From George Miller, USA
First I must say BRAVO on all your points on survival while riding.
I am as one would consider green rider, I have had a fairly decent off road stint from 15 – 20 years of age (and some sneaking out road trips) but at forty three and finally getting a street bike I have had the thirst for some tips on street riding. I consider myself a cautious rider yet will travel 65-70 when traffic is moving at that speed. I have been practicing countersteering and learned how much I didn’t know about street handling. While this will take many miles to master, understanding the concept was a real eye opener when first applied and I immediately realized how important this is to master in a situation.
While there are many more of your topics, I will cover one concept – really was a brain teaser for a minute. That was the story of one of your trips down a country road with a crest and small dip in the road where you sensed something and slowed and kept to the left wich accounted for a overtaking situation narrowly missing you and how you expressed the idea of keeping to the left.
Well for me I could not understand such logic for sure staying to the left would have put one in harms way on such an encounter, no?
Then it hit me – you’re riding on the wrong side of the road, and yes I am reading from the United States. But all else I read from your topics, I hope to keep with me while enjoying the freedom of riding.
I think in the UK we are so used to swapping over to drive on the other side that it’s sometimes easy to forget that a big chunk of the world doesn’t drive on the “wrong side”! It was all Napoleon’s fault, apparently! France is only 50 miles from my house, so I go over there quite a lot on the bike and in the car!! Great to hear from a Transatlantic rider!