Tail-gated by another motorcycle rider...

[BlackBeauty]

The other morning, on my way to work, I noticed a guy on a bike racing to catch me in relatively heavy traffic. He eventually caught up and rode so closely and erratically that my road positioning-freedom was compromised and I was paying more attention to his erratic movements than what was ahead. Thankfully, after a while, he sped past on his custom chopper ripoff with t-shirt a-flappin' in the wind, weaving in and out of traffic to gain an oh-so-important 100 yards in 5 miles. Apparently, because of our higher petrol prices here, many more people are buying bikes these days and the accident rates are increasing rapidly. Anyway - don't want to come across as a snob - we all have the right to ride blah blah blah - but it's work enough to keep an eye on car traffic as it is without accounting for other motorcyclist's actions.

On a good note, loving my new bike and take her in tomorrow for the 500 mile service.

Take care and have a good 4th July - BB

[NinjaRAT]

If it's any consolation, bikes have a natural ability for keeping the status quo, and weeding the gene pool.

In other words, he'll likely take himself out...but hopefully not anyone else.

[iceman]

I know what you mean.

I sometimes ride with a group of 15-25 bikes.Most riders are fairly good at keeping a staggered formation so you have room behind,in front,and to the sides.And it is a great way to travel.

Occaisionally we get some clown who insists on sitting right on your back wheel.It is dangerous and very distracting and spoils the whole thing.They can be as much of a danger as cars,etc.

The only thing to do is wave them through.Usually they know more about riding than anybody else - knobs

Grant

[BlackBeauty]

IceMan - "knobs". I love it!! Takes me right back to my formative years in Aberdeen, Scotland where a "knob" is a widely used term of general derision, not only in the playground. Others include, "tool", "tube" .eerrmm, I'd better stop there!!

Are you a native New Zealander or perhaps a UK import??

Take care - BB

[chisel]

Ya, same thing in LA. I get people asking me all the time about bikes and scooters. I'm sure there's a lot more motorcyclists now. There's a guy in my office who showed up on a bike out of the blue. Took the course and is now riding an old (early 80s) Kawasaki. At least he didn't get something ridiculous like the newbies trying to get on Rocket IIIs at the Triumph dealer last time i was there. When he tips it, it's not like he's out of bunch of money in repairs, either.

Anyways, about bad riding... what's up with other motorcyclists who try to ride staggered but they stay up close in your blind spot? I get this all time, and it's annoying. I'm always wondering where they went, but if i turn my head, there they are. I prefer riding in the left track, but when this ***** starts happening i have to switch to the middle of the lane where debris usually ends up.

The other thing is that when i've ridden with friends they insist on riding next to me. Like HELLO, we're not Paunch and John. Go get someone else killed, k thnx.

The worst offense i've ever seen was in heavy LA traffic. The car pool lane was down to a crawl along with the rest of the traffic so i was riding the double yellow in between. I'm coming up on this pickup truck with a wide flatbed on the back. There's a biker coming up behind me so i'm thinking i'll try to get by the truck before he gets to me and find a nice place to get out of the way.

Well, the guy was coming up faster than i thought. Right when i was going to make my move to squirt by the truck, he cuts over behind the truck and passes on the left. On the left between the truck and the concrete wall separating the lane from oncoming traffic. Ya, friggin' nutso, and he barely slowed down.

My reaction was to back off from passing the truck when i saw him go. When people aren't actively moving over to cut you off (why is always minivans or Mercedes?!?!) in LA, they've moving out of the way so you can scoot by without smacking their mirrors. This bloke was very, very lucky the guy in the truck didn't try to move to give me room to pass when i (and the other guy behind me) came up on him. He woulda squished the guy into the concrete wall.

The down side to all this is that i'm guilty by association to all the idiots out there like this. More accidents means a worse rep, and eventually higher insurance premiums. At least there will be a lot of parts available when all these new riders s***** their bikes.

Oh, for some reason i feel like i need to share this bit, too. I knew a guy who took his course and got a cheap used bike. He had problems with getting the bike in neutral at stoplights. I'd ridden the bike and neutral was just like every other bike. You know, a half click up from first. It wasn't particularly difficult.

Anyways, after he'd ridden the bike for a while he confided in me that he'd gotten frustrated with finding neutral. What he started doing at stoplights was grabbing a fistful of front brake and dropping the clutch to kill the bike. Then he'd fiddle with getting it in neutral, grab the clutch, and hit the starter. He said it was easier getting it in neutral with the engine off. I about flipped.

He ended up parking the bike on the freeway (the fast lane no less, long story...) where it got hit by a car (who'dathunkit?). That was the end of his motorcycling career. I think everyone's better off.

[iceman]

On 2006-06-30 13:53, BlackBeauty wrote:
IceMan - "knobs". I love it!! Takes me right back to my formative years in Aberdeen, Scotland where a "knob" is a widely used term of general derision, not only in the playground. Others include, "tool", "tube" .eerrmm, I'd better stop there!!

Are you a native New Zealander or perhaps a UK import??

Take care - BB

A native Kiwi BB.Some of these phrases tend to date us - 30 years since I left school.Also 'dick' 'prat' 'sack' come to mind.I was speaking to a pom recently and I used the term 'kaazee' (spelling?) - he did a double take - he hadnt heard a wc called that since he left England 20 years ago! :-D

I have a bit of Scottish heritage (Grant Bruce Robertson) so maybe thats where its from?

Grant

[ruscook]

chisel,
thanks for your story. Unfortunately, it is increasing. Even though bikes are a great darwinian tool, the increase in bikers in the western world is probably outstripping the culling....

It's the one downside of increased bike sales I can see :cry: Now everyone (well a lot more folk) think they can ride a bike or scooter there will be a lot more, shall we say, folk that are not suited to this mode of transport hopping on bikes. So a few of the inattentive, idiot cagers we hate are trying out 2-wheels, some are surviving (at least for a while) and giving us a bad name.

Keep the rubber side down and miles up

Russ

The worst one I have experienced yet was about two months ago. Going north on 101 on the coast I was being tail-gated by a guy on a Harley. (No offence to the responsible Harley riders out there -- this guy was just nuts!)
Anyway, going up hill on a couple charp curves he decides to pass me (with pleanty of cars ahead going no faster). As he goes by (like a bat out of hell weaving and all over the place). I see he's drinking a beer from a can in his left and steering only with his right. He gets in front of me and I give him pleanty of room (my thinking is if he wants to commit suicide he isn't taking me with him). He the tosses the beer into the bushes, takes out a cigar and lights it (while riding) and proceeds to pass the two cars in front of us. He barely made it around up hill on a blind curve before an oncomming moving van would have creamed him. Keep in mind all the cars in front were locking up their brakes to keep from hitting him.

Like a friend of mine once said. "There ain't no vaccine for stupid."

Ride safe, ride fun!

[DaveM]

Hey BB,
know exactly what you mean. There's a new drop kick born every minute.

One of my reassons for making my weekend rides at first light is I like to avoid the 10' tall and bullet proof brigade.

These tailgating types (knobs, dickheads etc), tend to come out of the wood work later in the day when they can sit with the 100 other bikers at the cafe and have their latte after being a danger to every one else on the road.

Stay upright.

Davem

[iceman]

On 2006-06-30 16:01, sprintski wrote:
He the tosses the beer into the bushes, takes out a cigar and lights it (while riding) and proceeds to pass the two cars in front of us.

Ride safe, ride fun!

what was next? - a cognac and the Financial Times? :-D