I have just completed without a doubt, the worst commute home ever! Not once, but twice, was I subjected to (quite frankly) a blatant disregard for my personal safety from a car driver; and my heinous crime? Filtering!
The first was some middle aged guy in a silver Merc, he hated the fact I had the audacity to filter past a couple of hundred yards of stand-still traffic coming out of the industrial estate I work on, I managed to get into a large gap to his left (I was turning left at the roundabout ahead – by the way, my filtering had all previously been on the right!), which he had left as he was turning right. I get along-side Mr Merc and he suddenly races the car forward and left to try and close the gap he had left, literally inches from my bloody bike!
The second – I had filtered along a queue of stationary traffic waiting for the traffic light, and as with the filtering above there was absolutely nothing coming the other way for a change, I get to the last two cars in the queue as the lights change and I move left into a gap between car 2 and 3; at that very moment I’m conscious that car 3 sped up almost in an attempt to stop me rejoining the traffic; the gap was also large enough for my bike and another behind it.
For the next mile, the car (a silver 56 reg. Astra) was probably down to a couple of millimetres from my rear tyre to his bumper, it was so close my entire mirror view was taken up with his car
He was constantly close, and was weaving all over the road trying to bully me into the kerb so he could go past (in a 30 zone with oncoming, mind), he also almost had a cyclist off too; having to swerve sharply at the last minute to avoid her!
We get to a 40 zone and he is still right up my arse, at the set of red lights shortly after he parks right up my arse too, and as we pull off he’s trying to again squeeze around me on the right – I’ve now clocked the knobber and decided it was a baseball cap wearing teen or early twenties, out with something to prove, so you can imagine my shock when we finally part company on the three lanes ahead – it’s a middle aged guy in driving gloves and a beanie giving me the Nescafe sign :O
Of the two, the second guy actually had me panicking, the first was just some stuck up **** business man with something to prove, the second guy was a ****ing liability!
By no means is this a dig at all car drivers; I pass so many without problems, it’s just a small few that are ****s, and I know how controversial the subject of filtering is to car drivers that have never ridden (I get them at work too!) – maybe even from bike riders too; the fact those who do it are choosing to put themselves into harm’s way. But I pride myself in filtering safely and when only when appropriate, and really hate people who are so selfish or too stupid to deal with it; even more so when you get muppets that are hell bent on using their several tonnes of comfortable metal to do me some damage
Oh, and to add to the downer this week – Wooden Bucket (Wootton Bassett for non-locals) are now up in arms about the Mother’s Day charity ride, so it may be in jeopardy, maybe that’s for a GD thread though….. maybe motors?
. Some people complain about Stowe but I can't see why, especially if you're like me and have never been on a track anyway! I would have done it at Rockingham but there are no dates for it on the CSS website?? So I had to go for Silverstone (luckily I'm trailering the bike down the night before and can then drive home in relative comfort instead of riding back after a full day!).
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