How close do you follow ?

oh boy! you would love walking in the malls in south Florida. Think you would be going postal, matter of fact you would hate going food shopping too! :smile:

 

pffttt. I'm never behind. Holeshot every time baby...
but really, when canyon riding, I stay about 7/8 to 15/16 of a turn behind the guy in front of me. What that equates to in time and distance depends on the turn. My best estimate would be somewhere between 2 and 8 seconds, or 1 to 10 bike lenghts.

 

Mine is in direct to relation to the stopping speed of the vehicle in front. Reaction time is an additional factor, mine is fairly quick when I'm paying attention. If I'm checking out the scenery or otherwise distracted I back off.

 

and do not forget yo have enough space...behind you : I hate cars/bikes following me to close.

Lamps !

 

For me, it depends on who I'm riding with. With my main riding buddy, we'll follow each other at 2-3 metres, in a staggered pattern. - I know exactly how he will react to any given situation, so it's as safe as riding on the track.
With people I don't know, I give them plenty of distance.

 

When I'm riding with a group just going for a cruze we have about a 2-3 second gagp and a staggered riding position but if we are carving up the few (and I mean few) twisties that we have hear on the NC coast we have about a 10 seconds or more. All of us ride together and know how each will react but if you are cutting up a little and busting the speed limit a bit you definately want to have enough time to react.

 

got a little too close to a cage, while in the passing lane on a long trip. Mr Porcupine shot out from under that car and I didn't have a choice, had to go right over it....Luckily, it happened too quick for me to react to it, and I went straight over it. Was a lot more cautious the rest of the trip!

 

Well with the amount of riding I do now, I never follow. Matter of fact, I am so far ahead of everyone, I never see them in my mirrors. But I can't for the life of me figure out how they get ahead of me just before we arrive at our next way point.

Someone mentioned reaction time which is incredibly important. What most people don't realize is that the average person takes anywhere from 1/2 to over 1 second to even start to re-act to something they saw. It takes that long for your body to take something in, process what you saw through the brain, then send a message to the appropriate muscle to re-act. So. Travelling at 100 MPH say, you do the math. Hopw far do you travel in 1/2 second. And it gets worse with age. Your peak reaaction time is in your 20's. I am 56. I'm fuct.

 

It varies but I'd say at least 3 bikes, 2 cars.

My riding style is "always have an out". Means I have to put along sometimes but it what works best for me..