the calm - and the rage

[Warren]

i suffered from my first bit of road rage today - and now i feel guilty.

coming home from work, riding down a dual carageway (limit was 30) doing about 25mph about to pass a black BMW stuck in traffic in the left hand lane moving slowly. get a bad feeling and ease off the throttle. just as he swings out infront of me, must have been about 3 meters in front of me when he decided to make his move. slam on the anchors, thumb the horn and see that im not going to stop in time, so swerve to the right of him (through a 2 foot gap between him and the dual carageway, now seeing me - instead of carrying on his manovre - he just brakes - locking his wheels, as im going through the gap the car is skidding towards me (im right beside him) and the central reservation. im hoping that i can muster enough power now to get through the gap before he skids towards me and crushes me.

i just made it - we avoided collision by millimeters.
now here's the part that not me - he puts his hands up to say sorry - and i cant think of anything to say or do. i just look at him with my middle finger up. and carry on my journey.

i feel really bad now, kinda guilty. he made a simple mistake that had harsh consequences. and i kinda over reacted to him. :(

only damage to the bike is the right hand rear indicator hit the centeral reservation when banking into the gap. its back on the bike now so im not really that worried about it.


is it normal to keep such a cool head when you get them moments (where everything slows down) allowing you to think much faster than u usally would ? where you can think about every escape route and think about the possible concequences and select the most appropriate choice in a few seconds ? and get so wound up about it after its happened ?


im one guilty feeling biker now.

[Cloggsy]

Bad ass :roll:

Don't feel bad - I'm sure it was a 'heat of the moment' thing... I'm sure the driver will have a posse of Chav's out looking for your bike soon :wink:

[Jelster]

You call that road rage ??? You wouldn't want to ride with me then. :twisted:

It is never a simple mistake. If you have your lights on (and not forgetting you have a bright yellow bike) he didn't look. If you look properly you will see, it's that simple, and he didn't.

Should got off your bike and poked his "oh so lovely" BMW badge where the sun doesn't shine. Fecking BMW drivers, these should come as standard.
http://www.urbanbiker.co.uk/forum_pics/images/******.jpg

.

[Jabba]

Fecking BMW drivers, these should come as standard.

Ah..... the season of glad tidings and good will towards all men has well and truly passed :lol:

It's remarkable how often these things happen, how one gets that "gut feeling" that it's going to happen and how everything happens in slow motion. Oh, and how it's always a Merc, a BMW or a woman polishing her fingernails :roll:

The day that I stop getting that "gut feeling" is the day that I stop riding. Be it voluntarily or enforced.

Glad you're OK. Put it down to experience and move on. Might as well coz it will happen again. Sure as eggs is eggs :(

[fizzwheel]

I'd say you were justfied in "flipping the bird"

Seriously sounds like you reacted and avoided the situation very well..

I'm with Jabba the day I dont get the gut feeling is the day I stop riding.. saved me many a time

Just put it down to experience and forget about it, maybe the BMW driver will now remember what mirrors are for..

Heres hoping

[Balky001]

Well done, your self preservation instincts seem to be working well, as is your instant reaction to flip the bird. Don't feel too bad, its a natural reaction to almost getting squished.

[BURNER]

Totally justifiable bird flippin' there mate. Don't feel a moments guilt, the muppet wot almost hit you certainly won't.
BMW drivers get the most bird flips of any driver on the road. Just ask them, or take a stroll down to the local community centre where they hold support groups for beemer drivers. The beemer driving knobs indulge in group hugs and wail "why does nobody like us?"

[Iansv]

Quite right Warren, i'd have done the same i'd imagine.... and have done worse.....

and agree with others on the instinct, if you ever lose that its defo time to stop riding

[Warren]

he he, and here's me thinking i had some kinda 6th sense.
things started slowing down before he started moving out so i knew something was wrong.
dont think i would have made it if i hadnt layd of the throttle and started braking after he moved out.

[MavUK]

I'm with the others. That's not road rage :) Road rage is following the cager into a car park and yelling at him (or worse)...

Well done an missing him.

Stu

[pegasus]

i think you did well considering it could have been alife or death situation...dont think i could have been so relaxed as to just give the finger.. lots of respect for just walking away

[Carsick]

i think you did well considering it could have been alife or death situation...dont think i could have been so relaxed as to just give the finger.. lots of respect for just walking away
More respect for being able to ride away :wink:

Like the others have said, that's not road rage, that's a natural response to somebody being a pratt.

[leatherpatches]

Funny thing is, EXACTLY the same thing happened to me on a single lane 30mph limit road yesterday. Black BMW as well! And I had a funny feeling just before he swerved out (I still don't know why - there was no right turn for ages).

Wierd coincidence...

[Flamin_Squirrel]

It's amazing sometimes how you can tell someone is going to do something stupid. Thankfully the only time so far I've come across someone asleep at the wheel (metaphoricaly speaking) I anticipated them pulling out of the side road in front of me and had plently of time to brake. He appologised and I just shook my head and rode off.

Not always been able to keep my cool though. Riding though London, already over the speed limit at about 35mph I had a retard on a scooter overtake me doing 37mph, leaving about a foot between us. I went mental, horn, the finger, the lot :?

Thinking about it though, if we'd colided he'd probably come off worse.

The blind car driver could have hurt me far more, yet it was the scooter boy that I got really mad at. Mistakes will be made, but people who are purposefully dangerous should have their breathing rights revoked :evil:

[Wiltshire7]

i remember i went round a round about about a month ago, i saw this woman look at me, notice me coming, indecating right, and still pull out infront of me. for some reason i could just tell she was gonna do it. god knows how.

i really wish i had put my fist through her window when she pulled up behind a bus 30 seconds later, but i just flipped the bird.

do u think that would have been over reacting? i dont, i would have happily killed her.

[twotime]

It's amazing sometimes how you can tell someone is going to do something stupid. Thankfully the only time so far I've come across someone asleep at the wheel (metaphoricaly speaking) I anticipated them pulling out of the side road in front of me and had plently of time to brake. He appologised and I just shook my head and rode off.

Not always been able to keep my cool though. Riding though London, already over the speed limit at about 35mph I had a retard on a scooter overtake me doing 37mph, leaving about a foot between us. I went mental, horn, the finger, the lot :?

Thinking about it though, if we'd colided he'd probably come off worse.

The blind car driver could have hurt me far more, yet it was the scooter boy that I got really mad at. Mistakes will be made, but people who are purposefully dangerous should have their breathing rights revoked :evil:

Had the same thing last week. was following a double decker and a minibus side by side going past waterloo station. on a bend, **** on a scooter comes round me, almost clipping my front wheel coming back in and tries to go between the bus and minibus.... he hit the minibus wing mirror, bounced off and went into the side of the double decker. as it was going round a right hand bend he was leaning over at an angle, the bottom of his scooter actually went UNDER the bus :shock: as it straightened up i thought it would crush him, but it 'popped' him out like a cork. ****** didn't even fall off and shot off. caught up with him at next lights and explained in detail my thoughts on his family history and origins... he laughed and said "sorry mate i'm still learning! and i'm late for college......" words fail me. **** nearly took me out, and I would probably have had to be the firs tperosn on the scene to see if he was still breathing if he'd gone under the bus.

[howardr]

How restrained are you?!

I've done a lot worse for a lot less!

Don't beat yourself up. Learn from the experience and move on.

[Warren]

Funny thing is, EXACTLY the same thing happened to me on a single lane 30mph limit road yesterday. Black BMW as well! And I had a funny feeling just before he swerved out (I still don't know why - there was no right turn for ages).

Wierd coincidence...


people always used to tell me i had a split personality.

no they didnt.


yes they did :twisted: :twisted: