Back down to earth with a bump. Youtube is the cure for over confidence.

[alan09]

so many SMIDSY's makes you realise "but by the grace of god". But most them are just knobs, there's a right time & place for speed & the most of them wasn't it.

[caretaker]

i'm with skippernick. although cant quite figure out what the rider was trying to do at 57.45.

[pitternator]

you have to have a brush with death to actually take these lessons on board. Me I got a second chance, many dont ...boy every time I go out on my bike I know every second  of riding there is a potential accident around the next corner/junction/traffic queue....since which I have had 7 yrs of accident free riding. Still some close calls, but all avoided by me taking defensive action, rather than panic measures.
Biggest thing I took on board is slow down a bit , look a bit longer , take time to consider what might just be round that corner, keep alert, above all, like the topic says...dont get over confidant...
...considering  yerself too good to crash is actually a potential recipe for disaster... Look at rossi....that crash at misano almost ruined his career, that came from a second of over confidance !

[simonm]

you have to have a brush with death to actually take these lessons on board. Me I got a second chance, many dont ...boy every time I go out on my bike I know every second  of riding there is a potential accident around the next corner/junction/traffic queue....since which I have had 7 yrs of accident free riding. Still some close calls, but all avoided by me taking defensive action, rather than panic measures.
Biggest thing I took on board is slow down a bit , look a bit longer , take time to consider what might just be round that corner, keep alert, above all, like the topic says...dont get over confidant...
...considering  yerself too good to crash is actually a potential recipe for disaster... Look at rossi....that crash at misano almost ruined his career, that came from a second of over confidance !

Well said that man

[Revilo18]

you have to have a brush with death to actually take these lessons on board. Me I got a second chance, many dont ...boy every time I go out on my bike I know every second  of riding there is a potential accident around the next corner/junction/traffic queue....since which I have had 7 yrs of accident free riding. Still some close calls, but all avoided by me taking defensive action, rather than panic measures.
Biggest thing I took on board is slow down a bit , look a bit longer , take time to consider what might just be round that corner, keep alert, above all, like the topic says...dont get over confidant...
...considering  yerself too good to crash is actually a potential recipe for disaster... Look at rossi....that crash at misano almost ruined his career, that came from a second of over confidance !

+1 on this. The vid has really made me think again, even though I'm pretty safe already. BIg lesson from watching is ATGATT (all the gear, all the time)!!

[pitternator]

maybe we could start a new topic on " near misses"....we all have had them no doubt !...they do teach lessons. Sometimes I do believe I have had a guardian angel, cos when I think back on some of them, the potential was there for serious injury or death if it had happened. I'm not meaning self induced issues either like running wide on bends....but incidents like meeting a lorry just round a blind bend  in the pyrenees coming towards me taking up all the road...the sort of incident which if one had just blundered into it would have been a diffrent story.
I still think my worst was coming across stationary traffic just after a blind but not really acute bend with oncoming cars in the other lane, and only just enough room to stop. That really gets the sphincter going...just thinking 5mph more and I would be" in" the car in front !....

[maclean]

Is it bad that I feel a bit better about my own chances given that a large percentage of those crashes were bikers just stupidly whizzing through unpredictable traffic and almost the inevitable happening?  (only watched first 15mins will watch rest at home)

The crashes that worry me most are the ones where the bikes just go from under the rider for whatever reason and they can be sliding accross potentially fast oncoming traffic.  Also the rear enders as there is really very little you can do about those in the real world other than watching your rear mirrors every time you stop which is easy to forget.

Such a large percentage were bikers just going too fast or not leaving enough room for driver error whilst riding in busy traffic.

Definetly healthy to have some of this in the back of your mind though imo.  Not so much that you ride around scared, but enough to make you think every time you twist!

[Grahamm]

the rear enders as there is really very little you can do about those in the real world other than watching your rear mirrors every time you stop which is easy to forget.

Just get into the habit of doing regular mirror checks, especially whenever you change speed (decelerating *or* accelerating!).

Also when you're stopped behind a vehicle at lights/ a pedestrian crossing/ roundabout or junction etc which is approached by fast moving traffic, always leave a *minimum* of a bike and a half's length between you and them such that, if anything comes up behind too fast, you can plan an escape route down the near-side or off-side depending on conditions.