A friendly tip for you cyclists.
 

I am not nearly as experienced with road cycling as most of you (although I have spent more than my fair share staring at the road/dirt from the back of a quality mountain bike), so I may be stepping out of line a bit here - if so, forgive me. However, in memory of what was nearly a dear departed soul, a statement:

When cycling, it is not a good idea to pretend you are a motorcycle.

I raise this because of a near tragic accident that happened yesterday. I was on my motorcycle last night, driving back after a quick trip to gas up. I had to make a left turn and was waiting for a light behind a truck. Up rides a cyclist (nice bike, inasmuch as I could tell) in full regalia, also looking to turn left. No major crime there.

Now, I'm going to have a hard time describing this next part, so forgive me if I miss a bit. The light turned and the truck turned left and I followed. It was a slow sweeping turn and nobody was in a hurry to make it - except the cyclist, who thought it would be very neat to follow directly to my right (instead of behind me) in my blind spot. The road here narrows very quickly and, if not for a flash of a multicolored jersey in my rear view mirror, a quick glance to the side, and a good deal of throttle, said cyclist was looking at an up-close-and-personal meeting with 700 degree exhaust pipes. As near as I can tell, he was trying to ride next to me in more or less the same lane.

I am going to venture a guess and say that you folks probably are accepting a risk by sharing the road with cars (the drivers of which can often be idiots to people that aren't in cars). I am hoping what I saw was not standard practice.

I'm not following what happened. You both turned and he paced you but in your blind spot? WHy did you almost collide? I am ot trying to defend the rider, I just don't get it.

Stupidity on the orad is not reserved for rednecks in pickups (like me) or any other category of driver or bike rider. We all display it from time to time.

but statistically, nikuman, you are more likely to be the deadman.

It's a hard intersection to explain - the best I can say is that he was almost forcing me into the median in that he started out behind me, but because the truck in front of me was going so slow, he actually made the corner faster than I did and came into the lane where I was making my turn.

I guess I mention this only because I found it odd. Mike is right - motorcycling is inherently dangerous - and I have had safety drilled in my head many times so as to lower the probability of accident on my end. Most cyclists I see around here are the same way (and we have a lot), so it struck me as odd that this one was so careless.

I rode a motorcycle for 3 years in Houston.

One time I circumnavigated loop 610 just for fun (when gas prices were low of course).

I love bikes, but I can't go back.

Honestly, if I didn't have the protected HOV going downtown, I'm not sure I would have got one. Nothing eliminates risk, but that sure helps.

Yeah, that was fun too. I used to pass people on the shoulder while in the HOV lane.

Probably just young and stupid. Were you wearing a helmet? Was he? A helmet can save your brain.