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Worried about tailgaters

Midlife Crisis

Midlife Crisis

Enjoying the Ride
Joined
Mar 9, 2012
Location
CA
Moto(s)
2009 GSX-R750
Name
Barbara
I want to start off by saying that I probably have 50 miles under my belt and half of that is from driving around in parking lots. I am hoping to start commuting to work very soon and luckily I live 1 exit away from work by taking 101S. I am actually pretty nervous.

I have driven around foster city but with my BF driving in the car behind me and he keeps telling me that I slow down too fast (I am engine braking when I see that there is a stop sign ahead) Essentially he says that once he catches up to me he has to slow down pretty fast so that he doesn't hit me from behind. I told him that I am actually going the speed limit or over. The main concern I have is if he - while being aware of the newbie biker ahead - worries about hitting me from behind..... would I have this issue with other drivers on the road once I go solo? What can I do to avoid this? Am I speeding up to too fast and then since I am staying close to the speed limit putting myself in danger? I don't want to have to speed all the time just to feel like I won't get hit.. or am I just being paranoid? :bump

Sorry for the long post just not really sure of what I can expect from car drivers. I know that since I ride and have always wanted a bike that when I am behind riders I am very considerate but I know that not everyone is like that.
 
Congrats on getting into riding!

Engine braking alone in traffic is dangerous - at least use a little brake so your brake light alerts those behind that your are slowing down.

How far is your commute? I know that getting all my gear on and off would probably negate most of the time savings vs the cage if it were only one exit. I'd say get a few hundred (or thousand) miles down on streets and expressways and such before you start playing in aggressive freeway commute traffic.
 
Midlife Crisis said:
What can I do to avoid this?
Click to expand...

Break up with your BF. :) No uhmmm, if he is worried about hitting you then you can count on other people worrying about hitting you. Especially if you find yourself going slower than the flow of traffic. Because no you don't have to speed all the time. Once people are worried about hitting a motorcycle how many would actually hit one let alone rear end? So I say you should be safe. The person must be daranged crazy individual to premeditatively want to hit a motorcycle (happens once in a blue moon though ie. 580 hwy, mini bus ran over a motorcyclist) and we can't do anything about but to try to stop or escape.

So I say you should be alright, sticking within the speed limit. You probably do, I don't know, but, safely change lanes often, don't stay stagnant out there. Its ok to be somewhat aggressive in a safe manner yet know when to hold back, it gets fun when you know what you are doing. When you have control and you are at a hightened awareness level. Are you aware of the flow of traffic around you? Are you sometimes going with the flow of traffic at least. BUT do not stay within the blindspot of cars (pass them up quickly instead).

I hope I made sense, Im still newb too. Riding since October.

Like the second poster said, use your brake lights. If there is car behind you some close some not, I would squeeze my brake very lightly just so the brake lights light up eventually coming to a stop. If there is no one behind your or is far behind engine brake is ok of course youre eventually going to use the brakes.
 
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To quote an MSF video, "Engine braking may slow you, but brake lights help to slow the car behind you."
 
Cire 5th said:
Break up with your BF. :) No uhmmm, if he is worried about hitting you then you can count on other people worrying about hitting you. Especially if you are going slower than the flow of traffic. Once people are worried about hitting a motorcycle how many would actually hit one? So I say you should be safe. The person must be a daranged crazy individual to premeditatively want to hit a motorcycle (happens once in a blue moon though ie. 580 hwy, mini bus ran over a motorcyclist).

So I say you should be alright, sticking within the speed limit. Are you aware of the flow of traffic and are sometimes going with the flow of traffic ast but not staying in the blindspot of cars (pass them up quickly).
Click to expand...

Except, not all drivers pay attention - especially while commuting. They're tired/distracted/frustrated and not noticing she's slowing down for even a second or two creates a real danger.

Any habits a rider has that put them at risk are bad habits. The trick is to be aware of potential dangers and mitigate them. Relying on the good intentions of other drivers is a recipe for a short riding career. IMO YMMV
 
When you roll off the throttle make sure you tap your brakes just enough so the brake light comes on. Cagers suck at telling if something is accelerating or slowing down, especially bikes. The sudden flash of red tends to stun them into jamming on their brake pedal if they see it.
Other than that I tend to wiggle a bit or stand up on the pegs if someone is tailing me hard. The wobbling freaks cagers out often they think you might crash and back off. If not standing up seems to startle them and make them think "WTF is with this crazy motorcyclist I better back off a bit before they crash!"
 
Get a new boyfriend. One that knows how to ride. :ride
 
At home, test and see how far you have to move each brake lever until your light comes on, and then keep that in mind. When you're slowing down with engine braking but don't need your wheel brakes, at least use one of them to light your brake light.
 
Good point. I didn't really think about that as silly as it sounds.

I'll be coming onto 101 South from Hillsdale and getting off on Ralston so I will pretty much be in the far right lane the whole time. I have wanted to ride for so long that I think getting all my gear on for a 10 min ride will still be worth it... If anything I'll ride around a couple extra blocks before I clock into work :)
 
A couple quick taps of the brake will get the tail light flashing. That'll get their attention.
 
This would be great for you so you don't need to worry, as it would automatically modulate your brake lights as you slow down, regardless of if you hit the brakes or not.

Unfortunately it says you need an electronic speed sensor and your ninja 250's speed sensor isn't electronic from what I understand :dunno

I strongly suggest using the brakes though. That's what they are designed for :2cents
 
brakes... and are you slowing early?

I second (third, fourth...) tapping your brakes when you're slowing down, just so folks behind you know whats going on. Our eyes are automatically drawn to bright flashing shiny things, its a survival mechanism. That will bring their attention to *you*, which is what you want. Be visible...

Commuting on the highway - DEFINITELY practice this on a weekend morning when there is no traffic. If you've got 50 miles under your belt, I bet not many of them were over 65mph. Get used to highway speeds before you have to deal with rush hour traffic.

Are you slowing up too early before coming to a stop? Its something that I did when I was first starting out was to freak out when approaching a stop sign. I would start slowing down way earlier than other drivers expected me to, because I was worried about downshifting before the stop, and I wasn't confident in my braking skills. It just takes hours on the bike, and many stop signs. But it will come :)
 
Thanks Solomon - Will have to look into that. I am not exactly sure about my speed sensor

Laura - Will be doing a couple dry runs this weekend early morning. I did the RR 2.0 class @Infineon so I got to get on the track but at that point I was still scared to look at my speedometer when I was going down hill so no idea how fast I went. I did do a couple runs a few weekends ago on 92 from Edgewater to Fostercity blvd and played around with my speed. I was def nervous the first couple of times but I ended up feeling pretty comfy going 85.. eventually that is.
 
Welcome to BARF, Midlife. :eek:)

Several hit the points I was going to make, but I'll be repetitive anyway: 1) when you can flash your brake light before you really start slowing down, 2) rely on the brakes more than the engine to slow you down, 3) move around some more in your lane position -- keeping a static relative position to cars makes it easier for them to *not* see you.

Also:

Ask BF how closely he was really following you. (Ask when you're both in the car and behind another bike.) I bet that although he was aware you were there, he wasn't really giving enough safe distance. (I know if he was too close it doesn't help you be safer with the *other* drivers, but it does help give you better perspective on *why* drivers are unknowingly dangerous.)

I would suggest against commuting just yet. For me I had several thousand miles before I had enough experience to really use the bike for transportation and something on the scale of 8 or 10 k miles to feel like I was competent enough to begin to deal with anything commuting might throw at me. In order to get enough "just seat time" I spent almost all of my free time out on the bike either in parking lots or exploring roads at odd hours (so there was little traffic).

IMO being able to be safe on a bike on the streets means being able to be aware of everything that's going on around you and be able to be proactive for all of it and that part pretty much only comes with experience.
 
If you aren't comfortable riding in heavy traffic, don't do it.

I know, with you being new to ths and all, there is a lot to watch for, a lot to do. I've been doing this for a while now, but when I start to slow down, I glance at the mirrors at the same time, and I'll sometimes pull up beside the car in front of me if someone is too close.
 
I'll repeat this every time: engine braking is a flaw, not a feature.

Learn to control your speed with brakes and throttle. Engine braking is crutch that isn't as predicable as it feels. If you are using the brakes you are completely in conrol
 
I will tap my brakes as a warning, and plan on stopping in enough time for the car behind me to stop.
 
Congrats and welcome to the world of motorcycling. As a new rider/driver, we tend to give ourselves more time and space to brake until that skill become better/second nature. I agree with some of the above posts, make yourself as visible as possible especially a newbie by lightly tapping on the brake(s) to help alert those behind you along with engine braking. Due to wind resisting factors, a bike will slow down quicker than a car with just engine braking.
 
Stay off the freeway for a while longer and get some more experience when you do start out riding freeways do it at times traffic is lighter. dont rush it motorcycleing is a lifetime sport make it a long one. develop a feel for your brakes so you can activate the brake light with out over braking theres no rush get more comfortable riding before venturing out on the freeway especially in rush hour traffic.
 
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