Dropped the kids off at nursery this morning, as usual.
On the way to work afterwards I noticed someone on a MX bike playing knob with the traffic. At the next island I pulled up behind a Bus & the aforementioned knob biker pulls alongside me, indicating to turn left like me. Problem is there’s this bus in front of us. And he’s on the outside. I pull away & leave a bit of a gap for knob biker to move in to, & the bus goes straight on. Trouble is he’s then realised that a slippery wet (& possibly icy) traffic island, coupled with his bloody great knobbly MX tyres, have scuppered his plans for a knee down manouvre in order to get in front of me. So he’s forced to canter round the bend & off the island at a slow pace. Never mind, I thought, he’ll come past on the straight so I keep well over to the left.
And sure enough here catches up. But as he gets alongside me he pulls really close & flips my wing mirror forward. At 50mph. I mean, its not as if I did anything to annoy him except drive normally.
I saw red for a minute or two, but then realised he actually works for the same company as me, in the moulding shop next door to my office.
Thinking more about it I fear for this chap. He’s riding between two lanes of traffic moving at 50mph+, along white lines, in cold icy weather & on an off-road bike with knobbly tyres, & he decides on a stupid stunt like that. I’ve ridden motorbikes for a good few years so have a good grasp on how dangerous such actions are.
Trouble is, having known a few lunatics over the years it inevitably ends with a funeral one day.
PT

takisawa2 –
I saw red for a minute or two, but then realised he actually works for the same company as me, in the moulding shop next door to my office.

I think that makes you his bitch now.

Cover his number plate with some paper or sum’t. He probably won’t notice, but the 1st plod he goes past will almost certainly want a word

I know. He owns me now.
Nah, no silly “Getting him back”. Cant be bothered.
Riding like he was I fear for his long term existance.

I’m a biker and I suppose we are all knobs at times, especially when you have 160 mph on tap but I have to agree that there seems to be an increase in knob riders out there, probably the survivors from the knob scooter brigade. There is one on my street and probably because we have an SV1000, a buell and a TDM he always tries an fails to impress past our house. We have watched him be a knob on a scooter, on a 400, he became a real knob on the 636, including shite wheelies and now he enjoys the 1st gear rev limiter sound on his gsxr 750 . I expect floral tributes any day now. My missus rides a Buell and works with a similar knob who always tried to impress by overtaking her on his super? moturd, vest,shorts no gloves, you know the score. She really laughed when he fell off last summer. Knob

My missus rides a Buell

Fouck she must be huge… That’s one thing I always wish I could be tall enough to ride a buell 🙁

Dismantle his bike and own him with his own marzocchis. 😀

flipping your mirror was a seriously dumb thing to do. You could have swerved accidently out of shock thinking you had hit something/someone for a start

I’d go and have a word with him and see why he thought it necessary to hit your mirror, considering he was the one riding like a prat in those conditions.
People like this only do it, as they think there will be no repercussions. A reasonable word with him, will probably embarass him a bit, if nothing else. He probably didn’t even realise it was you.

I have got to work after being cut-up by a colleague who didn’t realise who it was he was driving poorly in front of. Met him in the kitchen making a cuppa and just casually asked him about his dodgy driving technique and he was well embarassed.

See what you mean Stumpy and to some extent I agree. I’d personally leave it though.

I do wonder what you had done that you don’t realise you did to get that reaction? I bet there is something other than what is described above. I bet the motorcyclist would have a different view

bet the motorcyclist would have a different view

Of course he would – he’s a knob, as quite clearly stated in the post

Some complete knobber did something similar to me when I was working in Hemel at 3Com. Except he undertook me on his shitey little 125 and managed to remove my Golf GTi’s nearside wing mirror with his elbow.

He knew he’d done it too, little fecker never stopped and I was too shocked to take his number plate.

Dez – no – the OP thought him a knob but I would bet that the OP cut the motorcyclist up in some way that the OP did not realise in order to get such an aggressive reaction

Is he from south of france?
The driving you are describing is exactly the one I have here. Plonkers on 125 scooter over taking you on the side where you indicator is flashing (I shall point that someone using his indicators in Nice is an occurrence rare enough to be mentioned) wearing casual clothe and half an helmet.

Don’t bother with him, he’s not worth it, just make sure you know what he’s doing in your company so you can help a friend that have been made redundant to have his job the day he’ll get under a lorry.

That always makes me laugh in these situations, TJ……to some people it seems that the driver is always in the wrong and that motorcyclists are roadcraft ubergods.

I have had a motorcyclist shake his fist at me and give me evils for failing to move out of his way as he joined a dual carriageway from a slip road. There was nothing behind me, so he could have just slotted in behind me and I couldnt’ move over as there was a car overtaking me. He could quite easily have rolled off the throttle slightly and got in behind me, but he WANTED to get in front. He then pulled along side me and proceeded to point to his eyes implying ‘did you not see me?’ or ‘look what you are doing’. There are too many motorcyclists who think as they have a faster, more manouevrable vehicle everyone else should get out of their way and bow to their superior power/weight ratio.

And don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against motorcyclists – most of my best mates have had bikes from 17yrs old, but that doesn’t get away from the fact that there are a lot of stupid motorcyclists out there, just as there are a lot of stupid motorists…..

As far as I can see if you pulled over to the left and gave him room (That’s the important bit), then his problems with the road surface etc are totally self inflicted and he was in the wrong. Personally I’d have gone and had a quiet word in his ear, but I understand you not wanting to make anything of it. That’s probably more sensible.

I’ll probably get flamed for this next bit, but hey-ho….

I’ve been in a very similar situation (Me on motorbike) to this, but with one major difference – The bloke really was trying to run me off the road.
I was on my missuses Yamaha DT125 trailie, with L plates on it at the time. A bloke in a Passat decided he didn’t like me filtering past him as he waited at a crossroads. (I don’t know why, he was stationary in traffic, I was moving slowly) I stopped in front of him, on his nearside, behind a big van.
When the lights went green and as we turned right (From outside lane, inside lane went left/straight on) he pulled up on my offside and tried to force me into the kerb of the road we turned into, as we turned right. Yes, there was some hand gestures exchanged at this point but then I realised he wasn’t backing off and probably thought I was a 17 year old kid who needed teaching a lesson. He pulled up so there was no space in front of him (remember the big van?) and my left hand was over the kerb, right hand nearly above his headlight and my wheels in the gutter as I tried to avoid him. I really had no room to go anywhere.

You know what I did? I backed off a tad and as he came close I stamped on his car wing (That he was close enough for me to do that tells you something I think). THEN he backed off, ohh yes. I dropped in behind him and turned off left.

Sounds like the biker was just pissed off that he wasn’t allowed to cut back in line after riding past the queue of traffic. Flipping the mirror at that (or any) speed makes him a nob, whatever the driver may or may not have done.

Well I am from both side of the windows as I own both car and motorbikes. And even if the OP “cut” the motorcyclist off (which apparently she did not) that is not a reason for such behaviour. Stopping next to the car at the traffic light and remembering them of other more fragile road user is a much more appropriate behaviour.

Dez – no – the OP thought him a knob but I would bet that the OP cut the motorcyclist up

Jeremy – no – if the OP had cut the motorcyclist up, or was in some way the wrong doer, he wouldn’t have bothered posting would he? He would’ve thought, “I was a knob there and that bloke took revenge” and got on with his day. Why do you assume he has posted a lie?

I am sure the OP does not know of any incident but my guess would be there is some incident that the OP did not realise. I am not accusing him of lying in any way – just that he might not have seen the whole incident

I have had this happen many times – inconsiderate car drivers cut you up and if you say politely to them – “do you realise what you just did” they have no idea.

Just arguing devils advocate really but it happens every ride you go out on a motorbike.

IME cyclists and motorcyclists who drive are far more aware of what’s around them than the “average” driver.

I ride every day through 80km of traffic between queueing cars and sometimes make the some journey with my car. I can say for sure, things appear very differently from the 2 different vantage points both physically & through driver / rider interpretation.

What seems nothing to a car driver might seem very different to the bike pilot. We feel very vulnerable at times and I certainly get at least 1 scare every day….

I think the message needs to be that both sides need to improve awareness & be considerate. Sitting in a car with the radio on moving forward at 5mph for 30 minutes makes us all drift off into daydreaming land.

It’s also been said many times before but spending some time on 2 wheels (be it motorised or not) really increases the road awareness of car drivers.

That said I have also done some quite stupid things on a bike when I was younger including boot in the door of someone who cut me up (deliberately) 😳

True Dezb

I’d probably ask him what I’d done wrong that he wanted me to be aware of. In front of his colleagues, in a very innocent “I don’t want to put people’s lives at risk by driving badly” sort of phrasing…

Just arguing devils advocate really

Well that is clearly not the news of the day is it?

Marge is spot on. Its individuals perceptions. I drive like an idiot in town/city cutting people up but I see this as normal whereas to others its definitely not.

There are a distinct number of motorcyclists who drive like knobs, cutting people up, sneaking into the smallest space they can find, weaving down lines of traffic at high speed, pulling out thinking they can beat the passing traffic only to find they cant because the road is greasy etc, and generally these same people who get aggressive and say “I left you loads of room” – they may feel more vulnerable and get a scare daily but it doesnt seem to improve their abilities. I know a few (older) bikers who have mellowed somewhat and openly slate most bikers that pass when they are passengers in my car. Makes me wonder if its just that whole macho bravado “i’m a bike ‘pilot’ (pmsl) and I can drive better than you because I’m more aware of the road”. While its an attribute they like to claim goes with riding a bike, I suspect it’s little more than a pipe dream, or that attribute is lost in the adrenalin fueled dash everywhere.

TandemJeremy – Member

I do wonder what you had done that you don’t realise you did to get that reaction? I bet there is something other than what is described above. I bet the motorcyclist would have a different view

As usual, TJ knows all the facts even though he wasn’t there…

He was just playing devil’s advocado (or something)

Two hats can you read? Note the ” I wonder” ” I bet”. In other words its a guess but not an improbable one. No statement of facts just surmise.

Learn to read old chap

Biker here as well – the guys going to hurt/kill himself if he doesn’t learn to behave less like a knob. If you don’t fancy having a word, as suggested aboove, you might want to call the cops. Tell them this is something you “saw” and got the motorcyclist’s number. You don’t want involved, you know charges can’t be pressed baecause it’s just his word against yours, but the appearance of the boys in blue at home (or better, at work) can have a seriously modifying effect on ar5ehole bahaviour.

I think TJ might have a point, however no knows so no point getting into a fuss.

However the OP used to be a biker, so they’re less likely to have made a mistake. Bikers are much better at spotting hazards when they’re driving.

I know you have to make good progress on a motorbike but how come so many seem to drive at 50% over the stated speed limit? Surely they are reaching developing hazzards alot quicker..you know cars pulling out of junctions/misjudging the bikers speed etc 🙄 just thought I’d throw that in there.

PT, its not me anyway, but I have this a lot round Stafford as 3 bankers on scooters dice with death almost everywhere they go, all show L plates but all have total disregard for their own safety, what is it about these bikes that make the riders seem invincible ?

neverfastenough – My guess Newbies or born agains. You either learn to ride fast but safely or crash or stop riding motorbikes / scooters

The biker should have been in the queue of traffic, not trying to cut in. The car driver was under no obligation to help him out of the vulnerable position he put himself in! However he was given an opportunity and he failed to take it.

Seeking revenge for the percieved injustice by damaging a wing mirror like this should qualify him for a 6 month ban IMHO!

As biker and a car driver with 950,000 plus miles of experience, I have gotten used to a percentage of road users to behaving like idiots. This biker was no exception.

It can be tough extending courtesy and keeping a cool head on the roads at all times. I really think that there should be some test of an individual’s volatilty/temperament when taking any driving test, as this is what causes so many accidents. If those marked as a risk were aware of the threat they pose to other road users, they might actually kerb their behaviour! Better still, don’t give them a license!

When I was a despatcher in London mid 80’s anything went except going the wrong side of traffic islands. Got collected twice by cars and had my fair share of booting wings and doors. Some car drivers seem to take great offence to filtering. Seen many bikers recently acting uttter tw*ts, I to would have had a word if he works near you.

spongebob – filtering is legal and encouraged. Infact you can fail your motorbike test if you don’t

^^^ He’s right you know.

One of the guys on my IAM (motorcycle) course flatly refused to do it as he didn’t think it was safe or legal. The IAM observer took him as a pillion on his bike and showed him examples of safe and un-safe filtering. This chap is now qualified and happy to filter, when circumstances permit. He was pleasantly surprised at the amount of progress you can safely make.

Should a driver take exception to filtering, just hang back and let them be. Then pass when safe to do so.