Filtering speed??

[lucky rsm]

So the other day on the way to work A13 towards london, 3 lane's 50mph speed limit.
Been stuck behind a cop car for a few miles outside lane doing 50mph, the traffic starts to get congested slowing to 40mph, the copper look's like he's moving to the right to allow me to pass but i'm not sure so stay put,
The traffic slow's more to 30mph, the copper still more to the right of his lane so i go past.

I'm just wondering what your thought's are on filtering, and at what speed, would you have gone past. At the 40 mark?, or before that?, or just sat behind no matter what??
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cb500s, er6f, er6f, Gsx650fK9

[Mikey3]

Generally I would say above 40 filtering is unnecessary. It can create more risks, and more severe effects if anything did go wrong.
I personally try not to filter at anything more than 10-15mph faster than the speed of traffic, but over 30/40 you're making up enough ground its not worth the risk, IMO.
Of course, all this is based on conditions and surroundings, so there is no concrete rules. I think this situation would be for the best conditions. But adjust sensibly and accordingly.
And always remember, you're generally the one who'll come off worse
HTH
Mike
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'04 Yamaha WR450F
'99 SV650 Streetfighter Project - mid build
'Motorcycling is about what you do; not about what you own, or how much you spend on it'

[Benson_JV]

I regularly filter through traffic at around 50-60mph. It's all down to how you feel about it IMHO.
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Willson - "If you go out on that CBR600 in the winter, you're going to do more miles on your side than on your wheels."
Riding: CBR600FW Driving: Audi A6
Previous Bikes: '96 Bandit 600, '96 GPz305

[Mikey3]

[Llama-Farmer]

I would say it depends on any one situation.

Lane width, number of lanes, traffic speed, filtering/relative speed, urgency.

Filtering through rush hour traffic on one of the 30mph dual-carriageways in Sheffield (Penistone Road for anyone that knows the area) some days you might feel comfortably doing 20mph relative to everyone else's 10mph, other days the cars positioning in the lane might not give you the space you feel comfortable with, so different days mean different situations even on the same road.

I'd not feel comfortable filtering on the pizza moped at anything above 20 though, and wouldn't filter with a relative speed of more than about 10mph, purely because of the limits of the ped and the fact I could stop it just as quickly by putting my feet down as I could using the brakes.

Wouldn't particularly see the need to filter if traffic was moving at more than half the speed limit though... so 15mph on a normal road, somewhere between around 40 on the motorway. At that those speeds on those roads, I feel drivers probably have enough to worry about in front of them without keeping an eye in their mirrors and giving filtering motorcyclists room.

[Llama-Farmer]

[P.]

Learn to read the road more than the car in front.

I tend to regularly filter at 60/70 on the M20, it gets congested quite bad and I tend to read about 10 cars ahead really.. a badly aimed headlight and loud can and backfiring gets most peoples attention...but you'll learn to spot cars that are going to move, wheel angle, seeing faces in mirrors etc.

[Mikey3]

Reading the road is one of the most important skills filtering.
I still wouldn't filter at motorway speeds.
Thing is, no matter how good you are at reading the road, we still can't stop car drivers doing something unpredictable, which is by no means out of the question. (most, not ALL car drivers; some are bikers too )
I do agree though that some agressive exhaust work and bright lights helps - perhaps EVEN A HIGH VIS? like the gov' so kindly suggest to HELP us out...... .
Like I said above, generally above 40 I'd call it unnecessary and more down to impatience, compared to the significant gain in slow moving, heavy traffic.
Mike
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'04 Yamaha WR450F
'99 SV650 Streetfighter Project - mid build
'Motorcycling is about what you do; not about what you own, or how much you spend on it'

[J.M.]

Also, don't rush in to doing it at the speeds that "everyone else does it."

The other day was my first time filtering on in a city, it was on one of the dual-carriageways with a 40mph speed limit. I regularly filter on the way to college, but these roads are all just one lane in either direction.

Long story short, the traffic is going at a crawl. Either not moving or moving slowly at a few mph. I was filtering down the middle of the two lanes at about 15 or 20 mph or so I would guess (I wasn't watching my speedo.) A gap materialised on my right and an indicator from a larger vehicle on the left came on. I panicked because I was almost level with the vehicle on the left, and I just carried on. Luckily either the car driver saw me or the gap wasn't big enough for them yet. Either way it was an eye opener for me.

So in short, just filter at a speed that you feel safe and comfortable with.
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2004 R1 & 2018 XSR900

[Rogerborg]

Given the standards of observation and judgement that I've come to expect from police drivers, I'd rather stick my Roger-todger into some industrial machinery operated by a fat ugly feminist than trust a plodmobile to leave room to get past.

Heck, they could have got an emergency shout that there's a sale on at Greggs, and then where would you have been?
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[G]

It depends on how close you are to London for a start - police in London tend to be a lot more relaxed about such things.

The police who radar'd me undertaking at 119mph said I was getting away from through traffic when they were doing 140mph (I didn't realise I was being chased) - not sure that quite the case, but it's certainly possible to safely filter at high speed.

Overall, I generally see more accidents and close calls from slower filtering.
How many of those who criticise the faster filtering have actually tried it for a decent period?

[Ingah]

20/20 rule is good to begin with as a newbie, i.e. as a rule of thumb. As G is suggesting though, over time it can become less relevant.

The 20/20 rule: Filter only if other vehicles are moving at 20mph or less, and do not exceed the speed of the vehicles you are passing by more than 20mph.

Example: Traffic is moving at 10mph, filtering is OK at up to 30mph*.

Example 2: Traffic is moving at 25mph, do not filter.

*Extremely dependent on conditions etc, you need to use your head as this is a rule of thumb only!

Generally, i'd say it's best to be cautious and not to filter, than to filter at increased risk (i.e. approaching a junction). Only time i broke this sort of rule was when i was delivering pizza, but wouldn't like to go back to such a job, as i'd made it too risky because of the risks i took to shortcut my deliveries.
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-- Ingah

[Llama-Farmer]

[Mikey3]

I don't think low speed filtering is mainly for 'newbies'. I personally believe its more sensible.
Also, accidents may be more in low speed filtering, but probably because most filtering takes place at low speeds, rather than at high speeds.
As with anything with filtering, no matter how good you are, you're putting trust into car drivers not to do something unexpected - like swerve across a lane or similar whilst texting or what have you.
I think there is a fine line between confidence and ignorance when filtering. Yes do it as you feel safe, but generally at low speeds, yes accidents happen, but less severe than if something DID go wrong at high speeds, and with easier manouverability.
Filtering is a bit of a 'dark art'. Wide lanes also do help a lot, and as inviting as it can be, iv always tried to prepare for the unexpected, and sometimes that moment of thought stops you doing something.
Mike
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'04 Yamaha WR450F
'99 SV650 Streetfighter Project - mid build
'Motorcycling is about what you do; not about what you own, or how much you spend on it'

[junglejim]

There was a guy killed on the A2 near where I live last year.
I knew someone who witnessed it, and he tells me the rider was filtering through heavy traffic moving that was moving at about 30mph when a car moved across and clipped him.
Horrible, but I've never advocated filtering in those circumstances.
I filter through static traffic but once it starts moving I slip back in and go with the flow, until it stops again.
Before anyone says, ah ya wuss, all I can say is that I've been riding 30 years, with 25 of those years with the bike as my main transport in London and I have never had a filtering accident, so I must be doing something right.

[G]

[c_dug]

The A13 is pretty decent for filtering to be honest, especially at rush hour when people expect plenty of bikes.

I don't have a dead set rule, I just go on how I feel, I have filtered through traffic moving at 80mph plenty of times, and have also sat in traffic that I could get through too.

Had one side on bump while filtering on the A127 between moving traffic at 50mph, could have ended very badly but I got lucky and kept shiney side up. Wouldn't really blame the driver, I was in her blind spot, though I was right beside the passenger window if she'd bothered to look before attempting to move! Neither of us stopped anyway.
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I am a bellend, I am a man of constant sorrow, I am a gummy bear, I am a rock.

[G]

[Muscle Bike Rider]

I filter the A13 on a regular basis, if traffic is moving at 30mph upwards I stay in lane, anything below I'll filter up to 30mph but will pull in for faster bikes behind, often have to drop below 30mph as I wont filter inbetween two lorries due to the smaller gap and their lack of view of me, I'll wait till one is front then go. Best advice is only filter if your comfortable doing it and stick to a speed your happy with, you can always pull across to let faster riders past you and keep an eye on cars starting to drift as it often means their about to change lanes if they think another lane is moving faster.
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Previously Known As A5tra_G
Old Bikes :2010 Kawasaki ER6 F & 2000 Honda VTR Firestorm
Current Bike : XJR1300

[Tenko]

I'd be reluctant to overtake the plod in that situation - he may have been having a wank and pulling to the left instead...

[sepher]

This confuses me, as I was watching police interceptors the other night and some guy unknownly filtered past an unmarked police car – the speed I’m not sure but it wasn’t ridiculous maybe 30-40mph I think? The funny thing was, the undercover car didn’t move out of the way and when the biker finally got past he stuck his two fingers up. Talk about wrong place, wrong time hah.

Anyhow he got told he was in the wrong for undertaking traffic at speed, plus he broke some law for sticking his fingers up and the only time the undercover car saw him was when he was next to them. Now I always like to make progress, so I will filter everywhere now even at traffic lights to get away from the traffic unless I’m only one, two, three cars behind. A good example is the A127 (if anyone uses it) and it has a lot of average speed cameras on. Hopefully I’m correct in saying that these cameras mean nothing to me, so I filter through all the traffic crawling through it all going at around 50 – 55mph as the traffic gets pretty congested. Normally I’ll stick too the outside lane, but there is always one idiot who refuses to let a bike past and sits in the fast lane even tho the slow lane is empty – then I will undertake and get past.

So are we breaking any rules by undertaking and going faster filtering through traffic?

[Kickstart]

Hi

From memory from a post by T.C, the acceptable speed for filtering before they can start to view it as being dubious is something like 10~20mph.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[G]

When the police radar'd me at 119mph they gave the suggestion that if I'd just been in the outside lane, they may not have chased me - it was the act of undertaking at the same time which made it Dangerous Driving. There's nothing specific against undertaking, but it can be used as part of something else against - without due car or dangerous etc.

[c_dug]

Just to confirm the point about the A127, I've averaged well into three figures from the Canvey Island slip road to the end of the Average Speed cameras and not had anything through
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I am a bellend, I am a man of constant sorrow, I am a gummy bear, I am a rock.

[FBSF]