My first close call

So I was riding home from my Star Wars fan club meeting yesterday, all suited up in my hi-viz rambo riding gear of which I created another blog to review - right here - it was pretty cold, I was about 2 miles from home on Tara Blvd. I was behind one of those huge SUVs that people seem to love these days (I get 43mpg on my bike - what do THEY get?).

I was about 1-2 seconds behind the guy but I had no idea how far he was behind the car in front him since I couldn't see through the huge beast. I looked across the road to wave at another rider who was on an adventure style bike like my dad's. Apparently, I looked a little too long because when I looked back over, the SUV was hard on the brakes and I was coming up fast. Probably about 40mph or so... maybe a little more. I grabbed the brakes and I must have either grabbed the front or the back too fast as I immediately locked one of them up. I've locked the rear up before accidentally and it wasn't too bad, but this time, the bike got REALLY squirelly and started to come around on me. Not sure if I locked the front or the rear but at the moment, I thought it was the front because it acted so strange. The SUV was still getting pretty big pretty fast and I was wrestling to hold the bike up and not hit him. I let off the brake again and resqueezed again and promptly heard tire squeal - my own I presume. I think I redid this at least one more time and as I was looking in my mirror there was a car behind me, getting big in my mirrors... so here I was, wrestling with that to do - if the back locks up, you are supposed to ride it to a stop, but I didn't really want to stop for fear of getting hit from behind. I look up and the SUV is still getting closer and now I can see the driver on his cell phone. I had an image of me doing a face plant onto the back of this SUV and coming right through the back window. Keep in mind, this all happened in a split second. Somehow, I kept the bike up and got slowed enough to not hit the SUV, though he was moving over to the side of the road as I assume he heard my tires screeching and saw me coming fast. Talk about getting my attention!

What I learned... EYES ON THE ROAD DAMNIT! It's traffic, not some deserted country road... I also learned that I need to work on some emergency braking techniques. I know the book theory but until it becomes muscle memory, you are going to do what you are used to doing when you have to react fast.

So, there ya have it. That could have been ugly.