Motorcyclists are beginning to lose my respect

StillGoing

The other week my wife and I went with some friends and their young kids on a leisurely ride around Rutland Water. For those that don't know it, there's a cycle path the whole 18 miles round with a short stretch of 200 mtrs where it goes on to the road. There's no alternative to going on the road even as a pedestrian so we decided to keep the three young kids in the cycle lane being guarded by an adult alongside them. It's a two way carriageway and cars had no problem passing us and as said, it was all of 200 mtrs. So why for the life of me some pleb on a Repsol rep CBR decided they had to buzz as close as they could to us is beyond me when cars were getting by without problem. I've noticed this happening a lot when I'm on rides and am about ready to start getting rid of a bit of plegm over my right shoulder whenever I hear one approaching in future. I wouldn't mind but I spent many years hooning around tracks on motorcycles, but these incidents are beginning to make me see motorcyclists as others do. I'm still a member on a track forum where I voiced my view of this individual only to find a wave of support for the idiot and an attitude of cyclists shouldn't be there. Unbelievable.

Smokin Joe

Good and bad in every mode of transport, I'm afraid. The same guy you saw on the motorcycle would be 2ft from your bumper and flashing his car headlights at you on the motorway and weaving round old ladies and children as he ran a pedestrian crossing on his bike.

antikythera

Having ridden motorcycles in the past and both knowing and seeing how motorcyclist are treated by car and truck driver it defies belief how the motorcyclist treat cyclists.

They do the same (and worse) to cyclists :shock: . This is particularly true when commuting on London roads. It seems like they are getting their own back by bullying someone smaller. Worse still they know and perform the most dangerous moves.

Then there are the scooter riders; pedestrians on the motorbike equivalent of a BSO!

Dumb*rses the lot of them.

pottssteve

I'm beginning to dislike them even more.

Here mopeds are allowed to use bike lanes ( :shock: ) so you can be tooling along climbing a hill and all of a sudden some fat fool is behind you honking their little horn. Most of them in the NL seem to be chavs too young and poor to drive a car or grannies whose next vehicle will be a motorised wheelchair (also legal in bike lanes!) .

Motor cyclists aren't quite as bad as they do tend to give room. However, if you're in a beautiful part of the world on a sunny Sunday and 15 of them turn up it does tend to destroy the peace. I go to the countryside to get some quiet relaxation, not to listen to a bunch of leather clad toss@rs roar up and down the hillsides pretending they are Valentino Rossi.

richard205

Have had a few motorbikes come screaming past me.

Im too noticing that motorbikes are the ones that are closer passing than cars these days.
Perhaps motorbikers think they have to bully the next lot down, As they get it from car drivers?

*AL*

Smokin Joe wrote:

Good and bad in every mode of transport, I'm afraid..

+1

I also ride a motorbike and hold a class 1 HGV so I tend to see most people's point of view when it comes to driving standards,
sometimes other road users leave me in disbelief, but mostly I just cringe with embarrassment.

I'm pretty sure a high % of drivers were shown a video of some of their antics they'd hang their heads in shame,
the vast majority of bad drivers are completely oblivious what they're doing wrong.

Granted, there are a few who know exactly what they're doing and think it's their god given right to bully anyone who dares to get in their way,
but sadly that's human nature and there's little we can do change that.

wicked

richard205 wrote:

Have had a few motorbikes come screaming past me.

Im too noticing that motorbikes are the ones that are closer passing than cars these days.
Perhaps motorbikers think they have to bully the next lot down, As they get it from car drivers?

+1 on this.
Ex biker myself so begs belief as I would expect better from fellow two wheelers. When I am king the first thing I will do is ban those bloody race exhausts :roll:

dodgy

wicked wrote:

. When I am king the first thing I will do is ban those bloody race exhausts :roll:

Run for Parliament instead, you'd get my vote.

I was at a wedding yesterday, and in the distance was one (just one) motorbike with what was obviously some kind of race exhaust. He was in audible range for about 20 minutes, but possibly several miles away. All the time he was making massive accelleration efforts, but due to traffic lights and so on, it took a loooong time for the nuisance to go.

Race cans are a menace.

Bozman

Don't you know that they're pushing "buzzing cyclists" in a few motorcycle publications at the mo just to see how close and fast bikers can get to the lycra clad!!

What a crock of s***!
Smokin Joe made the best point - "you get good and bad in all modes of transport". There seems to an element of roadies that think they own the road and can't cope with any minor issue that interferes with their ride.....that car came too close, that bike was going fast, oh no i've just been squirted with washer fluid, that man shouted a nasty word at me! somebody slapped my arse, didn't that cow moo loudly!

If you read the MCN, you would have thought that the whole world was against motorcyclists, instead of trying to create divides that aren't there just get on with it and tunnel your aggression into your cycling.

fizz

I love my roadie and I love my GSXR-750 just as much.

As said above, good and bad in every form of transport. What I have noticed in the last few years is the % of people who ride sports bikes and behave like tw*ts is increasing. I've been buzzed on my GSXR by another sports bike rider in the past.

The guy on the Repsol blade the buzzed the OP is a tw*t and its actions such as that the give the rest of the motorcycling fraternity a bad name.

careful

Most of them in the NL seem to be chavs too young and poor to drive a car or grannies whose next vehicle will be a motorised wheelchair

Who should we despise the most, the poor or the elderly?

JohnCleland

Smokin Joe wrote:

Good and bad in every mode of transport, I'm afraid. The same guy you saw on the motorcycle would be 2ft from your bumper and flashing his car headlights at you on the motorway and weaving round old ladies and children as he ran a pedestrian crossing on his bike.

+1

verylonglegs

JohnCleland wrote:

Smokin Joe wrote:

Good and bad in every mode of transport, I'm afraid. The same guy you saw on the motorcycle would be 2ft from your bumper and flashing his car headlights at you on the motorway and weaving round old ladies and children as he ran a pedestrian crossing on his bike.

+1

I agree with this to an extent although maybe it's me, and I realise I may get flamed for this, I for some reason make a distinction between other roads users who are using their cars to actually serve a purpose ie commuting or going to the gym etc. and the certain bikers who annoy me more as they are solely out to use the road as a racetrack and nothing less. I really don't have a problem in creating divides between them, it's bloody dangerous and they need to grow a brain.

slightly ot the biggest change I have noticed in motorists behaviour in the last few years is how many are now prepared to run red lights as they change from amber to red, it's getting chronic on some of the ring road junctions I use.

pottssteve

careful wrote:

Most of them in the NL seem to be chavs too young and poor to drive a car or grannies whose next vehicle will be a motorised wheelchair

Who should we despise the most, the poor or the elderly?

Obviously touched a nerve....which one are you?

I despise them both equally, but only when they whiz past far too close, cut in front of me too close, ride whilst trying to text, or get right up my backside rather than wait a couple of seconds.

Monty Dog

I suppose that for the m/c rider taking stupid risks, then the process of natural selection comes quicker!

JST

Don't think I've ben buzzed by a bike but I do jump at the noise occasionally. As they approach from behined you don't notice them and then suddenly as they are along side you get the full extent of the exhaust/engine noise which takes me by surprise sometimes

rick_chasey

I've often wondered why motorbikes are so noisy.

It's the noise more often than not that gets me.

Silience followed by a enormous bang as they pass me at twice the speed limit

Probably not dangerous (for me) but makes me jump out of my skin.

guinea

As a motorbiker and a cyclist I can say I find them both daft.

When cycling the motor cyclists blocking my filtering and parking in ASLs gets on my nerves.

When on the motorbike I get annoyed by filtering cyclists who simply don't look behind them when changing lanes. Cyclists overtaking other cyclists should also have a quick shoulder check, even if you don't give an arm signal a shoulder check lets other road users that you're going to do something. Random moves are bad.

Loud bikes are a bit divisive, even within the motorcycle community. Some say they are antisocial, so say they save lives. I have a quietish bike, but the exhaust does pop a bit. When I roll off the throttle in traffic the exhausts pops a fair bit and the traffic parts in front of me. It definitely helps me get around faster and safer.

Of course there are also people who ride hugely loud bikes just for the fun of it.

pedylan

Maybe as cyclists we expect better of motorised bikers because they are also part of a more vulnerable group on the roads.

No group should be generalised though - as Smokin Joe says. However there is an element that takes to super road bikes for the speed. In my area there's a popular pub/cafe that sees hundreds congregate on summer weekends. There will be around 2 fatalities a month in the local paper. There's a case pending where a husband and wife on their motor bikes were killed and the five charged in connection were also on bikes. God knows what carnage took place to cause that accident.

When I hear an exhaust roar I brace myself - I've been passed and watched the rider become airborne over a railway bridge.

StillGoing

The case you refer to is where the group's speed is taken to be a cause of the collision leading to death.

I rode high power sports motorcycles myself for ove 30 years the last 6 of which were spent almost entirely on the race track. Never in that time did I view cyclists as anything else than an extension of the 2 wheel fraternity. To now be in the position where not all but a good number act like complete ass wipes when passing cyclists makes me realise how others see them. Stereotyping should be avoided, but when the vast majority of them you come across act like jerks, it's difficult not to.

Gazzaputt

I love the motorcyclists that weave through the traffic on the A2.

The flow of traffic will be moving at 50mph and every bike still think they have to weave through the two lanes of traffic at 60-70mph.

So far I've see one death and one seriously injured and umpteen near misses.

stevec205gti

I'm not sure all race cans should be banned - a Ducati with full race exhaust it's the most beautiful noise man has ever created that doesn't involve a naked lady

rick_chasey

stevec205gti wrote:

I'm not sure all race cans should be banned - a Ducati with full race exhaust it's the most beautiful noise man has ever created that doesn't involve a naked lady

You'd hope it would be, given that the choice is absolutely either or....

gkerr4

stevec205gti wrote:

I'm not sure all race cans should be banned - a Ducati with full race exhaust it's the most beautiful noise man has ever created that doesn't involve a naked lady

i kind of agree with this!

since moving to the country in 2009 the sound of race cans started to drive me mad - so much so that I put the bafles back in my ZX636 sportsbike! - high revving four-cyl bikes make a racket - but there is something gorgeous about the flat drone of a big v-twin - love it.


re. cyclists / motorcyclists - i sit in both camps (and drive cars too) - and i think stereotypes shoudl be avoided - you get lunatics in all forms of transport. i try an look out for my two-wheeld folks when i am out and about - i can't understand the mentality of "buzzing" a cyclist.

also - the earlier comment on motorcycle magazines promoting this behaviour - is that true? - i know that Kenny Pryde the editor of 'superbike' magazine is a ken road rider and he often promotes road cycling during the winter to keep riders fit (and ensure they fit in their leathers come spring!) and to promote road sense and bike handling skils - he actually promoted cycling as a benefit for being the best you can at motorcycling! - there are also numerous top-level motorcyle racers who are keen road cyclists for similar reasons!

irezumi

It makes no sense for a motorcyclist to buzz anyone/thing. As most people on here who ride motorbikes will know a relatively small impact (even just nicking a cyclist) would likely have you off your motorbike too, it makes sense to give them room.

Having said that, one of the reasons I very rarely ride in big groups of cyclists is due to the sheer stupidity and arrogance of them. Anybody can play the big man with a car if they want, but it's extremely irresponsible to involve other people.

In summary, people of all sort can be stupid c*nts.

robz400

When I'm not on my roadie i'll be on an SV650 with a loud exhuast, I figre being a booming v-twin its less annoying than a screaming inline 4.

I tend to roll off the throttle when passing cyclists or if its a very quiet road pull the clutch in as rolling off the throttle can cause popping that can set car alarms off!

I've been buzzed by a very loud GSXR and it made me jump out of my skin!

Don't think you can start tarring all bikers the same though, thats just as bad a saying all cyclists are lycra clad vegitablist nazis.....