Think bike
- Thread starter Merlin5
- Start date
The back right of your car where most bikers tend to position themselves is not a blind spot. If anything it's the least blind spot in your scan apart from dead ahead. If you look in your mirror that bike should be dead centre of your view. If it isn't your mirrors are set wrong.
I remember when I started riding on the road about 8 years ago, someone on here gave me a wonderful piece of advice. I think it might have been Rilot. When following a car, look in their rear view and side mirrors and see if they're looking at you. If you can make eye contact with the driver through the mirrors then you aren't blind to them.
When positioning myself behind a car for any manoeuvre, be it an overtake, lane merge, turn or just following, I always ensure that I can see the car driver's eyes in their mirrors. If I can't, I reposition to a place where I can.
More often than not they never even look in their mirrors though.
Thats exactly what I do. I always look to see if I can see myself in their mirrors. On some occaisions they even indicate to tell me the road ahead is clear and move over a bit
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Filtering through traffic that is basically NOT using the lane system correctly?
How many times is there oddles of space in the two inner lanes because every ****** wants to be getting there quicker? Lane hogging for the loose.
If all the traffic in front of me on a motorway is stuck moving forward at the same speed I filter round them because I can, because I take up little space, dont I slow people down.
Its as dangerous as you make it, lots of car drivers dont look into the blindspot, this is whats annoying to me. I learnt to drive being told, look into your blindspot!
This bit always fills me with despair, be I on bike or in car.
Works well around town and such but your not supposed to do shoulder checks on the motorway so how do you "sense" bikers in your blind spot then? I have this problem a lot as I do an insane amount of motorway driving
A lot of older driving instructors will teach you to do it but its wrong, I learnt that doing an advanced driving course through the police and fire service (I wasn't made to do it, saw it in the paper and thought it would be useful)
Basically imagine your going along at 70, the car in front is only doing 68-69, you get ready to overtake, check all the mirrors, check the blind spot-BHAM the car in front stopped in an emergency and you hit it before you even had chance to turn your head back, your neck may well be broken but if not you've still just crashed travelling 70mph on a busy motorway, its not going to be pretty
According to the emergency services in this situation side-swiping something in the blind spot is preferable to the above
Basically imagine your going along at 70, the car in front is only doing 68-69, you get ready to overtake, check all the mirrors, check the blind spot-BHAM the car in front stopped in an emergency and you hit it before you even had chance to turn your head back, your neck may well be broken but if not you've still just crashed travelling 70mph on a busy motorway, its not going to be pretty
According to the emergency services in this situation side-swiping something in the blind spot is preferable to the above
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If the car in front emergency stops in the split second you were doing a shoulder check then you were going to hit it regardless, I see people getting pulled out on daily when traveling the motorway and bear in mind my commute is 7miles and I see it a lot, and I will bet its people not doing shoulder checks, and this is cars onto cars never seen a problem with a bike.
And its not wrong lol I did courses recently with police after my accident and they said a big problem with cars and bikes is blind spots, apparently it happens a lot with bikes too, bike mirrors are crappy and if you dont shoulder check there is a huge gap your missing and bikers just pull straight out onto the bonnet of cars, id hate to see that happen at 70mph just because someone didnt do a split second shoulder check.
But to be fair you are always going to get contradicting advice even within the forces, but I still dont see how doing a shoulder check would be a problem, it literally takes a split second any longer and 'Your doing it wrong' lol
**Straight from the highway code**
# take a quick sideways glance into the blind spot area to verify the position of a vehicle that may have disappeared from your view in the mirror
# remember that traffic may be coming up behind you very quickly. Check all your mirrors carefully. Look out for motorcyclists. When it is safe to do so, signal in plenty of time, then move out
And its not wrong lol I did courses recently with police after my accident and they said a big problem with cars and bikes is blind spots, apparently it happens a lot with bikes too, bike mirrors are crappy and if you dont shoulder check there is a huge gap your missing and bikers just pull straight out onto the bonnet of cars, id hate to see that happen at 70mph just because someone didnt do a split second shoulder check.
But to be fair you are always going to get contradicting advice even within the forces, but I still dont see how doing a shoulder check would be a problem, it literally takes a split second any longer and 'Your doing it wrong' lol
**Straight from the highway code**
# take a quick sideways glance into the blind spot area to verify the position of a vehicle that may have disappeared from your view in the mirror
# remember that traffic may be coming up behind you very quickly. Check all your mirrors carefully. Look out for motorcyclists. When it is safe to do so, signal in plenty of time, then move out
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I have NEVER EVER crashed my car except for once when i was young and we were taking turns to see how fast we could get round a corner on a road in the middle of nowhere without spinning.
I think that says that im not "lazy and incompetent" more than any of your opinions.
I think that says that im not "lazy and incompetent" more than any of your opinions.
You are now cursed
NEVER EVER crashed your car , except for once ?
So in fact you did crash your car , you just said so !Says to me you are just that , not to mention an idiot.
Was it cause the air wasnt clean enough to see through?
sounds like a classic twoblacklines idea...
Being young isn't really an excuse is it?
That's great but irrelevant. Your self-confessed inability to check your blindspots without running over children means you should probably seek some form of training on how to drive properly.
Thats exactly what I do. I always look to see if I can see myself in their mirrors. On some occaisions they even indicate to tell me the road ahead is clear and move over a bit
Like most riders, I think you spend a great deal of time looking at the driver in front of you and where he/she is looking. After a little practice, you can soon tell which are the drivers who are going to seemingly randomly change lane without indicating, by a slight movement of their head. Of course, there are still a minority who 'do a Vettel' and just move over without any sort of indication at all.
Driving and riding, pretty much in equal proportions, I was trying really hard to stay out of this thread because it just ends up in a pointless confrontation despite some normally well reasoned discussion. Posters like twoblacklines who spout absolute nonsense however have to be countered.
youngness is immaturity, immaturity = bad driving.
Are you done twisting my words yet ?
Filtering is legal only for queues of stationary or slow moving (less than 20mph) traffic. The rider can then filter traffic up to +20mph of the queue speed.
Filtering is NOT legal for traffic flowing at normal speeds +20mph. Its considered an overtaking manoeuvre.
Filtering is NOT legal for traffic flowing at normal speeds +20mph. Its considered an overtaking manoeuvre.