Unspoken Filtering Racing

[dragstaar]

I do this all the time.

Maybe its because I ride in London which involves pretty much 95% filtering.

For those of you who are thinking "wtf is this guy on about" let me explain.

Unspoken filtering racing seems to occur when a group of motorcyclists who have never met each other are travelling along a road, (usually a main one like the ol' A23 down my way, which goes all the way into central so you usually stay together for a while).

As you reach traffic, you find yourself taking different filtering routes, some will take the bus lane, others will take the white line etc, and each time you reach a bottle-neck, you get a sense of victory as you successfully filter out and poor sod other-biker gets stuck behind a van.

Then as he catches up it all starts again, racing, but more strategic racing, lining yourself up knowing that so many cars will turn off here, knowing that theres a "turning lane" that'll be empty and you can just shoot straight ahead.

Then there's the lols of someone taking a ballsy manouvre then having to slam on the brakes because he didn't know there was a traffic island there and you want to shout out "HAH! NOooOB why'd you think I undertook the bus, dickhead"

Certainly seems to make the commute more fun

[Tungtvann]

Motorway is good too. Plodding along and have some biker pass you, 'I think not, good sir, stand by!' And off I go. Doesn't work so well when I'm in the car though...

[Banger]

This happens all the time on my daily ride into work across Blackheath common on the A2 and down into Lewisham - Old Kent Road !

Narrows the field a lot. Less about what bike you are on and much more about who knows the road / way the traffic flows at what time of day . . . that and who has the bigger kahoonas some times.

The sense of smugness achievable from playing this game is mahoosive.
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You only get one lap of lifes track . . . . so make it a fast one !
Yamaha . . Keyboards to biking nirvana.

[c_dug]

It's what makes commuting through the city on the bike so fun!

I'd say it is 40% balls, 40% skill/knowledge of the road and 20% the bike you are on.
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I am a bellend, I am a man of constant sorrow, I am a gummy bear, I am a rock.

[j.silvs]

I do this every day lol.

A1 into central london! I love it - never beat the bloody Penigale tho

[Derivative]

Not been into London much, are most of the roads 50 like the North Circular or are they lower?

Filtering racing for me would generally be a suicide race, most of my filtering is on congested motorways. I mean, you *could* do 70 (officer) down the gap but.....

[G]

Pulled up at a set of lights next to someone who lived on my road who was also on a sports 600 some years ago.

He got left behind.

"I didn't realise it was a race."

"It's always a race", I explained!

[esullivan]

I do this in my head on the way home (Finsbury Square->Barbican->Kings Cross->Marlybone Flyover->A40). On the way in, I go in so early that filtering is necessary only when pulling up to lights, so it's not much of a race.

I'm currently most comfortable in the middle of the pack. I used to be way at the back and pull off constantly to let other riders past. Now I keep up, but I'm not among the 20-year-olds doing wheelies off the lights, undertaking buses turning left or filtering at 40mph between lanes crawling at 5mph. That's Darwin territory...
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Current: '14 VFR800X Test passed 31/10/12.
Previous: '12 NC700S, '11 CBF 125, '04 SH 125.

[yen_powell]

I like to have someone in front of me who filters at the same speed.

They act as biking's equivalent of a canary in a cage for me.
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Blackmail is a nasty word........but not as nasty as phlegm!
XT1200Z and a DR350 in bits

[The Shaggy D.A.]

[c_dug]

I don't mind being at the front with my noisy pipes, I do struggle a bit with my mirrors though. I was unbeatable when I had my CBR

My absolute number one hate is people who can see somebody has caught up with them and yet wont move over even when there are plenty of gaps to do so. You end up with a tail of 10 or more bikes chained like a game of snake. Then some cock who I passed 5 miles back cunts it up the inside lane causing all of the cars to swerve towards the slow biker and his snake tail. Then, when I eventually get passed Mr Filter-Blocker I have to re-pass inside lane cunt, again!
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I am a bellend, I am a man of constant sorrow, I am a gummy bear, I am a rock.

[Alpha-9]

I love filtering racing, it's only ever me and some guy on a 'supermoto' 125 I keep running into, he's so high up on the thing he sees over all the cars, but i'm tall as fuck so can anyway

Problem is speeding, hard not to get cocky and race each other, especially hilarious when its my 600 versus their 125 and they think they're awesome doing 50mph
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Fzr-600 1999

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

[Sable]

My whole journeys A40 & A406 and I currently keep getting stuck behind a slow arse filtererer on a fat sports bike near 7:10am on the A40. I cry every time I get stuck behind him. Nowhere to pass in solid lines of traffic and he never pulls over to lets us pass. There must have been 8 of us stuck behind him this mornin doing 10mph in 9mph traffic >.<

[j.silvs]

Haha

What bike do you ride sable?

I sometimes take A406

[yen_powell]

[CaNsA]

[Lord Percy]

I was filter racing this morning. Don't really do London at rush hour, but had an exam to get to. I let loads of bikes past me actually as I knew they'd be more on the ball with it, but me and one other guy were neck and neck for the entire M4/A4 right up to Hyde Park corner when he went another way. Was pretty fun . Although we weren't properly racing, but we were both well aware of each other being there, snaking along different lanes, sometimes I was behind him and sometimes him behind me.

[Alpha-9]

After clipping a mirror or two with my stupid bar ends I stop over committing to tiny gaps for the sake of getting in front of a single car

all this time and I havent even been on a motorway yet
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Fzr-600 1999

[The Shaggy D.A.]

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

Fifteen15 egged me on to follow him in some filtering the other day in york (bad influence, that boy!). Felt goooood. Very gooooood. Not entirely sure why, mind you. I mean, I actually don't get that fucked off by traffic. Especially in york cos the totty passing by is in-fucking-credible a lot of the time. And yet that little bit of slow manoeuvring that gets you to the bike box is its own reward somehow.
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"Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent."

Mobylette Type 50 ---> Raleigh Grifter ---> Neval Minsk 125

[Muscle Bike Rider]

Ahhh the A13 filter scramble, I'm not the quickest but I'm not slow, often get stuck behind a guy on an ex police bike, he still has the light on a pole on the rear and wears a hi viz with Polite on it, causes all the traffic to slow as he must get mistaken for a copper. On my way home I usualy get owned by a fit young lady in pink leathers on an R6 I think, she is quick and dont hang around.
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Previously Known As A5tra_G
Old Bikes :2010 Kawasaki ER6 F & 2000 Honda VTR Firestorm
Current Bike : XJR1300

[Sable]

[Sable]

[Pete.]

Or he gains smug satisfaction from having a tiny bit of control over others actions.

I followed a slowie on the A2 one day years ago, getting frustrated and considering forcing a pass. half a mile later he got lane-chopped by a dude in an escort van, glanced off the side of that and went splat into the back of a Transit. Glad I stayed behind then.
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a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good