Lane splitting - following distance

[MaxCannon]

My .2c

Don't let anyone coming up behind you dictate your speed.
If you are so focussed on your mirrors that you run into a car you'll look like a twat.

Basic rules

- Keep you closure speed sensible, I find about a 30kph or less differential works for me.
- Check your mirrors every 7- 10 seconds
- If someone is tailigating you signal with your left hand that you've seen them (keep watching the road ahead of you !)
- When you feel it's safe to do so indicate your move - either left or right and wait for them to pass.

[CookMySock]

Basic rules

- Keep you closure speed sensible, I find about a 30kph or less differential works for me.
- Check your mirrors every 7- 10 seconds
- If someone is tailigating you signal with your left hand that you've seen them (keep watching the road ahead of you !)
- When you feel it's safe to do so indicate your move - either left or right and wait for them to pass.

Worth more than 2c.

@p.dath, It's just inexperience mate. A year later you will read all this and think what a frightened little boy you were in those days. Spend more time relaxing and riding, and less time calculating the problem.

Steve

[Spearfish]

My .2c

Don't let anyone coming up behind you dictate your speed.
If you are so focussed on your mirrors that you run into a car you'll look like a twat.

Basic rules

- Keep you closure speed sensible, I find about a 30kph or less differential works for me.
- Check your mirrors every 7- 10 seconds
- If someone is tailigating you signal with your left hand that you've seen them (keep watching the road ahead of you !)
- When you feel it's safe to do so indicate your move - either left or right and wait for them to pass.

10 c worth! simple aye

[p.dath]

What about cars changing beside you? 40km is very slow and if I went 40km max I'd get overtaken by cars half the time. At that speed you're waiting for stuff to happen while at slightly faster I find I get past stuff before it happens. I split quite quickly (being on a bike pretty much made for splitting) and while I get people pulling out in front of me, I've never been so close that I couldn't slow down in time with a good 15m spare and also I find you can go into their lane anyway (ie they move to their right you go around the left).

You lane split next to cars already travelling at 40km/h? Wow. I don't do that, so I guess I don't have that problem (with cars over taking me while splitting).

[p.dath]

I'd like to see the trail of wreckage that would ensue after you collided with another solid object whilst travelling at 50 kilometres per second. Damn, that's escape velocity if you construct a long enough ramp!

Haha. Well spotted. Yes, that should have been 50km/h, not 50km/s.

[madbikeboy]

If I increase my speed to 50km/s, and I have a two second reaction time, I need 27m for my reflexes to do something. When lane splitting I have two vehicles within 2m of myself, and probably 10 vehicles within 20m of me. And of these vehicles could attempt to change lane in front of me, and place me in significant danger. The slower I am travelling the less distance I will travel before I can respond to the danger.

My impression is I have more dangers in front of me than behind me when lane splitting.

I think the risk starts increasing rapidly going faster. There just isn't a lot of room to manoeuvre. But that's my point of view.

Okay, this is the dilemma - attention focused on the car directly ahead of you. You need to look further ahead and place your attention across all the cars that are there. Look for telltales - cars alongside each other provide almost perfect safety - think about it, if a car changes lane, it's into a gap and less likely into a car alongside. Cars with cars in their blindspot are a hazard. A car alongside a gap should be a 10 foot tall warning sign to you, especially if traffic is slowing ahead.

If traffic is slowing ahead, then look for cars doing a duck and dive.

If traffic is speeding up ahead, look for a duck and dive.

Look for taxis, and any obvious wiggles in the path of the car.

Look for people looking across, they tend to veer slightly towards where they're looking.

Look for tapping of brakes, a sure sign.

It is my view, that filtering slowly is massively dangerous. You sit alongside the car for too long. If you're doing faster you're safer, but you need to lift your attention forward.

Plan ahead, and there is no issue. I spend the entire time planning my escape routes - if that car moves right, I'm going to do this etc. If you're looking at a car at a time and not planning where next, you need to improve your intellectual capacity or buy a nice 4 wheeled motorcycle that fits your diminished mental capacity.

[kiwifruit]

Sounds to me like you have your panties in a knot because someone dared ride faster than your comfort zone.

Heres a little tip: Let other people worry about their own shit, you can't control them so just get out of their way and then continue to tootle along at your own nana speed

+ 1

[CookMySock]

Look for telltales - cars alongside each other provide almost perfect safety - think about it, if a car changes lane, it's into a gap and less likely into a car alongside. Cars with cars in their blindspot are a hazard. A car alongside a gap should be a 10 foot tall warning sign to you, especially if traffic is slowing ahead. If traffic is slowing ahead, then look for cars doing a duck and dive. If traffic is speeding up ahead, look for a duck and dive.
Look for taxis, and any obvious wiggles in the path of the car... people looking across, they tend to veer slightly towards where they're looking.

Enormous experience showing here.

It is my view, that filtering slowly is massively dangerous. You sit alongside the car for too long. If you're doing faster you're safer, but you need to lift your attention forward. Plan ahead, and there is no issue. I spend the entire time planning my escape routes - if that car moves right, I'm going to do this etc. If you're looking at a car at a time and not planning where next, you need to improve your intellectual capacity or buy a nice 4 wheeled motorcycle that fits your diminished mental capacity.

Or spend more time doing it. Again, massive experience on display, and well outside the ability of the OP, and many others. Most people are better to make sure they can stop in a car length, rather than take your approach, but I agree lingering in vulnerable spots is a no-no.


Steve

[jeffs]

In reality cars weaving all around you in rush hour is not the norm. The real thing to look at is gap closing ( the big squeeze ).

There is a plus side to bad NZ driving habits. No one f****g ever pulls over to let anyone pass. This means while commuting, once you are passed
the junction feed-in lanes, what you get is what you often see. ( very big generalization but I'm sure you get my point ). This only changes when cars come to a stop and every one is looking to move that one car further ahead.

For motorway Commuting bikers this is a big win, and makes it one good reason to own a bike.

What you really need to do is watch for squeezing, often caused by driver in attention. You know, tuning the radio, reading a good book ( yes it does happen ), txting, sleeping.....

This means you should be constantly scanning many cars ahead. Look at the gaps see if they are opening and closing, and judge which car, inside or out is the squeezer.
Then its down to timing your maneuver.

If you are unsure, back off and re-calculate...

If you have a bike behind you get out the way and let them go first, it will help wake the driver up and your gap may become more predictable.

This is one good reason to let other more experienced or foolish riders pass. Which is why I say look in your mirrors and get out of the way as soon and safely as you can.

Don't become like a car and never let people pass.

[skinman]

I have noticed if splitting to slowly that any twats who want to close you off have time to react whereas if you travel a bit faster they have no time to do anything about you coming through. very occasionaly someone might actualy see you coming and give you more space but it is rare and not to be relyed on

[madbikeboy]

DB, you said something nice to me. I'm sending you a virtual hug right here on KB.

[CookMySock]

DB, you said something nice to me. I'm sending you a virtual hug right here on KB.

Just don't touch my bum. I hate that.

Steve

[jeffs]

You lane split next to cars already travelling at 40km/h? Wow. I don't do that, so I guess I don't have that problem (with cars over taking me while splitting).

I had an interesting one today ( Sunday ), I was on the Northern heading South, I had just passed the Silverdale on ramp traveling at 112kph.
I noted a bike catching me real quick, so slowed down to 108k ( below 10% over 100k in case my speedo is out ). The bike stopped catching and hung back a long way off.
I suspecting it was a police bike as it was white, but hard to be sure since it was hanging well back. I stayed at 108k . It followed me for several k's then started to close up. I watching in my rear view cam ( yes I use one instead of mirrors ). It was police, so I stayed true and held my speed. As he passed me at, say 5k more than me, he waved a hand to signal that even that speed was too quick and I should back off some more ( just a friendly police wave, not a ticket ).
I did because, there is no arguing with police no matter how you feel. He moved ahead of me staying at 105k, I let him open up a gap but matched into his speed at 105.

I followed him all the way back like this as far as the Tristram Off ramp. There traffic was starting to sit in both lanes and hence slow down. Then he did something that just had me smiling all the way home, He started Lane splitting. Yes 105kph lane splitting, just like the rest of us. None of the keeping to the left lane, so not crossing the white line, that P-dath talks about.

Good old commuter lane splitting. Straight between the cars, I continued to follow him as far as the Bridge were he pealed of to the left 2 lanes and I to the middle ones. But I would say between Tristram and the Bridge he Lane Split at least 20 times.

It made my day....

[PrincessBandit]

I'm having to lane split every day on the motorway (both southern and Mangere bridge, depending on which way I go) to Epsom. While I'm very aware of what's behind me, especially before starting the split, my main focus is to the front and sides. I check my mirrors every few seconds to look behind for faster bikes coming up on me, but quite frankly my opinion is I ain't gonna up my filtering speed to satisfy someone behind me who wants to go faster. If I can pull back into a lane safely and let them past I will, but if their skills are so superior to mine and they're pissed that I'm daring to hold them up then they can jolly well find another way around me!
Ride your own ride and don't let impatient assholes push you into riding outside your ability. They won't care in the slightest if they cause you to have an accident due to their intimidation. Anyone with an ounce of respect for others on the road will realise that someone splitting slowly and carefully is probably either not terribly confident and just learning to do it; or someone who has road skills aimed at maximising the potential of their bike in thick traffic whilst simultaneously aiming to stay alive and avoid damage to other vehicles.

[CookMySock]

He started Lane splitting. Yes 105kph lane splitting, just like the rest of us. [....] Good old commuter lane splitting. Straight between the cars [....]

It made my day....

That's what I would call "approval" - confirmation by some authority that what you were already doing was in fact acceptable, even though it worried you - an important sign to bikers that the same is acceptable in most circumstances, provided we do it safely.

Good stuff!

Steve