Hardcore Biker
Had this topic raised at work a while ago and my reply was " because we can"Originally Posted by KATWYN
Look at it this way... when it rains we get wet, when it's cold we freeze, when some idiot pulls out in front of us we hurt and when there is a queue we get to the front. Motorcycling. Don't ya love it!
News Hound
Couldn't have put it better myself. If (and you are here in the UK... and in San Francisco, as far as I know) you are allowed to filter/lane split, then why not? The major advantage of a bike is our relative size - we can squeeze into gaps that other vehicles cannot dream of doing. So why not use our advantage to move to the front?
We also accelerate way faster than pretty much anything else on the road.
So put these two factors together; we move to the front... then are heading off from the other road users before they can even begin to pull away. You could even say that by doing so, we are helping traffic flow!
http://www.motobke.co.uk
Hardcore Biker
....And be the first in line for the red light runner.....
Grumpy you have a good point- "because we can"- but that sorta thing winds psychos "that can't" up - so they take opportune moments like
tailgating,pulling into our lanes,opening doors,they pull out in front of us (something they wouldn't do if it was a truck coming- but its only a bike), they try & intimidate us with their big four wheel drive vehicles,yell out abuse from their windows and are just general nuisences to other motorcyclists "because they can"
Then if something does happen, they can just say they never saw us "because they can"
Going for a ride
I've had more people pull out in front of me when I've been driving my 22,000 kg concrete truck than when I've been on my little 200 kg bike. Go figure. I don't think some care what you are driving when they decide to risk life and pull out in front of someone. Idiots - seems to be more of the little bastards everyday.
It is what it is
Mobile Oil Stain
Funny I get the same thing,several of the buggers each day.I've had more people pull out in front of me when I've been driving my 22,000 kg concrete truck than when I've been on my little 200 kg bike. Go figure. I don't think some care what you are driving when they decide to risk life and pull out in front of someone. Idiots - seems to be more of the little bastards everyday.
I'm thinking they reckon their fast enough to get away with it.
I'm not looking foward to the day I'm not on the ball an run one of the clowns over.
They wouldn't be so keen if they knew it was me constantly looking out for them an just how crap my brakes really are.
Who would be a bloody train driver huh???
News Hound
End of the day, it is freedom of choice. If you want to sit 200 vehicles back in the queue, then do so. If you want to use your bike's natural advantage and slip between the lines of traffic to the front... and it is legal... then do so.
Personally, I don't do a lot of filtering/lane splitting. If traffic has stopped at the lights, then I'll often filter to the front. It allows me to pull away easily - and at one set of lights I have to use (where the road splits after and people are always in the wrong approach lane) it gives me the chance to get away before everyone else starts trying to barge into the lane they should have already been in... if they were paying attention. But I don't ride around squeezing past lines of traffic on the move. But if there is a traffic jam, then sure, I'll filter. Why sit in a line of traffic maybe 10 miles (15kms?) long if you can legally ride past it?
As I said before, over here in the UK people are much, much better about it than they used to be - a lot of people will actually move over to give you space to ride these days. Of course you still have to look out for people changing lanes, opening doors etc - but that is plain common sense. People don't look/think - fact of life. Part of your responsibility to yourself is to anticipate these actions.
"Because they can" was a reference to the legality of things, not taking the law into your own hands. BIG difference.
But if you think the 'psychos' (your word) on the road won't do things like "tailgating,pulling into our lanes,opening doors,they pull out in front of us (something they wouldn't do if it was a truck coming- but its only a bike), they try & intimidate us with their big four wheel drive vehicles,yell out abuse from their windows and are just general nuisences to other motorcyclists" just because you sat way back in a queue... you're sadly very much mistaken.
http://www.motobke.co.uk
Forum whore
I don't usually lane split in moving traffic for fear of being squished but do filter to the front of a queue at lights if it's easily achieved. HAve seen bikers lane splitting at speed and just think they must have a death wish or think they're too clever. I always keep an eye on the mirrors when in my truck and try to give bikers room to split when the traffic's bad, though. Too many drivers have no idea how close they come to being run over, pulling out in front of trucks! We're going just as fast as cars but cannot stop as quick, or swerve as well! Riding my bike, especially on the open road and motorways, I've been pleasantly surprised how courteous many drivers are, pulling to the left to let me past! I always ride with my headlight on so they notice me sooner, but I've never had anyone be aggro with me. Am I just lucky so far?
Hardcore Biker
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Ghost In The Machine
haha his apology was tail between the legs action!
News Hound
Katwyn,
I'll reiterate an earlier statement:
"Because they can" was a reference to the legality of things, not taking the law into your own hands. BIG difference.
The psycho (right word, reading what you said) ploughing into people "because he can" is not the same as me (or you, or anyone) filtering to the front of a queue...AS LONG AS THE LAW ALLOWS YOU.
In the UK, we are allowed LEGALLY to filter. Neither here (nor there I'm guessing!) is anyone allowed legally to plough into other vehicles to teach them some kind of lesson.
Massive difference.
I think we both agree that, even if it is legal/permitted/"look the other way when they're doing it", it is up to you whether you choose to filter or not. As I've said, I will do so (and I am allowed to in law over here), but only if I have to... or the traffic has pulled up at the lights. And not always then.
If that enrages someone, there is a good chance I'll enrage them simply by being on a bike I reckon.
http://www.motobke.co.uk
Hardcore Biker
Absolutely.
Like that guy that drove into our group - something sparked him to do what he did at this point for no known reason. When he started tailgating agressively, I think he was given the fingers by another motorcyclist or their pillion? -which no doubt enraged him more to drive right into the middle of us all! That was not a good move - to retaliate on a bike versus car. As a group we discussed the incident afterwards.
He may have had a previous encounter with another motorcyclist/s which enraged him to
take it out on a group of innocents but when a simple sign like the fingers was given ....that was it. It put a lot of lives in danger - and who knows because of that, that horrible man may still be tormenting motorcyclists
Hardcore Biker
A couple of years ago I was sitting in a queue at the lights in my car when some dick failed to see the rather large line of cars in front of him and used me as his brakes. Couldn't help but think what would of happened if I had been sitting there on my bike. That's one of the reasons why you'll find me at the front of the queue.
Hardcore Biker
Help me here - you are driving a train, weighing umpteen zillion tons, and you have right of way on the tracks (natch). Wally pulls out on you and you can't stop. What is the problem here? THey won't do it again, and the chances are their next of kin have learnt a lesson too. What is the downside I am missing, except a mountain of paperwork
Geoff
(\_/)
(O.o)
(> <) Peace through superior firepower...
Build your own dyno - PM me for the link of if you want to use it (bring beer)
Forum whore
Trouble is - they blame the train driver ???, theres another enquiry??? more restrictions are put on "dangerous" railways!!!!!! A cousin was a train driver - one day at a barrier crossing - a Valiant with the barrier sitting across the bonnet by the windscreen with the 2 occupants chatting merrily away........until he cut the nose off their car! They had the gall to blame him!!!!!
“- He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it.”
eschew obsification...
Downside is the resultant trauma to the poor emergency response peoples who have to extricate watever is left of the idiot from the wreckage, poor police who have to advise the idiot's family and poor railway mechanical fitters who have to hose gory remnants of idiot off the loco when it gets back to the depot ........ just too much angst all the way round.
thinks - isn't there SOME way we can identify these idiots at birth and mercifully smother them in their cradles?
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Grass wedges its way between the closest blocks of marble and it brings them down. This power of feeble life which can creep in anywhere is greater than that of the mighty behind their cannons....... - Honore de Balzac
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