Bloody hell, glad you're mostly OK!

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I spent a lot of money on travel and racing motorcycles - the rest I just squandered.

XT660Z - Commuter, Adventurer...Racer?

www.dashmoto.net

Other bikes >> MT-03 / CG125BR-J / ER-6F
Departed >> ZXR400L3 / EC300 / DR-Z400E / DR800S / GPZ500S / GS400

Chris - Glad you're Ok mate.

I'm sure your old fella will tell you this anyway.... when you approach any vehicle from behind make yourself seen, it's not fool proof, but it gives you a better chance, and may have prevented this incident. You can do this by taking control of the road. The Tenere has lots of presence, but you need to exploit this to get the most impact. When approaching, and from a long way back, use all 5 road positions, starting with the inside, and take a look up the inside, there may be a hazard that the driver in from will move to the right for) and moving to the outside in preparation for the overtake. Drivers are more likely to see a bright light moving across their mirrors (even if they don't use them).

Use the same approach after completing the overtake, especially in traffic, move to the inside position, and take the opportunity to take a look up the inside again, then move back out to the outside position.

The same lateral movement on approach to junctions also helps to improve your chances of being seen.

This might have helped, or they might not, but anything that improves your chances is worth doing. The only thing I will say, it makes your riding appear very aggressive, so you need to use hand signals to thank drivers , a nod, anything to acknowledge drivers who give you room/priority etc.

Perhaps this is a good time to look at some rider training, you might be doing something in your riding that a good observer/trainer will spot and help you improve your riding. We all do stuff that puts us in more danger than we should, the key is to recognise none of us are perfect and get a peer to review your riding. I say this as news of another rider (the father of my friends daughters friend) who I knew of (just the 'hello' type of know) hit a cow on a long straight road last week on his Aprillia, he died on Tuesday night from his injuries.

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Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.