Problems cornering at night with cars coming towards me!
 

Hi,

does anyone else suffer from the following?

When riding a nice A road (unlit street, national speed limit) with a good, sweeping left hander,do you have trouble at night when there is a car coming towards you on the other side of the road at night? The problem I am getting is that I get the 'target fixation' on their headlights and I find the bike edging towards them, inducing brown pant moments.

It only happens when I'm travelling at faster speeds. One moment I have good visibility of the roads, all of a sudden I'm blinded by car headlights. I'm trying to read the road but at the same time having poor visibility and finding myself coming perilously closer to their car/death!!!

Maybe I need to calm down a little at night, but when I'm taking a bend with no other traffic its fine. A typical scenario was earlier tonight. A nice long sweeping left hander, 50mph, then :shock: car headlights dazzle me and I'm really cornering blind finding myself with only the oncoming car to look at.....

Could just be me though :(

No Robbo - it's not just you.

Mind you, I do the opposite....I end up getting nearer to the kerb!

There's a road near my house that I turn into on my way home in the dark. There isn't much lighting and there's always lots of cars coming the other...up the hill. I end up riding about 50 yards (not very fast mind) purely using my memory of where the kink in the road is :shock:

Added to that is the concern of hitting one of those Stealth Pedestrians - black trousers, black coat, black bag, ipod plugged in, and no bloody awareness - during my video game moment :evil:

To make it worse, it's my bogey road - I've fallen off twice on the same road. Nothing to do with poor visibility mind, totally to do with riding like a wally :oops:

Jo

:wink: .Natural instinct to head towards something if you look at it.....

Stay focused on the road ahead...and what you need to do in order tackle the next obstacle.

I know what you mean but when at speed you really need to concentrate and observe what’s all around you mate..

If you don’t feel competent riding at speed then take it easy and it will come with time…...don’t ride out of your capability.

Suggestion (serious): slow down.


.

Robbo wrote:

There in lies the answer to your dilemma my friend. Back off the gas and make life easier for yourself. It's all about adjusting to conditions...I would have considered night time/ darkness to come under the category of a condition? :wink:

I always ride slower at night for the very reason you described. Also I think that as you definitely get a much restricted view it means you need to slow down as you usually don't get the same warning of obstacles as you do in the day light.

I always ride at night in winter :?

Slow Down - No one here care's if you are slow, but lots will care if we read that you are a fatality.

Keep you visor clean, buy some wet-wipes keep them with the bike.

Yep, slow down, keep the visor clean and look for the curb. Don't look at the lights!

I've got this great visor spray bottle. It's got a sponge on one side, and a squeegy on the other. Works a treat. I also clean my mirrors with it.

As Mogs said. Keep your visor clean. Also check for scratches and really fine scrapes. I found that my visor has really really fine scrapes on it from wiping it with my glove during the time when it was snowing and they were putting salt on the roads. Its seems to causes everything to go blurred and stary at night.

I think all of the above are extremely valid points... here's my 2p worth:

• Slow down - can't stress this enough, don't ride faster than you can see, in any situation.
• Relax - if you're really stressed about your riding, it's not going to make it any easier!
• Clean your visor - any crap on it at night, makes seeing past oncoming cars very tedious.
• The SV headlights aren't that great... I believe they only come with 45w bulbs. The Philips 55w bulbs are highly recommended (ask Jonboy), and apparently make a massive difference.

I have suffered from it to. I agree with Billyc thats all good and sound advice.

I've found another trick, not really recommended though but it has got me out of trouble a couple of times.

Its to follow at a safe distance a car, that way you can use the car headlights to see whats coming up ahead of you as well as relying on the headlights of your own bike.

If I'm alone, I won't ride fast at night, I tend to back off the gas a bit especially if I dont really know the road.

But even if I'm going slowly I find it hard to see where the road goes if cars are coming towards me (especially the numpties who have their full beams on!)

I actually really enjoy riding at night, especially on A roads. I do agree that the lights are crap on the SV so might try the 55w bulbs. What i try to do on bendy roads is spot headlights of on coming cars before you get to them. I find that as soon as you spot some headlight flare from an oncoming car ease off the gas and prepare, that way you will be going at the right speed for the situation before you are blinded by the lights. Also keep the kurb in mind and focus on the road ahead.

aint it strange how at night on the "good roads", you only ever get cars coming towards you upon entering "the best corner of the ride" ?

i have this problem too.

slow down doesnt really help me much either, as i "go blind" when im blinded by oncoming cars.

but i do find it helps to tilt my head to one side away from the car and fixate on something else instead.

like the kerb that runs paralell to the road and focus on keeping a correct distance from it.

As soon as you are aware of uncoming lights ascertain where the road bends and keep you eyes on that area of the road. As soon as you look towards the lights you have lost sight your bearings and then it becomes scary.
Just a thought, what are you like on right hand bends as the oncoming lights are shining right at you?
Just keep safe, it's bad enough without making it worse.

A couple of points...

1: How old is your visor? Any stone-chips or scratches are highlighted in the dark through the process of refraction of light. Just being clean is not enough. I'm not saying chuck it away, just keep it for daytime use.

2: As others suggest, slow down mate! Your eyes and brain take longer to adjust to low light situations, especially as dipped lights means your field of view is reduced too. A little less throttle gives you a lot more thinking time.

If you were walking around at night would you dim your torch and run straight towards someone else shining their torch in your eyes not knowing where you're stepping?
No, didn't think so.....

I'am with bikeageboy on this one.

Avoid looking directly at the oncoming lights.
If you do look at them your pupil will close up to restrict the amount of light going in to your eye to try to avoid dazzel. Once you pass the lights it will take time for the pupils to open up again.

Try this
Go into a room with no windows, with the lights on you can see fine (well I hope so anyway - if not get a cage).
Turn the light off. You can see practiaclly nothing.
Over the next 5 to 10 minuets your vision will improve as your eyes adjust to the low light levels
Turn the light on for a minuet or so
Turn it off. Back to square one, you can see practically nothing.

This is the "night vision" effect.
When riding or driving at night try to protect your night vision.
Avoid looking at bright lights, like headlights and all those Gatso flashes in your mirrors.

I find the best way to do this when in danger of being dazzeled is to look at the kerb/ road edge as far ahead as you can and concentrate on staying parallel to it. Afterall there is no point looking straight ahead, because your being dazzeled, otherwise none of this applies and just look where you want to go.

Well it works for me.

surely an anti dazzle visor would sell really well ?

what about those night driving glasses the yellow things (sold in most petrol stops or motorway services) :lol:

I go slower at night. Last night, it confused the hell out of me to round a bend and see what looked like 2 cars converging from top to bottom, almost as if one was coming up out of the ground :shock:. I was distracted by it and forced myself to slow down and take stock. What it actually was, was a big puddle on the other side of the road (out of place as it hadn't been raining/wet), reflecting the light of the car driving down the slope towards the puddle. You tend to get these sort of optical illusions/what was that? moments at night and they're another reason to slow down a bit, as well as reduced visibility.

i never knew of their existance.


yellow tinted visor anyone ?

I believe that the is a recognised medical condition which makes some people more prone to be dazzled than others. I am totally crap driving at night, I find it really hard to see when faced with oncoming lights. I do all the things which everyone has mentioned, but most importantly adjust my speed to what I am capable of dealing with.

It is also worthwhile bearing in mind that if you are having trouble seeing, then the other drivers could well be as well.

Thanks for all the tips guys. Am going to have to calm down at night, that seems to be the safest option :)

Re: Problems cornering at night with cars coming towards me!
 

If you have a Pinlock visor, you can get a yellow insert that's supposed to do the same job as the anti-dazzle glases.

http://www.thevisorshop.com/acatalog...serts_234.html

Re: Problems cornering at night with cars coming towards me!
 

:winner: