Hope you heal quickly and that the injuries were not far worse.

I do report close passes that severely endanger my personal safety, regardless of the cause. In this case, the motorist could claim " target fixation", but in my case, I've learned to train myself to lessen my chances of falling victim to "target fixation".

Because it comes so quickly, here's the last frame before impact. See what I mean about "an inch or two"? And he's doing 65mph, at least.

I run with front and rear facing cameras, a lot of interesting things go on behind me that I may have missed. The main reason I run a rear cam is to video the moment of any impact, or in this case, to video a front license number since the odds are great that the front cam will be unable to video much of the motorist's vehicle after the impact, but there have been rare exceptions in other cyclists' collisions.

Thank you, you beat me to the answer.

Metric Man,

I am so sorry this happened to you. Heal soon. I'll be thinking of you.

I've been considering a rear-mounted GoPro for a while, for documentation purposes.

Metric Man, The GoPro you were using had good resolution - which one were you using?

JUST TODAY I got buzzed by a huge buss on Hiway 120 a couple of miles north of Oakdale, CA. That monster was SO CLOSE I could've reached out and touched it easily. I know that only a very small per cent of bike riders get hit in that fashion but it made me so DAMNED MAD!! It's a good thing there was no way I could catch up with him because I'm certain there'd have been more going on than a mere exchange of ugly words! Like many before me OP I wish you a speedy recovery. It is often said that what does not kill us makes us stronger, I hope that's the case in this situation.

Why I use video cameras, I nonchalantly go home, download and review the video, and report the motorist to law enforcement if there is enough detailed information to give to them. No ugly words or situations to get into, and a whole lot more gratifying and calming for me than just smiling and waving and carrying on like nothing really happened, like some on BF have suggested.

Doesn't work so well in states that do not require a front plate though.....

His mirror hit me above the kidney and right on the rib cage/scapula. The bike is relatively unscathed. In fact if I had fallen I would have been ecstatic about the damage. A small scratch on the SRAM Red shifter (left side) and some dinged bar tape. The real damage was to my Cobb saddle...and if you can believe this the bike club that embraced me in Tyler has a member that is a big wig at Cobb and they already shipped me a new one. Exceptional people and customer support there.

Camera only...the mirrors have always been a distraction to me...but I think I may try that again.

GoPro3 Silver set at 1080 30fps. You can record at 60fps but it burns up the battery quicker.

Very good ideal.

When you get buzzed like that, note the vehicle number and company name or the tag number, the date, time and location.
Call your local police non-emergency number to find out how to make a formal complaint of dangerous or careless driving. Commercial vehicle operators know exactly who is operating which vehicle on what day and at what time, and they often do not like getting reports like this, see a bus is essentially a 40' long rolling billboard for the company, and if drivers are acting poorly in traffic, that can cost them business.

1. Glad your okay
2. tl;dr- made it to like the 5th post or so
3. Just in case you haven't been made aware yet- https://www.bikeforums.net/advocacy-s...bers-read.html

I don't know if I've been intentionally buzzed or not, but I've had some that were a tad suspect. And I've had the usual yahoo's who like to yell or blow their horns when just about to overtake. But I've never been able to read a license/tag number off the vehicle. A bus or commercial truck might be a bit easier (to get the company name and/or "unit" number). I suppose a pair of cameras would be a big help. How much do they weigh?

Metric Man: so glad it wasn't any worse. Best wishes for a speedy recovery!

Regards, Dick

Holy crap. So unlucky to get hit, so lucky it wasn't worse.

Definitely see an attorney. Definitely minimize the internet chit chat about it until it is resolved.

Speedy recovery to you!

The VIRB and GoPro are about 6.35 oz each.

I'm partial to these and have them on several of my bikes.

Sprintech Drop Bar mirror

or

Sprintech Amazon link

"Might"? No might involved. With the extent of your injuries, you should open a claim with his insurer. You probably won't have to bring a civil suit in court. Broken bones and ribs, along with a collapsed lung, you're looking at a nice pain and suffering award on top of your medical expenses, and any lost wages if you were out of work.

As far as posting about it goes, the insurance company will be bound by the police's accident report and your Go Pro footage. They aren't in a position to dispute liability. You were struck from behind, and a driver is almost always responsible for striking a vehicle of any kind, or a pedestrian, from the rear. The only issue here is damages, and I wouldn't post anything about how you feel, or anything about the nature of your injuries beyond what you said already. Your hospital and follow up records will also speak for themselves, but there is the issue of pain and suffering. And don't speak to any adjusters. If one contacts you, tell them that you are represented by an attorney. That should end the conversation right then and there. Let your lawyer handle the demand for damages.

First - what a video! It is morbidly fascinating and horrible. Metric Man: I wish you the best for recovery and hope you're riding again soon, with little or no paranoia.

I'd like to preface my question with the statement that I am in NO WAY faulting the cyclist for anything. I'm wondering though if people tend to ride close to the white line? That seemed to be a broad, clean shoulder. I tend to ride closer to the middle or even edge of the shoulder assuming it is relatively clear of debris. Ideally, I'd like the high speed traffic to be able to pass me w/ 3 feet of clearance without drifting over the striped center line of the highway. If I'm close to the white line, they either have to pass closer than that, or move out of their lane - I don't like making anyone do that if not necessary. (If necessary, I don't mind making them do it!)

A lot of time, the further you get from the white line, the more crap is on the shoulder, so you have to ride closer to the white line, so it's not a cut and dried thing for me or anyone.

I don't want OP to respond to this because I in no way want it to be an issue in this. But I'm wondering where other riders default to - closer to the edge of the shoulder or closer to the white line.... and why.

I'm lucky that most of the highway riding I do is on a shoulder with rumble strips. I think they tend to keep the drivers from drifting inadvertently and also give me a heads up when someone is drifting -although in my opinion, there's little or no chance of changing my line to avoid being hit from behind, even with visual (mirror) or audible (rumble strips) warning.

All my best to you Metric Man. Don't take my question as a fault, just genuine curiosity about riding habits.

>>Did you have a rear view mirror? Or just the camera?


>Camera only...the mirrors have always been a distraction to me...but I think I may try that again.

I ride in that situation (along the highway) very frequently and I have a helmet mirror, but I rarely check to watch a car approach me. It would be a different experience if I checked each when I heard it coming, and I just don't do it.

Sometimes I'll look back (with the mirror) if I hear a big truck coming, and sometimes I listen to hear if the vehicle changes lanes (the tires make noise as they go over the raised lane markers), but I have to admit that I'm usually oblivious to the cars. I ride on road like that about two hours per week.

Thanks for posting it.

With yahoos, it's not worth pursuing, with COMMERCIAL vehicles, it's different, operators should be trained better, and more aware of the size of their vehicle. I get passed by transit (TTC) buses ALL the time, and drivers always change lanes, and if they can't change lanes, they slow right down and stay behind.


Cameras range from small to tiny, and their capture capability is always getting better. Just thinking, I wonder if a great unit would be a bicycle computer that has a 4" diagonal screen where a pair of micro cameras can be plugged into it. One camera faces forwards, one backwards, and the screen shows the rear video feed with the computer display overlaying it, with the ability to record the video feeds to an SD card. Cameras in that case could be much smaller, not much bigger then a watch battery.

That is for sure, but at the very least, it takes most of the guess work out what type of vehicle, color, and who possibly was at fault for the collision. There was one very rare occurrence that a cyclist's hi def front camera caught a motorist's rear plate as the cyclist was crashing to the ground, leading to the motorist's arrest for hit and run.