Scirocco Central

OK, I understand the power they give etc. etc so can be amazing for the rider.

BUT.

I usually just vent in the car so noone else hears, but it annoys me how they think the white line is a bike lane. Nothing is beyond them. If you're in traffic or driving at a steady pace keeping your distance (maybe trying to get a few MPG back by not braking all the time and reading the road giving space to roll slower), guaranteed a bike comes along, over or undertakes you and slots in and you have to slow down. I had to post this as it took the biscuit this week.

TWICE this week I've been on the M6 on the way to work and a motorbike has overtook between the 3rd lane and the central reservation. I mean. How f****** stupid?!?! I doubt many drivers really check their right hand mirrors when driving there. I had the shock of my life the 1st time when I looked right and a bike was next to me. I seriously thought someone was coming at the window from a crash the other side of the m-way. I panicked, but didn't judder the car so I went into the 2nd lane (or him) etc. 2nd time was today coming home I saw him behind and he just went around so at least knew he was coming. Both different bikes / leathers (could of been the same guy I guess!) and when flow of traffic was rammed with hard shoulder open and 60 speed limit.

Finally, with the M6 shut on, I had an epic extra 1hr 20 drive home. So we're sitting in traffic and a few bikes come weaving through. There's a bus behind me and an AMG CL63 Mercedes in front of me that I was in awe of his engine noise earlier when I was behind him. So there we are, after 20 mins of moving a few car lengths and a few bikes weaving and sneaking through I see yet another coming. By now the car in the right hand lane is indicating left and half way through sneaking in front of the Merc. So the bike comes at quite a pace, slows and revs his bike, weaves past me and then realises he shouldn't have tried to go faster and the gap is too tight and BAM scrapes the side of the Merc. All hell breaks loose with this big butch guy in a suit getting out of the Merc and them swapping details after the bike tried to accuse the guy of indicating half way over of pulling out in front of him.

I glady jumped out the car and offered my services as a witness, to which the Merc guy wants for the claim he is putting in. Best thing is, there's a bit of a dent where he fell into (and the bike did) the door and massive paint scratches. The guy said I'll give you £50 to cover it so we don't go through the insurance companies. Merc guy got more angry when the biker said "I know this bloke by me who can T-Cut that out". Idiot.

Damn just writing it now and the attitudes some bikers show is making me so angry. Yet I don't ever recall bar watching on TV seeing any bikers ever getting pulled or stopped.

Hope NOBODY has a bad experience through bikers thinking they are above the law. Stay vigilant guys.

Hi mate,

I've got as bike license and had many bikes but haven't got room for one at the moment so living without for time being.

I don't take offence to your post as I can appreciate your views. The problem with traffic conditions today with relation to the volume of traffic on the roads breeds this kind of behaviour more and more. I also think it's unfortunate as there are always some bikers out there that give the biking community a bad reputation.

I've done plenty of filtering in the past and although its very effective I sometimes found it very dangerous especially in built up traffic. The key is to take it slow but if you are bombing it you leave yourself exposed to all these risks.

I think if i was in your position I would have done the same thing given the circumstances. Wreckless riding resulting in the damage to another persons car would wind me up too.

In reverse to this situation I had a car pull into me once from a single lane of traffic when i was filtering down the outside - they were trying to do a fancy overtake manouver in order to gain an advantage on a long traffic queue to get down a side road. I was taking it slow but she just wasn't paying any attention when she pulled out. Witnesses were all on my side.
Fortunately the girls dad was a biker so he understood the situation and agreed to pay for the repair to my bike but i found out later that filtering is a grey area when it comes to claims and normal results in 50/50 or total loss.

I never even knew it had a name. "Filtering"

i really understand the attraction of bikes. I love the way they look, the way they sound, the speed. But it's very rare you see them ridden responsibly. I don't think i would be sensible on one so have avoided getting too interested. I also see how oblivious most car drivers are to just about all vehicles on the road, so the thought of being on a bike with the same dopey individuals trying to knock me off and kill me every five minutes kind of puts me off.

Saying that, If you look at the normal everyday behavior of motorbike riders you can see why so many are killed or injured each year. The temptation for them (as it would be for me) is to ride fast and to constantly look to overtake. Bikers rarely ride in a queue of traffic regardless of the speed that traffic is travelling. I'm not just talking about the filtering through slow traffic but even if the line of cars is on an A-road and we are all doing the speed limit or more the temptation is to get passed everyone. When was the last time you looked in your rear view mirror and saw a motorbike riding at a sensible distance content to ride in the line of cars at say 60 mph? It is such a rare occurance. I'd say the majority completely ignore speed limits in all zones most ride up your arse and to be honest I'm usually just glad to get rid of them from behind me before they fly over or into the back of the car and I have to start scraping off bits of biker. :-S

A lot of concessions seem to be made to bike riders, free parking, bridge tolls, congestion zones or the fact that average speed cameras read plates on the front of cars and a bike doesn't have a plate kind of encourages perhaps a cavalier attitude. I think the riders justify their riding "style" as "it's only a bike, that's only a danger to me the rider if I have an accident" and of course that is true to a point but is still a massive inconvenience if you have one scrape or run into your car while they weave down the road acting like idiots.

Ride sensibly! Grrrr. :-)

Don't get me started on bloody cyclists!!! Ignoring red lights weaving between people on pedestrian crossings, pulling inside you with a 1" gap and expecting you to move, fecking wankers.

Ahhhhh that felt better......

And as for Toyota Pious drivers.............

How come I only ever see Toyota Pious's doing 90+ on the motorway? Eco my arse!!!