I like to think of myself as the zen master of splitting. I worked as a bicycle and motorbike courier for two years. I've raced for a couple of years, and commuted 20k's each way on Auckland motorway network for years... at pace.
People when splitting are very often unaware of what's behind them because splitting requires nearly undivided attention, but still if you are splitting slowly you can afford a mirror check every 30 seconds. I always knew if there was a bike behind me even though it was rare for someone to split quicker than me, it did happen. Including Sudeep and Texmo. If you are a slow splitter check, you will often be holding someone up.
Muppets who hog ghost lanes and block you for more than a minute are lame, and force you to have to change through a car lane to the next ghost lane to get past them, cars hate splitters changing into their lanes so its sometimes trickier than it sounds.
If you split to the front of the queue always pick a side and make room for other bikes. And yes, blocking the cars means that you are not going to get sandwiched on takeoff, never leave any trust with anyone else that you don't have to. You aren't doing them any injustice, as even my 250 was quicker to 100 than 95% of cars, and they're only going to be tacking onto the back of the next lot of traffic whereas you get to flow through it.
To all the nancy's who get pissed off when a bike splits and pulls in front of you, get over yourself, cars are the problem. They create the long lines of traffic. Be thankful they aren't taking up a whole car space in the traffic as that just makes the whole situation worse. They are doing you a bloody favour. When people get annoyed and toot when I was bike couriering, I'd always wave or give them the thumbs up and yell "you're the winner". It's not a negative response so they can't fire up at you, but it's taking them piss out of them so it makes them more wild. Use that tactic, flipping the bird only lets them know that they've affected your mental state and made you annoyed, that's exactly what they want. Don't give them the pleasure, throw it back at them with a nice natured positive response, works a treat.
Here's the rules as I see it. Get from A to B as quick as possible without getting knocked off or ticketed. To do this you need several things. Know how fast your bike can brake. Always be aware of escape routes if someone tries to change lanes into you because sometimes braking won't save you, try to use evasion before or with braking, you need to be aware that any space without car in it is your space to take advantage of for saving your ass. On the bicycle I'd even use the wrong side of the road if it was clear or the traffic was going slow enough. If there is a gap big enough for a car to change lanes into, expect them to do so. Unfortunately most of these survival skills come from experience, and experience comes from experiencing what can go wrong, luckily for me on my learning adventure to becoming an experienced fast and safe splitter I was never knocked off, but I must have collected more than my fair share of wingmirrors both on the bicycle and motorbike. Only been sideswiped by a car once, but stayed on pretty easy. Really hurt my little finger on his wingmirror though.
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Originally Posted by vtec
I commute on my bike everyday here in Auckland city. I have never encountered arrogant bikers ..... alot of silly cagers though.
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