There is a lot you can (and should!) do. [to avoid being rear-ended] 1) Watch your mirrors as you decelerate and stop. 2) Stop in first gear, with the clutch hand lever held in. 3) Stop with about a car length behind the car in front of you so you have plenty of room to maneuver should you need to in order to evade a vehicle approaching from behind you. Remember, you are still watching your mirrors the whole time. 4) Pick at least one escape route past the car in front of you should you need to evacuate your position to evade a vehicle approaching from behind you. Stop with your front wheel and maybe your whole motorcycle oriented toward your primary escape route escape route. For example, if I stop in the left hand tire groove of the right hand lane with two lanes going my way, my primary escape route would be to pass the stopped car in front of me to its left. My secondary escape route would be to pass the car in front of me to its right. 5) When (not if) you observe a vehicle behind you approaching at too high a rate of speed or drawing too close, nail the throttle, release the clutch, and drive your motorcycle out of your stationary position in your lane into your predetermined escape route past the stopped vehicle(s) in front of you. The approaching vehicle will pass through the spot your motorcycle formerly occupied and will strike the vehicle that had been ahead of you before you moved. Both the MSF Beginner Course and the MSF Experienced Rider Course teach this evasion technique. When coming to a stop, one selects one's lane and position in the lane with regard to one's escape routes. My brother has on two occasions performed this evasive maneuver while stopped at an intersection on his motorcycle to escape a vehicle approaching him from his rear. On both occasions the approaching car passed cleanly through my brother's former position and impacted the stationary car in front of my brother's former position. My brother escaped completely unharmed. Personally, I know two former motorcyclists who were rear-ended while stopped at intersections. Both escaped with relatively minor injuries, though their motorcycles were totaled. Both gave up motorcycling forever after their frighteningly near-death experiences. Neither had ever attended an MSF course, though each had been riding motorcycles for decades. Neither had ever heard of stopping at in intersection in first gear, of watching one's mirrors for approaching vehicles, of picking one's escape routes, or of a motorcyclist's being actively responsible for detecting and evading a vehicle approaching from the motorcyclist's rear. Neither had ever imagined that a motorcyclist even *could* evade or escape a vehicle approaching from the rear. Down off my soapbox now... -- Marc Illsley Clarke, KLR650 A12, Loveland, Colorado, USA