First commute experience and "confidence to filter/split on the highway??"

[Stromble]

Hey all.. Thought Id share my first experience of a commute to work on my new bike..

This morning I left early, so had a pretty good run down SH1 into Auckland, was feeling quite confident and proud of myself, in addition to feeling quite buzzed as opposed to the usual blah car ride... quite an easy ride all in all, went at 5:45 so very little traffic..

Then came the time to go home.. left town at 4:30, nicely onto the motorway off fanshawe street, traffic free flowing over the bridge, a little windy but stayed well out in the center of the lane to allow for a little deviance etc.. Cars around me seemed to give plenty of room which was nice. Then things started to slooooooowwww down.. the natural response to this (being a cage driver and a nooby) was to stop in line with the traffic..

So there I was, stop start, stop start.... pulling over to the right of the center lane looking down the nice empty and what seemed like a reasonably wide channel of road to go down.. but hesitating to enter...

After 5 mins (yes impatient!) of this stop start business (emulating the car behaviour) and an aching clutch hand, sick of putting my feet down every 10 meters, I plucked up a little courage to enter the empty void...

So, in I went, not so confidently, but trying to remember that the bike is quite a narrow machine and would easily fit here.. a couple of mins of this and I was relatively comfortable, and the cages seemed to pull over to the right to allow a little more space (except for the odd cellphone user who just sat on the white line oblivous to the world around them).

Traffic started to speed upto 30kmhish and back in line with the traffic I went. Then all ground to a halt again.. "Right", I thought, "Time to go again"... pulled over to the right to take a look down what seemed to be a much narrower channel than before, cars scattered all over the place, on the line, over the line, I just couldnt be confident that I could safely negotiate this, so chickened and stayed in line with the traffic again.

Pulled off at Wairau road and figured Id cut across and go up Beach road upto Browns Bay. Again, more stationary traffic, but only till the next roundabout. Though there I am, sat in line with the cars on pretty much blind bends (if you know beach road), all cars sat close to the center double yellow lines so no real room to do any thing and I mustve counted 4 fellow bikers passing me and all the other cars on the wrong side of the yellow lines on bends where theres no way you can see whats coming.. scary...

I suppose theres "confidence" and then just outright risky...

[mdooher]

Sounds all fairly sensible to me. You know when you feel comfortable and there is no reason to go outside your comfort zone.

I remember reading this on a bike site somewhere " If you are in a hurry take your car" ...good words to live by.

[crashe]

Good on you for giving it a go.....

Maybe the next time you will feel a bit more confident in going longer in your lane splitting/filtering.


Another way is to get with another rider to ride just ahead of you to show you the way.
Just make sure that they go at a slow speed and keeping an eye out for you.
That way it will also help you with confidence.


I was lane-splitting from the southern motorway, and came across a dude on a GN250. Pulled up beside him as it looked like he was gonna be there forever.
I asked "Do you want to lane split?"
"yep and but never done it before" was his answer.
I said "Do you want to learn how to do it?"
He said "Hell yeah"
"Ok follow me" I said and off we went...... at a slow speed and when he felt he couldnt get past trucks or buses (they must have freaked him out) I pulled back in and waited until he caught back up.

We went all the way from way out south until I pulled off at Tat South as he was heading towards Henderson etc.

[babyblade250rr]

Yeah good on ya for giving a go!! i've attempted this with minimal distances still building confidence with this, Always worried that some idiots gona pull out right infront of me, But i guess as most KB'ers will say practice makes percfect

[fireliv]

I know how you feel. I'm still new to the riding up the middle thing, and will only do it on wide roads. Its people of scooters that always seam happy to pull out and go for it... I always sit there and think what a dick.
The other problem I have is when I get to the front of the line there is always some jumped up boy racer who believes that I wanna take them on...idiots

[Nasty]

Way to go ... ain't it fun to be able to ride to work and back and remain in one piece .... I split when I can and when it is too narrow or the cars and in and out like jackrabbits I don't ... safety first ... if you are uncomfortable it is safer not to split ... and you did just great. I only split in traffic going under 30 kms ... jsut cos i can .. .and rarely with faster ... though once or twice I felt confident at 40 .... its a time thing .. take time and learn

[carbacca]

good on ya dude.....i have had my hyobag for a while now but i still take the cage to work...i dont think i m ready to tackle the souther motorway at rush hour just yet. yeah lane splittings what scares me really or i can sit in traffic on a bike like a dork. but whats the fun in that.....

[discotex]

What everyone else said... Being aware of your comfort zone and not trying to prove anything is going to save your arse on Auckland's roads. Splitting is scary adrenaline laced shit to begin with so I'm impressed you kept your cool.

There's a whole thread on splitting but here's my tips from 6 months of splitting peak hour to and from work on the Northern and Norwestern.

- Split and stay split. Starting splitting is the nerveracking thing to begin with. If the traffic gets up to your comfort speed just stay in the splitting part of the lane and resume splitting when it slows down again. Obviously if the traffic gets fully up to speed and looks like it's staying that way go back to the right wheel track (or left if you're in the far right lane). If you see traffic slowing up ahead just drift to the splitting part of the lane as you slow down.

- Don't let the relative speed get too high. If the cars are going at 5km/h don't go at 50km/h just because that's your splitting speed. I aim for 10-20km/h difference in speed up to a max of 50km/h. I.e. if the cars are stopped I'll be doing 20km/h. If they're doing 30km/h I'll do 40ish. If they're doing 50 I'll do 50. If they're going faster I just cruise with the traffic.

- Check for other bikes before you start splitting. No need to take eachother out eh?

- Cover a brake - I prefer the front brake as unlike the rear it can stop the bike on a dime at ~40km/h.

- When there are 3 cage lanes I split in the right-most "bike lane" - less cages jump lanes between the outer lanes as they're not fighting to get on or off the motorway.

- Watch for gaps and the relative speed of each lane. If you're in a gap big enough for a car and/or the lane you're kinda in is going faster someone will jump lanes either infront or on-top of you. The old saying that people are actively trying to kill you really applies when splitting - especially the southern!

- If you can, acknowledge the drivers that make an overt effort to move over. Some of them even like bikers...

[Stromble]

Thanks guys, some great support and advice so far.. The biggest thing seems to be the confidence, once I'm in the "split zone" things seem to fall into place. Certainly like your idea of staying there, seems much more logical than falling back inline and out again.. thanks for the tip!

[ManDownUnder]

Thanks guys, some great support and advice so far.. The biggest thing seems to be the confidence, once I'm in the "split zone" things seem to fall into place. Certainly like your idea of staying there, seems much more logical than falling back inline and out again.. thanks for the tip!

Yeah a general rule of thumb I use is to stay in the split zone (as you call it - like it!) and when I merge back in... stay visible the side mirror of the car you're behind.

You're visible, in the lane, and can much more easily resume using the split zone.

[Kittyhawk]

Practise! Start slow.....rush hour traffic at snail pace.

Check ya mirrors often, and use prephial vision for indicators.

Relax, dont tense, if you ride over cats eyes dont fight the bike go with it.

Mentally prepare yourself, if a car pulls out what are your options where is your next escape route if it happens?

Avoid lane splitting where there are onramps, I usualy split between the first two lanes closest to the barriers, less traffic changes that way.

[BigRed2007]

very nice mate, easy does it!

[jrandom]

Keep your speed differential under 30kph. You'll avoid 'moments', and the cops won't worry about you when you go past.

Even within that tame boundary, an Auckland motorway commute that would take over an hour by cage can be an easy sub-20-minute ride.

Congratulations on taking the first step along the path to filtering enlightenment.

[aroberts]

Good on ya.

I'm back on the bike after a few years and was very nervous to start with but I can tell you it gets easier.

All the points mentioned above are good but I reckon the main one is to watch the gaps. I always assume someone is going to change lanes if there is a gap. I have been right a few times about that now. I just wish the horn on my bike didn't sound so pathetic.

[SlowHand]

And lookout for other murdersickles before commencing ghost riding procedure. Someone could be running late, armed with an uncaliberated ass-o-meter, with the amp and guitar both on 11, ready to run down a trainee badge wearing ghost rider.