Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

This struck a chord.

Nearly everyone who has ridden a bike for any length of time will agree. The highways are crowded with people who drive as if their sole purpose in getting behind the wheel is to avenge every wrong ever done to them by man, beast, or fate. The only thing that keeps them in line is their own fear of death, jail, and lawsuits, which are much less likely if they can find a motorcycle to challenge, instead of another two-thousand pound car or a concrete abutment. … Because the only thing that can alter their careless, ingrained driving habits is a threat of punishment, either legal or physical, and there is nothing about a motorcycle to threaten any man in a car.

- Hunter S. Thompson in his book “Hell’s Angels”

Because I drive for a living I see examples all the time. However whenever I get on a bike I see things that scare p*ss and pickhandles out of me. I'm not sure if its only because your much more exposed on a bike or if they really do treat you differently because your on a bike. I know they treat heavy vehicles differently; both afraid of and impatient at the same time.

Possible reasons for their behavior could be: because the car driver is jealous of the freedom and system bucking represented by a bike. Because the car driver is down on bike riders for a percieved slight, or the fact your a sports-bike rider or a cruiser rider or whatever. Because the car driver needs the car as a penis extension, and hence must challenge everything to a pissing contest. It may be just because they are so cocooned by technology and engineering that they have no idea at all what it is they are doing.

I realize this is probably a variation of a re-hash of innumerable prior threads. But some recent experiences have taken the glow off having a new bike and added a fair measure of distrust. So what are your thoughts and experiences?


*starting to wonder if motorbike riders should have the right to bear arms*

We already have the right to bear arms.

Its just usually called squiding

What a load of shit......

It all boils down to the fact that as a motorcyclist you should treat every other roaduser as a complete idiot (9 times out of 10 they'll prove it true).
It used to be drummed into you as a learner car driver too, but surrounded by mobile phone, car radio, drinks, make up, big mac etc. the brain forgets.

well I spend my days riding a bike in circles around the brisbane cbd sometimes slow sometimes fast and sometimes in between.

The cage is a territorial thing to some and girls driving black v8 landcruisers are to be avoided, some feel that they are entitled to pull across so as to make sure you cant lanesplit.

I usually just pick the gap and disapear if something dodgy looks like its about to happen....anyone driving the car with the family pet is also to be avoided as well as people driving while useing the mobile phone and applying makeup while eating a big mac lol.

I actually got sent to a fatality the other day because i was one of 2 bikes delivering in that area at the time and i was still talking..despatch couldnt account for the other bike...wasnt him either thankfully.

falx wrote:....So what are your thoughts and experiences? ....

Plenty, and I could fill a book with experiences both good and bad. I have found that *most* cage drivers give the 12 plenty of room, and give way when they are meant to.

This does not happen on the 750 dirtbike. They cut straight across your path as though you didn't exist. I can only imagine with some measure of horror what it must be like on a 250 only worse in all probability.......

Over the years it has come to pass that road-rage is just a waste of time, and you should never trust a car driver to do the right thing. If they do, well and good. Be prepared for the possibility that they won't.

I use to tell newbies that "every car wants to kill you", and you should ride with this in mind. After 37 years riding, I think its still good advice.....

Gosling1 wrote:I use to tell newbies that "every car wants to kill you", and you should ride with this in mind. After 37 years riding, I think its still good advice.....

Very sound advice indeed... I have found a marked difference between how cars behave from when i rode my NSR and my current 636...could also be the fact I stopped wearing the puffer fish suit....

When my dad taught me to drive, one of *the* first things he told me was "treat everyone on the road like they are an idiot and they didn't see you". Some of the best advice i've ever gotten, and is up there with "always carry a rubber" (i blame my mates for that last quote).

Anyway i've applied the "everyone is an idiot" logic to whenever i go near a roadway, be it on a bike, in the car or just walking/on the pushy. Hey it's helped me stay out of a number of accidents. Including on the way to work tonight where someone missed a lanechange at a roadworks and nearly forced the car in front of me into a barrier, numpties, the f*in lot of them!

greeny wrote:We already have the right to bear arms.

Its just usually called squiding

bear arms?? mate ur arms wouldnt even rate as "teddy bear" arms....


now my cannons on the other hand.... (or arm really)

Gosling1 wrote:I use to tell newbies that "every car wants to kill you", and you should ride with this in mind. After 37 years riding, I think its still good advice.....

Agreed - that's how I ride/rode.
Wake up every morning thinking - 'what will they try to do to me today?'
As others have mentioned you do learn to pick up some of the signs to avoid - mum's in 4x4's, P-platers, people who can't maintain lane position - and you just get past em to deal with the next.
I suggest never hang back though - much better to be going slightly faster than the rest of the traffic, even if that means lane-splitting (do it safely though!). You only have to worry about people ahead and to the side of you then, less about the people behind. If you sit with the traffic people eventially forget you're there.
Lastly - most riders drive a car too, stay out of what you know is a driver's blind-spot. Get out of it as fast as you can.

My 3c
ty

hammer wrote:What a load of shit......

As in you ride it like its a 200kmh dickhead missile and they are afraid of you because of that? Thanks for your lucid insightful comment, now pike off.

Given that I've been lane split by a landcruiser (she used the bicycle lane to get in there) its not like I left much room. I've had a commodore taking a demo for a run tailgate me, with the sales rep in the car... the list grows every day.

I'm interested in the things others do to deal with the idiots.

I'll admit I used to be a major road rager - then I got a bike.

All my road rage melted away. I don't view cages as idiots who are trying to kill me - I view them as faulty robots who do random shit. This lets me have minimal anger at drivers - I'm not perfect so there's always exceptions where the idiocy and carelessness makes me see red, but it's harder to get in a raging fit at a 'faulty robot'.

I honestly believe anger detracts from your ability to stay safe on the roads, so I've consciously tried to let it go and focus on survival and pre-emptive actions (not travelling in blind spots, being aware of what everyone around me is doing and how well they're doing it, etc).

Won't keep me safe if my number is up, but it might let me avoid a few offs and insurance claims.

I just ride like I am in Stealth mode.

I am cloaked with invisibility and must move faster than anything else on the road. On my secret mission to Save the World of course......

I was chatting to a guy I know that used to ride a ZX7R and now rides a harley clone. He says one of the biggest differences on the road is how much more respect he gets now from car drivers...they just seem to scared too piss off the potential bro

Mick C wrote:I was chatting to a guy I know that used to ride a ZX7R and now rides a harley clone. He says one of the biggest differences on the road is how much more respect he gets now from car drivers...they just seem to scared too piss off the potential bro

maybe its the arse-less leather chaps ??