Before I continue Id say your position was possibly poor and you could have anticipated the car approaching the HGV and pulling out, maybe/maybe not however Id have not spent one nanosecond in the blind spot of a car longer than necessary, similarly Id assume any car approaching a slower one is going to pull out too

Tough thread
Learn and move on

Having said that I quit motorbikes just under 10y ago
Id ridden defensively and safely and been fortunate enough to have not had any near misses, but anticipated several

What did it for me was some indecision after the kids were born followed by the utter bombshell of a mate being killed on his Fireblade
He was the calmest, safest rider Id met, it was just a complete shocker and the last straw for me

At the inquest, after Id flogged by bike, it turns out hed been riding pretty irresponsibly and had an accident with an on coming car – pretty hard for me to believe but there you go

I would say track days and touring if you want to bike

this is a good plan, although they still both have their hazards, not sure if witnessing my mate having a head on with a lorry an hour or so after getting off the ferry has curbed my enthusiasm or if its too much faff riding into london for work, but I certainly do far fewer miles than I used to

I’m just about to go out on the bike and I came here for a quick look at the forum.. only to find this thread.

Lad in work asked me yesterday if I had any close calls. I said that I have had a moment on a right hander where I had to be a bit more aggressive with the bars than normal as I wasn’t following the road as tight as I should have been, but also said that it didn’t faze me. I was nowhere near the ditch, its just a bit of an error that causes no problem, but at the same time it could so easily go so wrong. I pointed out that it feels fine, but getting the front wheel stuck in a rut on the mtb at far slower speeds gives you more of a fright,but probably with no injuries.

If there’s moments on the bike, I don’t seem to freak out like I should. I’ve been in the right lane going over the Kessock bridge and the lorry/bus to my left started to pull over as I was half way alongside it. A bit of a twitcher of a moment and I continued without braking. Looking back at it, it seems that I had no fear of possibly getting pushed into the gravel pit in the central reservation. The feeling of something happening is nothing like that of the front wheel getting caught up in a rut descending on the mtb. I often go out and ride for a few hours in the eve on the motorbike and end up averaging less than the speed limits. It’s not like I’m ragging around on every ride. Not sure where I’m going with this but I can’t see me selling it because of near misses. Probably because I tend to go out riding in the eve up here and there’s hardly any cars (last ride there was about 6 cars on my side over a 100 mile loop)

Having said all that, it seems that on each ride I start having thoughts of selling it because compared to the road bike,mtb or a bmx, it bores me $*&*less.

edit: Oh, and I hope your fear blows over and you are happy that you did nowt wrong/hope to do something differently next time to put your biking mind at ease.

Read this this thread this morning before going out on the bike and it made me think how I might feel after something scary. I’m still a newb after only being riding less than a month so everything’s a bit nervous at the mo and done nice and carefully.
I’d second (third) the exhaust suggestion. With no baffles in the twin Leo Vince exhausts on my monster they certainly know I’m there. When filtering I must have had about 30 cars pull into the kerb to give me more space. Not sure if it’s to let me past so they can see what the hell’s making all the racket or just to let me go so there ears stop ringing. Either way I hadn’t thought about it from a safety point of view. Now that I have baffles are staying out.
Cheers for helping the penny drop on that one folks!!