you on the flags, I fly a few myself but I always make sure they won't block any of my lights. I ride with a guy that flys them too. The problem with his are they block his turn signal lights, can't see the lights at all, no matter day or night. I've told him about it but he just says "people just need to pay attention to what they are doing". He's been lucky so far.

 

+1. I fly two American flags that I hope will catch a cager's attention because they are something different. Lord knows cagers don't pay attention to lights anymore.

 

I love flying my flags but I also want to continue to be able to ride so I relocated my flags from the saddle bag rails to the tour pack rails, people can see them better there anyway.
Mike

 

I'd say it was probably a "texting" thing, as many of the rear end things are due to these days...Gotta be loud and almost as obnoxious to keep people's attention.
Don't think for a second that you are going to be get between them and their texting or cell phone conversation...Ain't gonna happen..
Always be on the look-out and look for a way out in case...

 

Welcome to the world of texting and talking while driving. In some cases if you towed a 12 foot neon sign behind you that said STOP it wouldn't be enough.