Atrophy's Safety Hints

Scenario: A road in the suburbs of London, one lane each way, centre lane for right turners to one of many side roads.

The nearside queue of traffic was stop-go. Occasionally a car would turn right by moving into the centre lane, wait for a gap in the traffic coming the other way, and turn off.

I started to use this lane to filter by the near-stationary traffic, keeping an eye open for the right turners. Until the last of the late turners decided to pull out, after I had already thought "Ok, no-one is going to go for this turn". Wrong.

I put the brakes on hard. I hadn't had the Trophy long, the front wheel hopped before binding to the road (I'd applied the brakes too hard before the weight transferred to the front). Luckily for me, the bike was straight and upright, it forgave me; I stopped within a couple of inches of the car's rear bumper.

As the car waited to turn right, I was able to pass on its near side, and I did ask the driver politely but loudly if she ever used her rear-view mirror. I got no response.

Thinking about it later, I should have been more aware of the possibility; while I don't think the incident was strictly my fault, I could have avoided it.