It takes just one to ruin it for the rest of us.

Last night me and missus were driving to a friends house.

Going along an A road which sweeps a long left with loads of visibilty.
Approaching in the distance is 3 cars and a ZZR1100 behind them.

Out pulls the biker with all the room in the world to pass all 3 cars before reaching me. Then he sits on my side of the road running parallel to the 2nd car.

I move over incase he misjudged the distance so he would have plenty of time to pull in, but no this p***k stays exactly there for a good 50 metres or so.

So I flash him to let him know he's being stupid.

The idiot waves as if I'm in the wrong and goes to knock my aerial off.

My missus rides as well and she even thought he was dangerous.

Bet he thought I was just some stupid cage driver.

There are nobbers in all walks of life.

Staying out for far longer than neccessary is something both IAM and police riders do and I strongly disapprove. The idea that you need space in front of the car in front (when you cut back in) is fine, but if you're overtaking, you're going to be going quicker and will create space. Even if you have time, staying out for ages unnerves oncoming traffic (as you experienced) which leads to all sorts of problems.

Police rider was killed near me recently. Can't be sure, but from the description it sounds like he was doing the above and the cager coming the other way panicked and moved to the wrong side of the road to avoid him, them moved back into the right lane when he saw the car behind the bike.

He will learn the hard way...........

Rob

Originally Posted by VR46

He will learn the hard way...........

Rob

sure will

Trouble is the hard way may involve an innocent party.

Ive been in the 'stupid cager' situation myself once without doing anything wrong. It was dusk and I was about to pull out from my housing estate onto a main road 40mph zone. Im turning left, I have my indicator on and my lights. Now, being a biker I dont need anyone to tell me 'Think bike' and Im sure that applies for everyone on here, so as I stopped at the junction and looked left to see if my path was cear to advance given a chance I clocked two cars approaching on the other side of the road and a BMW motorcycle to the rear of them. Clear. I looked right to see if anyone was approaching in my lane, negative. I start to ease out the clutch and pull away as normal whilst turning to look left again. As I do this I spot the BMW rider overtaking the two cars about 2 feet from my bonnet. He continues as I stop and then flags me off over his shoulder, no doubt on the way home to tell his mates that 'Some stupid effing cager nearly killed me'. This annoyed me to hell, if I had been on the bike the red mist would have gotten the better of me. The actual case was I was a bit of an idiot and overtook at a junction with a car sitting at it indicating in my direction. For any of you who have done the bikesafe course do you remember at the end where they show you the fatal accidents? On mine 99% of them were at a junction. For some reason a few of us believe we are infallible once we put on those helmets and any harm that comes to us is as the direct result of another person.

Classic example, 'Im in the right your in the wrong - no matter how ignorant I am.'

Originally Posted by Ceri JC

Staying out for far longer than neccessary is something both IAM and police riders do

Thats interesting, I'd not heard that and it suprises me.

Originally Posted by Motorcycle Roadcraft (p138)

Identify a gap into which you can return and the point along the road at which you will be able to enter it.

Judge whether you will be able to reach that point before any approaching vehicle, seen or unseen, could come into conflict with you. Coming into conflict includes causing either driver to alter course or speed or to be concerned for their safety.
It does not refer only to the need to take drastic evasive action.

Originally Posted by tricky

Thats interesting, I'd not heard that and it suprises me.

Likewise. Sorry Ceri, but I don't agree with you.

Police riders are, IMHO, the best of the best in terms of safe riding and the top IAM/ROSPA Gold riders are pretty-much the same.

They "stay out" as long as possible when it gives them the farthest view ahead, but they don't do so to the point where their safety is compromised. I guess it's a judgement call on their part, but when you consider the number of hours they spend in the saddle day in, day out, how much training they get and their accident stats I for one won't question what they do.

Just my view, of course

Originally Posted by Jabba-the-Hutt

Likewise. Sorry Ceri, but I don't agree with you.

Police riders are, IMHO, the best of the best in terms of safe riding and the top IAM/ROSPA Gold riders are pretty-much the same.

They "stay out" as long as possible when it gives them the farthest view ahead, but they don't do so to the point where their safety is compromised. I guess it's a judgement call on their part, but when you consider the number of hours they spend in the saddle day in, day out, how much training they get and their accident stats I for one won't question what they do.

Just my view, of course

I don't for one moment doubt that when they do it, it isn't, in itself, dangerous. I even stay out after overtaking a long line of cars for longer than is strictly neccessary. What I do though is as soon as I can see a car in the oncoming lane, even if it's 250m+ away, is get in as soon as possible. The problem, like offsiding in general, isn't with the person doing it, it's the way other road users coming the other way react.

Did you read about that police rider (the one I mentioned in the earlier post) in The Echo about 2/3 months back? He was on the 5 mile lane, and overtaking a car (not on blue lights- riding home from work as it happened). I'm sure his staying in the wrong lane was safe at the time, but where he came acropper was when someone coming the other way saw him, panicked and swerved into the oncoming lane to avoid him, then noticed the car (that the bike had been overtaking). The car then chose the softer option and went through the bike, rather than the oncoming car. Even though the cager panicked and is largely to blame, I'd say it's understandable. I've been in a position (once in a car once on a bike) where whilst I've not had to brake hard, I've had to ease off the throttle and give a light dab of brake because an IAM observer and on another occassion, Police rider have been coming the other way and whilst I'd not of hit them, it would have been dangerously close (I wasn't speeding in either instance, either). Doesn't seem in line with the "try not to make other road users have to slow down due to your actions" that is part of advanced riding.

I'd also say that, yes, whilst they're very good, they're obviously not infallable as the above example sadly illustrates.