Today I went for a nice 70 mile training ride. About 3 miles from my house there is an intersection. On the street leaving my house, there is a stop sign but on the street that it connects to there isn't one.
So I roll up to the stop sign. Stop. Look both ways a few times. Nobody coming. I pull out and turn left onto the road., and about 5 feet into the road. I look over and see a guy on a motorcycle comin at me.....fast. I panic and start sprinting to the shoulder on the other side of the road.. The driver of the motorcycle locks up the rear wheel and makes a nice long skid and he lays the bike over on it's side and it slides maybe 4ft. He was like ~50ft. away when he honked at me. He shouldn't of had needed to lock his brakes to stop in 50ft when the speed limit is 45mph. The motorcycles is a bit scratched up, nothin to big. The guy driving it is fine. I'm fine.

So the guy calls the police, reports it all. Does all that stuff. Asks me for my license?? I don't have one. I tell the guy that I'm 15.
I'm just wondering who's at fault for it?

Sounds like you pulled out in front of him after not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign. It is your fault.

Fifty feet at 45 MPH is not a lot of space. It takes about 140 feet to stop an automobile at 45 MPH. Some argue that motorcycles can stop faster due to their lower mass but being on 2 wheels makes a panic stop that much more difficult. Plus not all bikes have ABS making a safe panicked stop even more difficult. Even if he could safely stop in half the stopping distance of a car that is still 70 feet plus.


Next time come to a complete stop at intersections that have no stop sign or light on the cross traffic or next time, it might be a truck that you didn't see and you are not going to get the chance to ask about it again.

Please be safe.

Well, you stopped -- but how far did you look down the road?

I just find it difficult to believe that the motorcycle only needed less than a hundred feet to slide to a stop if he was also going too fast for you to see him in time.

If he locked up his rear brake it's because he doesn't know how to ride very well. Based on the information provided it sounds like an avoidable accident on his part.

Edit: I have been an avid motorcyclist for almost 18 years on a variety of motorcycle types both on-track and on-road.

Maybe he was on Munch Mammoth or any of the many other drum equipped motorcycles. They don't stop to fantastic. The guy pulling out from the stop sign into the right of way is at fault.

I have been an avid motorcyclist for 30 years and owned motorcycles for 28 of them.

It was a cruiser Harley with dual discs in front and disc in rear.

I was playing the odds and probably should have said 'chances are most likely'.

Anyway, we got clarification, so yeah, it definitely sounds like the riders' fault.
Not necessarily. 'He was coming at me fast' could easily imply that the rider was exceeding the speed limit (which is what I gathered from the description).

Either way, it sounds like the accident was avoidable had the motorcycle rider been aware of proper braking techniques.

According to the OP the motorcycle was 50 ft away when he honked. The speed limit(as appears from the post) was 45mph. You can stop a motorcyle in fifty feet from 45 mph? Do it. Set aside reaction time, stop a motorcycle going 45 mph in fifty feet. You pick the bike. Just to let you know I looked up some stats. A profesional driver(Michigan motor policeman) takes around 160 feet to stop a big twin Harley. 45 mph is less than 60 mph but not enough to make the stopping distance less than fifty feet. But go ahead and use a Sachs MadAss, I will still bet you cannot make a controlled stop in less then fifty feet.
The best part is the Op is annoyed that he might be in trouble for pulling out in front of another vehicle rather than thankful he did not pull out in front of a triaxle dump truck which CANNOT stop in fifty feet nor is it slowed whn plowing over a guy on a bike.

No I'm not. I was simply curious to what it would be. As I don't know all the cycle liability stuff yet.

Two things about "50 feet" --

It takes a while -- and even some practice -- before people can reliably estimate distances. 50 feet may sound like a long distance, but it really isn't very far at all; even a hundred feet is shorter than most people think (it's only about 30 yards, after all). I'm wondering where the OP got his 50' measurement.

Fifty feet is also a SHORT distance to be looking down a cross street. I don't pull away from a stop sign across a faster street -- in a car, on a bike, or on foot -- unless I can see the width of the pavement, shoulder-to-shoulder, for at least one or two hundred yards, which is far enough to make a good decision based on oncoming traffic.

To the OP -- when you said you saw "nobody coming", was there really "nobody" for at least a block (or equivalent) in both directions?

Today I was helping someone move to a new house. This kid about 12/3 was riding his dirt/bmx style bike the wrong way approaching a left hand curve for him. He was in the wrong lane and a car was coming in the correct lane and had to slam on it's brakes and skidded to a stop. Lucky for the kid the car was only doing about 15 miles an hour.

The kid was going to be toast if not for the fast action of the car. The part that upsets me is the people I was helping move started yelling at the kid and giving him a hard time. the kid told everyone he was sorry a couple of times but the "adults" kept yelling, Jeez. I felt so sorry for the kid, he was scared to death as he put his hand out to keep the car away, then these people started yelling at him and as he left I could hear him start to cry in front of the people yelling at him.

By the time I could start to come out of the house he was leaving, I wanted to go to him and EXPLAIN what he had done wrong and how he could ride more safely. Sure he needed a talking to, maybe even yelled at to get his attention, but the people were just yelling because they were scared for the kid and carried on to much.

Endomorphins rule to many events.

So OP, maybe following the rules of the road and not taking shortcuts could be a wise thing to do. And, the motorcycle rider (I'm one) needs to learn how to make emergency stops, laying a bike down is not the best way to stop.

Steven

How fast was the motorcyclist going? I ask because I had the same exact thing happen to me a long time ago while driving my car.

While scanning for cross traffic at a stop sign, (at a complete stop, just like you) I seen a motorcycle coming and waited for him to cross. Once he did, and both directions looked clear, I started to cross. Surprise! A second motorcyclist coming at an extremely high rate of speed (at least 60 in a 30) was headed right towards my side. I punched the throttle as he locked the back wheel and skidded sideways. No contact was made, and he managed to save it and not go down.

It would probably still be considered my fault, but his excessive speed certainly contributed to the incident.

I don't know about fault, but it sounds to me like it would have been a good idea for you to have pulled out slowly, after stopping completely, to increase the distance down the road you can see. Once you can see a good ways (and try to look far enough down to even be able to spot people that are speeding) then you can make the turn.

You say it was a Harley? Did you NOT hear it coming?

Other than that, I will defer to the stereotype of speeding motorcyclists....

I said 'avoidable', nowhere in my post did I state that he was required to stop in order to avoid an accident. You're honestly taking the stance that a moderately proficient motorcyclist has no other option to avoid collision with a bicycle than performing an emergency stop?

Calm down.

Maybe he had his iPod turned up too loud...

This whole scenario sounds so odd to me. Why did the motorcyclist not just go into the other lane (was there oncoming traffic?)? Why did you not stop where you were and allow the motorcyclist to avoid you? Bikes, both the Harley and your bicycle, are small, maneuverable machines. I agree that this sounds like an avoidable accident, but yes, I would think the OP was at fault.

The OP said that he panicked and hustled into the opposite lane; his original intent was to turn left.

Inexperience, I guess.