Lots said about car drivers’ lack of awareness of bikes, especially when they pull out in front of a bike to overtake or change lanes. Perfectly valid criticism when the bike IS part of the traffic – meaning travelling at relatively low relative speeds that mean the bike can be detected by a driver using a good scan routine.

A closing speed (from behind) of over 160kmph is NOT going with the flow and doesn’t give the car driver much of a chance of detecting a small target in a rear vision mirror, especially if that target is the same colour as the road and shown very little relative movement in the mirror. Sure, it is growing in size, but as any pilot will tell you, changes in size without lateral movement is a very hard thing to notice during a scan that must include other things to worry about.

Another factor you may not appreciate is that not all vehicles have plane mirrors on the drivers side. Most cars have convex mirrors on the passenger side and we are all familiar with the warning usually printed on those mirrors, BUT my LHD German-built motorhome on a Ford chassis has a convex mirror ON THE DRIVERS SIDE as well. Totally useless for detecting a bike at high closing speeds and there is no inside rear vision mirror to assist.

So if you happen to be screaming around Europe and spy a Hobby motorhome way in the distance (doing the speed limit mostly), DO give me a wide berth.