rsbob 

You are so right.

DonkeyShow

Look out for yourself since nobody else is. You were going to fast considering you would have hit her if she did not move at the last second. Stay safe.

grizzly59

Warning? That's not even worth a mention, just an exuberant good morning

Hypno Toad

SpedFast

I have to ask what you mean by 'wannabes' because after I've worked my butt off climbing that hill there is no way I'm not coming down it with all the speed I can muster. That's what it's all about.

Carbonfiberboy 

I didn't have any intention of doing what I did, I just did it. Seemed like the only way to survive at the moment. Instinct was to hit the whatever feet first, not go headfirst into the side of a car after having my rear wheel lifted under braking for 100' like the guy in that race video.

jppe

Rick, glad you’re okay! That could have been really bad

It reminds me of the time I was riding in an organized event on hilly roads in another state. We were going down a gentle downhill on a damp road doing about 25 mph. Without warning we went into a really steep hairpin. Speeds pushed me into the oncoming lane and a car was coming up the hill and into the hairpin and the same time. I locked up the brakes and went down. I slid on my side and came to a stop in the oncoming lane…….when I looked up the car’s radiator was just above my head. Thankfully the driver saw me and stopped abruptly. The driver was really shook up and helped me clean up the blood with wet wipes.

As I was getting cleaned up and gathering my senses other bikes behind me were flying off the road and going everywhere. One of the bikes was a tandem and managed to stay upright.

bikemig 

That's a great line to use about any dangerous driver,

I-Like-To-Bike

... and it is immaterial if the line is based on a fabrication spun up to add spice and drama to an anecdote because so many will believe what they want to believe about those "other" people.

venturi95

You are correct again! You weren't there, so it's total speculation on your part. Rider's speed was checked and he avoided an accident.
The oncoming left turning vehicle is one of the reasons I quit motorcycling on regular basis decades ago, I know of two motorcyclists that got killed that way. Rain makes road riding so much more dangerous; windshields can get fogged and wipers don't really clean it entirely. Driver was very much not looking. But what are you going to do? Come to a stop and dismount with every approaching car? Riding at 10 mph just means more cars overtaking you at greater closing speeds. OP: you were descending a safe and sane speed, it saved you from pain and suffering.

steine13

25 mph is too fast??

Simple metric: if it isn't too fast in a car it's not too fast on a bike. The danger is from idiots not speed.

Take the too fast argument to its conclusion and you never leave the basement.

zandoval 

In my 1970's Motorcycle days I had planed on rigging up a Honeywell electronic camera flash to my handle bars to Flash/Get the attention of drivers. Never did it but it would be easy to rig something like that up now days. The concept might still work unless the drivers are so buried they have total phone blindness. On my current routes I have no need for it yet...

Bald Paul

"It's not the speed that kills you, it's the sudden stop." (I can't attribute that to anyone in particular, but I heard it a lot when I started racing cars.)
One has to consider road conditions and the distance required to safely stop (including reaction time distance) to determine what is "too fast". If you ignore potential mechanicals (i.e.: tire blowout), a 50 MPH descent down a clean, straight road with no other traffic would be considered 'safe' on a bicycle by many. Throw in some tight switchbacks, low traction road conditions (rain, oil or gravel patches), or other vehicles that may stop or turn suddenly and without warning, and 20 MPH may be considered unsafe. Then again, it depends on the level of risk you are personally comfortable with.

steine13

>> or other vehicles that may stop or turn suddenly and without warning

Around here, we call that a "Tuesday."
With bad drivers everywhere, how fast should I go?

The point is, a car turning left against you is almost impossible to deal with. I second the motorcycle comment a few posts earlier; it's why I sold mine.

If the driver really doesn't see you, you can go walking speed and get hit. There's nowhere to go.
The situation as described had nothing to do with speed.

cheers -mathias

leftthread

Whenever I talk to other riders out and about, I try to remember to end it with, "Have a safe ride."
That goes for everyone here.

rsbob 

Damn, you beat me to the.. “it’s stopping suddenly” quote. I too learned it on the track. And you are quite correct about acceptance of risk - each of us have our own threshold. On that stretch of road, when dry, I usually move along at 30-35, so slowing to 25 was my assessment that under those conditions.

Some would never consider racing a car - too risky, but virtually everything one does has an inherent level of risk - it’s tolerance, training and experience.

Driving track and the training to do so, has helped me become a better cyclist. The physics, looking where you want to go, slow in/fast out, always having an escape, are just a few. But being a cyclist has made me a more attentive driver. No accidents or tickets since 1980, not that I didn’t deserve a few.

rsbob 

Ha ha ha. Good one!

I-Like-To-Bike

Some posters apparently believe that any ride that is completed without a crash or collision was "a safe ride" by definition. In other words no speed is unsafe for conditions, nor (for an example) any alcohol consumption or drug intake excessive, as long as the rider (or driver) accepts the added risk and/or thinks he has the skills to beat the odds.

steine13

On the contrary, i believe there is no such thing as a safe ride. There IS risk mitigation, and acceptance of the residual.

I will say I'm back to 'helmet always' since I saw the post by the guy who had a goose kamikaze through his front wheel while alone on a MUP... and yes, there were pictures.

I think you are building a straw man.

Bald Paul

That's what he does.
Every
Single
Post.
I only wish others would stop quoting him, so he could remain invisible on my ignore list.

Bald Paul

The speed you are travelling affects your reaction distance, stopping distance, and ability to maneuver. If you're riding at 10 MPH and a car turns left 50 feet in front of you, you have a much better chance of being able to stop or move without getting hit than you would if you had been riding 25 MPH. Granted, there are some instances where you could be stopped and still get hit by a clueless driver, however, in "the situation as described" the cyclists speed and road conditions definitely played a part.

Using the motorcycle analogy, you cannot say "well, no matter what speed I drive, if someone does something stupid in front of me, it doesn't matter, so I may as well ride at 100 MPH through town."
Actually, you could say that, but chances are you wouldn't be around too long.

Miele Man

I had an instance on a hill many years ago where a driver at the last second decided to turn onto a side street right in front of me. I leaned the bike slightly to the right and hit the rear brake HARD. That slid the rear wheel around to the left so that I was now parallel to the side road and missed running into the vehicle. The drive apologized and said that he didn't realize how fast I was going.

As others have said, many drivers will see an approaching bicyclist but the driver will fail to judge how fast the approaching bicyclist is going. In my honest opinion, it's because most drivers are used to encountering slow moving bicyclists and assume that the approaching fast moving bicyclist is actually going a lot slower than the bicyclist actually is.

Cheers

I-Like-To-Bike

Ha, Ha, by ignoring what I post except for reading responses out of context gives you an opportunity to post the same allegedly straw man arguments I previously made and believe that you posted an original observation/bit of wisdom.

rsbob 

Oh darn, I-Like-To…. You have achieved the most honored and revered status of persona non grata, so I will be missing your thoughtful, kind, insightful and ever cheery comments. But don’t worry, you have lots of good company, so you won’t be alone. Have a nice evening.

downhillmaster

Looks like somebody had their feelings hurt