Situational Awareness - Please Read

[Lotsokids]

The other day I rode the Max to work. On the way, I was on a 2-way main road going about 70 MPH. A car pulled out to pass, and was suddenly in MY LANE. I braked hard, and moved as far right as possible (no shoulder - only dirt). The driver stayed in my lane and went past - so we were THREE WIDE IN TWO LANES. That's a quick way to get killed. I was really ticked off. Then the ride home. SAME THING. Another car pulled out to pass and same situation - THREE WIDE IN TWO LANES going opposite directions at least 60 MPH. That really sucked.

Yesterday I noticed MY HEADLIGHT DIDN'T WORK. A connector pulled out, so I repaired it and it's good now. I put that all together and realized the cars passing did not see me.

 

[Bill Seward]

Oops... Glad you got it fixed, and you survived!

 

[jdeitz1979]

The other day I rode the Max to work. On the way, I was on a 2-way main road going about 70 MPH. A car pulled out to pass, and was suddenly in MY LANE. I braked hard, and moved as far right as possible (no shoulder - only dirt). The driver stayed in my lane and went past - so we were THREE WIDE IN TWO LANES. That's a quick way to get killed. I was really ticked off. Then the ride home. SAME THING. Another car pulled out to pass and same situation - THREE WIDE IN TWO LANES going opposite directions at least 60 MPH. That really sucked.



Yesterday I noticed MY HEADLIGHT DIDN'T WORK. A connector pulled out, so I repaired it and it's good now. I put that all together and realized the cars passing did not see me.

You need louder pipes!!! Headlight on or not, if they dumb assholes can't see you, they need to hear you


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[old timer]

Get LED's...MAKE SURE YOU ARE SEEN !...unk:

It's your ass.

 

[396375]

Glad you are ok.Twice in one day is real scary.We have a number of lights on the dash.It's too bad bike manufacturers don't add a warning light for a headlight out.Kind of ironic they have a light for bright light on which is for the other guys good and yet no light for headlight out which would be for your good.Maybe a good maintenance step would be to replace the headlight bulb every year and keep a spare on the bike.
Thanks for posting.

 

[sdt354]

I'm glad it didn't go badly for you. Careful everyone. No incidents this riding season. We've had our share here.

 

[Kronx]

Good reminder. I'm glad you came out ok, but I'm sure your blood pressure wasn't well for a bit.

Perhaps I need to change my mindset. Use the suiting up with helmet, gloves, jacket, boots, etc to go into almost a fighter pilot mode when I get ready to head out. Which would include the "systems checks" pilots often go through before taking off. Headlight check, turn signal check, brake light check, and air pressure. These are things every motorcycle safety course/video will tell you that you should do EVERY time before you ride. I do it often, but I must admit not doing it often enough(ie every time).

I'm such a creature of habit and I need to use that to my advantage... force myself to listen to some Danger Zone maybe? I need to make it a habit to do the systems check every time.

 

[Bobbyjy]

Glad you're here to tell the story sometimes a story will save a riderslife sometimes the experience is not needed. Thanks for the heads up.


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[SpecOps13]

I thought people in America drove pretty bad. Especially in Florida. From what you've written it's a Global Problem. Glad you're alright and just suffered some needless excitement...

 

[EAGLEPI]

The other day I rode the Max to work. On the way, I was on a 2-way main road going about 70 MPH. A car pulled out to pass, and was suddenly in MY LANE. I braked hard, and moved as far right as possible (no shoulder - only dirt). The driver stayed in my lane and went past - so we were THREE WIDE IN TWO LANES. That's a quick way to get killed. I was really ticked off. Then the ride home. SAME THING. Another car pulled out to pass and same situation - THREE WIDE IN TWO LANES going opposite directions at least 60 MPH. That really sucked.

Yesterday I noticed MY HEADLIGHT DIDN'T WORK. A connector pulled out, so I repaired it and it's good now. I put that all together and realized the cars passing did not see me.

That could been very dangerous, I'm glad everything turned out good. Back a while ago on my 2015 VMax my headlight wasn't working, I couldn't figure out why, I checked everything the connections, I replaced the ball, nothing seemed to work.

I was searching on Google because I didn't find anything in the forum and I found a post from another forum I think it was called the four muscle bikes, someone had the same issue in the fix for his issue was his on and off red button with sticking.

There was a girl I don't remember her name, but she said that she's heard of that happening a lot and when it happens and you can't figure out the problem with the light or the connectors the majority of times your on-off switch is sticking. She said she is to spray the inside of it with them contact cleaner put it back together make sure it tries out good, and then try your light again.

I followed her instructions and as soon as I cleaned my often on switch and put everything back together, and my headlight was working fine.

So if you ever have a mysterious headlight issue check to see if you're on and off button is sticking.

 

[frank5079]

The other day I rode the Max to work. On the way, I was on a 2-way main road going about 70 MPH. A car pulled out to pass, and was suddenly in MY LANE. I braked hard, and moved as far right as possible (no shoulder - only dirt). The driver stayed in my lane and went past - so we were THREE WIDE IN TWO LANES. That's a quick way to get killed. I was really ticked off. Then the ride home. SAME THING. Another car pulled out to pass and same situation - THREE WIDE IN TWO LANES going opposite directions at least 60 MPH. That really sucked.

Yesterday I noticed MY HEADLIGHT DIDN'T WORK. A connector pulled out, so I repaired it and it's good now. I put that all together and realized the cars passing did not see me.

Glad you're ok!!! Being prior service AF myself, I always practice situational awareness, whether I'm driving my car or riding the scoot...one can never be too careful!!!