STOPPING THE CYCLE
The lights were green and I had a huge gap to the vehicle in front – probably four or five seconds, even doing 60km/h through suburban Sydney. One of those rare, wonderful occasions where I’d made it to the front of the flow of traffic and could get back to the office quickly.
But that lack of traffic contributed to the problem, a distracted driver looking for where he wanted to be rather than where he was; he simply sailed through those traffic lights, through a bright-red light. He realised his mistake and slowed, instinct telling him to stop… directly in my path.
Years of experience and a little luck worked for me; I instinctively set up and squeezed the brakes, getting as much power into the front brake lever as I could once the weight had fully transferred to the front tyre. I was also using the rear, but I wasn’t concentrating on that.
My pillion slid forward into me – she wasn’t expecting to be thrown forward. I was sliding up on the tank, but I wasn’t letting off that brake because I knew the slower I hit that car, the milder the injuries would be.
The driver looked sideways and saw me bearing down, letting off his brakes and moving forward… I came to a stop where he had been about one second earlier. If I hadn’t braked so hard and he hadn’t moved forward, there would have been a collision. The
