Motorcyclist's Pet Peeves

[Lace Neil Singer]

OK, as a lot of people here know, I ride a motorbike. Only a lickle one, true, but still counts as one. And, unlike what a lot of idiots on the road seem to think, it counts as traffic. -.- Feel free to add to these if you ride a motorbike of any description.

1. Use your bloody eyes. This really gets on my wick cuz there are so many people on the roads who don't bloody look when they're pulling out of side turnings or backing out of driveways. Sometimes they look, see a motorbike coming, discount it, and carry on regardless, which makes me wish a block of frozen piss would land on their car to teach them a lesson. Basically, I don't see why I should have to slam my brakes on, just cuz some cretin in a car either is not looking or thinks that a motorbike doesn't count as traffic.

2. Twats. No other word is needed to describe these idiots who let the side down every time. I'm talking about the dickheads who get on to motorbikes and do the following:

a) Weave in and out of traffic
b) Wear no body protection whatsoever, not even gloves
c) Overtake on the inside
d) Drive with one or no hands
e) Wear sandles or flip flops
f) Take passengers wearing skimpy clothes; I'm looking at you, idiot with bimbo girlf!

Unfortunately, a lot of car drivers see these smeg for brains dolts and assume that all motorcyclists are like them, and act accordingly. -.- I'm innocent before proven guilty, so please don't sound your horn and act like an arse just cuz I happen to be riding along the road on a motorbike.

3. People carriers and four by fours. I hate these cuz firstly, it's impossible to see around them so I'm always on edge in case there's say, a parked car on the side of the road, or a cyclist cuz I won't see it til I'm close up. Second, these are nearly always driven by idiot women who really should be driving smaller cars and who commit every single driving crime known to humankind.

4. "Look, no penis!" Mostly Jaguars or Beemers, but can be any large car that accentuates the driver's lack of a penis. Most of these people delight in tailgating me, ignoring the fact that it's a 40mph speed limit, sounding their horn to try and get me to pull over and generally acting in a dickheaded way. Sorry, but the only vehicle I pull over to let pass me is an ambulance. I am going someplace as well as you, and I am not going to pull over for every single idiot who thinks they own the road.

5. Old people. I know that there are a lot of elderly people who drive carefully and these are not them. I mean the ones who drive at a snail's pace, and who weave all over the road so that no-one can get past them. They particularly annoy me as a motorcyclist cuz get this, I have to put my foot down. -.- Especially when someone keeps braking for no reason, and it's nearly always someone with a flat cap. Grr.

[tphillip]

As a fellow motorcyclist you should be used to all this.

1. Use your bloody eyes. This really gets on my wick cuz there are so many people on the roads who don't bloody look when they're pulling out of side turnings or backing out of driveways. Sometimes they look, see a motorbike coming, discount it, and carry on regardless, which makes me wish a block of frozen piss would land on their car to teach them a lesson. Basically, I don't see why I should have to slam my brakes on, just cuz some cretin in a car either is not looking or thinks that a motorbike doesn't count as traffic.

They use their eyes, but they do not see you. Before I totaled by 2005 Concours I replaced the standard "Look at me I'm a gerbil" horn and put in two 134dB car horns. When I hit those suckers it sounded like a large truck, and yet I still had people pull out in front of me. The best was someone who pulled out in front of me and missed me by inches. I hit the horns, and I saw their head swivel from side to side, shrug their shoulders, and continue on as if nothing was there.

So yes: you are invisible and they ARE out to get you.

[HorrorFrogPrincess]

Thanks for posting this list. I'm gonna be taking motorcycle riding lessons in a couple weeks, so I have a better idea what I'll be dealing with.

I also purchased over the ankle boots just for the occation. Still haven't gotten my helmet yet.

Incidentally, do you think jeans and a jacket would be enough for learning? I do have leather gloves I'll be wearing.

[tphillip]

Incidentally, do you think jeans and a jacket would be enough for learning? I do have leather gloves I'll be wearing.

My recommendation is: ATGATT (All The Gear All The Time). That means:

• Full Face Helmet
• Full length jacket with CE armor
• Overpants or pants with CE armor
• Over the ankle boots, preferably with armor
• Gloves with knuckle armor

It sounds like overkill but the road you ride on is actually a disguised cheese grater, and will take off clothing and flesh at low speeds. I have seen pics of proper gear at higher speeds get torn to shreds but the rider not have a scratch on them. You can't spend enough money on proper safety gear. My first hand experience was June 30th, 2006. My low side was @ 30mph and the asphalt ground through my armor, riding pants, regular pants, and gave me slight road rash on my left knee. That sold me on always wearing the gear. The coverings are cheap and can be easily replaced; hospital bills aren't and you only get one body.

As a new rider I recommend purchasing "Proficient Motorcycling" by David Hough. It's an excellent book that talks about a lot of techniques for safe street motorcycling. Your class will give you the absolute basics, and the book will cover more than the class could.

PM me with any questions ya got. I ride a street bike & dual sport and can talk for days if I'm not careful.

[JambaBamba]

I have a Ninja 250cc which I love!!!

The worst for me are the guys in tricked out civic type cars. Dude, seriously, I'm not going to race you. I'm sure it's proving yourself kind of thing, but I'm a girl....I'm sure you're much more of a man then I am...at least I would hope so >.>

Of course then there are the guys who are just shocked, *SHOCKED* that a girl can be on a sports bike without her arms around a guy. And thank you for not so politely asking if I am a <insert one of numerous derogatory terms for lesbians here>. No I'm not, but if you're my only other option....

I like riding with other people...I tend to feel like drivers see 2 motorcycles much easier than 1.
Of course this weekend a guy pulling out saw my dad in front of me, let him go by and then pulled out while looking right, never bothering to glance left again... Horn = good.

HorrorFrogPrincess If the coat is leather or the mesh specifically for riding it's okay. Jeans are fine, it's what I normally wear. Basically you want to be able to slide if you fall off, not get road rash. I have a not very expensive helmet but I want a Shoei http://www.helmetcity.com/page/HC/PR...000flutter2tc9. A lot of ones you can find online for cheaper, just know what size you need first. Always dress for the fall, not for the ride. One of the people I took the class with (MSF class, don't know which you're taking) fell in practice (forgot to counter balance on a tight turn) so I always think better safe than sorry, even at slow speeds. It's so much fun though, you'll have a blast!

[HorrorFrogPrincess]

I won't even be able to get a motorcycle until I move, and I have to have a car first for my job, but I already signed up and paid for the class, so I'm still taking it.

Okay, I'll try to find a mesh jacket for riding. It's already hella hot here, so leather would just get ruined even if by some miracle I DON"T fall. XD

[Sliceanddice]

My recommendation is: ATGATT (All The Gear All The Time). That means:

• Full Face Helmet
• Full length jacket with CE armor
• Overpants or pants with CE armor
• Over the ankle boots, preferably with armor
• Gloves with knuckle armor

my father rode a motor cycle until his balance issues caused him to crash about once a week and my grand father still does
so does my oldest uncle.
heres what they tought me,

always always wear at least heavy jeans!!! fall in love with our heavy jeans, marry them, have babys with them but they are necessary.
helmet no matter what.
gloves with a good grib
jacket.
my dads wreck alot in the past and heavy jeans, a jacket and his helmet saved him from the ER.
though i guess armor is good too..

[JambaBamba]

I won't even be able to get a motorcycle until I move, and I have to have a car first for my job, but I already signed up and paid for the class, so I'm still taking it.

Okay, I'll try to find a mesh jacket for riding. It's already hella hot here, so leather would just get ruined even if by some miracle I DON"T fall. XD

I wasn't expecting to get my bike when I did...but I walked in and there it was, 3 weeks after I took the course.

I know leathers are hot but supposedly they protect better than the mesh (I have mesh and would buy leather if I could find a jacket that didn't think my arms should be 6 inches longer).

Good luck at the class, I'm sure you'll do fine. I doubt you'll fall...it's amazing how balanced you can be. Also, the faster you go the easier to balance while going in a straight line!

When I took the class they also had people learning to ride scooters. One woman told me she'd had 3 different scooters, ridden each once, crashed each the first time she rode them. At least she finally took the class (she passed btw).

[tphillip]

always always wear at least heavy jeans!!! fall in love with our heavy jeans, marry them, have babys with them but they are necessary.
helmet no matter what.
gloves with a good grib
jacket.
my dads wreck alot in the past and heavy jeans, a jacket and his helmet saved him from the ER.
though i guess armor is good too..

The armor is to help your joints survive the impact(s) in an accident. The CE standard is a European spec, and is a dense foam. The rule of thumb is if you're not willing to drop from a standing position to on your knees in the gear you're wearing you're not wearing appropriate armor. The foam doesn't stand up to abrasion, but that is what the actual clothing is for.

Unfortunately heavy jeans don't buy you much in terms of resisting the cheese grater. Normal clothes will hold up less than a second, and jeans only buy you 2 seconds or so. "Draggin Jeans", a brand name with a denim/kevlar weave, will buy you a lot more time (5+ seconds IIRC) but it's still not as good as some of the quality textile weaves or high quality racing leather. Testing on all this stuff is a bit spotty; you can do some testing in the lab but the real test requires a person in the gear skidding across pavement and there's not a lot of people willing to do that, much less insurance companies willing to insure them. Top of the lines stuff, such as Aerostitch and Motoport/Cycleport are expensive ($500+) but everyone I've read having an accident in their stuff have walked away scrape free. Even at decent speeds (50mph+)

I tend to sound a bit whiney/hysterical when it comes to good gear, but so many injuries and disabilities can be avoided completely with high quality gear I tend to rant. I don't like seeing people getting needlessly hurt in an activity that is inherently dangerous. Gear can be replaced with insurance; broken bones, torn tissue, and severe road rash never really go back to normal.

Go to the Adventure Rider Forums and take a look at the "Face Plant" board for many examples of what good gear and helmets can do to keep you in one piece. It's really amazing what a full face helmet and proper gear can protect you from. And what happens to people who don't wear them.

On a lighter note that same forum is an excellent place for all kinds of motorcycle info. It caters to the Adventure/dual-sport crowd but there's a ton of discussion on all sorts of equipment, places to ride, meetups, and a bunch of ancillary stuff. A few posters there have helped me map out my Cortland, NY to Pittsburgh, PA tour later this month, and it's amazing the breadth and depth of knowledge that is there. One warning: the people there are not afraid to veer straight into vulgar language and controversial topics on some of the boards. You have been warned.

You can never learn enough about riding a motorcycle IMO. Now if they'd stop the current tank design on the sports bikes I'd be happy. Watching people riding the new bikes makes me think they're humping their gas tanks as they go down the road. They're also a pelvis injury waiting to happen.

[Arm]

Speaking as a driver who gets pestered by the above-mentioned twats...

THEY are the reason I wind up treating all motorcyclists like that... I have huge blind spots- I drive an old Explorer. You can hide a small CAR in my right-side blind spot; a motorcycle will completely disappear. Which is where half of them seem to hang out while they decide whether or not to pass me. Maybe it's just the slipstream pushes them there when they're not actively trying to pass me, I don't know, but that's where they hang out. And they always want to pass me on the right.

My left-side blind spot is smaller than my right. But they don't PASS me on the left. I generally hang out in the center lane of our three-lanes-each-way highway. And you know what I do when I've got faster traffic moving up behind me AND on my left? I merge right.

Which, one of these days, is going to KILL some motorcyclist hiding in my right-hand blind spot, and there's really not a damn thing I can do about it. I signal, do the head-turn-check before merging, but the frame and side of the vehicle can easily hide one of those crotch-rocket-riders.

That said, it always amuses me to see cyclists drafting off me. My explorer has the aerodynamics of a two-ton brick with wheels under it, so I make a huge hole in the air. A lot of cyclists will just fall in behind me (at a good distance; I can see them and all that) and just hang there 'til they make their exit.

[Kogarashi]

Not a motorcyclist either, and I'm not usually bothered by them (though it helps that I've got some pretty decent visibility despite driving a larger vehicle). I did see an incident today involving a motorcycle while heading to the grocery store that had me sympathizing.

I came up to the end of a line of about five or six cars and one motorcycle (in the middle) waiting in the left-turn-only lane for the highway on-ramp. The left arrow turned green just as I reached the line, and the first two cars went. Then it was the motorcycle's turn, and it started to pull out into the intersection.

The Big Honkin' SUV behind the motorcycle decided it wasn't turning fast enough, because it also started turning, in such a way that would've put it parallel to the motorcycle on a one-lane turn, possibly even passing the bike in the middle of the intersection. This also had it crossing the double yellow line rather than pulling forward first. I was three cars back or I might have flashed my lights or honked at the SUV idiot.

Luckily, it seemed common sense struck the SUV idiot at the last moment, because they backed off a bit and let the motorcycle finish making the turn in front of them before finishing their turn.

Testing on all this stuff is a bit spotty; you can do some testing in the lab but the real test requires a person in the gear skidding across pavement and there's not a lot of people willing to do that, much less insurance companies willing to insure them.

Why do I suddenly have a mental image of one of those crash test dummies, dressed up in motorcycling gear, being dragged behind a car on the highway?

[Lace Neil Singer]

XD

I got my lid very cheaply; it was £30 at Hastings straight from the source. A lot of gear dealers go to Hastings on Mayday so it makes sense to hone in on this kind of gathering. I saved even more money cuz my boyf paid.

I wear a synthetic jacket and I know for a fact that it holds up to the cheese grater; ages ago, I slipped on a diesel spill and came off, sliding down the road on my shoulder. There is just a tiny worn patch on said shoulder of the jacket to show that this incident happened; and I escaped with just a sprained wrist. I used to have a leather jacket, but said jacket was chopped up by paramedics after saving my life in a previous accident; I slid down the road with a bike on me. O_o Said bike had to be written off, and I got two broken ribs and a broken hand. Without the jacket, gloves, boots etc it would have been a different story. O_O

[wolfie]

THEY are the reason I wind up treating all motorists like that... I have huge blind spots- I drive an old semi. You can hide a small SUV in my right-side blind spot; a car will completely disappear. Which is where half of them seem to hang out while they decide whether or not to pass me. Maybe it's just the slipstream pushes them there when they're not actively trying to pass me, I don't know, but that's where they hang out. And they always want to pass me on the right.

My left-side blind spot is smaller than my right. But they don't PASS me on the left. I generally hang out in the center lane of our three-lanes-each-way highway. And you know what I do when I've got faster traffic moving up behind me AND on my left? I merge right.

Which, one of these days, is going to KILL some motorist hiding in my right-hand blind spot, and there's really not a damn thing I can do about it. I signal, do the head-turn-check before merging, but the frame and side of the vehicle can easily hide one of those 4-wheelers.

Edited for truth - you can't see bikes that are in the wrong place, but bear in mind that the shoe also fits on the other foot.

[Arm]

fwer?

Very few cars are small enough for me to miss them when I do the head-turn check.

Some are, of course, but the driver is unlikely to die if I smash them. I'll be sad about the damage to my car, and the small car would almost certainly be a writeoff, but it probably wouldn't be fatal.

Crotch rockets, vespas, and even some of the larger cruiser bikes can go unnoticed, though. Same with bicyclists, tricyclists, unicyclists (not that I've seen one of those in years). The posts prevent me from getting a full view of the right side of the vehicle.

[Buglady]

I'm a non-motorized cyclist and I have a lot of the same peeves. You *know* a driver is slow when the girl on the bike is having to ride her brakes... (it's great that people are being careful in school zones, really, but the limit is 30 kph, not 5...)

I have a few more:

People who make right turns without checking - I've nearly been whomped several times at one particular intersection, when I was using the pedestrian crossing. There's an advance left, then the through lanes and the cross walks turn to gree. Inevitably, some idiot waits for the through light to turn green and immediately turns right (which he could have done on the red...) without looking for pedestrians. I've learned not to even TRY that intersection on my bike - I make a 2 block detour to a slightly saner one.

Pedestrians who saunter out in front of the bike - I always yell "I'm going faster than you think I am!!!" This happens most often in front of one high school that's on a long downhill, so I can easily be pulling 35 kph through there. The one time I got caught in the rain with my steel-wheeled Raleigh was fun... that was before I had brake pads that could grip wet steel so I went screaming down that hill yelling "AAAAAAA NO BRAKES!!" and they all jumped quite satisfyingly. (I did fix the brakes though).