A 46-year-old man from Petaluma is dead after crashing his motorcycle on Highway 101 in Novato. The crash happened at about 6:30 yesterday morning. The California Highway Patrol says he hit a van, then the motorcycle spun and hit a truck in the next lane. The rider was thrown off the bike. Investigators believe traffic suddenly slowed down ahead of the man while he was riding in between lanes, and he wasn’t able to slow down in time.