Nomad's got good brakes!

[Ghost]

On my way home last night I had my first close call with my Nomad. Little old lady decided that stopping before pulling onto a major roadway from a housing development was not necessary. Also staying in one lane was just too much trouble.

I was in the right lane poking along at 55 mph. It was dark. There were other cars on the road. Traffic was light to moderate. I see her puling up to the end of the road she's on and she's going slow. I'm quite close by this time and it looks like she's slowing down to stop. Nope! She punches it at the last second and pulls into both the right and center lanes of the road I'm on. I guess that's when she sees my headlight in her side view mirror. She panics and steps on her brakes! Now I'm about a foot from her left rear bumper and I'm braking full hard! Brakes are howling and so are the tires! It was a very close call. I know that if I was ring my old bike, a 900 Custom, I would have hit her. The 900s brakes were inadequate in my opinion. The Nomad has AWESOME BRAKES!!!!!

After the near miss I got the usual holding up of the the hand along with the I'm sorry I didn't see you crap. As we were going down the road side by side I calmly explained that she should stop and really look before pulling out. As she could have killed me. O.K. I it wasn't calmly. And I did use a ton of profanity. And then I remembered to open my visor cause my ears were hurting from my yelling. And I did it all over again!

I need to put more lights on the front of my Nomad.

[big worm]

wouldnt matter if you had 50 flashing lights on there they still would not see ya... people run into . pull out in front of ambulances, police cars and even firetrucks with their lights on and sirens blaring every day !!

[reddyford]

Them Blue hairs will get ya! More lights ...good idea. I got the Wally world chrome pods hangin off my highway bars. Good thing you noticed her and reacted in time.

[davemc]

I never cease to be amazed at how people drive. Last night I'm in the right lane of a 4-lane road (two lanes each direction), and a guy pulls across the road from the left. Of course, he can't just pull into the empty left lane, he has to pull all the way over into my lane in front of me. Glad you weren't hurt. It reminds us all to assume that drivers will do just what happened to you, and to expect it.

[Cagecam]

I give everybody plenty of room when I'm riding. Especially the ones turning left in front of you. I've been down twice because of that. To many distractions for people these days when they are driving.

[Lunatic]

Originally Posted by Cagecam

I give everybody plenty of room when I'm riding. Especially the ones turning left in front of you. I've been down twice because of that. To many distractions for people these days when they are driving.

You can give everyone all the room in the world, but you can never defeat the power of Stupid.

[Romans5.8]

Originally Posted by Lunatic

You can give everyone all the room in the world, but you can never defeat the power of Stupid.

You're right, but it's no reason not to give yourself an extra couple of seconds or an extra few feet to deal with everything!

Just today I was in my car, and sitting behind this little blue car at a stop sign waiting on traffic, and a lady stuck it in reverse and backed right into me. As soon as I saw the white reverse lights I stuck it in reverse too AND I was half a car length away from her (more than most will give at a stop, but it was a bit of a hill and you never know when you might get behind someone learning to drive a stick or something!), but I wasn't fast enough! I guess she changed her mind and wanted to go the other way, and her rear view mirror was just too complicated to use! Didn't do any damage or anything, it was no big deal, but it still is yet another example of the fact that there are a lot of drivers out there who are not paying attention, period.

[Corigan]

Agreed on the brakes. I have had to hammer them pretty good a few times and can't believe how quick this tank stops. I was really impressed the first time I had to really stab them.

[Ghost]

I'm going to be adding a pair of Walmart burners real soon. I'm thinking of mounting then on my lowers.. I had a lightbar on my last bike and it did seem like I had a little more space when people pulled out in front of me. I guess it just makes you a bit more noticeable. Or maybe they don't want to pull out in front of a cop.

[big worm]

see post #2..... but if you want to see the road better at night then it will help...