Lucky avoidance this morning...
Discussion
Down the M1 filtering when driver decides to look, turn and move all at the same time, just when I'm at his rear quarter. I slammed on the brakes front and rear. ABS kicked in, I could feel front and rear ABS doing its job. Rear momentarily left the ground and bike went slightly sideways.. I must have cleared the car by a few centemeters...so close...carried on filtering as if nothing had happened. Only realised I was a bit shacken when I stalled at the next set of lights and I was a bit tight across teh shoulders...definatley pants chaning moment.
It's my first filtering incedent in 12 months of riding and I'm filtering almost every day.
Be careful out there!
Oh and if you see a black VW people carrier give him some verbal abuse, I clearly forgot as I was to focused on keeping the bike upright and moving...
Hyperion said:
You really can't complain when other drivers don't see you, especially if you're on a dark coloured bike with black leathers!
With lights on?! At the end of the day you can help the drivers to see you but I don't think you can say it's the biker's fault cos of a dark bike & leathers if he "should" have been noticed...I took up a new job in January this year and as a result I commute into London from Northamptonshire via the M1 or M40 everyday and in that time have seen countless bikes skittled off by impatient,badly driven and/or half awake car/van drivers, a few months ago I witnessed one as it happened in the M1 roadworks around Luton, id been following this van driver at a small distance for a few miles watching him cutting in and out of the traffic trying to pointlessly "make progress" in the restricted 50MPH limit .
Anyway a chap on a nice 07 Repsol(you know, the good looking ones..) Blade filters past me and a few seconds later Mr Van driver makes another erratic lane change with no indication and swipes him out, I popped the hazards on a pulled up behind the guy on the bike and helped him and the bike up. The damage to the bike was the usual scrapes and footrest/peg bending and the chap had scuffed all his gear up but was otherwise OK, he was travelling at no more that 20MPH I would say.
Straight away Mr Van Driver comes over and says "I didnt see you, you must have been flying"..FFS...
I said nowt, gave Mr Blade man my number,told him I was a biker and id seen at first hand this chaps driving for some period of time and id be a witness.
Of course the biker won his case this time (and rightly so) but some of the bikes who come past me in the mornings at speed in the heavilly congested areas make me wince,especially like it was this morning pissing down with rain.
Personally I dont think I could do it day in, day out now but I understand totally why lots of people choose too,time is money and all that.I wont preach and say "Take Care" and "Ride safe" as it gets right up my nose...but...errr...be careful out there!
Anyway a chap on a nice 07 Repsol(you know, the good looking ones..) Blade filters past me and a few seconds later Mr Van driver makes another erratic lane change with no indication and swipes him out, I popped the hazards on a pulled up behind the guy on the bike and helped him and the bike up. The damage to the bike was the usual scrapes and footrest/peg bending and the chap had scuffed all his gear up but was otherwise OK, he was travelling at no more that 20MPH I would say.
Straight away Mr Van Driver comes over and says "I didnt see you, you must have been flying"..FFS...
I said nowt, gave Mr Blade man my number,told him I was a biker and id seen at first hand this chaps driving for some period of time and id be a witness.
Of course the biker won his case this time (and rightly so) but some of the bikes who come past me in the mornings at speed in the heavilly congested areas make me wince,especially like it was this morning pissing down with rain.
Personally I dont think I could do it day in, day out now but I understand totally why lots of people choose too,time is money and all that.I wont preach and say "Take Care" and "Ride safe" as it gets right up my nose...but...errr...be careful out there!
Verbal abuse is my favourite way of showing my dis-pleasure, i was cut-off at a roundabout & alsmot ended up in the vans rear because he fancied like straigh lining the roundabout, he got stuck in traffic i filtered past, opened visor, told him he was a fecking to55er & needed ot learn to drive properly.
He almost dropped his fag he was so shocked!
He almost dropped his fag he was so shocked!
Hyperion said:
You really can't complain when other drivers don't see you, especially if you're on a dark coloured bike with black leathers!
Any driver that can't see an object that is 5ft tall, 3 ft wide and 7 ft long, regardless of the colour of the object, really should not be driving!black-k1 said:
Hyperion said:
You really can't complain when other drivers don't see you, especially if you're on a dark coloured bike with black leathers!
Any driver that can't see an object that is 5ft tall, 3 ft wide and 7 ft long, regardless of the colour of the object, really should not be driving!I commute daily in all weathers and bikers wearing hi-viz jackets stand out from the gray sea of metal like a saw thumb.
I wear an ex-police hi-viz sleeved jacket, that compared with my HID front light means if anyone ever did cross my path, they'd have a hard time blaming my lack of visibility.
The other good thing, if you wear a hi-viz people think you're a BiB and get out of your way - it makes a huge difference!!
Edited by Hyperion on Thursday 16th October 10:37
podman said:
I took up a new job in January this year and as a result I commute into London from Northamptonshire via the M1 or M40 everyday and in that time have seen countless bikes skittled off by impatient,badly driven and/or half awake car/van drivers, a few months ago I witnessed one as it happened in the M1 roadworks around Luton, id been following this van driver at a small distance for a few miles watching him cutting in and out of the traffic trying to pointlessly "make progress" in the restricted 50MPH limit .
Anyway a chap on a nice 07 Repsol(you know, the good looking ones..) Blade filters past me and a few seconds later Mr Van driver makes another erratic lane change with no indication and swipes him out, I popped the hazards on a pulled up behind the guy on the bike and helped him and the bike up. The damage to the bike was the usual scrapes and footrest/peg bending and the chap had scuffed all his gear up but was otherwise OK, he was travelling at no more that 20MPH I would say.
Straight away Mr Van Driver comes over and says "I didnt see you, you must have been flying"..FFS...
I said nowt, gave Mr Blade man my number,told him I was a biker and id seen at first hand this chaps driving for some period of time and id be a witness.
Of course the biker won his case this time (and rightly so) but some of the bikes who come past me in the mornings at speed in the heavilly congested areas make me wince,especially like it was this morning pissing down with rain.
Personally I dont think I could do it day in, day out now but I understand totally why lots of people choose too,time is money and all that.I wont preach and say "Take Care" and "Ride safe" as it gets right up my nose...but...errr...be careful out there!
I have a person rule - that you don't ride past other at greater that 30 mph speed difference .. any faster than that and they do not have time to notice you.Anyway a chap on a nice 07 Repsol(you know, the good looking ones..) Blade filters past me and a few seconds later Mr Van driver makes another erratic lane change with no indication and swipes him out, I popped the hazards on a pulled up behind the guy on the bike and helped him and the bike up. The damage to the bike was the usual scrapes and footrest/peg bending and the chap had scuffed all his gear up but was otherwise OK, he was travelling at no more that 20MPH I would say.
Straight away Mr Van Driver comes over and says "I didnt see you, you must have been flying"..FFS...
I said nowt, gave Mr Blade man my number,told him I was a biker and id seen at first hand this chaps driving for some period of time and id be a witness.
Of course the biker won his case this time (and rightly so) but some of the bikes who come past me in the mornings at speed in the heavilly congested areas make me wince,especially like it was this morning pissing down with rain.
Personally I dont think I could do it day in, day out now but I understand totally why lots of people choose too,time is money and all that.I wont preach and say "Take Care" and "Ride safe" as it gets right up my nose...but...errr...be careful out there!
I'm not a big fan of filtering as I've seen plenty of bikers have bad accidents like that .. so I do it bet with care.
Least favourite moment is always when the outside lane stops dead and those in the lane try to jump to the still moving middle lane.. bikers still filtering are in big trouble.
Take care out there.
Of course the other hazard at this time of year is low sun-depending on time of day & direction of travel.
I always take extra care overtaking if sun is directly behind me if there's any chance of oncoming traffic. Likewise if it's in my face you almost can't see at times-no matter what visor used.
I always take extra care overtaking if sun is directly behind me if there's any chance of oncoming traffic. Likewise if it's in my face you almost can't see at times-no matter what visor used.
[quote=Hyperion Candles have more LUX output than their rear light and the front light simply blends in with all the car lights. Combine that with black leathers, and a black lid and you've got no chance.
[/quote]
You make an interesting point. I always ride with my lights on, regardless of weather conditions, but I do also ride around in all black leathers and helmet. Maybe a hi-vis over jacket may not be a bad thing to pack into the tank bag after all...
[/quote]
You make an interesting point. I always ride with my lights on, regardless of weather conditions, but I do also ride around in all black leathers and helmet. Maybe a hi-vis over jacket may not be a bad thing to pack into the tank bag after all...
Not saying this is the case here but some of my fellow bikers seem suicidal in their filtering technique.
I'll only filter as fast as I believe I can safely stop. Sometimes in heavy traffic this can mean as slow as 10mph. I've even had other bikers give me stick for holding them up on rare occasions. Even had one fellow on a gixxer turn round to give me the old 'gareth hunt' who then smacked straight into the rear quarter of an old 5 series that pulled out on him. Luckily he was ok but I told him it would only be a matter of time before he got much worse if he carried on like that.
Re: the wing mirror thing, I've been tempted a few times but if it came down to it then I'd rather slap the owner than the car.
I'll only filter as fast as I believe I can safely stop. Sometimes in heavy traffic this can mean as slow as 10mph. I've even had other bikers give me stick for holding them up on rare occasions. Even had one fellow on a gixxer turn round to give me the old 'gareth hunt' who then smacked straight into the rear quarter of an old 5 series that pulled out on him. Luckily he was ok but I told him it would only be a matter of time before he got much worse if he carried on like that.
Re: the wing mirror thing, I've been tempted a few times but if it came down to it then I'd rather slap the owner than the car.
I also have tuppence to add, I was on my bike today(cycling sadly) I stick out an arm and go around some road works as I'm halfway around them this tranny van goes around me. He went all the way around me, and the roadworks.
At the next lights(bout 100yds later) I tell him to calm down through his open window.
Look on his face!!
At the next lights(bout 100yds later) I tell him to calm down through his open window.
Look on his face!!
Venom said:
Hyperion said:
Candles have more LUX output than their rear light and the front light simply blends in with all the car lights. Combine that with black leathers, and a black lid and you've got no chance.
You make an interesting point. I always ride with my lights on, regardless of weather conditions, but I do also ride around in all black leathers and helmet. Maybe a hi-vis over jacket may not be a bad thing to pack into the tank bag after all...People should not change lane/turn/carry out a maneuver unless they can see that it is clear to do so. If they are not sure then they shouldn’t do the maneuver although they still will! As a bike you need to make sure that you are positioned where they can definitely see you. (If they look! If they don’t then they were never going to see high vis or day-glo anyway!)
I gave up dressing like a Christmas tree about 15 years ago and concentrated much more on my positioning. Since then I have had considerably less vehicles pull out, turn, change lane in my path. I still get the ones who simply don’t look (you’ll always get them) but again, by concentrating on my positioning, I am often better placed to take avoiding action when I such t
ts try to take me out!Agree about positioning but I guess the best defence is a bit of everything.
I've got a reasonably colourfull black and red lid and blue jacket but was very surprised in some photos from a trip a while back just how little colour is visable on me at a distance, and just how much more noticable a mate on a yellow bike wearing a jacket with yellow arms is. Think I mgiht go for a whilte lid next time.
I've got a reasonably colourfull black and red lid and blue jacket but was very surprised in some photos from a trip a while back just how little colour is visable on me at a distance, and just how much more noticable a mate on a yellow bike wearing a jacket with yellow arms is. Think I mgiht go for a whilte lid next time.
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