Ride like a maniac

[jbell]

No judgement call here but you stated you ride like a Kamikaze.  Errrrrr, you do know the mission of the Kamikaze??

[Mark West]

When you ride substantially faster than traffic in the city, you're really betting that you know what other people are going to do. 99.x% of the time, you'll be right and all is well. its that one time that someone does something totally illogical and unexpected and you don't have time to react that you have to be prepared for. It may never happen to you, but it could at any time.

And I guess I'd recommend wearing gloves . Having been to Singapore I can imagine it is hell wearing any protective gear in that heat/humidity but flesh is no match for pavement and I'd rather be sweaty than undergo skin grafts.

[Randown]

Time does slow down when you are in motion.   

So says the laws of physics & Einstein's spacetime continuum but it's not perceptible here on earth so I like the dilation explanation.

If you die on your bike that event is frozen in the future. We just can't know 'bout it b/c we live life like a slide show.

If you don't like that take it up with Einstein. 

[Rough Edge racing]

 This is maniac...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct1yrN6SbGQ

[lucydad]

Hmm,

On Houston freeways I typically ride about 5 mph faster than average speed of cagers/trucks.  That adds visibility, and caveat, YMMV...used with discretion always.  Average speed on Southwest Freeway on V7R:  80-85. 

[Calijackalbob]

I watched the video and don't really see any issue with your riding.  The Go-Pro on the top of your helmet (and video cameras generally) make everything look faster due to the narrow view - when we're riding, we see a much wider field and can process information as fast as it comes at us.

"I rode in Tokyo for three years and this looks very similar.  Drivers almost always signal, speeds are relatively slow" etc ....... and  "I would ride the same way there and would be laughing all the way to work and back."

Tom

Yeah. The driving culture here is very different. A cheap car costs a ridiculous $50 - $100,000 more than in the US. So Singapare drivers are very slow and careful.. (The guy that hit me wasn't a local. From China, had his license less than a year.) Everything Singaporeans do is slow. They pull out from side streets slowly. Take off from lights slowly, change lanes slowly,....They NEVER signal, but when they change lanes, they take 10 seconds to do it, drifting over into the next lane. When there are pile ups on the highway, they never veer into the next lane. I think they are taught to just brake and go straight, crash or not. And they never seem to run red lights. They don't know the meaning of STOP in a stop sign, but drift through slowly, predictably.... 
Add to that there must be a million bikes on the road in an island country that's 40 km long 20 kms wide, so drivers here are very aware of bikes. I have ridden in the UK, in California and all over Australia. I feel safer on the roads here than anywhere I have ridden. Melbourne, Australia is the worst. Drivers are very aggressive, change lanes in a heartbeat and are totally unaware of bikes as only 2% of Aussies ride.

As for many other comments:
Gloves. It is so freaking hot here. When I got my first Sing bike, I wore leather pants and jacket, boots and gloves. That lasted a week. I reckon I lost a couple of kilos in the 10 minute ride to work.
I switched to shorts, tshirt and runners. Refused to follow the local trend of riding in flip flops - slippers. But after about the tenth time I burned my legs on the pipes, trying to squeeze into too-small parking spots for bikes, I have started wearing cargo pants. It's hot, but the sweat keeps you cool when moving.

Warnings. Thanks for your concern guys. Point taken. I have slowed down since getting the Jackal. It's a real cruiser after all. I alternate between it and the CB750 but after a while on that, I find myself going a bit crazy again, switch back to the guzzi to tone it down a notch.
http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk57/drfunk62192003/My%20Bikes/049.jpg

Crash videos. I watch them all the time. I always see how and why the crash happened before it happens. Learn from it. I never overtake on blind corners or crests of hills,..... taking off from a stop sign or red light, I never go through intersections without looking both ways first.  I've ridden over a million kilometers in city traffic, mostly contending with erratic, unpredictable, aggressive, bike blind drivers in Aus. I'm pretty good at reading traffic. Seem to have developed a 6th sense, know what a car is going to do before they do it. I'm not often surprised, but when I am, I'm good at taking evasive action. I guess I'm Lucky. (So far) Usually ride it like I stole it, but every accident I've had was slow speeds, cars at fault every time. (Except one fall  I had while doing the Kieth Code Superbike Cornering course. That was due to oil on a wet track.)

............ I'm not making excuses or think I'm immortal. The point of this thread is that, how we ride may be seen as more dangerous seen from another perspective/camera angle. I recommend getting a helmet cam, so YOU can see what it looks like from another angle. Maybe you'll slow down a bit. I confess, I have. (but not a lot! Muh Ha Ha!)

[tpeever]

As for many other comments:
Gloves. It is so freaking hot here. When I got my first Sing bike, I wore leather pants and jacket, boots and gloves. That lasted a week. I reckon I lost a couple of kilos in the 10 minute ride to work.
I switched to shorts, tshirt and runners. Refused to follow the local trend of riding in flip flops - slippers. But after about the tenth time I burned my legs on the pipes, trying to squeeze into too-small parking spots for bikes, I have started wearing cargo pants. It's hot, but the sweat keeps you cool when moving.

Held Airstream gloves. Work great in hot weather.

[Zinfan]

I did notice the cars don't bunch up like I see them do here.  That makes it easy to slalom around them.  To be sure I wouldn't ride like that but I expected to see much worse before clicking the link.  I have seen very much worse while riding through L.A. And San Diego, my biggest concern when lane splitting traffic jams is another bike racing up behind me not the cars in front or to my side.

[normzone]

U.S. riders see that and think that you are riding like a maniac.  A typical rider from Paris might think, eh... 

I think all would think,  "where are your gloves?"

I could only bear to watch the first 45 seconds - [CaliJackalBob], good luck to you, but it looks to me like cruising for a bruising.

I live in San Diego, and it resembles the worst of our riders.

[AJ Huff]

I watched again and tried to pay attention to your speedometer. Assuming yours is the same as mine looked like most of your maneuvering is 45mph or less and it don't look like you ever opened it up more than about 60mph on straight a ways. Pretty tame by US standards. How fast do scooters go there? Where I live they typically go 25mph, never more than 30mph on the highway. They drive me nuts driving around them. Glad I don't carry.

-AJ

[AJ Huff]

BTW, where is this song from? By whom?

-AJ

[Penderic]

Couldn't hurt.


Good luck!

[guzzitime]

Unfortunately, we will be hearing about you and it won't be good.

[bad Chad]

I finally watched your video.  I'm amazed that its in real time, much of it looks speeded up.

You are taking a lot of unnecessary risk.   It looks like great fun, but like others have said, you have no way to know for certain what any other driver will do, none of us do.  But you are often leaving yourself no escape should another vehicle do something stupid.  I get from your description of Singapore traffic that locals are very predictable, but you yourself said you got hit by a guy from China!   The road may only hold 1% unpredictable drivers, but 1% of Singapore traffic is still a pretty big number, and your luck will run out if you don't reduce your risk. 

True you can't get rid of all the risk, but you are taking such a huge bite of the risk apple, your bond to choke on it at some point.

[tonUPRacer]

If that sweet little girl in the photo is yours, you are an incredibly stupid and selfish man. If she's not, then go ahead and take your chances.

[Calijackalbob]

BTW, where is this song from? By whom?

-AJ

and
"Bob,
Nice song for the video.
Lay off the caffeine.
Jackal sounds great!
Get some gloves.
Disconnect the Flux Capacitor."
Hunter.


Thanks. That's my old band Tomohawk. I'm doing the vocals and bass. My lyrics are about my realisation that I had a few screws loose. It was a bad time in my life when I was a motorcycle courier with a death wish in Melbourne Aus. You think this video is hairy? You would be appalled at how I was back then. I started to slow down when I looked at the speedo one day, splitting lanes in bumper to bumper traffic that was doing maybe 10 kilometers per hour, if it wasn't stationary. 
I was doing 100kmh.
I thought. I'm gonna die if I don't change. Slowed down a lot since then. Realizing you have a problem is the first step towards fixing it.

".....  I know it's gonna happen. It's just a matter of time,
til this Kamikaze pilot loses his mind.
So will you catch me when I fall?
Will you scrape me off the road?
Will you pick up the pieces when I explode?

Peter AKA Funkenstien