I have nothing but the utmost respect for bikers, especially the ones still driving now with the bad weather conditions, but after this morning, that respect certainly took a dent.

Was coming off the M11 towards the A406 (for those who know the area) where 3 lanes merge into 2. This is always a congestion point as people just don't leave enough space for each other, you know, the usual.

Anyway, I was sat in lane 2 and almost at the point where lane 3 needs to merge in. Lane 1 at this point usually flows slightly better as they do not have to deal with the merging. As I could see from the traffic in front of me that my lane and lane 3 weren't going to move for a while I thought I'd leave a good gap in front of me so I could merge into lane 1 and continue my journey. I monitored the traffic in lane 1 in my mirrors and when a gap presented itself, I indicated and proceeded to move. As I moved I a horn sounded and it was not until that horn sounded that I noticed a biker who was travelling between lane 1 and 2. I had almost hit the guy :eek:

I flashed my hazards to apologise as I honestly hadn't seen him, and I expected him to drive parallel to my car so he could shout abuse at me and I could apologise... but no, that was not what he did, instead he accelerated past my car and as he was next to my mirror he smashed it! The ********* ** ** *****!

The mirror folded away, so fortunately no damage has been made.

That's one biker out of the lot.

Forgiving his actions takes you up a step

Being a biker meself, i can honestly say that this is not the normal reactions of i biker considering he/she is so vunrable to the elements around, not in a cage so to speak, maybe been cut up before your incident and you got the brunt.

I do filter between lanes but still have respect for cars n such so i always blip the throttle when i think the gap is been reduced.

But above that, still not nice considering its was a genuine mistake.

I had a car roll back of a speed bump into my bike, slight damage to his car but bike ok, any ways i had to pay for his damage because he says i ran into him, i had 3 witnesses ( biker mates) but this was not required as they know that all bikers stick together as so to speak. It cost me 175quid in the end, i reported it, he didnt, i informed my ins, he didnt but it still came out as my fault.

Spevie:thumbdwn:

Well, If someone nearly killed me, I wouldn't be too happy either...

The roads are often far too busy to allow filtering to be done safely IMO - just because you can doesn't mean you should, and these days, maybe the law should be changed to make sure you don't put yourself at risk by trying...?

:sofahide:

I let a car out of a side road a while back.As he was pulling out,biker came from nowhere,into the side of the car and over his bonnet.

Biker got up, brushed himself off and apologised to everyone!

Think there are aggressive and non aggressive drivers of all vehicles

I let a car out of a side road a while back.As he was pulling out,biker came from nowhere,into the side of the car and over his bonnet.

Biker got up, brushed himself off and apologised to everyone!

Think there are aggressive and non aggressive drivers of all vehicles

Here speaketh a voice of reason.

Here speaketh a voice of reason.

absolutely, the simple fact is that you get idiots in every walk of life. you also get those people that will always tar everyone with the same brush because of what they drive/ride/wear etc...who's the biggest idiot

Just determinded by the individual.

Like all BMW drivers aren't so bad

I see some idiotic things done by bikers, but at the same time I see a lot of sensible bikers.

I let a car out of a side road a while back.As he was pulling out,biker came from nowhere,into the side of the car and over his bonnet.

Biker got up, brushed himself off and apologised to everyone!

Think there are aggressive and non aggressive drivers of all vehicles

According the the IAM manual, if the bike rider hadn't admitted fault, you could have been held partially responsible! :eek: These days, I'll hang back if traffic's moving slowly past the mouth of a junction and someone wants to pull out, but I'm very wary about flashing my lights or giving hand signals...

Quinten

I am a biker, but was in my car on that very bit of road myself this morning, as I am 3 times every week. And as usual the congestion is caused by car driving ar$eh0les who wait until the very last second before moving in from lane three, thus causing the stop/start traffic jam.

However I have not lost respect for all car drivers.

steady on lance, people leaving it late to change lanes doesn't create traffic does it as the same amount of people will still be travelling through the bottle nexk.

and calling them "car driving ar$eholes" is no different to calling them "bike riding tuuats that seem to do nothing but try and kill themselves by going flat out everywhere cutting between traffic dangerously" but hey don't want to start stereo typing do we

a mate of mine recently had an accident where we was slowly edging out into traffic, cars going both ways had stopped and flashed him out so we carried on slowly and a kid on a moped was going flat out down the centre line and slammed into him. bloody stupid car drivers eh?

.

and calling them "car driving ar$eholes" is no different to calling them "bike riding tuuats that seem to do nothing but try and kill themselves by going flat out everywhere cutting between traffic dangerously" but hey don't want to start stereo typing do we

Bengie, Those that drive/ride poorly and are inconsiderate to other road users, I believe are ar$eh0les. Not all car drivers nor all bike riders fall into this category though..

As for the 'leaving it late', I disagree. These drivers wait almost until the lane stops and then edge in causing those who filtered earlier to brake, which then sets off a chain re-action. Queue jumping imo.

Lance

Thank Goodness there was no-one hurt, and there was no damage done. The biker must have nearly wet himself and many people might react to fear with aggression - normal evolutionary response. The biker's actions were deffo OTT for the situation.

One ar5ehole should not change your attitude towards bikers in general, put it down to a one-off. You were the gentleman in this incident.

I used to be a biker, but in Canada/US - I probably wouldn't have understood the blinkers as an apology.

Glad you're fine

Bas

most of my mates have a bike, one is paralyzed from the waist down due to hitting a car that pulled out on him on a country road, this is why i keep putting off getting my licence. but most of them seem to forget they drive cars too, and also make the same mistakes as other drivers, but still get on their high horse if someone makes them slow down or cant squeeze past a car in a traffic jam.

But as i see it, some of the bikers i see cutting through traffic on the white lines know fine they are running the risk and should be weary of cars changing lanes, its a stupid chance they take and very offten ends in a nasty bump. Knowing full well they are hard to spot, especialy at a pretty high speed or weaving between cars, one minute you look and its clear then one zips past.

I dont care what anyone says, there is nothing in the highway code or your motorcycle test that says it ok to do it.

huzzah for some sense!

I've got to agree with you on that one Lance.....

Like all BMW drivers aren't so bad

Steady now, that might be going too far :rofl:

A mate of mine used to race in the TT every year. Had a real nice Suzuki especially for the race. He must have done it 15 times over the years, never a scratch. He rode on a day to day basis too, again never had an off. About 5 years ago he went over just before the race week on his Kawasaki to do a bit of a reccy and to sort a few bits out. He hit a wall after hitting a pothole near Black Dub and died on impact, apparently he was only doing about 45mph when it happened. He was 43 and left a wife and 12 year old son. I was in the process of geting my license at the time and this really got to me and I stopped.

I think the point I am trying to make is that no matter who you are, what you ride/drive and no matter how good you are/think you are, you will get caught out one day and you don't have to drive/ride like a loon for it to happen.

One of the tips the police trainers give is to give a minimum of 3 flashes, but usually 5, of the indicator before carrying out a manouevre as this gives everyone around you a chance to react and accommodate what you plan to do, eg the biker could have seen you were intending to go left and gone round you on your right

Obviously, this all falls to the ground if he's an inconsiderate to$$er!

Chris

Did you get the plate?

Sounds an unusual reaction. Most bikers I come across are OK. Whilst on the subject though, could any bikers explain this?

Traditionally, bikers would overtake very positively, i.e. come up behind, sit back, then blip the throttle and be gone.

Now I keep getting people (for some reason nearly always on a Harley), who just sit in the blind spot and never overtake, just sit on your rear corner in the way of you moving to avoid potholes or just changes in road width etc. What's that all about?:confused:

I ride a bike and never expect car drivers to see me. As said previously,

there are good and bad riders out there. Just be aware that they can be

like police cars and come out of nowhere.

think bike!

A couple of weeks ago I was driving to work in the usual Wellington traffic - moving at about 30-40kph. I signalled to move to the middle lane into a gap about 4 car lengths long, checked my mirror, wing mirror, looked over my shoulder then moved across.

Next thing I know there's a biker in the outside lane by my window giving me the stare.

I have no idea where he came from and I thought I'd looked carefully.

I felt really bad because I try to be courteous to bikers, move over to let them pass when possible etc.

One can always "think bike", however if they INSIST on making it as hard as possible for us car drivers to see them, by :

- filtering through near stationary traffic at 30mph faster than that traffic

- switching from side to side constantly so you're never sure where they are

- riding along behind you just in your blind spot because they're desperate to leapfrog one more car in the queue on their way to an early grave

... they can't expect to act all self-righteous when every now and then we actually DO fail to see them. Then because they managed to outfox us they decide to smash a bit off our cars to show just how hard done by they are, and ride off into the distance making obscene gestures knowing full well we'll never see them again. I've read many a post on biker forums to this effect "so this motorist tuuat failed to see me this morning but what do you know, my handlebar accidentally hit his mirror, smash, tinkle, hahaha".

If they want a full space in the traffic, without any danger of a car driver looking the wrong way for the 2 tenths of a second it takes to upset them, there's a very simple solution. Ride along in the middle of the lane at the same pace as the rest of the traffic and stop whingeing.

Here endeth the rant :rant: