Can be replaced by "Dang I'm an Idiot".
Have you ever had one of those moments where you impress yourself with your riding abilities? It is probably best not to get to cocky and I try to keep a level head but we all have our moments.
I brought the situation on myself (of course) but I was still surprised at how I handled the maneuver. I was flying into work and there were some stinking semi-trucks blocking both lanes. You know the deal. One truck decides to pass another but he is only going 1 mph faster. I get a bit impatient in these situations so I look for way to break out of the mess and get my way through it. I try to be smart about it though. After the truck final got clear, I waited for him to change lanes but he did not. What the heck? Get over. He has three trucks lengths worth of space but is still in the left lane. In the back of my mind I know he is going to change lanes right when I decided to overtake him in the right lane but I still decide to shift down and twist the throttle hard. I bet you can guess what happened next. Sure enough, he abruptly decided to change lanes and I was coming up on his a** hard.
Everything seemed to slow down at the point and my instincts took over. Honestly, I'm not even sure what I did but I remember tapping the rear brake slightly, pushing the bars, and canceling out the turn signal and switching it on for the other direction. All of this happened quickly. It was one of those moments where you call yourself an idiot because you knew it was going to happen but there are plenty of times where these big trucks just hang out in the left lane to be an a** and I figured this was one of them.
The moral to the story is this. If you think it can happen, it probably will. I thought about the potential for an accident and waited but I didn't wait long enough. Try not to be an impatient rider although this is something I struggle with. Finally, know what you are capable of. I have been riding for years and I've gotten myself out of a lot of potentially bad situations but why take chances? My whole reason for telling this story is so that others will think about what they do before they do it. I could have left my story untold but I tell it so that others might think before they act.
Have you ever had one of those moments where you impress yourself with your riding abilities? It is probably best not to get to cocky and I try to keep a level head but we all have our moments.
I brought the situation on myself (of course) but I was still surprised at how I handled the maneuver. I was flying into work and there were some stinking semi-trucks blocking both lanes. You know the deal. One truck decides to pass another but he is only going 1 mph faster. I get a bit impatient in these situations so I look for way to break out of the mess and get my way through it. I try to be smart about it though. After the truck final got clear, I waited for him to change lanes but he did not. What the heck? Get over. He has three trucks lengths worth of space but is still in the left lane. In the back of my mind I know he is going to change lanes right when I decided to overtake him in the right lane but I still decide to shift down and twist the throttle hard. I bet you can guess what happened next. Sure enough, he abruptly decided to change lanes and I was coming up on his a** hard.
Everything seemed to slow down at the point and my instincts took over. Honestly, I'm not even sure what I did but I remember tapping the rear brake slightly, pushing the bars, and canceling out the turn signal and switching it on for the other direction. All of this happened quickly. It was one of those moments where you call yourself an idiot because you knew it was going to happen but there are plenty of times where these big trucks just hang out in the left lane to be an a** and I figured this was one of them.
The moral to the story is this. If you think it can happen, it probably will. I thought about the potential for an accident and waited but I didn't wait long enough. Try not to be an impatient rider although this is something I struggle with. Finally, know what you are capable of. I have been riding for years and I've gotten myself out of a lot of potentially bad situations but why take chances? My whole reason for telling this story is so that others will think about what they do before they do it. I could have left my story untold but I tell it so that others might think before they act.
