We stumbled on this video on social media recently and it proves a very pertinent point, especially when it comes to biking, where reaction time and of course being prepared for the unexpected are crucial to surviving being a biker…
The video shows a biker being filmed canyon-carving from what looks to be either an Ariel Atom or KTM X-Bow, and all is going very well, his lines are good, his braking points are correct, and he’s hitting the apexes just right, BUT then…
Exiting a blind right-hander, there’s a car stopped in the middle of the road! His reaction time and subsequent evasive manoeuvre saved his life for sure, not to mention the same for the person giving chase in the car behind. It would have been very nasty for the biker had there been another car approaching in the opposite direction though. He was very lucky there wasn’t.
So here’s the moral of the story: For Drivers, PLEASE remember to stop your car in a safe place if you’re just pulling-over, and if your car has broken-down, please use those reflective warning triangles to warn other motorists that there’s a car stalled up ahead (bikers don’t have the luxury of Waze that informs you of ‘stalled vehicles’ when riding). In this instance, the warnings should have been placed well before the corner.
For Bikers, remember to always expect something like this could be looming around the next corner like the one in the main photo, so always ‘leave yourself an out’, and be aware of your surroundings, because really, you never know when a stalled car is gonna jump out at you…
Click on the link here for a quick tutorial on proper cornering.
