Anything annoy you street riding?

[Carter Turk]

We all know when going for a ride, it's a luxury.
Many folks don't have the means, time or money to enjoy going for a ride or eating 3 meals a day.
Even us cheap GSR's are getting what a lot of people will never have, so for me to whine about something negative, doing a luxurious thing is rather sad actually.
I was just sharing my thoughts after the most recent ride.
I always look for the positive in life, but found when I do decide to go for a ride, the odds these days are higher for a touch of negativity.
I don't think I could/would ever give up street riding completely, but do look forward to doing trackdays 3-5 days a year.
I received over 50 tickets in my 36 years of riding on the street, so I don't buy the argument that trackdays are more expensive.
Doing them won't lead to giving up riding all together either, at least in my opinion.
I admit to have called/answered the phone while driving, though it's usually a family member in need of something.
The rectangle is not glued to me and most friends complain I never answer the phone.

 

[dorkburger]

I?ve been noticing on my night rides lately that more and more oncoming car drivers are douchey, lazy, or depending on an auto dim function for their high beams.

 

[Carter Turk]

We're all about roundabouts here in Whatcom County Washington, I guess it's cheaper than traffic lights and supposedly keeps traffic flowing.

I ran a few errands this morning on the ES, usually this time of year students are heading home to whereever they live, (WWU, a community college, tech school 10-15K students?) but the cluster fck, that is King County (Seattle) and elsewhere are causing more people to flock here when student leave or so it seems. Maybe it's the weed, I don't know. Big traffic volumes everywhere, lights that seem to take forever to change, only for the next light 75 yards or meters ahead to turn red after waiting 3 minutes for the last one, burning precious "freedom juice" as my friend calls it, while waiting for all these lights.

Anyway, I go through a round about 2 miles from my home, I'm clearly going all the way around counter clockwise, past where I could go out of the circle. A car entering the roundabout nudges out, she's staring right at me, window down, maybe even a Prius, she gives me the body language and creeping of the car that says, she's going right in front of me broadside. I look straight at her, it seems to me she's saying thru telepathy, "are you going?", eventhough I have the right away, she keeps nudging forward, I say thru my motorcycle, no your not! Figured I'm not going to check up for her when she's supposed to yield. Maybe it'll make her more aware or motorcycles next time and I saw her thoughts way before she wanted me to t-bone her in a motorcycle car way. I continued on like nothing happened, no waving of hands or anything and she wasn't anywhere near me when I completed the circle.

 

[earlfor]

We're all about roundabouts here in Whatcom County Washington, I guess it's cheaper than traffic lights and supposedly keeps traffic flowing.

I ran a few errands this morning on the ES, usually this time of year students are heading home to whereever they live, (WWU, a community college, tech school 10-15K students?) but the cluster fck, that is King County (Seattle) and elsewhere are causing more people to flock here when student leave or so it seems. Maybe it's the weed, I don't know. Big traffic volumes everywhere, lights that seem to take forever to change, only for the next light 75 yards or meters ahead to turn red after waiting 3 minutes for the last one, burning precious "freedom juice" as my friend calls it, while waiting for all these lights.

Anyway, I go through a round about 2 miles from my home, I'm clearly going all the way around counter clockwise, past where I could go out of the circle. A car entering the roundabout nudges out, she's staring right at me, window down, maybe even a Prius, she gives me the body language and creeping of the car that says, she's going right in front of me broadside. I look straight at her, it seems to me she's saying thru telepathy, "are you going?", eventhough I have the right away, she keeps nudging forward, I say thru my motorcycle, no your not! Figured I'm not going to check up for her when she's supposed to yield. Maybe it'll make her more aware or motorcycles next time and I saw her thoughts way before she wanted me to t-bone her in a motorcycle car way. I continued on like nothing happened, no waving of hands or anything and she wasn't anywhere near me when I completed the circle.

The problem with that is it doesn't matter how many times you "win", you still only have to lose once.

 

[bccap]

The problem with that is it doesn't matter how many times you "win", you still only have to lose once.

The only place in the world I've seen the " Right of way " work is India. The first time my driver pulled out to pass and there was a car coming the opposite way I damn near crapped myself. But a couple of toots on the horn by both drivers and the car with the right of way creeped onto the shoulder to let us pass. It's a regular thing not to stand on " Right of way " there. Though there are lots of accidents the " right of way " thing is never pushed........

 

[Brendan W]

Cagers used to get me wound up, now not so much. All human life is there. People under all sorts of pressure, bad news, illness, depression, bereavement, bad job situation. There are then the arrogant selfish types, the clueless and the clinically insane and that's before alcohol and substances.
Wouldn't it be great if they were all like me, well that is never going to happen and the sooner I accept that reality the better.
Drivers are too important for the economy and the death rate at the moment is acceptable by definition.
I've seen so much I can generally guess what's going to happen next. The more guesses I make the more accurate they are. Rarely am I surprised by any individuals behaviour.
50% of bike capability and 100% situational evaluation, you know the voice in your head type of thing.
It's a kind of family joke. Nice ride? How many tried to kill you today? Any new techniques? No? Thought not

 

[dorkburger]

Same here on predicting cager behavior. When driving with the wife she is often surprised when I correctly call a move that is about to happen.

 

[Carter Turk]

The problem with that is it doesn't matter how many times you "win", you still only have to lose once.

Yeah, I get that, I was only going 15-20 mph, I could've stopped if she decided to barge in, also the roundabout was a low brick job, with a tapered curve curb, so turning more left onto the bricks woulda been fine. I thought, why give her the opportunity to do it again in the future, if this "no harm wakeup" caused her to think twice next time. She'll probably forget next time, but maybe not.

 

[earlfor]

Not my job to school the driving public. If it were my job I'd have to accept a lot of failure. My job is to get as many problem free miles in as possible. 99.999 percent of bike riders drive cars as well. Do they drive cars better because they also ride bikes, I doubt it, but I'm sure it makes bikers feel good to think they do.

I think the road habits of bike riders are considerably different than those of car only drivers and probably much more aware and analytical.
Also, I doubt anyone switches back and forth between habits with vehicle changes. I know I drive a car the same way I ride.

 

[Guest]

We're all about roundabouts here in Whatcom County Washington,

I sure like the new one the put in at Mt Baker and HWY 9. I always hated that intersection.

 

[Carter Turk]

I sure like the new one the put in at Mt Baker and HWY 9. I always hated that intersection.

I haven't had the opportunity to try that one yet since they did that, is/was a sketchy corner, cage or bike, especially in the winter with black ice and potential cars turning. I broke my right leg in 5 places below the knee on Mt. Baker Hwy 542 in 88, when a Washington State Fisheries employee turned left into me on a straightaway beyond that point and smeared, my now wife and me across the road. An armco barrier now blocks the overgrown dirt road where that truck turned, way back when. Now I'm always a little tenative whenever on that road.

 

[Jedz123]

I live in Vermont so my biggest grief is Vermont drivers. 5 under the speed limit and everyone is afraid to pass. The Bonneville accelerates quite well and usually can pass a wolf pack of em' at 5 at a time. Tractors and general off road vehicles (tangent dump trucks, excavators, road graders, and trucks hauling feed or manure) also choke up the roads and coming around a turn at 55mph to find a manure spreader leaking manure all over the road going 15mph is a slick and smelly situation... I called the cops once on one that was leaking like sieve and was covering the roads in feces... I was upset to say the least and the town had to come up and wash the road off. The Farm was fined, finally..
When I'm interstate riding the usual texting and distracted driving really ticks me off. I've ridden right next to someones window and looked in and could see them on Facebook as they are "driving" down the road, They jump when the look over with my head on their glass pretty much... I honk most times I see it.
Last thing that really irks me is bike (bicycle) riders. Most are ok but some think they own the road and won't move over to traffic approaching from the rear. The law doesn't seem to apply to these unique brand of a$$holes. I have buzzed a few on the right... I almost got smoked by one when I was crossing the street and the cars yielded to me at the crosswalk Guy Fing rides right through and almost hit me. I flipped out and he looked scared... I'm generally a chill person but tick me off... Man watch out.
All I got.