Motorway Madness

The method for dealing with tailgaters recomended by the IAM is to double the gap in front of you so you have your own 2 second gap and if you have somebody up your rear end be kind and give them 2 seconds as well. In effect a 4 second gap. This might pee them off but at least you will have time to brake for both vehicles if the need arises.

"only a fool breaks the 2 second rule"

I like to flash my rear fog lamp in thier faces if its at night but not sure if thats the IAM recomended method.

[northwind]

I have to admit I've been known to filter like a maniac as well. Not often, and never because I'm in a hurry (funny that, but I'd never rush my riding for timekeeping), but it's a guilty pleasure. Going into shrinking gaps, making progress where you shouldn't be able to... To anyone who sees me to it, I'm probably a complete liability.

[Blue Flame]

Originally Posted by lynw

I'll stick my head above the parapet and admit I have done this on the M20 - I think pretty much because I was filtering through slow traffic which hadnt cleared while the speed had got up to just under 70. I was already filtering so carried on.

Ime, its actually safer at speed. To me filtering, its when the speed drops the danger increases - because thats when drivers impatience rises and the likelihood of a lane change increases. Ime, its been more dangerous down the A2 at 20mph than on the M20 at 70. I DO obviously realise that the risk of injury is higher but thats a risk assessment I have made and clearly got right [ie Im still here].

I dont do it daily but I do sometimes, usually when the traffics crawling at 60 and I can do 70 between the cars. Obviously it goes without saying its very meticulously planned and only done when I absolutely sure I have time/space to do it.

Now I do not go haring down between cars at a ton + as Ive seen some bikes do. Ill do the speed limit filtering on the M20 but not much more.

Sits back awaiting the flak...

I didn't explain myself clearly enough so apologies but I was sitting at 70mph ish and cars in the outside lane were passing me at 80mph ish so what speed was the bike doing as he slipped between my drivers door and the car overtaking me ???

You are correct that drivers get impatient with heavy traffic but it applies at 70mph as well as 40mph. I travel quite a bit and the antics that the drivers get up to at speed on the motorways and that includes lane switching without warning is atrocious. A lot of drivers get very impatient with cars tootling along at 70mph on the outside lane because they had to switch the cruise control (set at 90 ish) to manual The end result is bumper to bumper driving, undertaking and switching lanes without warning. Me, I'll just keep with the flow of traffic at those sort of speeds. To do otherwise is just asking for trouble in my opinion (I don't think the gentlemen of the law would look too favourably on it either).

[21QUEST]

I never have any issues with vehicles that tail gate on the motorway. I either twist the loud horn or move over. One of my hates is cars sitting at 60 odd on the outside lane. The outside lanes I believe are for over taking.

As for filtering on the motorway, use the following rules and you'll be perfectly okay. The old bill may take a dim view of it but what do they know . Doing it any other way is plain silly IMO and I can back it up

1)Always filter when the cars on either side of you are are adjacent to each other. If you are too scared to do that then you shouldn't be filtering.

2)If you wish to undertake, only do so if there is no other vehicle(at point of overtake) in the lane between you and the vehicle you wish to undertake ie in a three lane motorway only undertake using the inside lane and only if the middle lane has no vehicle at the point at which you go past the car in the outside lane.


Cheers
Ben

Originally Posted by northwind

I have to admit I've been known to filter like a maniac as well. Not often, and never because I'm in a hurry (funny that, but I'd never rush my riding for timekeeping), but it's a guilty pleasure. Going into shrinking gaps, making progress where you shouldn't be able to... To anyone who sees me to it, I'm probably a complete liability.

*Stands up* Hi, My names Psycho and I'm a filtering addict
I know what you mean, most of the time when I'm filtering (motorways every day here) i'm doing it for fun and because I can not because I'm in a rush.
Nothing makes me squeal with joy more than seeing a line of artics...go figure...

I guess you get used to motorways after a while, at first I hated them but now I travel down the M3, M25 and M40 each day to and from work. The back roads are nicer but he motorway is a lot faster when you're late!

[Stu]

Originally Posted by 21QUEST

1)Always filter when the cars on either side of you are are adjacent to each other. If you are too scared to do that then you shouldn't be filtering.

2)If you wish to undertake, only do so if there is no other vehicle(at point of overtake) in the lane between you and the vehicle you wish to undertake ie in a three lane motorway only undertake using the inside lane and only if the middle lane has no vehicle at the point at which you go past the car in the outside lane.


Cheers
Ben

I think that is a bit conservative
1) If cars are staggered with a 2 sec or less gap between each other, I would be reasonably assured that the car in the outside lane is not going to pull in (especially behind an obviously slower vehicle)

2)I would often be confident that I could undertake a car quicker than he could pull into my lane, and if he did, at worst I would be left filtering between lanes 1 and 2.

Good sound advice Ben, but too conservative for me if I'm honest.

.

[Balky001]

I often filter at over 70mph and I think it is safer when there is a car in each of the lanes either side as they can't change lane at the last minute, it's when you have a space you are more likely to get cut up. But the speed isn't the big issue - filter at 20mph in the wrong place and you can end up dead - there's a lot more to it than speed.

The reason to filter is often because of people's poor lane discipline - especially those that feel justified to sit in the middle lane because the outside is free - it builds up traffic in the outside lane eventually. Unfortunately, this poor driving practise increases the number of tailgaters who may otherwise drive with more space. It's the slow cars/dodgy drivers/lane hoggers that are the problem. (IMO).

[SoulKiss]

My guilt pleasure is the A4 on a Thursday/Fiday night.

Usually at least a half dozen cars with 6-digit values at least sitting in the traffic, and me on my £300 CG125 going past the lot of them.

Really doesn't matter if its a Ferarri, a Maserati or a Porche, its the wrong tool for the job of getting into Central London.

Guess once I get my SV on the road it wont be quite as big a kick but........

David