m25 filtering

[G Man]

OK so the M25 was a car park tonight and I ended up filtering for 15 miles ....

Towards the end the traffic started moving 50-60 mph , do PH'ers still filter at that speed ?

What speed do you stop filtering ?

Cheers

G

[Hyperion]

About 55-60 mph is my filtering limit.
I see pleanty of bikers filtering way above these speeds though!

It was a good day for biking though - the M40 was stationary this morning, great fun on the bike though

[Chilli]

I call it a day when I reach the national, in general, but of course this depends on the situation.

[Hooli]

depends on my mood & how stable the traffic flow is. typically once im doing 60-70 i'll stop filtering.

[robstvr]

I find it depends on lane width, car spacing, etc. For some reason, drivers bunch up when the lanes get narrower - but don't slow down. Odd.

Anyhoo, 80's about it for me. Bad boy. I have done about 15,000,000 miles of it, though.

[black-k1]

I actually don't like filtering at much above about 40 but I will do faster if there are lots of other bikes doing the same. (Car drivers won't be 'taken by surprise' then.)

[rev-erend]

Can't say I'm a big fan of it on the M25 but do it when the need arrises..

But don't you just hate te suiside moment .. when lane 3 starts to stop abruptly and lane 2 is still moving .. you are happy filtering between the 2 .. but the cars in lane 3 have a plan ... get to lane 2 instantly ..

and you are their next victim

[Hooli]

rev-erend said:

Can't say I'm a big fan of it on the M25 but do it when the need arrises..

But don't you just hate te suiside moment .. when lane 3 starts to stop abruptly and lane 2 is still moving .. you are happy filtering between the 2 .. but the cars in lane 3 have a plan ... get to lane 2 instantly ..

and you are their next victim

had that yesterday on the M11 - stationary traffic to the horizion where the hell did he think it'd get him? lucky i filter at a sensible speed compared to a lot of people so stopped without a problem. i did take the opertunity to flip the front of my lid up & suggest he learns to drive & use mirrors excterea while dismissing the legality of his parentage. oddly enough i take a dim view of people trying to kill me.

[m3psm]

I did a couple months of M25 commuting recently and like robstvr, soon found my filtering up in the 80's. It does depend on how the traffic is flowing though.

The key thing on motorways is to stay alert and read the braking zones. I'm sure you've all seen (and some even done) the quick lane change to make up 20 spaces, then the quick change back as another lane speeds up again. I always put myself between two car then. I'm pretty sure a car will see the car beside him before he sees a bike, so it feels safer.

Just get into the mindset of an impatient car driver who is late for the most important meeting of his life, and you'll start to spot the gaps he may leap into, then position yourself accordingly.

I prefer London filtering as the car are more used to bikes, but will be back on the M25 commute again in a month or two.

[rsv gone!]

rev-erend said:

Can't say I'm a big fan of it on the M25 but do it when the need arrises..

But don't you just hate te suiside moment .. when lane 3 starts to stop abruptly and lane 2 is still moving .. you are happy filtering between the 2 .. but the cars in lane 3 have a plan ... get to lane 2 instantly ..

and you are their next victim

It is called traffic shear IIRC and is the most dangerous phase of filtering. It happens at the beginning and at the end of a jam and is the time when cars are most likely to lane-change.

If lane 3 blocks then I move to lane 2 and stay in the flow until the speed of that lane drops significantly. Then I'll filter.

[RizzoTheRat]

I used to do M3-M25-A30 at rush hour every day. It's amazing how quickly I got used to it and found myself regularly doing 60+ though near stationary traffic, then I'd think to myself that it was a bit silly and slow to 30-40mph, but over the course of a few days my speed would creep up until I realised it was getting a silly again. Generally I try to keep it around 30-40 when filtering and if the traffic gets up to that kind of speed I'll drop back in to the lane again.

Not a fan of nipping between cars that are doing higher speeds. My previous job I used to do 30k miles/year in the cage and on several occasions had bikes (usually gixxers for some reason) dive up my left hand side when I was doing 80ish indicating left and already starting to cross the line.

[rev-erend]

I usually try to stick to my own golden rule of not doing more than 30 mph quicker than the traffic around me .. keeps me alive.

[sjtscott]

Filtering on at least 3 lane motorway is easy compared to what I normally have to put up with in central London. Consequently I feel comfortable filtering pretty quickly in comparison to London. You obviously do have to watch for cars changing lanes though like a hawk!

[m3psm]

sjtscott said:

Filtering on at least 3 lane motorway is easy compared to what I normally have to put up with in central London. Consequently I feel comfortable filtering pretty quickly in comparison to London. You obviously do have to watch for cars changing lanes though like a hawk!

I find the opposite. In the City people tend to be more switched on as they must get passed by hundreds of bikes, but on motorway they tend to zone out and forget about bikes as they don't see many.

It all obviously depends on the piece of road and time of day though.

The worst time for filtering is weekends when cars either don't see you or aim for you.

[Silver993tt]

if you filter in traffic on a motorway in Europe (France, Belgium, Germany, Austria etc) most cars will see you in their mirrors and move to one side to let you pass. Why doesn't this happen in the UK?

[Scraggles]

probably due to most bikers being on main beam or headlights tipped up so that they are "visible" to such an extent that they dazzle car drivers and said car drivers will either ignore, block or angle the rear mirrors so as not to get dazzled ?

[Hooli]

Silver993tt said:

if you filter in traffic on a motorway in Europe (France, Belgium, Germany, Austria etc) most cars will see you in their mirrors and move to one side to let you pass. Why doesn't this happen in the UK?

same reason cars can merge in turn abroad but find it impossible here. british drivers are aholes.

[texasjohn]

Hooli said:

Silver993tt said:

if you filter in traffic on a motorway in Europe (France, Belgium, Germany, Austria etc) most cars will see you in their mirrors and move to one side to let you pass. Why doesn't this happen in the UK?

same reason cars can merge in turn abroad but find it impossible here. british drivers are aholes.

Indeed. The worse part is in a car where two lanes become one after a set of traffic lights.

God forbid people should use both lanes so the greatest volume of traffic may pass through the light while it is green, and then have to merge in turn the other side of the junction. I have been accused of 'pushing to the front of the queue' by another motorist for doing this? Well love, why else do they have TWO lanes both dedicated to the straight ahead direction...

Rant over!

[robstvr]

Europeans, well the French, Spanish, Italians and Med folk, all grow up on and around scooters and bikes. It makes a big difference when they then get in cars. Simple, really.

Around here, it's mindless chavs on scooters. And the odd honey, too.

[rev-erend]

I've found plenty of people in cars make room for me on the bike..