First Ride Back And Already Dodging Cagers
What if that blue Honda suddenly–and quickly–moved into the lane to its left? That’s how it was for me except there weren’t all these other bikes ahead of me.
On Thursday last week I took my first ride after more than two months, thanks to bypass surgery, and it was not without its very own moment of excitement.
My timing (bad timing) was such that I was homeward bound up I-25 in the middle of rush hour. There was a bit of stop and go but mostly we were moving pretty well. Of course, you know how it is in that kind of traffic. If you want to change lanes you need to act quickly when the opportunity presents itself. And a woman in a Nissan Altima did just that.
I’m sure she looked in her mirror and saw an opening and jumped on it. What I’m also sure she did not do was to do a head check–turn her head to see for sure that the lane was clear and nobody was in her blind spot. And guess who, at that particular instant, was indeed in her blind spot.
So I’m cruising along trying to maintain a distance between myself and the car in front of me so I’m not constantly braking and accelerating and with no warning whatsoever this car next to me starts moving decisively into my lane . . . which is where I am. We were probably going between 30 and 40 miles an hour and I had to brake hard to let her get ahead of me. I braked hard enough that I nearly stalled the bike and with no speed the bike started to lay down, such that I put my left foot out to hold us up. Plus, this meant I was veering into the adjacent lane to my left.
I got it all stabilized and got moving again and I could hear the guy behind me blowing his horn long and loud. I knew he wasn’t blowing it at me, but at the woman who cut in on me. After a moment I was able to move into the right lane and I sped up to pull alongside her. I shook my fist at her and blew my horn, and meanwhile the guy who had been behind me–a guy in a CDOT tow truck–was right behind her blowing his horn. She just stared straight ahead: I see nothing. I hear nothing.
Then a minute later the tow truck guy pulled up alongside me and rolled his window down, yelling to ask if I was OK. I gave him a thumbs up and a nod of thanks.
So yeah, first ride after being off the bike awhile and already some excitement. I only wonder if I would have been more alert to the intention of this driver if I hadn’t been away from riding for so long. I’ll never know, but that’s all the more reason I want to get in a good 1,000 miles this month before we take off on this Canada trip. I always want to be at the top of my game when I’ve got Judy on behind me.
Biker Quote for Today
Don’t fear dying, fear not living.
Tags: blind spot
