Drafting

I read a great account of a really experience courier (2 million miles). He was describing following a small truck with a 4 wheel rear axel. He was distracted by what the thing between two of the wheels was. The moment he realised it was a housebrick, it came loose and hit him in the visor, nearly KOing him!

On top of that, you've got stuff on the road that cars will just drive over: I've encountered roadkill, 1'x8' roll of carpet, a length of 2x4, really thick gravel (for the tyres I was running) and big potholes. When you have space in front of you, you can move to avoid them. When you have a third of a second after they emerge from under the vehicle in front, you aren't going to be able to a lot of the time.

Tailing people closely for any length of time, even when you're confident you can outbrake them and you're paying attention = bad idea, in my book.

I don't know why I'm always surprised at the number of truely stupid people.

To each his own. You're probably not that bright a bulb yourself.

A motorcycle cannot outbrake cars, trucks, or even 18 wheelers.

I agree, to each their own, that's why I have no advice for anyone on this matter, and I may not be the brightest bulb but I'm sure as hell smart enough to know not to draft a tractor trailer and that certainly makes me smarter than some of the people here.

What? My 625 SMC will outbrake any vehicle i've ever owned. Then again, they've all been old peices of shit. No way would a loaded semi stop faster than it.

Not saying i would draft a semi because of that though.

It's not about what vehicle can out brake another, it's about reaction time. I don't care who you are, it takes at least 1/2 second for your brain to realize you need to brake or take action and another 1/2 second for your fingers to get from the grip to on the brake. At 65 MPH you have covered about 95 feet and you haven't even started slowing down yet. By drafting, you give up your view of the road ahead so everything that happens to you is a surprise.

AND I haven't even touched on the issue of riding in a "No Zone" or "blind spot"

Since you are the expert, why not tell us what you consider a safe distance?...Maybe you have a few other tips you've learned. Your take on countersteering maybe?

As amusing as that is, it's BS

2 seconds is what is taught in driving schools, I prefer 3 seconds

First off, are you expecting me to react to the sarcasm or are you really interested in riding safer?
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If you feed lunch to the troll, he'll soon be back for dinner.

Nah - Just a little fun. I get a kick out of his section because it brings out all the experts. I only posted my quartering headwind blurb to be different. I think most everybody here thinks tailgating anything is dangerous. Anybody who has ridden long distances on a motorcycle probably flinches at all those big alligator strips we see coming off those trucks. One of those could kill a rider in a flash.

Carry on...

PS: Ray, there might be something you could teach me about riding motorcycles, but I doubt it.

I also doubt I can teach you anything new. Probably the best I could do is remind you of things you already know.

When I was 16 my friend used to draft semis in his parents Honda. He'd get REALLY close to the semi. The one or two times he did it with me in the car it was a little nerve-wracking.:eek1

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I had a little Honda CVCC like that (except yellow) back in 84-85. Awesome little car even though it burned more oil than gas and eventually broke a timing belt in Mexico. I left it in Mexico sitting along the road and never went back for it. It may still be sitting there.

You are right!

A traffic school instructor had all kinds of data he showed us which said it had more to do with how much rubber was on the road than the size of the vehicle, but it turns out he was full of shit. It turns out a Ninja 250 can stop about 10 feet shorter from 60 mph than a Chevy Silverado can.

Of course, a rider will cover more than 10 feet during the reaction time, so it doesn't make a difference in this context, but it does piss me off that traffic school lies to us. Maybe next time I'll pay someone to take the course for me.

Fun little cars. My brother's first car was a $200 example with bad rings. It left a cloud of smoke the size of a house wherever it went, until we put new rings in it. We used to stand on the back bumper to keep him from leaving; front tires would just spin. Good times!

He was half right and you are half right.
It's about lbs/sq,in of tire on the road. Most modern vehicles have enough braking power to bring the tires right up to the point of lockup.
All other conditions being the same a vehicle that weighs 4000lbs and has 100 square inches of rubber on the road will be able to stop in the same distance as a 400lbs vehicle with 10 sq in. of rubber on the road because they both have 40lbs of down pressure per 1 sq in.
Many other things play into stopping distance as well, such as type of tire (compound, tred, shape), brake fade, dive, weight shift, road surface, etc.
If you could keep the brakes from heating up, a loaded semi can stop in a shorter distance than an empty one.

That's funny, I paid $500 for mine and it would start with a huge cloud of smoke as well.
One night I almost burned myself up in that car when I passed out in the driver's seat with my knee on the cigarette lighter, holding it in. I woke up in time to see smoke and smell plastic burning in the dash and around the lighter.