Motorcycle drafting

I spent the first half of my life on two wheels, rarely obeying the law and certainly not caring what anyone else thought, but now that I'm old and boring I don't like 2-wheelers around me when I'm in my truck. The issue is liability. Biker does something stupid, or not, and an accident happens and it's all the driver's fault. No two ways about it.

 

I’ve ridden motorcycles as well. I would never draft as you described. As a driver I would probably flip you off if you were drafting my truck on the open road. Stay the heck off my ### and either pass or back off. Unsafe and annoying behavior by the motorcyclist IMHO

 

Get the dual sport. I'll show ya around. My son rode this for his 1st year of street riding. He rode it everywhere with many smiles per mile.

 

Make sure you have a good reaction time to swerve or stop because that Mansfield bar is gonna hurt when the air brakes clamp down and you hit that wall in front of you.

 

I have 2 touring motorcycles and one cruiser. I stay as far away from the rear of other vehicles, even 4 wheelers, as I did when I pulled tankers.

A truck tire exploding is like a stick of dynamite. Mostly though, having something kicked up is a constant concern.

Also, I paid too much for my bikes to have the paint damaged with road rash.

Many truckers though, seem to enjoy trying to tailgate a motorcycle. I will never figure this out. Maybe jealousy or stupidly, don’t know.

 

To draft a truck and have it be effective to reduce weather conditions like rain or cold you have to be very close!
You can actually stay relatively dry if your close enough and you won’t get any buffeting unless you start to back off! Did this very stupid thing in my younger years when I got caught 3 states away with no rain gear.

Now understand to be in this envelope you must be extremely close, the rain can’t be too heavy and your chances of survival if something goes wrong is basically limited to ZERO! I don’t recomend anyone does it but it’s thier life, I am not going to stop and help them pick up the body parts they loose, might not even know they hit me if they rear end me, if I even see them being that close? Understand with a bike to be in that envelope the driver won’t be able to spot them unless they move threw the buffeting zone to thier left or right just for the slight possibility that I might happen to catch a glimpse of them in my mirror. So the most they can count on is a call to 911 if I even see them.

If you value your life in any way shape or manner don’t risk it by hopeing that the timeframe you happend to tuck in behind me just happend to coincide with my every so many seconds check of my mirrors! Your odds of winning the lottery are most likely better!

Road debree is common and can be deadly to you when on a bike, coupled with inclement weather, spots where road salt sand or ash used recently for bad weather has recently gathered can be deadly to you, heck even those larger spots with painted direction on the road surface can cause a problem for a bike ( think like arrows designating lane use as you approach ramps) as well bad weather means the common idiot in front of that truck will be doing more of thier stupid stuff like overreacting to everything which forces me to react to them. All the while you have limited your field of vision to my ICT bar, cargo doors and depending on how fast I am going you may or may not even be able to see my tail lights.

My summary: If you are looking to commit suicide and still have your life insurance pay out by not making it look like a suicide go ahead and do it!

 

Bad idea, OP... even though these trucks are heavy-duty, equipment breaks on 'em and comes tumbling your way. I recall seeing a photo at the D.O.T. scale in Yuma, a D.O.T. bear rode up on a truck just as a chunk of leaf spring broke off and came tumbling back at speed. That 16" to 18" leaf spring segment went right through the trooper's windshield and SPEARED the shotgun seat... anybody sitting there would've been IMPALED by the spring, which went clear through the seat. So you might wanna rethink that "drafting" strategy and keep clear of trucks whenever possible. Smoothly accelerate past 'em and don't hang out alongside, as a blown tire can knock you off your bike or kill you. I say this as a rider, not just a former truck driver...