Undertaken

[robocog]

I'm a fairly new rider
L plates visible (replaced them at weekend due to fading cheap ones only seem to last weeks in this weather)
Wearing hi viz jacket, lights on

Just getting to grips with filtering on my commute, but still playing it with caution as its a CG with drums on the front, so thinking way into the distance as well as
On the way home tonight something happened and it shat me up a bit

took a nice wide berth past some stationary trafiic, taking it very steady (not hooning past) and paying attention to conditions ahead
I would say I was filtering past at roughly 5 mph
traffic started shuffling and I made slow progress past bunches of cars - keeping a keen eye out most were very obliging and giving plenty of room

a bus indicated and pulled out (10 cars or more ahead) causing the traffic to grind to a halt (concertina fasion) and I was the correct side of the white lines with plenty of room ahead so decided to just ease off the throttle whilst the slack was taken up again rather than maintain speed up to the car aheads bumper

few yards before being made stationary and was just about to drift in more central to my lane (as there would be no more progress to be had safely before a busy roundabout) and my left hand safetly check was abruptly interupted by a woman one hand on steering wheel because she had a magnum icecream in her other hand, indicator flashing right (or could have been emergency hazzards? only saw the offside) who tore past my inside and pretty much emergency stopped and narrowly missed the car ahead
I'm not convinced she even saw me or what she had just done, and how she didn't mount the pavement to get past me is still a mystery as I was kind of between central white line and car drivers position

had I not taken that glance I guess I would have finally had my first spill- rear ended by a woman too busy in white chocolate and ice cream heaven

I guess she had turned into the road (one handed?) as her indicator was still going and I hadn't passed her, and no way anyone would have been going that speed based on the average speed that had been encountered for the past 2 miles
(hence me filtering with caution)
I felt pretty damned angry and had my boss not been a few cars behind in the que I think I could have taken my anger out on her car- followed by her and wouldn't have been satisfied till the ice lolly stick was well and truly wedged in her windpipe, which I would have happliy extracted by kicking her in the cunt till she coughed it back out

I sat a safe distance from her in my own space contemplating what had just happened and did wonder if I should have reported it or followed to find out where she lived
she turned off the roundabout on a different exit to me and TBH I just wanted to get home alive without further dramas

Still thinking if I had left the door wide open for this to happen or whether it was a one off dangerous driver thing I had just witnessed, not as if undertaking me doing perhaps 5 MPH was going to get her anywhere - other than into the line of stationary traffic a few yards ahead of me??

It was a close enough call for me to have learned to ALWAYS do a lifesaver, even if I'm convinced that there isn't room for a car to do this in future

Just thought I'd vent/share and see if there is something I'm missing when filtering
Should I have had my foot tapping on the rear brake to trip the rear brake light constantly when filtering?
Should I take a much more central position when things ahead are coming to a rest (and not much opportunity for further porgress?)

Not sure if either of the above would have had much effect other than being rear ended if I had been more central

Regards
Rob

[AngelGrinder]

Basicaslly, everytime your out on the road on a bike, just remind yourself....every single person I see, pedestrian, car, other bike, cyclist, bus, child, kitten wants to kill you.

If you treat everything like it's out to get you, you will fare better.

From your post it sounds like you did everything right, the woman in the car; they are everywhere, the best you can do is stay clear and keep watch and be prepared for the worst!

Just ride defensively and you will likely be fine, as you gain experience, things will get easier and better!

Good luck out there!
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Currently Riding - 2002 Aprilia RSV1000 Mille

[That_Hornet]

"Sound like you from Lundun!"



I have had so many cars do crazy stuff, I find it almost funny now.

I've had a few that i have had to have a "Quiet" word with.

One guy cut me up, as i was riding along at a safe speed, he turned out on me and I grabbed a handful and he didnt even see me. Closer inspection he was on his phone. So a nice little smack on the window and a yelling, he soon put it down and said sorry.



I like the morral high ground.

[Dr. DaveJPS]

[robocog]

LOL, knew I should have spent the minute or so it takes to chuck my ramblings through the spellcheckometer before submitting
In my defence the Mrs Cog was screaming downstairs that my dinner was going cold

From Blackpool originally, but the computer was bought from daaan saaath, so must still have a bit of an accent, or I have been living in Gosport too long??

Calmed down and re run it in my mind a few times and still can't work out what she was doing/thinking, so written off as she probably wasn't thinking and couldn't have been looking and its as simple as that

disappointed that googling my typo hasn't brought up some very apt depraved dwarf scat lolly choking / fisting with wingmirror sites
Too cryptic for a Thursday eve for me

Regards
Rob

[robocog]

OK got it
Porg - Person Of Restricted Growth
I am 5 foot tall. hahahaha you porg

She possibly was, and could be used as an excuse for not seeing over the steering wheel and icecream- I'll go with that

Regards
Rob

[iooi]

[ZaphodBeeble]

Yep, sounds like a normal ride to me. When there's adjoining traffic or a sliproad joining the road you should expect people to be shoving theirselves in anyway. You did it all OK so keep it up.
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Current bike: VTR1000F Firestorm. Previous: Firestorm (written off) - XJ600 Divvy - NSR125 - DT125 and a load of offroaders.

[Polarbear]

There are certain times I am very dubious of filtering. Don't know why, but I just get a bad feeling about it and come back into the line of traffic. Quite often then something has happened to make me glad I did as in yesterday a white van man turned right just in front of me without indicating.

I don't know if thats experience or paranoia

Pity my ESP doesn't run to the lottery
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Triumph Trophy Launch Edition

[angryjonny]

[Feasty]

I think this thread needs the usual obligatory Paint diagram! I certainly don't understand from that description what happened. Were you filtering down a dual carriageway or a single lane each way road?
If it was single when you say you were giving a wide berth, does that mean you were on the wrong side of the road overtaking traffic?
It sounds like one minute you were filtering past a line of slow moving to stationary traffic stuck behind a bus, but the next minute you had tons of room to play with and everything was moving much quicker. Why would you need a left hand safety check to get back into the middle of your lane if you had just finished overtaking? If you were filtering and came across a space between cars then you should have immediately got into the centre of your lane after the last car anyway. And surely you should have seen where this woman had come from if it was all so slow moving - did you not check down side roads while filtering or something? Or was she the last car you had overtaken before the gap?

As you can see, I don't quite get how it could of happened!

Finally how can traffic end up in 'concertina fashion' because a bus pulls out?

If this '- - - - - - - -' is a row of cars in a queue, then a bus pulling out would just make them do this '-------------' whereas I understand 'concertina fashion' being '/ \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \' .


(Just being my usual pedantic self)
____________________
Previous: Aprilia Habana Retro 50cc (beauty), Yamaha SR125 (fell apart), Honda XR125 (nippy little commuter), Honda SLR650 (Geewhizz), Yamaha Diversion 900S (Smoooooth) written off courtesy of a stupid escaped horse.
(7 year gap), BMW F650 (Relaxing ride). Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 (Big and bold). Yamaha FZS600 (got me in trouble too quick!).
Current: Yamaha TDM 900 (Comfy, light but big, power when needed).

[robocog]

Oh god no - dont make me draw! pleeease

Bus was waaaay into the distance
single carriageway (A32 between Gosport and Fareham) littered with bus stops, junctions on and off, crossings of various types and laybys for shops

Usual mix of stop starters and crawlers
(this is the concertina bit, where you get the different styles of driving in a multi mile long ques -cars bunch up and space out with the "clutch and brake tester" types or the roll the clutch on and off to try and maintain constant motion rather than use their brakes or pull to a halt - often leaving many car spaces between the bunch ahead)

Plenty of traffic lights crossing that seem to create bunches of similar speed traffic, and nice chunks of space between esp if I get to filter to the front

I was in overtaking on the white line or not far from it (using opp carriageway for the ones that didn't notice a bike approaching slowly- only when nothing was coming other way!!) and only overtaking bunches of the stopped, and bunched up slow ones
(so not riding aggressively- or filtering aggressively, just trying to maintain forward motion)

I had been coming back into a more central position to my lane in the bigger gaps between the grouped cars rather than hanging out on the white line

This is when I noticed that the bus was pulling out way ahead and wasn't safe or clear to make a move on the group ahead so just eased off and was going down through the gears ensuring they would set off way before I had to put a foot down and prepared to come central to my lane as there was a roundabout not far off so was preparing to go into car mode when the "near miss" happened

I certainly didn't see a bint one hand on wheel other busy with mangum waiting to come out- otherwise I would have rather she went ahead where I could keep an eye on the situation

and I DO check every junction for this kind of danger- I'm still at the paranoid "have they seen me? stage" and don't yet feel invincible and know I cannot out brake or out manouver at short notice so am constantly on the lookout

I will gladly let drivers in from a side road if all it takes is roll off the throttle and give the nod- and often get a nod of thanks back when it has happened, I know I will get past them as soon as things go slow,or bunch up at the lights where the compliment is usually returned
(the A32 is a very stop start road at the best of times)

As her indicator was still blinking to indicate right as she tore past me, she must have dived out of one of the side roads to my right, or in a lay by on the right?
she definitely was not in any bunch I filtered past- I would have noticed

I pulled in more central after she tore past me and there was no traffic immediately behind her, and it was a few seconds before anything came into view from behind in my mirrors (road does meander and curve a bit at this point)

I know a picture would paint a thousand words and I wish I had a camera pinned to me and go back for deeper analysis

I think the bit I did wrong was..

[Ariel Badger]

[Ariel Badger]

Found it...
____________________
Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[NSR Mick]

[robocog]

best I can do
As I dont know where she appeared from unable to put her on what I /thought/ was the situation unfolding behind me (as depicted in scene1)
(I hadn't overtaken her and was not at the Chantry rd jn when I went past)

.1 ms later snapshot of what happened after I took what appears to me my most dramatic and important lifesaver glance as yet
Not 100% accurate- as it appeared to be a white chocolate Magnum which she had already started to devour and the car was a shade or too darker and we do have tarmac rather than chipboard down this way

Not as disturbing as yours 1930Ariel

[lozzypop1]

Ladies and Gentlemen, I think we have a serious contender for the 2009 BEST paint diagram award.
____________________
Funny, I used to hate being spanked as a child!
Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand.

[Ariel Badger]

[defblade]

[metalangel]

[ricky_v]

[Jeansy001]

laughed so hard when i read what you wanted to do with the lolly stick.

its just a lesson to be learned, you will always have people not paying attention. the best thing to do it keep your calm, if ya have to, throw them one of these

pull over if your wound up calm down so you dont make a stupid mistake while not thinking clearly

stay safe though, dont let other people ruin your biking fun:)

[antitrollpatr...]

Been commuting from Watford to London since Jan this year on honda cityfly 125. This kind of thing happens once a journey for me. Drivers definately think "L"oser plates - ah, she can't ride.. add the high vis jacket and I'm a sitting duck for aggressive bullying drivers.

At first drivers cutting me off, driving up my ass (even though i'm doing over the speed limit - rare in london but does happen occasionally) used to really piss me off, but then again, I have the biggest laugh when I cruise past them in tailback nightmare. I have come to the conclusion that a lot of drivers see their mirrors as decoration only, as earlier stated, always expect everything on the road is out to kill you and you'll always be prepared. A squirrel nearly killed me this morning!

on the point of filtering - have noticed a lot of woman drivers get super irrate at this and will honk and yell at me or try to block my path, and they don't take kindly to being overtaken by L plater!

[neil.]

Bloody fantastic picture. Not much more I can add to the discussion apart from the fact that this stuff is a daily occurrence, and pretty much a 'normal' part of commuting, even though it is downright disgusting that people drive like this. What we must do is be as prepared as possible for their idiocy. Survival is the name of the game - we want to get from A to B safely, that's all. Constant self-evaluation of one's own riding technique is a must in my opinion. Pick up a copy of Motorcycle Roadcraft - the book police riders train with. It's very insightful indeed and talks about things you'd never even consider whilst riding.
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CBT February 2008 | A2 June 2008 | Yamaha YBR125 (written off) | Honda CBF125 (current)