overlap

This evening I was nearly killed. I'm used to dicing with other people's iffy judgement on my bikes, and I know what I'm doing, and I'm happy what is and what isn't a chance worth taking. What I'm not used to is being within feet of other vehicles on motorways. Especially when the other driver pulls out in front of me to overtake without checking his mirrors fully. If he'd moved out just that little bit more slowly, his rear would have taken my front wing into the central reservation, and updates on this blog would probably have been summarily curtailed by either a sideways roll along the motorway at 70mph, or the impact of following vehicles ploughing into me. Luckily for me, there was a couple of feet to spare. My full beam in his mirror and probably the first use in anger of the horn on this car meant he knew I was there pretty rapidly, and to be fair he got out of the way pretty sharpish and was quick to apologise, and I accepted the apology because it helps nobody to continue driving under the threat of road rage reprisals and that sort of rubbish. But despite a couple of near-drownings and other, er, interesting experiences, I don't believe I've ever been quite that close. And that's a bit too close for my liking.