I don't post much but what the hell.. Yesterday was a beautiful day. Decided to boot up north for the day to take in the sights up there. Figured with holiday that the 400 wouldn't be as bad as it normally is in the summer... wrong! Guess everyone had the same idea as me (in hindsight a pretty dumb assumption.. I don't go that way often). So riding up the 400 it was heavy but moving well. Then about 15 cars up it looked like a car changed lanes without looking and ran someone into the guardrail. So of course everyone behind this slams on their brakes. Of course being the 400 in heavy traffic nobody actually bothers to leave a truly appropriate amount of following space so things get tight in a hurry. The guy in front of me just narrowly manages to avoid rear ending the car in front of him, but it looks like the guy behind me is about to come right up my @$$... so I ease up slightly on the brakes to give myself a little bit more control for turning and ducked in between the car in front of me and the car in the lane to the right of me. The car that was behind me stops short of the car I was following but I don't think I would have fit in between! Riding through the $4!7 storm of cars I saw at least two others that actually did get rear ended in the panic stop.
Anyway, scared the hell out of me to say the least! Wish I hadn't just bought a coffee as the adrenaline was way more a wake up than coffee ever could be!
I've found myself bored riding around a few times and decided to find an empty lot to practice just such a scenario... emergency/threshold braking, quick turns, and combinations of the two. I think that's what really saved my bacon. Also thank goodness I had the mindset to avoid target fixation on the bumper in front of me..
So remember people, practice practice practice! I haven't even done it as much as I would have liked but it was still an immense help. And it's never to late to do it either, you never know when you'll need it.
After that it was pretty much the beautiful day I had hoped for, did about 700k in Muskoka and Haliburton Highlands area, beautiful!
Ride safe out there everyone and enjoy the rest of the season!
Anyway, scared the hell out of me to say the least! Wish I hadn't just bought a coffee as the adrenaline was way more a wake up than coffee ever could be!
I've found myself bored riding around a few times and decided to find an empty lot to practice just such a scenario... emergency/threshold braking, quick turns, and combinations of the two. I think that's what really saved my bacon. Also thank goodness I had the mindset to avoid target fixation on the bumper in front of me..
So remember people, practice practice practice! I haven't even done it as much as I would have liked but it was still an immense help. And it's never to late to do it either, you never know when you'll need it.
After that it was pretty much the beautiful day I had hoped for, did about 700k in Muskoka and Haliburton Highlands area, beautiful!
Ride safe out there everyone and enjoy the rest of the season!
