Motorbike rant :(

[SilverSaloon]

Hi

i am sure anyone who has to queue from the Forth Rd Bridge into Edinburgh city centre every morning knows how badly ridden motorbikes are swooping in and out of the traffic.

This is fine IF THE TRAFFIC IS GOING BELOW THE SPEED LIMIT DUE TO A Q... the bike then rides up the middle of the 2 lanes.... ok i think.

it is NOT ok if u are doing 10mph OVER the speed limit and they still decide to ride inbetween the 2 lanes at 30mph OVER the speed limit....

this is not 1 bike, this is 80% of them that go by! Happens every day if the traffic is busy in both lanes.

i have even enountered 2 extreem cases where one bike decided to overtake me on the OUTSIDE when i am in the OUTSIDE lane overtaking inside-lane traffic (they basically ride on the gravel). another instance is where a bike overtook between the 2 lanes with my car doing 80mph in the outside lane, and he must have been travelling at atleast 100mph.

dangerous and stupid. should be banned for life.

sorry if i offend any riders on here, i know you are not all the same, but it seems that most riders going into edinburgh between 8am and 9am every weekday get so used to going down the middle in stop/start traffic, they decide to do the same when its flowing freely.

i am sure its the same all over the country too....

RANT OVER!

 

[Howard]

Adjust your screen washer jets so that as you see them coming you can give them a nice shower as they pass....

Works for me....

 

[guydewdney]

hmm - as a seasoned rider, i only filter on motorways when the traffic drops below 50mph. i will 'make progress' if the traffic is doing 69mph.. but not 'filter'.

Howard - that could be very dangerous - if (like me) you ride with visor up, (or have an open face helmet) and get a facefull /eyefull of washer fluid, then being blind in the middle of traffic isnt going to be so funny...

 

[Rumble]

Lol i have to laugh, you're breaking the speed limit and so are they, its funny. Wonder what the bloke at under the speed limit is saying about the both of you 'racing' in the outside lane! lol

 

[SilverSaloon]

Lol i have to laugh, you're breaking the speed limit and so are they, its funny. Wonder what the bloke at under the speed limit is saying about the both of you 'racing' in the outside lane! lol

if anyone says they havn't done 80mph on the motorway/NSL duel carraige way in a modern car then they are simply liars. sorry. besides i am occupying a lane to myself, not overtaking in a lane someone else is already in.

i wasnt racing along either.... was keeping up with the car infront of me (also doing 80). i suppose the bike rider didnt want to sit at 80...

 

[SilverSaloon]

hmm - as a seasoned rider, i only filter on motorways when the traffic drops below 50mph. i will 'make progress' if the traffic is doing 69mph.. but not 'filter'.

dont you think 50mph is too fast to go between traffic lanes? many folks just indicate when they see a gap and move lanes, and could run into you. at that speed (and busy traffic) it would be fatal....

how fast do you go thru if the traffic is at 50mph. if its 52 or so then i suppose its not so bad, but some poeple just speed thru at twice your speed... surly they wont be able to react in time if someone was to change lanes / pull over / gap closes.

BTW, i have nothing against bikes or anything, some just give them a bad name i suppose.

just had to have a rant as one pi$$sed me off on the way to work thismorning.

 

[Sp!ke]

To be honest, this is all relative.


To you this manoevre looked dangerous. To the seasoned rider it may not have been. I would go as far to say that its probably safer taking 0.5 of a second to overtake you at 60mph and get back into lane than taking 3 seconds at 40mph.

As to your motorway comment, it sounds like you are suggesting you are an 80mph fast lane hog - which I am sure you're not.

 

[SilverSaloon]

To be honest, this is all relative.


To you this manoevre looked dangerous. To the seasoned rider it may not have been. I would go as far to say that its probably safer taking 0.5 of a second to overtake you at 60mph and get back into lane than taking 3 seconds at 40mph.

As to your motorway comment, it sounds like you are suggesting you are an 80mph fast lane hog - which I am sure you're not.

i understand that a quick overtake at 60mph isnt that dangerous.... the dangerous thing is that he then continues to do this for every other car in front of me..... laws of probability say one day it will be dangerious

BTW i am not a 80mph fast lane hog, i was jst keeping up with the car in front... cars in left lane doing 60/70mph, cars in right lane doing 70/80mph (typical motorway scenario)

 

[Sp!ke]

Again, it depends on the conditions... and the riders experience. I think you'll find that most biggish bikes ridden at this time of year (doesnt apply in summer) are piloted by riders that know what they are doing.

For instance if there were no side turnings in either direction like say when crossing a bridge then why would there be a problem... There's very few scenario's if at all where one will be crossing the path of the motorcycle.

It also depends on whether the roads are dry or wet. On a dry road, motorcycles are extremely manoverable and narrow. Instead of braking, can swerve round an obsticle in its path.

Dont forget that you will see Police motorcyclists performing the exact same tricks and they are trained to only make progress if it is safe to do so.

Its a difficult call without actually seeing it happen. Yes I often see kids on mopeds doing stupid stuff but what I do know is that under the right conditions I am one of those people that split lanes at speed and I have been doing so for over half a million miles on two wheels around London and never made a claim in 20 years.

 

[SilverSaloon]

For instance if there were no side turnings in either direction like say when crossing a bridge then why would there be a problem... There's very few scenario's if at all where one will be crossing the path of the motorcycle.

guy may decide to move over to the left hand lane, quick look in mirror shows there is a car-sized gap in the left hand lane, so they pull in quick before the gap closes.

i understand that many riders are experienced but its the other road users you need to worry about. i (as stated in my original post) that i see nothing wrong at slow speeds etc.

 

[996jimbo]

As a less-frequent-than-I-used-to-be motorcyclist I am inclined to agree that weaving through traffic is dodgy and can be intimidating especially up around 80mph. Up to the 40-50 mark I'd say (all things being equal) everyone has enough time to react to one another and it's OK.

In my youf I aquired myself a nice big pile of points for weaving through traffic at rather high speed and would regularly cane it up the M40 with little regard for everyone else's speed. Nowadays and with a couple of children I reserve the red mist for track days and take it much easier in traffic.

Nevertheless it annoys me when car drivers try and block motorcylists from progressing through heavy traffic - progress of motorbikes has little effect on progress of cars and if the guy on a bike were in a car then the queue of cars would be even bigger.

I think generally motorcylists are more considerate than car drivers but can overstep the mark in fast moving heavy traffic. And I think car drivers should stop trying to compete with bikes.

Thats what I think, I do.

 

[scotth_uk]

/BIG RANT: ON

I have had just about enough of the crap bike riders in this country. Every day, at every intersection - all I see is bikers breaking the law. Up the middle, around the side, up the inside, through the red light, along the footpath, up the wrong side of a two way street..... It never ends.

My pet hate is when bikers ride in the wrong lane into incoming traffic towards an intersection when there is a red light for their own direction. They actually expect the motorists to move over! WHAT FOR!?^*&^*&^*&!!!

Rather than educating the moronic, suicidal, idiotic bikers - the Government has to educate the motorists on how to look out for them.

I feel for bikers who've suffered at the hands of moron motorists, don't get me wrong, but I don't see bikers in general helping themselves in any way whatsoever.

/BIG RANT: OFF

 

[Howard]

I agree Scott....

A biker coming past a queue of traffic on the wrong side of the road while i'm coming the other way on a clear road ?

He better find a spot to pull in because theres no way i'm pulling over and risking kerbing my wheels or damaging my wing mirror just so he can continue down the wrong side of the road....

 

[scotth_uk]

A biker coming past a queue of traffic on the wrong side of the road while i'm coming the other way on a clear road ?

Got it in one....

There was a T junction in Brisbane that I used to go through on the way to work each day. Coming up the T to take a left at the top, if you like. You couldn't turn right - it was one way.

The cars would bank up to about 50-60 deep in the left lane progressing to the T. Each day, more and more people would start driving down the right hand lane into occasional oncoming traffic, although mostly clear, to get to the head of the queue and merge.

The local residents were so outraged by this, that they set up cameras to take photos of all the bikes and cars driving on the wrong side of the road. All of the pics were given to the police. Every one of them started receiving penalty tickets in the mail. After that the cops came and sat there every morning and ticketed them all individually.

Some were specifically annoyed about some near misses they had when reversing out of their driveways. Essentially they didn't expect people coming the wrong way down that side of the road.

The basic rule was - don't drive down the wrong side of a road. It's illegal and certainly not helpful. Those t055sers deserved everyone of the tickets they ever got as do most of the motorbike riders I see here.

 

[Lazarus]

Tell me about it!

I've suffered the joys of the A40 nearly every day for a year, I shudder to think of the number of near misses that I've experienced where *I've* taken avoiding action or else would've been in a serious coming together with a biker.

 

[Shude]

Some were specifically annoyed about some near misses they had when reversing out of their driveways. Essentially they didn't expect people coming the wrong way down that side of the road.

It is illegal to reverse off your driveway on to a road, but that's kinda beside the point

If a biker is "filtering" at high speed and is clipped by a car doing 20-30 mph slower than the bike, the car will probably sustain some damage and the biker will almost definitely be killed, if not by the car then by the 10-20 cars that are immediately behind the car. So what if the biker was technically "in the right", he is also dead which is little comfort to anyone involved.

Drive safely folks!

 

[Sp!ke]

What worries me here is the number of people saying that they wouldnt move out of the way for an oncomming bike filtering past traffic.

By doing this, who is being the moron? The bike rider (who is within his rights to filter) or the idiot putting people's lives at risk because he has a chip on his shoulder and wont use the available space in the road?

> Howard - Would you really rather kill some biker in preference to scuffing a wheel? Think about it mate because one day the biker may not find a gap and your decision to maintain your course could in fact be treated very unfavourably.

Sorry but this is an emotive subject for me as I have had car drivers deliberately aim at me (actually deliberately move over towards me) whilst shouting at me and waving their fists in anger. Had the driver maintained course nothing would be an issue and I wouldnt have had a near death experience.

Trust me when I say that the two people that did this to me won't be doing it again in a hurry - They are ever so tough when protected behind glass - less so when there aint no glass left

 

[jeremytaylor]

/BIG RANT: ON

My pet hate is when bikers ride in the wrong lane into incoming traffic towards an intersection when there is a red light for their own direction. They actually expect the motorists to move over! WHAT FOR!?^*&^*&^*&!!!
/BIG RANT: OFF

This really pi**es me off too. Why should I drive up the kerb to avoid the biker moron who is on the wrong side of the road, and scrape my nice shiny alloys?

 

[Howard]

What worries me here is the number of people saying that they wouldnt move out of the way for an oncomming bike filtering past traffic.

By doing this, who is being the moron? The bike rider (who is within his rights to filter) or the idiot putting people's lives at risk because he has a chip on his shoulder and wont use the available space in the road?

> Howard - Would you really rather kill some biker in preference to scuffing a wheel? Think about it mate because one day the biker may not find a gap and your decision to maintain your course could in fact be treated very unfavourably.

Sorry but this is an emotive subject for me as I have had car drivers deliberately aim at me (actually deliberately move over towards me) whilst shouting at me and waving their fists in anger. Had the driver maintained course nothing would be an issue and I wouldnt have had a near death experience.

Trust me when I say that the two people that did this to me won't be doing it again in a hurry - They are ever so tough when protected behind glass - less so when there aint no glass left

Sp!ke , i have a lot of respect for you and i like you ... but ...

Bike riders have no right to ride the wrong way down the other side of the road, i don't aim for them, but i'm damned if i am going to damage my car because of their ignorance and attitude 'i'll do what i want and sod everyone else'

I doubt whether it would be seen in a bad light, ' yes m'lud, i was driving within the speed limit on the correct side of the road when a chap on a bike flew down the wrong side of the road and hit the front of my car ..... who's in the wrong ??? Filtering i have no problem with, pop out , advance a bit, pop back in, its the bikers that ride so far over that you have no choice but to mount the kerb or pull in yourself ..... You are doing nothing wrong for gods sake !!!!

I'll use the available space as neccesary, I'm sure you know the Hampton Hill high street Sp!ke, this is where this occurs mainly, its a narrow road, cars parked both sides, invariably traffic is backed up one way or the other (rarely both ways) there are buses, delivery trucks etc.... and i am not going to risk my car so that mr biker can fly down the wrong side of the road .....

If there is space to avoid easily (drift over towards the kerb slightly) then i have no problems as i stated before, but, the majority of the bikers i see don't even slow down before flying past the stationary traffic leaving a good 3 feet between them and the queue of traffic...

As for the last statement, that might be easy to do to mr timid, but sooner or later as with everything in life, there will be someone bigger , meaner and nastier than you come along...

I for one wouldn't just sit there while you or A.N. Other biker broke my window, they'd be flat on their ass or at the very least involved in a serious fight and i swear to god i would drive over their bike, the cars damaged anyway so f*** it lets do some more...

I have no problem with considerate bikers, its the a$$holes who ride like idiots that annoy me....

Sorry for the rant..

 

[Thmsshaun]

What worries me here is the number of people saying that they wouldnt move out of the way for an oncomming bike filtering past traffic.

By doing this, who is being the moron? The bike rider (who is within his rights to filter) or the idiot putting people's lives at risk because he has a chip on his shoulder and wont use the available space in the road?

I think this is about driving in the lane of the oncoming traffic and not simply filtering past cars. I think what infuriates car drivers is the perception and image some riders generate. The relative lack or regard for the law they seem to have and carrying out acts which whilst they may be safe to the rider would be dangerous to the car driver.

Many car drivers would not know or understand what its like for the rider (Me included)

If a bike is riding towards me on my side of the road then I will not move why should I or any other rider driver. If they are passing a stationary vehicle thats a different of course and I would give way.