Overtaking

Out on the bike yesterday I had my closest shave since my return to biking a couple of years ago and wonder what I should have done differently.

I was riding down the A19 north of York picking off cars when I arrive near the head of the queue which I can see is headed by tractor. I indicate and pull out from about 4 cars back, riding well over into the oncoming lane and just when I'm about to overtake a white van (of course) which is immediately behind the tractor he pulls out (no indication) shortly before we enter a village and 30 MPH zone. I grab a handful of front brake, the bike does a pirouette but manages to stand up and I follow the van past the tractor.

I drew up alongside the van at a junction and glared (too shaken to do anything else) and it's quite clear he had no idea what he'd done (and he only had one brake light that worked )

Subsequently I wondered
(a) was the overtake risky given number of vehicles
(b) whether I should have been overtaking faster (probably doing 50MPH - traffic doing 30MPH - limit = national speed limit)
(c) whether I should have accelerated and gone past the white van on the outside
(d) whether I should have applied front and back brakes evenly (road was dry) .

Any views?

You can't win them all.

IAM is good for that sort of thing.

Steve...It's easy for us all to second guess after the event mate.

If there was enough room and sufficient time I might have been tempted to drop a gear and accelerate past the van. He would then have had absolutely no mistake at what he had almost just done.
Slamming on behind him meant you had to go through a severe sphincter test that he was totally oblivious to.

If not enough room and time then a controlled slow down using both brakes and gear box.

Not something you should be beating yourself up about though mate. Glad you survived it without too much grief.

[fizzwheel]

Personally I would have picked the cars off one by one till I had got past the tractor

heres why IMHO of course

1. Picking off the cars one by one would have given each driver a chance to see you, and maybe a chance for white van man to spot you as your were working your way through the queue.

2. It would have kept your speed down giving you more chance to react to somebody being a muppet ( the van driver )

3. Tractors sometimes turn right or left with no warning going past the tractor like you did IMHO put you at risk and you dont wanna do that. Also sometimes the indicators and brake lights on a tractor are covered in mud and god knows what and they arent always easily visable.

4. I would have used the front brake and then applied the back brake a bit later, to help slow the bike down once I felt the front getting out of shape

HTH, at least you stayed on and survived to ride another day

Similar to my incident the other week. Except these cars were doing 60mph on an A road and the car in question stood no real chance of overtaking the one in front in a sensible time. Plus this car was 5th or 6th in the line of traffic and completely unexpected.

It's something you should have been prepared for as cars/vans are ALWAYS wanting to get past tractors. You live and learn. At least you didn't have any damage.

Originally Posted by fizzwheel

Personally I would have picked the cars off one by one till I had got past the tractor

heres why IMHO of course

1. Picking off the cars one by one would have given each driver a chance to see you, and maybe a chance for white van man to spot you as your were working your way through the queue.

2. It would have kept your speed down giving you more chance to react to somebody being a muppet ( the van driver )

3. Tractors sometimes turn right or left with no warning going past the tractor like you did IMHO put you at risk and you dont wanna do that. Also sometimes the indicators and brake lights on a tractor are covered in mud and god knows what and they arent always easily visable.

4. I would have used the front brake and then applied the back brake a bit later, to help slow the bike down once I felt the front getting out of shape

HTH, at least you stayed on and survived to ride another day

Totally agree with Fizz on this as I've only been riding fora few months and found this to be the best course of action. Stay alert stay alive!

Just get a faster bike and leave them all in your wake


Sorry, that wasn't helpful was it.

Like Pete says, it's hard to make a comment without being there. Personally I would probably have held the pass light on while going passed them all, however, I do hesitate at the site of "white van man", so may have pulled in and made a 2nd pass of van & tractor. But it's hard to judge without witnessing the event.

Fizz wrote:

1. Picking off the cars one by one would have given each driver a chance to see you, and maybe a chance for white van man to spot you as your were working your way through the queue.

Your not Mpaton2005 in disguise are you?

Originally Posted by Peter Henry

Fizz wrote:

Your not Mpaton2005 in disguise are you?

[fizzwheel]

Originally Posted by e.d.

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