neversaydie Posted September 4, 2012 Posted September 4, 2012 Lovely afternoon, bright clear blue sky, very light traffic, riding a bright red cruiser with highly polished and gleaming chrome glinting in the sunlight. 25 to 30 mph, no traffic in front or behind me. Woman driver, single occupant, coming in the opposite direction. Takes up the road position to turn right across me, indicates, looks up the side road she wishes to turn into, and then does so straight in front of me. Volley of verbal abuse and horn as she belateadtly sees me and stops half way through the manouvre, which is worse than not completing it. I don't think high viz/flourescent/flashing light on my head would have made the blindest difference. I clocked the blind twat looking for the turn yards back and anticipated that she would just turn across me, cos she never made any eye contact. Thats the second one this week Earlier, a merc pulled out on me. The male driver looked but didnt see me, his (not unattactive) blonde female companion did and mouthed the words "watch the motorbike" and tried to grab the steering wheel. The driver still never looked Again, I never saw him make eye contact, so was a little bit prepared. But I'm getting pissed off :madflame: :madflame:
Moderator Airhead Posted September 4, 2012 Moderator Posted September 4, 2012 yep it's happened to me too this year several times
Ttaskmaster Posted September 4, 2012 Posted September 4, 2012 Happens all the time. Never anticipate anything. Always wait to see what they're actually doing, whenever possible. Had one altercation with someone who clipped me once, as he moved over into my lane. Pulled alongside at the lights and, as you do, unloaded a "WHAT THE MOTHER-*FUCK* D'YA THINK YER DOING??!!" at him. Says he *had* seen me, but expected me to move out his way because I'm only a bike... Decided if he was gonna drive like that, he wouldn't need his wing mirror...
Moderator drewpy Posted September 4, 2012 Moderator Posted September 4, 2012 things like that make my blood boil. No respect anymore 1
Mallory1 Posted September 4, 2012 Posted September 4, 2012 Anyone clock the biker vid on the aol site this week? Perfect example of the obvious power bikes have to convince other drivers they are Stevie wonder ...... Minus the singing ability.
Grouch Posted September 5, 2012 Posted September 5, 2012 I have to deal with idiot drivers on a daily basis. Car drivers seem to think that they have priority over bikes. Every time an idiot pulls out in front of me or drives like a complete idiot they never look at me because they know they are in the wrong.
Noise Posted September 5, 2012 Posted September 5, 2012 I have only had one this week, pulled out in front of me but they did make eye contact with me, so i followed them a good 4 miles till they pulled over. I stepped off the bike and didn't say a word to this person (thought id see what they had to say) So out of his wind hole came this. "can you please not drive that close to my car your intimidating me and i don't like it!" I then just pointed out that i don't like it when half whits such as his self make stupid driving errors and find it difficult to see out of a thin sheet of glass and are trying to stop me from going home to see my family. He then said sorry and he will keep and eye out for bikes a lot more harder, but then told me not to ride so close to cars as that is dangerous too, i said that his comment is noted. Two lessons learned
Campaman Posted September 5, 2012 Posted September 5, 2012 OK I will admit it, I am 50 this year, have been riding since I was 16, and nothing has really changed, drivers not looking or paying attention to other road users, arrogant idiots who think they have the right to do what that like, and since the introduction of mobile phones you have gained another type of idiot driver. My ride into work in the morning is usually pretty quiet as its reasonably early in the morning, but the ride home at 4pm can be a bit busy and I regularly come up on a queue of 5-6 vehicles behind something slower moving, what I find more and more is that there is a certain minority of nobs that seems to be actively blocking me from filtering past. I have learned over the years to use the bikes acceleration to my advantage, I do not need to sit close to the vehicle in front to be able to get by it quickly and safely, as I can close the gap and get by very quickly if unhindered, and by using all of my side of the road I can get a better view round the next bend than the tin box. I admit that I have lost my rag over the years and taken a few wing mirror trophies but these days I tend to chill and go with the flow as its much better for your blood pressure and riding angry is not good, and even with the nobs I can still make better progress than them. When I first took my car test the smaller engined cars that you had such as Mini's topped out at 80mph if you were going down hill with a wind behind you, now you can get the likes of a Nova, Saxo, 106, Fiesta etc. that get to 100mph or more, maybe what's really needed is a change to the standard car licensing along the lines of motorcycle licensing. How you change things to stop the idiots on mobile phones, young females doing their make up (I have seen this twice this week), mothers being distracted by the kids in the back (It seems like no body walks to school any more), idiots rolling fags on their steering wheels (This morning) I have no idea, but something needs to change, I think part of the problem is that drivers are now too isolated from the outside in these fancy modern vehicles. Rant over......
dt502001 Posted September 5, 2012 Posted September 5, 2012 I agree Campaman 16 yr olds driving 300+hp cars is just plane scary not that you guys over there have as many,but here its kinda the norm. Kid gets licence buys v8 or turbo v6 it's not hard to find a mustang for $3000.00 that has well over 350hp and will do 140 mph And they have a sterio that you can hear them long befor you see them ....in dash dvd player nav system psp player so much stuff to do BUT PAY ATTENTION TO THE ROAD. Cage drivers are so careless because they are surounded in saftey featuers 10 air bags seatbelts crumpel zones anti lock brakes,lane change warining, you don't have to parrell park just press a button, check your tire pressuer Nope the puter tells you. Most have gotten so lazy/careless about actualy driveing the car, that different brands now offer driver assist so if they get to close to another car the car actualy puts the brakes on for them. and working on cars that drive themselfs. Which might just be safer. But it's gotten to the point that people relie on all the saftey featuers and not good driving skills. I cant tell you how many young drivers who have asked to have the brakes inspected after the abs has gone off because they were going to fast in poor weather. They learn how to drive on simulators ( play station ,x box) and just hit reset when they crash,they just don't understand the responsibilty of driving safely. In my 29 years of driving I have seen it all from people reading the paper to a guy getting a BJ,collected many mirrors, been forced off the road even after kicking the car to try and get the dolts attention. And it's getting worse every year. I have lived in the country for 8yrs and when ever I have to go into the city I put my spidy sences on full allert and assume every idiot is going to cut me off. I was taught that if you can't see the tires on the road of the car infront of you your to close,now if you leave that space some idot will cut in. But I still do it anyway because at the end of the day the only one watching out for me is me and I just want to get home alive and enjoy a cold beer.
Ttaskmaster Posted September 5, 2012 Posted September 5, 2012 Getting easier to justify driving my tank :-)
tobi evans Posted September 5, 2012 Posted September 5, 2012 Had a driving instructor go nuts at me for driving behind a learner and being patient, must be because all motorbikes are evil, its the only explanation!
Ttaskmaster Posted September 5, 2012 Posted September 5, 2012 I'd have parked the vehicle right there and then, before walking off and letting the fucking instructor do what he liked, in that case!
neversaydie Posted September 5, 2012 Author Posted September 5, 2012 In reality, these incidents are probably repeated daily the length and breadth of the land. What pisses me off most is that I can see they've made no attempt to look, and then they just drive off, without even hands up sorry mate gesture.
sniff6 Posted September 6, 2012 Posted September 6, 2012 Perils of being a biker im afraid,Ever since cars and bikes shared the road,,,
steve 1052cc Posted September 19, 2012 Posted September 19, 2012 Coming home from work on a drizzly dark November evening a car pulled out a side street straight in front of me, the next thing i'm aware of is lying under my my bike on the pavement against the bottom of a wall battered and bruised but not seriously hurt. The driver came over and uttered those immortal words but with a twist SORRY MATE DIDN'T SEE YOU YOUR HEAD LIGHT WAS DAZZLING ME i was a little miffed but not as miffed as the police officer that saw the whole accident, i didn't need to say anything the officer put it so much better than i could. When drivers make that statement after an accident that what hope have we got.
bippo Posted September 19, 2012 Posted September 19, 2012 I've sadly fallen victim to this before... 7 odd years ago I was a pillion on a bright orange bike, clear daylight, headlight on, two riders both with fluorescent helmets, riding down a single carriageway 40mph road in flowing traffic. So there was a car in front, us, and a car behind. All of us were holding sensible breaking distances. Enter the Merc driver... He appears at a side road on our left hand side, wanting to turn right out onto our road, so across our lane. He looks left and right. Then he decides to pull out in between the two cars I mentioned. Unfortunately we weren't lucky enough to avoid them. He pulled out as the bike was going by, so although we swerved, they couldn't avoid hitting my left knee. Kneedless (geddit?!) to say, he stopped in comfort while we got shunted into oncoming traffic. Thankfully the oncoming car stopped and helped us get the bike up. What gets me is that he said, and I quote, "oh it was merely a dent" as he inspects the knee-shaped dent in his -metal!- bonnet. So, after numerous hospital visits, physio and a knee I can't straighten which aches in the cold weather, I often think of that posh bastard and his casual reaction to the accident.
sniff6 Posted September 21, 2012 Posted September 21, 2012 What gets me is that he said, and I quote, "oh it was merely a dent" as he inspects the knee-shaped dent in his -metal!- bonnet. I'm surprised he did not try to blame you for causing it and pay for the damage!!!
Sir Puma Posted September 23, 2012 Posted September 23, 2012 I've only just started riding but I've watched idiots for a very long time. When I was in high school I was able to take a very good driver's education class and had my driver's license when I was 16. I've driven all over the US and in mainland Europe when I was stationed in Germany. I can't believe the idiots who are given licenses. The absolute worst I ever saw was a woman who was texting on her Blackberry whilst putting on makeup and driving a large SUV down the freeway at 70mph. The other day I was behind an old codger who was driving 5-10 under the speed limit through our down town area (which is a limit of only 25) when some jackwipe goes to pull out of a parking lot and dang near hits the old coot in front of me. When I look at the idiot in the driveway and shake my head he holds up his hands like "WTF, it's not my fault".
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