Risky, But Not Really
Monday, October 21st, 2019
Trucks need to give motorcycles space, because we stop quicker than they do.
I rode with some guys from the RMMRC last week and there was one point where things got very interesting. As in, not in a particularly good way.
We made a stop at Performance Cycle for one guy to exchange something and then the idea was to jump quickly on I-25 south to Happy Canyon Road and then to do the loop down to Sedalia, then south through Monument. Sometimes when people say one thing they intend to say something else; a slip of the tongue. Other times they’re just simply incorrect. This was one of those.
As we started drawing near the Castle Pines Parkway exit, which takes you to Daniels Park Road, Robert, in the lead, pulled into the right lane. He and Bruce were up front and I was in the center lane. There was a semi in the right lane behind those guys.
I was not concerned because Robert had said Happy Canyon. That was a few miles ahead. But I figured it would be good to get in behind them just to play it safe. I knew that Castle Pines was a shorter route than Happy Canyon.
The trucker was keeping pretty close behind them, however. At one point I thought I would change lanes and looked to my rear only to discover the truck’s front bumper was just about even with my rear end. As in if I hadn’t looked (but I’m not stupid, I did look!) it would have been very nasty.
Now, as Bruce noted later, it is typical behavior for a trucker to back off on motorcycles because in case of an emergency stop the bikes will stop much faster than the truck. And if the truck is too close it will roll right over the bikes. But this trucker was not leaving room. In fact he was not even leaving enough room for me to pull in behind the other bikes, although by this point it had to be obvious to him that I wanted to get in.
Still, not a problem because this was not Happy Canyon. And then we reached the exit and they took the exit lane. Oh crap. In one of those assess, decide, act situations that happen in a heartbeat, I knew what my bike was capable of and I twisted the throttle hard and veered sharply across in front of the truck, entering the exit lane well after the two had completely diverged. I knew I could do it safely–there was not the shred of a doubt in my mind.
Nevertheless, this was the sort of thing that if I observed someone else doing it I would think they were nuts. And if I had had Judy on behind me there’s no way in hell I would have done it, even though missing the exit would have put a real hitch in this group ride.
But I knew I could do it. I had no doubt at all, and hey, I do enjoy living. I have no death wish.
So was this risky? Dangerous? Or just unorthodox? The trucker blared his horn at me and I don’t blame him for that, but I do blame him for not showing some courtesy and letting me in a lot sooner when it was obvious that that was what I wanted. Also for not just backing off on the bikes in general. They couldn’t have just speeded up and gotten further ahead of him; there was traffic in front of them.
It made for an interesting conversation when we stopped for a break. No one else had seen my move, but everyone had been aware that the trucker was being kind of a jerk. Bottom line, everything came out fine and I had a new story to tell. But I would not have been unhappy not to live this story–there was just no point to it.
Biker Quote for Today
Reasons not to date a motorcyclist: Facial hair may get long enough to braid.
