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Photo by Marc Gibaud, Clouds on Tres Cerros and Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia

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Photo by Marc Gibaud,
Clouds on Tres Cerros and
Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia



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  #1  
Old 13 Jun 2008
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Too close?
You have all seen teh tyre remains beside the road .. when a tyre bolws on a road tain and you are close behind it .. you'll be wareing those tyre remains.

Generally other vehicles overtaking me .. I'll close the throtte when they get into teh next lane ... unless it is a mulitlane road where I'll hold my speed and cource .. The only exception to holding my courxe is where they look to be coming up to close beside me - then I'll swing out to make certain they go into the next lane... that does not happen with truck drivers .. just those 4 wheeled things!

Dirt ..
The good thing here is you'll see them off in the distance ..

if they are coming your way .. pick a tree to park under upwind so you are out of the dust and out of the way ..

If you are going the same way .... when I come up on their dust cloud I pull over check the time .. have a drink .. check the bike .. have a pee .. in general wait 5 minutes (i time in on teh watch!). Then I proceed onwards .. if I come up on them again and I'm inclinde to pass then I'll pass .. but it is risky! I find the first 5 minute stop is usuall enough - they either pull off on to some other road .. or have a break themselves .. generally this removes about 60% of the overtaking problem.
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  #2  
Old 15 Jun 2008
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I cover about 50000 to 60000 thousand kms a year on highways both by car and motorbike. I have developed the habit of "announcing" myself to truck drivers before I overtake them by making sure that the truck driver has seen me in his rear vision mirrors (usually right side mirror). I do this by maintaining my position closer to the right side of the lane for a few hundred metres before starting to overtake.
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  #3  
Old 15 Jun 2008
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I would have to agree with some of the above comments. I very rarely have trucks passing me, usually the other way round. I let myself be seen from a long way off as well. As can be seen in this picture, I am riding on the wrong side of the road anyway, saves being buffeted by the slipstream, usually not a lot of oncoming traffic out there so this manouver is quite OK



As you can see from the following photo, they can be quite long, this is only 3 trailers, some of the ones up north and west have 4-6 trailers.


Another point that has not been mentioned is that when passing one of these suckers, usually with the throttle wide open, if there is any side wind it will hit you full force when you get to the front of the train, just be aware of it and expect it.

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TravellingStrom
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  #4  
Old 18 Jun 2008
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thank you
Some great advise for us who havn't been exposed to these monsters.
Thank you
Joe
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  #5  
Old 18 Jun 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank Warner View Post
if they are coming your way .. pick a tree to park under upwind so you are out of the dust and out of the way ..

If you are going the same way .... when I come up on their dust cloud I pull over check the time .. have a drink .. check the bike .. have a pee .. in general wait 5 minutes (i time in on teh watch!). Then I proceed onwards .. if I come up on them again and I'm inclinde to pass then I'll pass .. but it is risky! I find the first 5 minute stop is usuall enough - they either pull off on to some other road .. or have a break themselves .. generally this removes about 60% of the overtaking problem.
This is great advice. I got the hell out of the way when I'd see them coming up behind me. I keep a close eye on my mirror but once it busted I had to keep turning around. Empty roads so going straight wasn't a problem, but I was worried by road trains passing. That happened a few times, but most of the time I could see them coming up and I'd get well off the road. I was on an old 250 though. I saw heaps of busted windshields on the side of the road from cars that didn't think about the large rocks the trucks toss up.
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