P.B. Close-shave record...

[BarBender]

Don't know what it was about last night, but in the time it took me to get home from work (which is rougly 30 minutes) I had four close shaves on the bike.

1. Cage changes lanes and moves in from the left into my lane. Location Gt South Rd heading up to Gillies Ave

2. Cage in the opposite direction fails to give way turning left as I'm turing right (had one of these last Saturday night as well) Location Mt Albert Road onto Owairaka

3. Van-Cage backs out onto the road as I'm travelling towards him...Location Richardson Rd heading towards White Swan

4. MVP-Cage pulls out from a driveway on the right side of the road and attempts to turn right as I and cars on his right close in on him...Location White Swan Rd.

It was raining (which probably didnt help) and between 6:15pm - 6:45pm...
Thank God the radar was locked in because if id been day dreaming there'd be no way I would have seen any of it coming...

Thought about the way I was riding and even stopped to check my lights after Close Shave 2... All good. I suppose when it rains it pours eh?

Was glad to get home and thankful someone up there was watching...BUT that was not an enjoyable ride home and I'll be farked if I want any more repeats.

Careful out there people.

I hate to say it...but its getting crazier...



Theres a killer on the road
His brain is squirmin like a toad
Take a long holiday
Let your children play
If ya give this man a ride
Sweet memory will die
Killer on the road,...yeah

Riders on the Storm...

[Rhino]

I know exactly how you feel.

Even on the 'Wing with all lights on and additional yellow Fog lights on during rain/bad visibility, some dumb f**ker in a cage is bound to give me a close shave

Auckland (probably by virtue of its population) has the greatest concentration of bloody awful drivers in NZ.

[terbang]

A lot don't seem to realize or grasp the gravity of what they are doing and are not prepared to accept responsibility for their actions. So they tend to sit there in a euphoric, stunned mullet daze believing that it must be someone elses problem.

OK that was profound and this is just where it came from. Young 'T' (16 YO daughter) is on her learners licence and asked me to take her into town. And before I start, I reckon she is a cool kid and will make a good rider/driver. We are on the backroads and enter a right hander a little fast. It happens I guess and thats what learning is all about. With only partial visibility, she moved well right into the other lane to compensate for her excess speed..! Sort of grabbed my attention, this did and I asked
"Were you 100% sure that if Blair and Easale (Blairos and lady who often visit us) were coming the other way on their bike, would you have honestly seen them?"
"well yeah... I er reckon so"
"but bikes are small and they can appear to be be moving quite fast"
A stern set to her jaw
"Oh well if he was going too fast, then its his problem"

Mown down by a driver who is on the wrong side of the road and its his fault..Tui ad please.

OK I could see she had given herself a fright and wracking her up over it was only going to get her back up. Later after some quiet contemplation and discussion she admitted that it had only then just started to truly dawn upon her the responsibility that she, as a driver was taking on. Not only to her and her passengers, but to other road users. A bigger picture!
Sure she learn't a bit about how to handle her car, but more importanly, she started to learn that she was in charge of a potentially lethal piece of machinery and that she bore a lot of responsibility on a public road.
Now she is a fairly typical young kiwi driver who is going through the process of learning to drive and was allready partially licenced before the impact of her (own) actions started to become a realization.
I havn't sat a road exam for years and havn't seen much material about the harsh reality of a drivers task, other than the ads on TV. I was a little surprised to be having to explain that side to her after she had passed her driving exams..
Maybe there are those that just slip through the cracks?

[beyond]

Yep, it's getting bad out there alright.
I suppose everyone thinks it won't happen to them or they would never be the cause of an accident until they actually are.

I remember my Dad was in hawkes bay hospital after his heart attack a couple ofyears back and there was a guy next to him with a broken arm and leg and his missus was in another ward with a broken pelvis. They were riding a crusier on the main road and a twit in a four wheel drive came around the corner on their side of the road, whacked them and sent them through a fence.

The mindless moron was changing a CD????? Could have killed them both.

[xwhatsit]

Yes it was a little hairy today. Twice I had cars cut into my lane (on Greenlane Rd) which required heavy braking and post-incident tooting. Curiously enough I saw both check their rear-vision mirror first (not side mirrors though, or any form of headcheck). I will now associate that behaviour with imminent cager action, so I'll be prepared for it next time.

Also had a bloke who seemed quite determined to undertake me, as earlier on I had gone to the head of the lights in front of him. He overtook me three (3) times, and each time I just casually rode past him as he'd get stuck behind slow traffic in the other lane and couldn't change lanes in time. Must've been very upsetting for his ego, poor man. Turned off in front of him, so he didn't get the satisfaction of overtaking me properly again.

Newmarket viaduct was the usual merging/weaving nightmare. Fairly marginal following distances between the cagers too, which meant that slow-downs were not gradual reduction of speed, but slammed-on brakes. Kept well back to make it easier for myself, but of course people just change lanes into the gap you leave.

Just more standard boring tales of cager-avoidance in Auckland. Just seemed to have a higher frequency of them, must've been the beautiful sunny weather (I know it brought on a slight hoon-ish tendency in me. Scraping pegs, 65kph round a 25kph corner. Don't think I'll be able to repeat that in a hurry , I'm a bit of a Nana lol. I know the corner well, I ride it every day).

[Swoop]

Quite correct. I took extra notice of the cagers behaviour this morning, and my morning study concluded:
1, keep the gaps MUCH smaller between cages (which results in #2)
2, far more agressive "barging" into the traffic lane when either attempting to merge or when changing lanes.
3, even less use of the indicators (if that is actually possible in D'auckland...)
4, super-agressive moving into a spaces left between cages... normally without indication, OR at best, the "flash-and-go" lane change (normally resulting in #5).
5, cage mirrors becoming unusable.

[devnull]

Saw a prime example this morning....

Came up to Roberts Rd intersection, waiting to turn onto Te Atatu Rd.
There were a few cages coming & bike was cold, so happy to wait for a gap.

Then this bloody cage flies up behind me, goes around on my left, and pulls straight out, forcing the oncoming traffic to hit the brakes.

There was a huge gap in less than 100m - all he had to do is let the 4 or so cages go past.

Pity Darwin's Law isn't more effective in weeding these fuckers out

[Ewan Oozarmy]

Is there actually a driving test in this country?

[discotex]

Pity Darwin's Law isn't more effective in weeding these fuckers out

Pity these fuckers tend to take someone else out rather than themselves. It does make vigilante justice seem appealing at times.

[90s]

I know I have told a lot of new lanesplitters on threads that cages are not usually trying to cut us up or block us out (but just have no awareness or safe driving process), but last night lanesplitting the SH16 (about 5:30pm) a BUS in the 'fast' lane appeared to deliberately move over to stop me coming through. I could devine no other cause for this move.

Now with 5 yrs combined daily commuting on cycles and bikes in Auckland I think many bus drivers genuinely hate all things two-wheeled. I have been deliberately shaved on my moutain bike - actually grazed - by a bus on White Swan rd. when there was plently of road space. And when I shouted at the driver he could give me more than an inch he said "you don't need more than an inch" and drove away. Bus drivers in Auckland are shockingly happy to give cycles (on Dominion rd for example) no space, force them off the road, and same for motorbikes. And this seems more than the usual cluelessness or thoughlessness but active.

Anyone else or is this just my perception?

[terbang]

Yup there are some bloody dangerous pricks out there.
Riding back through Drury towards Puke on Gt South road last night. Dickhead in a bright red HSVGTSEI Falcodore (one of those aussie cage things that makes them all feel a bit sporty), who had just left the northbound southern motorway, didn't give way to Moi. On the picks hard, big swerve and onto the horn. Missed him by an inch or two while noticing his bimbo in the passenger seat is giving him a bit of a rev up. He just gave me that indifferent look of "you shouldn't have been there anyway" and drove on. Grrrr

[Max Preload]

It does make vigilante justice seem appealing at times.

There's nothing more underrated than dishing out a bit of vigilante justice to the deserving.

[Max Preload]

Now with 5 yrs combined daily commuting on cycles and bikes in Auckland I think many bus drivers genuinely hate all things two-wheeled.

You're right - they do. Which is why I make special efforts to fuck them off when I'm in the cage. "Please let the bus go first" the sign says. Fuck that shit. The time of anyone taking a bus is clearly next to worthless or they'd be driving to their destination.

[xwhatsit]

The time of anyone taking a bus is clearly next to worthless or they'd be driving to their destination.

Fuck you. Some of us don't have a choice.

[Steam]

...I make special efforts to fuck them off when I'm in the cage..... The time of anyone taking a bus is clearly next to worthless or they'd be driving to their destination.

I agree with Xerxesdaphat. That's not on old bean. Grow up and be an adult.