Remaining Within Expected Performance Envelopes

[David]

I've been thinking about this for a month or so, and figured maybe we could get a discussion going that would be helpful to people.

 

As you probably know, the performance envelope of you and your ride is much greater in most areas. You can't be as fuel efficient or corner as quickly as a four-wheeled vehicle that is equipped similarly from a performance standpoint, but in relation to a car you and your ride:

 

• Accelerate quicker.
  
• Brake in equal or shorter distances.
  
• Fit in narrower places.
  
• Have greater visibility outward.
  
• Have more options within a lane.
  

 

A non-riding driver probably realizes all these things, but do they understand the extent to which this is true? Do they understand that in a skilled rider's hands you can accelerate and hit a near impossible gap in fractions of a second?

 

If that driver doesn't understand the parameters of your performance envelope, you may find that they are surprised at your actions, and that can spell disaster.

 

For example, presume I'm in the no. 1 (far right) lane in my truck, and I approach a wider intersection where a right-turn-only lane appears to my right. If I don't pull into that lane immediately, there's always the possibility that a motorcycle behind me might "take" that lane before I have a chance to, and when I merge to the right I will impact the bike and rider.

 

For another example, say I pull into the no. 2 lane of a two-lane expressway so that I can pass a truck. Instead of pulling back in front of the truck in a fashion that would preserve normal spacing, I fumble with the radio and don't pull over immediately. Meanwhile, there's a motorcycle behind me that I haven't yet noticed, and they impatiently decide to pass me on the right because I don't appear to be pulling over. While the space the rider utilizes to do this is adequate for a motorcycle's maneuverability, it would be considered tight for that action in a car.

 

My point that while you HAVE additional maneuverability and a greater performance envelope, it's prudent to assume that the driver's you encounter don't understand that, and your own actions may imperil your safety because they are surprising to another driver.

[Huzband]

My point that while you HAVE additional maneuverability and a greater performance envelope, it's prudent to assume that the driver's you encounter don't understand that, and your own actions may imperil your safety because they are surprising to another driver.

 

Which is exactly why I do my best to observe said driver before making your afore mentioned maneuvers. I can't always see what they're doing, but I can usually tell if they're paying attention to their surroundings or not. And that determination makes a big impact on how I approach, or overtake, them.

 

But to another of your points, David, even I have been surprised on occasion by a sportbike running through traffic like it's a pinball game. I'll forego the commentary of what I think when this happens.

 

Excellent ride well topic.

[lawnchairboy]

f that driver doesn't understand the parameters of your performance envelope, you may find that they are surprised at your actions, and that can spell disaster.

 

 

agree, I would add to the above ..."you may find that they are ANGERED and surprised at your actions, and that can spell disaster."

 

 

[Yeeha! Stephen]

f that driver doesn't understand the parameters of your performance envelope, you may find that they are surprised at your actions, and that can spell disaster.

 

 

agree, I would add to the above ..."you may find that they are ANGERED and surprised at your actions, and that can spell disaster."

 

 

Good Topic.

 

Agree with both and from recent personal experience.

 

Similar to David's first example, I was on a single lane road, behind a long row of cars of which the leader was very slow. Up ahead, the road spread to 2 lanes. As soon as I could, I jumped over to the right lane and attempted to pass some of the line. The car in front of me also moved right, but did not hit me. The driver was surprized and angered the I made such a move.

 

One of the reasons we didn't end up occupying the same space at the same time, was that this car was an unmarked Highway Patrol driven by a surprized and angerd DPS Major. He was pulling to the right to let me pass and then to stop me for Following Too Close... the main reason he didn't hit me, was his being very aware that I was close to his vehicle.

 

The very nice man kept his cool and proceeded to produce a Texas Highways Driver's Manual. We had a 30 minute refresher course right there on the side of the highway, hitting the high spots of Following Too Close and Lane Position for Motorcycles... etc. Upon Graduation, I was free to leave... no Ticket... no written Warning. "Have a nice ride and watch your following distance".

 

Disaster Spell averted this time.

 

And maybe for a long time... I watch that stuff now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Huzband]

Oh yeah. The other thing I look for, through tinted windows, is the outline of inside roof-mounted lights.

[Jeepster]

David good topic,

My take on it (if I am understanding correctlly your two examples) is that in both cases the motorcycle is essentially passing on the right of another vehicle.

If I remember my driving instructions from MANY years ago. This should not be done at all or at your own risk. All passing should be done on the left of the overtaken vehicle.

So, essentially while I would and do make these maneuvers often, I do so with an attitude similar to Huzands. Observe first and then act/react or wait for another opportunity to pass.

[Yeeha! Stephen]

Oh yeah. The other thing I look for, through tinted windows, is the outline of inside roof-mounted lights.

 

 

Who wudda thunk to look for that in a Gold Chevy Malibu when the whole world down here runs Crown Vics, Dodge Chargers and Tahoes!

 

Duh! I will from now on!

 

Especially when running about 5 feet off of their Six...

[alimar]

Here in the northeast passing in the right lane is the unfortunate norm. People here drive by the rule "thru-traffic keep left". That is right up to about 100 yards or less of their intended exit. Then they slam on the brakes, jam on the right signal (sometimes) and fly across three or 4 lanes to make the exit. Key here is to hold until 0 feet after an exit, observe, act.

 

Have I mentioned that I love driving in Europe?

 

 

[tallman]

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

[Spike]

I really try to think like the drivers around me. Many times they give small physical clues as to what they are thinking or, more importantly, what they are not thinking.

[ShovelStrokeEd]

I see this stuff all the time.

I am one of those folks that normally flows through traffic at 5 or 10 mph more than the pattern is running. I analyze, or try to, what traffic ahead is doing and seek to find a smooth way through them so I can occupy, however briefly, the 1/4 mile of clear space in front of the pack of 12-15 cages running at the same speed.

 

I HATE being hemmed in by these clusters and yes, I will sometimes take aggressive action to move through them.

 

Such actions are not without their dangers though. I have had happen both of scenarios described by David and it really does piss people off. I have had a couple of talking to's by the side of the road because people have called on their cell phones about my "Aggressive Riding".

 

I have never been cited for this, even one time running through Houston where I was actually paced by a LEO at speeds up to 80 in a 55. He let me go cause I was using my indicators and not really cutting people off, just slicin' and dicen'.

 

I don't think most cage drivers have any understanding of how much room we actually have and of the disparity between our performance envelope and theirs. What they see as dangerous is, to most of us, just TCB in terms of preserving our space.

[Huzband]

Oh yeah. The other thing I look for, through tinted windows, is the outline of inside roof-mounted lights.

 

 

Who wudda thunk to look for that in a Gold Chevy Malibu when the whole world down here runs Crown Vics, Dodge Chargers and Tahoes!

 

Duh! I will from now on!

 

Especially when running about 5 feet off of their Six...

 

Exactly!

 

I learned the hard way a couple years ago when I smoked past a FHP in a Marauder. Fortunately for me, he got a call whilst he had me stopped, & had to run.

[Kathy R]

(David)

If that driver doesn't understand the parameters of your performance envelope, you may find that they are surprised at your actions, and that can spell disaster.

 

 

This is why I do not, as a general rule, follow cars/trucks closely. I give them the kind of room I would if I were in my car.

This makes them less nervous. Drivers HATE IT when riders tailgate. Then, when I'm in a situation where it's likely I'm going to pass them - on the left-, I move up and make myself as big as possible in their driver and rear view mirrors. I signal and pass. I always try to make them aware that things have changed and here I come, watch out for me as I move. I use the same technique if passing on the right, but fill their right side mirror. They seem to almost always get the idea. My point being that I try to communicate politeness and agressiveness distinctly so it makes sense to a driver.

 

The reverse is much harder to control. Cars (often with younger drivers) tailgate bikes with no knowledge of how fast we can stop. I taptaptap the brakes. If no response, I then use my left hand to indicate that they should move back. This works most times. Often I find they seem to have been in some kind of daze and get a "Oh wow, sorry" look on their face. It is only with folks who don't understand how easy death can occur that the tailgating continues. When that happens I do whatever I need to do to move forward, putting another vehicle between us, or I motion them around me. I am more concerned about my life and wellbeing at this point to try to make a point.

 

I've used Ed's technique for getting through a cluster ___ of cars/trucks just to put myself in safer air. This is contrary to my habit of being very polite to cars/trucks, but the bottom line is always my safety first.

 

Another thing, I've found that being really polite, more often than not, leads to favors down the road with the same driver. That is very gratifying. I return their smile, but they can't see mine.

 

 

 

 

[russell_bynum]

If you are in any way relying on other drivers to figure out your performance envelope, you're screwed anyway.

 

In both of those situations, if the rider isn't prepared to execute the maneuver and get clear of you before you have time to move over, they weren't being very smart.

 

[russell_bynum]

The reverse is much harder to control. Cars (often with younger drivers) tailgate bikes with no knowledge of how fast we can stop. I taptaptap the brakes. If no response, I then use my left hand to indicate that they should move back.

 

 

I have no tolerance and no patience for that. If someone is following too close, I don't care if it's because they're a jerk, or because they aren't paying attention, or because they just don't realize it. I don't waste time trying to change their behavior...I just go somewhere else.

 

That superior performance envelope is all we've got going for us out there and we have to be willing to aggressively use it to our advantage when necessary.

[Kathy R]

That superior performance envelope is all we've got going for us out there and we have to be willing to aggressively use it to our advantage when necessary.

 

Yes, when necessary.

 

I don't think that the performance envelope is all that I have going for me. I do have patience when I'm on the roadways. It is possible to be both courteous and agressive. There is a time for both.

 

Where I live most folks are pretty nice on the roadways. It is likely much different from what I remember on some of the congested Southern California riding. I threw courtesy "out the window" when the UPS driver decided to play chicken with me on I5.

[yabadabapal]

so let me ask you guys something thats been buggin me and is relative to the topic. I know we always want to be looking ahead to to create a strategy. Is their a general guideline as to how many feet ahead we should be looking and by looking ahead are we missing anything in the short picture

 

[russell_bynum]

That superior performance envelope is all we've got going for us out there and we have to be willing to aggressively use it to our advantage when necessary.

 

Yes, when necessary.

 

I don't think that the performance envelope is all that I have going for me. I do have patience when I'm on the roadways. It is possible to be both courteous and agressive. There is a time for both.

 

For sure. I'm just saying...I'm not going to waste any time being polite if I feel I'm at risk.

 

I feel VERY vulnerable from behind...always have, and it got much worse after I was rear-ended. I have zero patience for being endangering me from behind. Otherwise...yeah...if I don't perceive much risk, I'll give the other driver/rider a chance to move over (or whatever it is that I'm hoping they'll do). When they do, they get a wave and maybe a thumbs-up.

 

What I meant when I said that the performance is all we've got...I meant that in a car, if your politeness, and your patience, and the performance that you've got fails you, you've still got 2500+lbs of steel that is specifically designed to keep you alive surrounding you. On a bike, when those things fail, you have a few thin layers of fabric and maybe some plastic between you, the road, and all those other 2500+lbs battering rams on the road with you.

 

It's a great asset to have, but for it to be effective, you have to be willing to use it to its fullest aggressively and without concern for anything buy coming out the other side still alive and kicking.

[russell_bynum]

so let me ask you guys something thats been buggin me and is relative to the topic. I know we always want to be looking ahead to to create a strategy. Is their a general guideline as to how many feet ahead we should be looking and by looking ahead are we missing anything in the short picture

 

First, I don't think it's particularly effective to create a plan for every eventuality. First...you can't. If you sit there making a list of the 100 things that are going to kill you, item number 101 is going to come along and clean your clock.

 

If there's a potential threat...like...if you're worried that the car up ahead is going to change lanes into you, why sit there and wait for to happen, with your thumb on the horn button as plan A and ready to swerve as plan B? If you see the threat, deal with it...go somewhere else. If you're not in a position for him to change lanes into you, he can't change lanes into you and you're not going to waste any more attention planning out how you're going to handle it. That attention is better spent keeping an overall awareness of what's going on around you so that you can constantly be moving out of harm's way. And when something happens that you don't expect (which should be VERY rare if you're doing it right), you'll have complete awareness of what's around you so you can improvise and execute a plan that just might save your ass.

 

Second...to answer your question: it depends.

 

When I was commuting regularly and doing 40+ miles of hard lane splitting per day, I discovered I didn't really look at anything when I rode. My eyes were up as far up the road as I could see, and my brain was just cataloging what was going on around me. I never looked "over there at that car in that lane" or "up ahead at that truck merging". I just looked, and saw.

 

I've found that since I stopped riding that much, I'm not able to do that anymore. It's a conscious effort and even then I find I'm not able to be as aware. For example...now I'm doing good to keep track of 3 lanes and a few hundred yards ahead vs before when I was aware of 6-7 lanes and a half-mile or more ahead.

 

What I do now, depends on my speed relative to traffic and the traffic density. The more dense traffic is, the closer-in I have to look. In gridlock my eyes probably only 6-8 cars ahead of the bike.

 

Really, it just depends on your own visual/mental proficiency. Look as far ahead as you can while still being aware of what's going on in the kill zone. There's no sense in knowing that there's a red hatchback getting on at the next ramp a quarter mile up if you didn't see that the yellow sedan 15' ahead of you and in the next lane over is changing lanes into you.

[yabadabapal]

Thanks Russell

Ill keep that info youve shared in my document word files.

Cant wait to get my bike. So much to learn.

Thanks again.

[ShovelStrokeEd]

so let me ask you guys something thats been buggin me and is relative to the topic. I know we always want to be looking ahead to to create a strategy. Is their a general guideline as to how many feet ahead we should be looking and by looking ahead are we missing anything in the short picture

 

Russell already responded but I'll reinforce a bit. There is no specific distance involved. It is more of a constant scan, near to far, left to right, a glance in the mirrors, check the fuel gauge, "Oh, look, a chicken!"

 

There is a huge amount of information to process and damn little time to do so. At first it is overwhelming, after a while, the mind learns to discard stuff that just isn't relevant. After a good long while, reactions become near automatic. I shouldn't really use the term reactions, let's use preemptive actions. I often find myself cruising along in the center lane and, after glancing up at an approaching cluster, I will feel the urge to be somewhere else. It all becomes clear a few moments later as a path opens up through the cluster. No real conscious decision, just my experience telling me that that was the place to be.

[Ken H.]

I don’t think non-riders think in terms of performance envelope, or to dumb it down a bit; abilities of a vehicle at all. While there are some exceptions of course, I think by and large most people are passive participants in driving. They want to and do as little ‘analyzing’ i.e. thinking as possible to get them from point A to point B. Indeed having to ‘think’ about their own driving, let alone the actions of others, another vehicle of any kind, is an annoyance distracting them from the other things they are concentrating on. Work, kids, school, bills, the weekend, etc, etc, etc. They’re really not “driving” at all. They’re sitting behind the steering wheel.

 

So I guess, IMHO, the answer to your question, “A non-riding driver probably realizes all these things, but do they understand the extent to which this is true? Do they understand that in a skilled rider's hands you can accelerate and hit a near impossible gap in fractions of a second?” is no and no. I don’t think non-riders in general (98%) have even the slightest idea of what a bike can do.

 

So what does that mean to us riders? In day-to-day heavy traffic riding, in the scenarios you (and others) are describing David, I try to act/move in general (i.e. when not responding it a specific threat) as if I wasn’t on a motorcycle. No sudden accelerations, lane changes, etc. Predictability to, and realization/recognition of, the normal behavior of others on the road is my friend.

 

As the point has been made here many times, we must ride with zero reliance on others around us.

 

[Quinn]

I think I try to be a good traffic "citizen." I do take up the whole lane, signal my intentions when necessary, and try to never ride in someone's blind spot or beside them. I don't cut accross multiple lanes or weave in and out to advance myself unless I'm really feeling trapped. Yet, I do pass with more gusto than in a car (even been known to toot my horn if in doubt that I've been seen). I prefer the far left lane on interstates because then cars can only come at me from one side and I believe that drivers are more apt to check their left outside mirror than their right when changing lanes. As a consequence, I drive a little, little fast to deserve to be in the fast lane and willing pull over to the next lane if someone is approaching with a greater need than mine.

 

So yeah, I generally stay in the expected performance envelope, but will use minimal super powers if I have to.

 

 

[Ken H.]

so let me ask you guys something thats been buggin me and is relative to the topic. I know we always want to be looking ahead to to create a strategy. Is their a general guideline as to how many feet ahead we should be looking and by looking ahead are we missing anything in the short picture

MSF refers to what you are asking about as “lead times.” The first lead time is the 2-second following distance. It is the minimum stop time statistically.

 

The second lead time is referred to as the 4-second immediate path. Anything that is within 4 seconds of arrival is considered immediate because it requires quick response should something go wrong.

 

The third lead time is the 12-second anticipated path. The search area where planning takes place to prepare for something before it moves into the 4-second immediate path.

 

Riders should be continuously cycling between observing in each of these defined time segments. At first you have to consciously train yourself to do this in a repetitious cycle. After awhile it become second nature. But is worth reviewing our visual habits every once in awhile.