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 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

[JediGoat]

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

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

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

Jo

.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:

It only happens when I'm travelling at faster speeds.

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?

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.

Originally Posted by chutz

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.