Sometimes special people drive cars

downfader

I would have posted this in the rants but I'm not really ranting so here goes.

Friday I'm heading slightly dowhill on a particular local road that has a nice blind bend. Often I'll do about 25-30mph travelling there, staying pretty central due to the parked cars of the local residents. So funny-friday this silly old soul in a burnt out renaut goes to overtake me and cant quite get on the gas due to my speed. I had to slow right down to let him back in as he was going to have a head-on with a car coming around the bend.

Then today, young nipper does the same but fails the overtake completely and panics and just nipped back in behind me after braking hard. I had seen his bonnet edging around and knew what was coming so shook my head at him is disbeleif that he could be so stupid. The car he nearly went into passed and I saw it was clear and waved him on - he was obviously too dim to work it out for himself.

Did they thank me? Did they hell

Oh and the other funny thing. This morning I'm heading through woolston in southampton and theres a moped rider getting fired up to ride off. Only he's dropped his front wheel down into the path of an oncoming Transit van. Transit driver had a REAL poo-ya-pants moment and swung his steering wheel out to avoid the dinlo. Luckily there was space for me and the driver didnt get too close to me.

Moped rider stayed behind me for some 200 meters. I indicate for the roundabout that goes onto the bridge. Waited for traffic for a second and pulled out. Obviously the moped rider was feeling impatient as he overtook me on the roundabout through about 2 foot of space between me and the concrete center. Trouble is, as with the renaut guy on funny-friday, he just couldnt get the gas on and I had to slow right down for him.

biondino

The latter reminds me of a dodgy moment 2 weekends ago. I was in my car, passing a parked van with a bus heading towards me on the other side of the road. There wasn't a huge amount of space, but enough to safely have all three vehicles side by side. What I hadn't reasoned for was that the bus would try and overtake two pootling cyclists exactly at the pinch point, swinging suddenly into my path without any get-out room for me.

As in all incidents like this, time slowed right down and allowed me to wonder just how many airbags I had in my car, and whether the car had enough room to swing away from the bus after impact. As luck would have it, my reflex steering adjustment was just enough (by millimetres) to avoid something really nasty.

The moral of this story? Bloody cyclists.

Eat My Dust

I had a running argument with a guy on a moped once. He did look a bit surprised that I could keep up with him and still argue. I asked him a couple of times "Is that as fast as that piece of sh*t goes" he looked deflated!

Jay dubbleU

Obviously we're talking 'special' here in the context of 'special needs' or retarded for the non PC amongst us :twisted:

downfader

Jay dubbleU wrote:

Obviously we're talking 'special' here in the context of 'special needs' or retarded for the non PC amongst us :twisted:

Nah. I've worked with special needs people. They were leagues above.

Leagues I tell you.

chuckcork

biondino wrote:

The latter reminds me of a dodgy moment 2 weekends ago. I was in my car, passing a parked van with a bus heading towards me on the other side of the road. There wasn't a huge amount of space, but enough to safely have all three vehicles side by side. What I hadn't reasoned for was that the bus would try and overtake two pootling cyclists exactly at the pinch point, swinging suddenly into my path without any get-out room for me.

As in all incidents like this, time slowed right down and allowed me to wonder just how many airbags I had in my car, and whether the car had enough room to swing away from the bus after impact. As luck would have it, my reflex steering adjustment was just enough (by millimetres) to avoid something really nasty.

The moral of this story? Bloody cyclists.

Had a similar experience in Wales years ago while on my (then) motorbike (a CB500), went around a blind bend in the Snowdonia area to find a car (Mercedes I think) overtaking a bus. If I'd been in a car it would have been a head on collision, fortunately my reflexes were good enough to get far enough to the left to avoid passing through the windscreen as the driver pulled back hard onto the correct side of the road.

Moron obviously had pressing business somewhere that was important than considerations of road safety etc.

Mind had enough experiences as DF has mentioned, rather stupid I think of the drivers concerned, a slow by comparison average speed of a bicycle rather misses the point that we can travel rather fast at times... :P Looking forward to the day I can be smug and give evidence against some twat.

Jay dubbleU

Amazing the number of drivers who can see round corners - do they wear special glasses ? :roll:

Feltup

Plenty round here with X-Ray specs that allow them to see through blind crests.

Crapaud

Eat My Dust wrote:

I had a running argument with a guy on a moped once. He did look a bit surprised that I could keep up with him and still argue. I asked him a couple of times "Is that as fast as that piece of sh*t goes" he looked deflated!

They hate it when you overtake on a hill. They hate it even more when you have a big stupid grin on your face.

I overtook one once and he tucked into an aero position to try for more speed - he wasn't a happy bunny!

Kieran_Burns

many moons ago when i was fit and owned a fast self built roadie (sigh) I was able to hold 40 on the flat for a fair way. So I used to go out hunting mopeds. :twisted:

They'd be buzzing along at their top speed of 33 and I'd come up alongside and try to have a conversation with them.

It'd generally go along the lines of:

"bit slow that"
"f*ck off"
"Can't it go any faster"
"f*ck off"
"nice day this"
"f*ck off"

Then I'd put the pedal down and get up to my top speed for the flat and look for a turn off within 1/2 mile.

I'd pull away quite nicely and then get off the road sharpish., Hide and quietly have a heart attack when they weren't looking :roll:

downfader

Kieran_Burns wrote:

many moons ago when i was fit and owned a fast self built roadie (sigh) I was able to hold 40 on the flat for a fair way. So I used to go out hunting mopeds. :twisted:

They'd be buzzing along at their top speed of 33 and I'd come up alongside and try to have a conversation with them.

It'd generally go along the lines of:

"bit slow that"
"f*ck off"
"Can't it go any faster"
"f*ck off"
"nice day this"
"f*ck off"

Then I'd put the pedal down and get up to my top speed for the flat and look for a turn off within 1/2 mile.

I'd pull away quite nicely and then get off the road sharpish., Hide and quietly have a heart attack when they weren't looking :roll:

gtvlusso

downfader wrote:

Kieran_Burns wrote:

many moons ago when i was fit and owned a fast self built roadie (sigh) I was able to hold 40 on the flat for a fair way. So I used to go out hunting mopeds. :twisted:

They'd be buzzing along at their top speed of 33 and I'd come up alongside and try to have a conversation with them.

It'd generally go along the lines of:

"bit slow that"
"f*ck off"
"Can't it go any faster"
"f*ck off"
"nice day this"
"f*ck off"

Then I'd put the pedal down and get up to my top speed for the flat and look for a turn off within 1/2 mile.

I'd pull away quite nicely and then get off the road sharpish., Hide and quietly have a heart attack when they weren't looking :roll:

Lol
I used to do that with Ferraris and other exotic junk on my Suzuki GSXR motorbike.....bit of 170mph baiting is good for the soul!

downfader

gtvlusso wrote:

downfader wrote:

Kieran_Burns wrote:

many moons ago when i was fit and owned a fast self built roadie (sigh) I was able to hold 40 on the flat for a fair way. So I used to go out hunting mopeds. :twisted:

They'd be buzzing along at their top speed of 33 and I'd come up alongside and try to have a conversation with them.

It'd generally go along the lines of:

"bit slow that"
"f*ck off"
"Can't it go any faster"
"f*ck off"
"nice day this"
"f*ck off"

Then I'd put the pedal down and get up to my top speed for the flat and look for a turn off within 1/2 mile.

I'd pull away quite nicely and then get off the road sharpish., Hide and quietly have a heart attack when they weren't looking :roll:

Lol
I used to do that with Ferraris and other exotic junk on my Suzuki GSXR motorbike.....bit of 170mph baiting is good for the soul!

Poor ferrari. It'll fall apart after 500 miles anyway. They do make some nice cars though. I see mostly Carreras here though, girls car that though.

fossyant

I properly 'owned' a moped some years back returning home on a training ride... passed the moped on a long flat section, and stayed in front of it, up a few hills, and for about 4 miles.

The rider caught me up at some lights and said 'you were doing over 30 mph' - totally shocked.... heh...heh.

I had a run in with a 'kid' on a moped a few months back - he pulled right out on me. Would have had a bust up had I pursued it, but I'd have been in the wrong. Thought about scalping him, but I was on the MTB.....just needed that bit of extra speed...

redvee

The best bit of moped riding I've seen was when I was sat in the firms lorry and 2 chavs were putting 2 pints into the tanks of their machines. They both paid and came back to their bikes and fired them up. One did the gentle acceleration to the road, the other was a little more aggressive. When the traffic cleared for them aggressive acclerater gunned it and ended up on the floor with the scooter spun through 180* and was facing the way he came I knew I should have had my camphone in video mode

downfader

We often see moped riders on our road getting into an aero position trying to race each other. Then they hit a pothole and their a*** flies up into the air as they nearly wobble off. So close, you'd think they'd learn. :?

graeme_s-2

I have drivers regularly do a similar thing to me on a 20mph limit road with speed bumps. I can happily take the bumps at 20-25mph, but they still insist on attempting to pass me between bumps (regardless of oncoming traffic). The looks on their faces as they realise they're about to hit a speed bump at 25 miles an hour are absolutely priceless.

My favourite was the boy racer who tucked back in behind me having knocked something off his Corsa. It made a really nice crunching noise as he hit the speed bump on the wrong side of the road at 25 miles an hour. Very satisfying.