Overtaking into oncoming traffic, normal practice or no-no?

No idea how long since the last discussion about this but I wasn't in it so I'll start!

I was commuting home today and making superb progress on my GSX1400, the last 7 miles is single carriage A road though with solid traffic both ways doing about 50, I usually just sit in this and maybe overtake a bit if I'm bored where possible, no point time wise though.

Today however a shonky old CB500 with rider and pillion in jeans/jumpers was just riding between the traffic all the way up, traffic 1ft either side (opposing). Is this normal? Am I a wuss? My risk level just doesn't allow for that I think, too many variables for me. I have tried it on occasion though it does seriously unsettle motorists, which is not good for your safety or theirs I believe....

What do you do?

[fizzwheel]

Theres a stetch on the A303 between my house and Liz's actually a couple of stretches.

It depends on the speed of the traffic, personally at about 50mph I'd be overtaking through that and making progress.

Would depend. Sometimes I probably would, othertimes I probably wouldn't. Tbh theres so many factors which it involves to sum up here.

It depends on the road conditions, my mood and if I@m in a rush among other things. I'd never risk an off for the sake of saving myself 2 minutes on a congested journey.

If I've read this right, I do this pretty much daily. Twice.

What I'm meaning is overtaking one lane of traffic, and being about 1ft-2ft away from traffic coming the other direction. It's only a small section of road I do this on, and the posted limit is 50mph, but usually the traffic is moving around 30mph (because it drops from 70 to 50 & everyone brakes to slow down, and you get the occasional tractor slowing things down etc).

For those that know the area I'm talking about, t'is on the bridge. But if the wind is too strong there's NO WAY I'd consider it. All it needs is a short sharp gust & you're holding hands with the driver of the truck coming towards you

Saying that, when I do it, I know the risks, and accept them, still makes me nervous a little, but some nerves are a good thing!

I agree with Baph. Assess the risk, and don't take any chances.

Yep - it depends on the situation, but from the fact that they were wearing jeans and jumpers on the CB, you know they hadn't made a proper assessment of the risks and were winging it. If I see someone do something like that I'll weigh up the pros and cons and sometimes I'll follow (can find some handy riding tips!) and sometimes I'll decide they're daft and leave them to it.

I gotta say I make good progress but I very rarely put myself in a situation that allows such a small margin for error especially when you consider that there a three people who are in the equation.

1-2ft clearence is not enough in moving traffic. all it needs is a 6inch drift by both the car drivers - and at 50mph that is NOTHING and you will have your bars clipped, which you will be lucky to recover from prior to ending up under the wheels of a passing car.

Is the 2ft the actually distance or perceievd?

I rarely overtake into oncoming traffic no matter what the distance and the reason harps back to a nasty experience I once had:

I decided to over take a car that thought a speed camera was 30mph when it was 40, moved out into the middle of the road - there was a good 10 -15ft clearence as the road is very wide, where upon the car decided to do a right turn so moved into me and a car coming the opposite direction moved left to turn across our path. I was sandwiched between two cars and no option but to throttle on hard and flick left right to aviod there wing mirrors - it really was that close!

Now that was with a massive clearence, and it so nearly ended up very very messy, so with 1-2ft...you don't even allow for a large puddle in the gutter that a car may steer round!

When filtering like this you have to take total responsibilty for your riding line, as it is unfair to assume that a car driver should be watching for you squezing down a small gap with a combined speed of 100mph (50mph both ways) or even 120mph (your doing 70 vs. 50mph of other direction)

Originally Posted by Dangle_kt

where upon the car decided to do a right turn

What car was it? Kit from Nightrider?


DO NOT OVERTAKE AT JUNCTIONS!!

Originally Posted by Jabba

DO NOT OVERTAKE AT JUNCTIONS!!

Good point, I'd love to see a junction on the bridge... that'd just make me wet my seat!