Traffic Filtering Tips!

[roozor]

Can everyone please share their tips on traffic filtering and general riding in busy towns? I dont get to see a lot of busy traffic in the country, and when i do i see all these crazy guys, riding in the middle of the road through town all the way , passing everyone! It looks so cool! If anyone has some good tank or cam videos of some of this in action, that would be great too!

Thanks all

Alex

[Frost]

Only tip i can give is practise!
Try doing it somehwere safe where you know you will be able to get past the lot of them, such as when lanes are seperated by hatch markings
After you have done this a few times try it on wider roads, then hone your skillz untill you can do it in town centers.

I still wouldnt recommend doing it on unfamiliar roads though, ive got myself in trouble a few times doing that

[McJamweasel]

Have a look at this thread.

(To the mods - stick that thread in the submissions?)
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BCF: Be yourself, just don't be an arse.

[Davo]

I wouldn't recommend you do it going any faster than 20mph either... Always look ahead see if you can anticipate what drivers are about to do.

Practice your low speed control in a car park for a bit, it helps a great deal when filtering.

[Visitor Q]

hmmm... should i should i should i should i

Erm without making myself sound a twat, its all about luck and confidence on the bike. You cant get a much better bike for filtering fast then the goose to be honest.

As for general traffic nutterishness on film, get the two ghostrider films on dvd. I am thinking of wiring up my video camera to my bike and going mental for a bit, just for nostalgia. But i cant be arsed really.

And best tips i can give is work up to it slowly, and keep an eye out for exits at all times, you start doing it subconsciously. Also bike control is a must, if youre doing a ton down the centre of traffic you need to know and i do mean KNOW exactly what your bike can and cant do.

Oh and another thing, its all about luck.
When the robbie williams concert brought the dual carriageways around my area to 100% gridlock my and my friend on another race rep 50 pounded up and down that traffic at 50 odd in the 'biker lane', then suddenly some woman who had been rear ended flung open her door , luckily i was far enough back to stoppy up to it. And luckily my following mate had been held up enough to not dozily gone into the back of me/was awake enough to see me stop. Then we trundled on.
Also keep an eye out for two things if you are going down the middle of a single lane carriageway (ie cars on left going in the same direction as you, cars on the right going the opposite direction), a) intersections on BOTH sides, as cars will swerve and when swerving block your way, and b)bikes doing the same coming towards you.
Also dont forget when doing all of this you are on shite surfaces, it is undriven on, so its gravelly and dirty, it WILL have lots of lines on it, and both these things make braking with anything rather then the engine/throttle and only gently front and back rather risky.
Oh and keep an eye out for road furniture... Too many times have people nearly spanked into a them glowing bollards on midget islands. Same as with overtakes, keep an eye out.

Asides from that, its simple
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[Born2bVile]

[roozor]

well i'm still quite new to traffic riding and a bit of a wuss , but if i see an opportunity to open it up a bit and overtake someone, i find i take it if its completely clear on other side, not really used to what my new bike can do and how much acell i got to overtake.

[Frost]

I had it a while back where it was total gridlock, with enough room up the center for a bike plus a few inches of breathing room. i started to filter, only to see a ped flying iup the middle coming in the opposite direction.
Neither of us had room to pull in, se we both had to wait till the traffic started to move nip inbetwean the cars then carry on.
Thats probably about the worst thing which can happen, you can avoid it by keeping an eye out for suitable pull in places, but sometimes lady luck just shits on you

[Ste]

[Born2bVile]

[Visitor Q]

[Ste]

Not saying at all that I ride asleep, but just sitting on the motorway at 75-80 is so boring, and I find filtering more interesting than sitting there doing not much at all. Filtering if you're very tired and trying not to fall asleep is a bad idea I reckon.

There are lots of young and new riders, me being one of them I'm 19 (well I am in two weeks) and been on the roads for two years so not exactly anywhere near having lots of road experience and would also like to be able to become an old rider but Mr DVLA has other ideas .

It's not really suprising that most car drivers don't check the places that bikes filter through as it's not exactly something that springs to mind that there might be a bike coming up the inside of you at high speeds, but they should check their mirrors and blind spot before moving but quite a lot don't.

Filtering is a risky thing, and the higher the speed and the more traffic there is the higher the risk, and the more alert you need to be.

[mr.z]

Iv'e only realy felt the need to filter on a couple of occasions (not liveing in a particuarly large city and avoiding them unless i really can't)

this https://www.survivalskills.clara.net/riding_skills_23.htm may well be of interest by the way...

the bike being the size it is i have to be fairly carefull about the gap i'm rideing through.. also if your in town then parked cars can pose a threat, the number of times ive had some moron swing their door open without looking is worrying, so bear that in mind!

if your filtering through traffic that is moveing then people can and WILL change lane without looking, even if they do theres a fairly high chance you will not be seen, if the traffic is stationary then its fairly safe, which is why i only do when its going nowhere.. you do get signs though, cars will drift very slightly to the middle before changeing lane, but in tight spots or near junctions the instant "pants i'm going the wrong way, changeing lane now" and observation comes very low on the list of the drivers prioritys.

overcautious perhaps, but i prefer to arrive on my bike and not on a stretcher.

I'd like to do some rospa rideing though, there are probably allot of techniques to keep the sneeky filtering safe.
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[Ste]

[Born2bVile]

[Ste]

It is interesting riding at 20mph, but I find sitting at the same speed doing not much other than going in a straight line and keeping a watch on other traffic and the road ahead not really interesting as riding at 20mph down a country lane more intesting as on a motorway sitting at 75mph as you're having to be more alert than motorway trundling.

Mr DVLA is taking my license for medical reasons. But I am still as interested now as I was when I was on the roads, and am wanting to be getting back out and I can't see me having a new found interest for 75mph on the motorway really.

Filtering I find is a more interesting way of overtaking, but if I have the choice of sitting in the outside land overtaking or filtering, than I will choose the outside lane as it is safar.

I guess it's like all things where there is a risk, you weight up the risks against the benefits and make your decision then. Which is why I filter less the heavier the traffic is, the worse the traffic is, and the worse the roads are. As you have to give more concentration the more those things happen, and thats too much concentration to be needing to give I find.

Ste

[stinkwheel]

Bonny,

I can assure you that big high trail bikes and supermotos are the very best thing for filtering on. The bars are ABOVE car wing mirror height. If you stand up on the pegs you can see over the top of a transit van to check what is beyond it, they are incredibly stable at even very low speeds and the torque generated by a big single means you can just leave it in the same gear and wind up and down on the throttle. I can ride my supermoto at walking pace whilst up on the pegs with no need to slip the clutch.

It is also fitted with Bark Busters which are two big lumps of alloy flatbar that loop round the outside of the levers, a kind of motorcycle knuckleduster which will take the wing mirrors of a transit van clean off with no damage to the bike

Roozor,

One thing to watch out for are right turns off the main carriageway. Cars will suddenly pull accross to turn into these without checking their mirrors or indicating, if you see a sideroad coming up, get into a gap in traffic and hold station until you are past it.
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[Born2bVile]

[Ste]

A perfectly fair enough misconception to make, and an easy one to make really but not a problem with it being made at all with it so not anything of an issue or problem

I've already been and had a look, was told about the site by T.C so you're getting free advertising there . Don't think there is anything really, have had it taken after having a serious brain injury and as a result have seizures so have to be seizure free for a while before they'll give it back, quite sensible and logical really though.

Am looking to be getting back on two wheels and that could well be when I look more at places like NADB to manage with whatever problems I have to deal with.

[Jinx]

[Visitor Q]

[Claud 14.7 to 1]

ok i'll get straight to the point.

In gridlock, and where applicable:

Ride at a slow safe pace, giving yourslef time to stop safely, WHEN cars pull change lane on you, You will be able to "feel" a safe pace. There is no point in trying to filter fast becasuse you will not make up much time, and if you do it slowly and sencible you will have a better change of being in one piece at the end of the day...

Look for indicatiors. Yes, some car drivers actually use them, and if you constantly swing you're eyes left and right, scanning you brain will build up a visual image of your surroundings. As opposed to you just fixing your vision on a small part that is the gap in front... if you see indicatiors you must make the decision to slow/slop or continue. But i'd probably always slow down a touch to give myself extra time.

Look at the postition of the cars wheels and even thier chassis. Although hard you can tell if a car is going to change lanes by these two. Wheels at an angle, or a car pointing, or even edging towards another lane will be a big clue as to where they will go.

look out for while lines (especially in wet), and one of my favourites: cats eyes. Can make you slip and wobble. This is not what you want to do when you have lories/cars only centimeteres from you're sides.

Look out for wide lorries or even cars that are positioned towards the lines, ie taking the space you need to filter in. Look a bit ahead, if you think you will not fit through (and let me tell you it will happen) you need to slow down or stop. Better safe than sorry. Also look out for lorry side mirrors, as some are just the right height for whacking your head on. OUCH!

Put you're lights on always. I put a race can on mine and it helps people notice me earlier. I put it in a lower gear, and make the engine rpm that bit higher so its louder. *(well i try to do this...)*, so other road users can hear me.

Make sure you know where slip roads/entrances/junctions are on the road. Cars entering the road via slip road or a side road will NOT see you filtering. Slow down, when you go past, and untill you are sure you have the time/space to move past the hazzard safely. I nearly made this mistake, and had to dodge this car. Its not nice, as my biike could have been written off and i could have recieved some injurues. But you learn from you're mistakes, and now i can warn you , so i guess it wasn't completely bad...

Look out for other bike users filtering. Some will not be as good at filtering as you. Although you dont see them often, they are around. So its mirror blind spot check always, remember. It would be very silly to crash into another filtering bike. But if you ever in London, you will soon find out it is a more common hazzard than you think. Some people really have no idea how to filter properly.

Thats all i can think of at the moment. Just remember to be relatively slow, and scan left and right the traffic ALL THE TIME. Pick up all the clues from the traffic (you will get used to taking in all the infomation) and filtering will be safe and rewarding.

P.s. you can apply these things to other roads, as i have been focusing on Motorway filtering.

At high speed .e 70 80 90, with free flowing traffic i use the road properly, in the way of filtering ie lane disciplin and all that.

At slower moving traffic, try not to filter too fast (than moving traffic), and follow above tips, and you should be ok.

Be safe. Good luck

[Marc_Buck]

Cover brakes, ride slowly (according to traffic speed), take your time.
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94 fzr600r

[headlamp]

I'm not going to quote some of the other people here about filtering at speed, but all I can say is that you either have a death wish or are completely mad to filter at excessive speed. Particularly in London.

My journey to and from work, rain or shine consists of anything up to 8 miles of filtering. I have done it for 48 weeks, every year for the past four years. I have seen at least a dozen bikes on their side, where they had been filtering and not seen. The golden rule to filtering is to travel at no more than 15 mph faster than the traffic aound you. Cover the brakes, and watch for drivers actions, in their mirrors, as well as the cars front wheel position, white lines, diesel, mobile phone users, etc., etc., etc., and concentrate!

The worst situation I ever encountered was approaching a major junction (Hanger Lane gyratory) on the North Circular, and a Polish (I could tell by the plates) opened his door to gob right in front of me. As I was going at approx. 15 mph I managed to stop 3 inches from his head, as he had bent down. I doubt he will do that again in a hurry!

So, if you are new to filtering my advice is take it slow and if a queue of bikes builds up behind you then just pull in and let them pass.


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[ranna]

https://www.superbike.co.uk/content/videos.htm

check out that link roozor its got a video near the bottom of a greek commuter who knows how to filter like a mad man

obviously i do not recommend you do it like this i'm just showing you as you requested a tank cam video

towards bottom right, greek commuter about 13mb
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