Spidey senses

[The Disapproving Brit]

It's happened to me a few times. Just this morning I had an exact repeat of this incident - camera wasn't running but it was the same roundabout, the same lane positioning, pretty much a duplicate of this scenario. . The only difference is he was driving an Audi instead of a BMW, and this time he had the nerve to wind his window down and try and tell me I was the one in the wrong lane.

In both cases I'd seen the guy approaching in the other lane, just had a feeling "he's going left", and had taken it a little easier pulling out to make sure I a) wasn't in front of him, and b) had time to stop when he cut me up.

Anyone else have these moments where you just "know" a driver is going to do something stupid?
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Current Bikes: 1983 Honda VF400FD / 2003 Honda VT750 Shadow
Bike Test Passed 18/03/09, Car Test Passed 14/05/13

[CaNsA]

Yeppers. After a while on the road you are able to predict what traffic is going to do, to a certain degree, and you learn to trust your instincts and not get deaded.

[esullivan]

Someone told me a good rule of thumb -- if you start to frown, ease off the throttle and/or cover the brake. Develop an awareness of this puzzled/furrowed-brow expression and you'll often avoid someone braking, u-turning, pulling out on you or cutting you off. It has served me well a few times.

I think it's because parts of our mind is quicker at recognizing when something "odd" is happening around us, often well before our conscious mind is able to articulate a narrative to explain it. By the time our conscious mind becomes aware that the old man on the far right lane is swinging his head around, for example, he'll have cut across us trying to make a junction. But some part of our mind is aware and the eyebrows start to move together...

It's similar to that feeling that you are being watched or whatever. Your subconscious mind, or maybe the primitive part of you that evolved to avoid predators, I don't know. But it works for me.
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Current: '14 VFR800X Test passed 31/10/12.
Previous: '12 NC700S, '11 CBF 125, '04 SH 125.

[-Matt-]

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

[arry]

Had a similar sort of feeling on Saturday heading down towards Burnham.

Through the town centre - a little tight with parked cars on both sides in bays on the right but they just jut out into the road a little bit, enough to make it difficult for a car and a van to get through without a squeeze.

Coming towards me are 2 cyclists taking a reasonable road position, in line with each other. Car behind them is catching them and will be on their tail within 20 yards or so.

Usually I'd hold my position towards the white line in my lane to give me some breathing space if anyone decides to open a door or step out from round the back of a parked high sided car / van but something must have told me the car was about to go around the cyclists regardless of what was coming and we'd be head on, so I dipped in a foot or two to the left and sure enough the car squeezes both the cyclists and I towards the parked cars without a care in the world.

I've had the debate in my mind whether it was me changing my positioning that gave the car the all clear to go round or whether it'd just have happened anyway and I'm lucky to have avoided it in good time - the two happened pretty much simultaneously from what I remember. I've no doubt if I'd have held position there'd have been drama.

[map]

I have had these incidents/feelings a few times.

You're going down the road and just feel that car is about to pull out of that junction. So you slow down and the car pulls out.

Now when that happens I get confused. Did the car pull out because I slowed down or did I just slow down because the car was about to pull out?

Still, at the end of the day I've kept shiny side up so that's all good.
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...and the whirlwind is in the thorn trees, it's hard for thee to kick against the pricks...
Gibbs, what did Duckie look like when he was younger?

[waffles]

Rather than waiting in the correct lane for a roundabout, people seem to choose the one with the shortest queue these days. I have seen people in the left lane with their right indicators on and vice versa.
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Theory test - 19/8/09, CBT - 11/10/09, MOD 1 - 16/8/10, MOD 2 - 27/10/10
Past rides Yamaha XT125X, Triumph TT600, Honda XR250
Current rides Suzuki GSXR 600, Honda MSX125

[lukamon]

[bugeye_bob]

After a few years on the road you tend to pick up on a Car/Van/Lorries body language, you get a feeling when you follow them.

[pinkyfloyd]

Part of my CBT Element D talk, just before we go on the road is as follows:

As you are riding along, anticipate the road ahead, look around you. See something, car, person, dog, etc at the side of the road or a junction think "Can they pull out? Have they seen me?". If you can think it, someone is stupid enough to do it. You have to imagine that everyone out there are idiots and you are the only safe person out there.

Sadly, its very true. I almost killed a young cyclist the other day heading back to the yard. Watched the 2 students in front of me pass and then without a left look to see if I was coming started to ride across the road. Luckily for her I had saw her and used the above rule. I would have had no problem running the silly mare over. I'd have even less problem going to her parents house and handing them a bill for my bike which she damaged but if its avoidable I would rather not damage said bike.
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illuminateTHEmind wrote: I am just more evolved than most of you guys... this allows me to pick of things quickly which would have normally taken the common man years to master
Hockeystorm65:.well there are childish arguments...there are very childish arguments.....there are really stupid childish arguments and now there are......Pinkfloyd arguments!
Teflon-Mike:I think I agree with just about all Pinky has said.

[dydey90]

Fuckwittery on the roads is one of the few constants in the world. It's amazing how you can sometimes just tell that even though somebody is driving completely normal, they're about to try to kill you. You can see it a mile off in the theory test hazard perception videos.
I generally avoid or brake, but only enough to be clear. Then when I blast the old horn, they know they could have killed me and hopefully think twice next time. Hopefully.
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This post is probably not serious and shouldn't be taken literally.
Past: CBR125,ER6f NINJA 650, ZZR600 Current: VFR750

[Rogerborg]

Sure, I can always sense them. In fact, I ride with the blast shield down.
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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

[map]

[FriendlyEllis]

On the video with the BMW the big hint is when he hesitates as he's pulling out on the roundabout... His "aaaa eerrm eerrrrr...I'm in the wrong lane moment ".

I guess this is what your Spidey Sense picked up on. Although you Spidey Sense is actually just a mixture of good observation skills and experience. We should all practice this all of the time.

I wish they'd run adverts that says
"IF YOU MISS YOUR TURN..... GO ROUND AGAIN"

It adds 20 seconds onto a journey to go round again but people seem to panic and just go for it.

It just shows, in cars people don't "drive" as a task itself.

There's no point telling people who aren't thinking about driving at all to "Think Bike"
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Honda CB600F Hornet 2013 -> Kawasaki Z1000SX ABS Tourer 2015

[The Disapproving Brit]

[Teflon-Mike]

Few years ago, next door neighbour had asked me to give her a lift to her sisters in the Rangie. Coming back, she was nattering away at me in the passenger seat, as we came to the T-Junction onto the main road, at end of her sisters estate, when, about thirty feet from the give way.. and no other traffic near.. I did an e-stop...

There was a pause, as passenger realised something wasn't quite right, looked around, and got s far as saying "Why d.." when there was an almighty thud, a sound like nails dragged down a black-board, followed by something akin to hail falling in a zylaphone, as the debris landed.

An MG-F had been about to turn right, off the main road, into the road we were on, but had barely nosed into sight, when I e-stopped, before a ford escort ploughed into him at about 50per, spinning the MG around and pushing it onto the pavement.

First on the scene was a bike coppa... he calmed down the drivers, and turned to by standers, none of whome had seen the actual collission, apart from me; so asked me what had happened, and i told him. He looked up the road, at the Rangie...
"Why did you back it up there?"
"I didn't, that's where I stopped"
He looked at the junction, walked up to the Rangie, looked at what he could see of the collission site.... walked back to me.
"You saw the Escort from back there, BEFORE it hit the MG?"
"No" I said.
"So if you couldn't see the car that was about to hit the MG... why did you stop?"
"I'm a biker"
"Ah!" He said, a relieved and knowing expression coming over his face..."The sixth sense, eh?" and walked away.

Its acute hyper awareness; you just process the smallest details for clues.

Many years before, I'd been in the car coming home from work, and I 'reacted' as if a car in front was about to swerve; but didn't, and I was sat behind, trying to work out why I'd though he was going to do that, when I spotted that the back edge of his front tyre was 'just' poking out from the wheel arch... he HAD gone to swerve, but stopped before he did.

Its tiny little hints and clues like that that your brain is processing and making inferences from, but doesn't have time to form into coherent thoughts, just impulses.

When the MG was totalled, I think what I reacted to was a twitch of his bonnet and another of his front wheels, implying HE had reacted to something, so a hazard was about to happen.

Just as well really, as I I had carried on, to where I would have seen the accident about to happen; Escort would have slammed the MG into my front quarter, rather than shoved him up onto the pavement.

Trouble is... you get used to this sixth-sense / acute hazard awareness saving you SO often..... too many expect it to always save them.

Not all idiots are so considerate as to offer the micro-clues we use to spot them.
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My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[ADSrox0r]

Pretty much any time I see an Audi or a Beemer, guaranteed to be a fuckwit at the wheel that thinks the law doesn't apply to them. I always give them a wide berth because I just know they're going to do something cuntish.

[Rogerborg]

[mikesaa309]

I was once behind a car and the driver didn't seem quite with it. And a while back she had to change lanes which although not a big issue made me a bit weary of her. The road turns back into a single lane road for a while then back into two lanes. I normally don't sit right next to cars in a multi-lane road and try to keep out of blind spots as best I can but I had this feeling that she was gonna change lane, no sooner had I thought that she comes into my lane without warning.

The lanes are left for straight on and right for turning right. We were both in the left lane. as you go straight over a box junction there's another two lanes this time you have to go in the right hand lane for straight on and left hand lane for a left and it's fairly obvious as if you try going straight on in the left lane you'll hit a fence. Sure enough she gets into the left hand lane and I was 100% sure she's intending to go straight on. Surely enough she goes straight on. Surprising how it's possible to make the same mistake 3 times despite lanes being clearly labelled and I understand her not realizing what lanes to get into but she didn't deal with changing lanes properly i.e. indicating and checking mirrors, possibly a shoulder check but hardly any car drivers do that.

[tbourner]

I'm sure it's just a case of experience, of having been in lots of situations where things like that happen and as Tef said tiny little movements and positioning that you don't actually see but your brain picks up on, it links to memory of an action, probably why younger drivers have more accidents no matter how good they actually are at driving and no matter how aware they are.
You probably do it to a lesser extent all the time, someone in lane 2 is about to pull into lane 1 without indicating, you hang back - I've even flashed people before as I was THAT certain they were going to do a twat move! People coming around a roundabout that you know they're going to exit or not. It's these obvious ones that we can probably assess; the car weight distribution changing or them lifting off the throttle etc., it still happens with the more strange incidents but the clues are more subtle and you need to have had that bit more experience to see them.
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Trev, now a biker?
Looking for first big bike.

[_mjs_]

I was out and about up in North Yorkshire over the weekend, really giving it some when I sensed what I can only describe as 'a disturbance in the Force' so slowed down to legal speeds.

Lo and behold half a mile later just around a bend, a scamera van with an Audi pursuit car, definately dodged a bullet there
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Previous Bikes: 2006 Honda XR125L > 2003 Yamaha DT125R > 1996 Honda CB500
Current bikes: 1997 Kawasaki ZZR 600 E5 > 2006 Honda Varadero XL125V

[mikesaa309]