Why do bikers..
- Thread starter Mr-White
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yes the intention is obvious, call 50% of bikers retarded...... nicely thought out contructive post.
i wish I could come out with such accurate figures, but then again I don't like sticking my hand up arse to pull them out
sorry, but posts like Mr LOLs (accurate name btw), are just flame bait for anyone passionate about biking, works for me... I bet MrLOL wouldn't be quoting these figures to guys down at boxhill
kb warrior much ?
The simple truth of it is that no matter how much of a div the driver is even they can see that a fiesta or whatever car they're driving will not fit through gap obviously too small for it, cars by their very nature ie; size and lack of power (in comparision) limit the divs and their actions by a large percentage, bikes on the other hand, do not.
yes the intention is obvious, call 50% of bikers retarded...... nicely thought out contructive post.
i wish I could come out with such accurate figures, but then again I don't like sticking my hand up arse to pull them out
sorry, but posts like Mr LOLs (accurate name btw), are just flame bait for anyone passionate about biking, works for me... I bet MrLOL wouldn't be quoting these figures to guys down at boxhill
kb warrior much ?
How do you go from "ride like divs" to "retarded"???
As I said, at least half of the bikers I see on the road on a daily basis ride like idiots. It's massively out of proportion with the idiotic car drivers.
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Random stats like those are just more proof, if any were needed, that we remember the idiots better than the rest of the road users we encounter most days of the week.
Oh and I've gone through a few gaps between artics as pictured above. Stopped doing it after clipping one and clipping it again and again as each impact just turned the bike towards the trailer. Epic brown trouser moment never to be repeated.
Oh and I've gone through a few gaps between artics as pictured above. Stopped doing it after clipping one and clipping it again and again as each impact just turned the bike towards the trailer. Epic brown trouser moment never to be repeated.
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We'll have to agree to disagree as I'm pretty sure idiots drivers/riders imprint more effectively in our memory 
Although obviously I can't comment on your experience in your part of the country.
I'd certainly agree with your experience if it were referring to idiots on mopeds as they certainly outnumber the non-idiots in London/Essex in my experience
Although obviously I can't comment on your experience in your part of the country.I'd certainly agree with your experience if it were referring to idiots on mopeds as they certainly outnumber the non-idiots in London/Essex in my experience
Its not really an agree/disagree situation - I know I encounter more idiots on bikes (in percentage terms) than in cars. You might not, but I certainly do
Yes, there are TONS of idiots in cars, but compared to the number of car drivers I pass/see on a daily basis, it's a pretty low percentage. And yes, I dont see many bikes around, especially at this time of year (most are fair weather power rangers) - but when every other biker is tailgaiting, speeding, badly/dangerously filtering etc etc, it's quite a significant percentage.
And yes, I'm sure the argument will be "you dont ride so you dont know", but I know enough about the highway code to know what is legal and acceptable
Yes, there are TONS of idiots in cars, but compared to the number of car drivers I pass/see on a daily basis, it's a pretty low percentage. And yes, I dont see many bikes around, especially at this time of year (most are fair weather power rangers) - but when every other biker is tailgaiting, speeding, badly/dangerously filtering etc etc, it's quite a significant percentage.
And yes, I'm sure the argument will be "you dont ride so you dont know", but I know enough about the highway code to know what is legal and acceptable
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Oh I don't doubt your version of an idiot on a bike is probably near enough identical to mine with or without riding experience
I actually drove for 2hrs on the M11 today and didn't see/notice a single idiot. I'm still somewhat in shock as that doesn't usually ever happen :O Random thing to mention but I bet it isn't often that anyone on here drives somewhere without encountering at least one deathwish driver.
I actually drove for 2hrs on the M11 today and didn't see/notice a single idiot. I'm still somewhat in shock as that doesn't usually ever happen :O Random thing to mention but I bet it isn't often that anyone on here drives somewhere without encountering at least one deathwish driver.
Non-bikers don't get bikers shocker...
There are two types of people posting here, the level headed and the not so level headed, some approaching bigotry (yeah that would be some of drivers posting).
The problem is, if you have not ridden a bike you cannot possibly see things from our perspective. Where as most car drivers have never so much as sat on a bike, never mind rode one, the vast majority of bikers have driving license and drive regularly. We see things from both sides.
As for some of the rubbish, thats been posted. Well one thing that stood out from me was the comments on filtering. Maybe things are different up here in north east scotland, but I have never in my 10+ years of driving and couple of years riding seen any biker filtering at 30-40mph. Sure there are people out there who do it, but to tar all rdiers with this kind of idiotic behavior is mind blowing. It's a bit like me taring all drivers as idiots when I see someone driving like a tool. As a driver, I know that simply isn't true. As anyone who rides a bike would know the same isn't true for bikers.
I saw another comment about how bikers ride just to get a few miles further down the road... Bloody hell, that is not what biking is about. Again a complete lack of understanding and ignorance.
I won't lie and say I never break the speed limit. I enjoy a spirited ride. But I am very conscious of not giving bikers a bad name and never do anything that would risk a driver or other bikers in anyway. I know what my bike can do, and what is safe and unsafe.
Fortunately I find the majority of drivers are not like the non-bikers who are posting here. They are very courteous and show bikers respect, as I do to them in return. But I see far more drivers treating riders with no respect that I do wreckless riding. People moving to make the gap to small for me to filter. Drivers driving on white like (and over!!) just to stop me passing. Petty, childish behaviour.
This summer from April through October I have seen truly reckless riding maybe 7 - 10 times. Yet every day I go out on my bike AT LEAST one driver will pull out in front of me when I have been perfectly visible and often made eye contact with them (when in town and riding slowly enough). Sure I will come off worse in a crash with a car, but this does not make it my responsibility to compensate for the drivers stupidity, as some have suggested. I have as much right to be on the road as a car does and it is everyones job as a driver/rider to be aware of ALL road users, not just other cars.
I know this, if everyone had to at least do their CBT as part of the driving test, the roads would be a much safer place. Riding a bike gives you a level of awareness most drivers simply do not have. The dangers of the road that apply to everyone are more obvious when you are on a bike and therefor you think about it when both riding AND driving.
Sure there are reckless riders out there, but there are also reckless drivers. So why pick on bikers specifically?
There are two types of people posting here, the level headed and the not so level headed, some approaching bigotry (yeah that would be some of drivers posting).
The problem is, if you have not ridden a bike you cannot possibly see things from our perspective. Where as most car drivers have never so much as sat on a bike, never mind rode one, the vast majority of bikers have driving license and drive regularly. We see things from both sides.
As for some of the rubbish, thats been posted. Well one thing that stood out from me was the comments on filtering. Maybe things are different up here in north east scotland, but I have never in my 10+ years of driving and couple of years riding seen any biker filtering at 30-40mph. Sure there are people out there who do it, but to tar all rdiers with this kind of idiotic behavior is mind blowing. It's a bit like me taring all drivers as idiots when I see someone driving like a tool. As a driver, I know that simply isn't true. As anyone who rides a bike would know the same isn't true for bikers.
I saw another comment about how bikers ride just to get a few miles further down the road... Bloody hell, that is not what biking is about. Again a complete lack of understanding and ignorance.
I won't lie and say I never break the speed limit. I enjoy a spirited ride. But I am very conscious of not giving bikers a bad name and never do anything that would risk a driver or other bikers in anyway. I know what my bike can do, and what is safe and unsafe.
Fortunately I find the majority of drivers are not like the non-bikers who are posting here. They are very courteous and show bikers respect, as I do to them in return. But I see far more drivers treating riders with no respect that I do wreckless riding. People moving to make the gap to small for me to filter. Drivers driving on white like (and over!!) just to stop me passing. Petty, childish behaviour.
This summer from April through October I have seen truly reckless riding maybe 7 - 10 times. Yet every day I go out on my bike AT LEAST one driver will pull out in front of me when I have been perfectly visible and often made eye contact with them (when in town and riding slowly enough). Sure I will come off worse in a crash with a car, but this does not make it my responsibility to compensate for the drivers stupidity, as some have suggested. I have as much right to be on the road as a car does and it is everyones job as a driver/rider to be aware of ALL road users, not just other cars.
I know this, if everyone had to at least do their CBT as part of the driving test, the roads would be a much safer place. Riding a bike gives you a level of awareness most drivers simply do not have. The dangers of the road that apply to everyone are more obvious when you are on a bike and therefor you think about it when both riding AND driving.
Sure there are reckless riders out there, but there are also reckless drivers. So why pick on bikers specifically?
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you really hate bikers dont you ?
there are some real biker tools about sure, but saying 50% you see are doing something wrong in your book is a little unfair.
why just make something up to make your post sound better on the interweb ?, it's just pathetic
I put your post in babelfish and it came up with...
'iaind got stuck in traffic today and got filtered past by a biker'
I dont hate bikers, I wouldnt judge a whole group of people based on these experiences.
All I'm saying is I encounter many more poor riders, in percentage terms, than I do car drivers. It's difficult to put a number on it (taking the time to count would be dangerous to say the least), but I don't really see how that can be considered "wrong". You either disagree that the quantities are as I find (god knows how you'd know that) or have had a different experience yourself. What sort of percentages would you put on it?
Your posts are verging on trolling - I'm just trying to relay first hand experience and you're taking it personally. You might be in the other 50% for all I know (although previous posts would indicate otherwise)
And yes, there was the expected "you dont ride so you dont know" post - I couldnt care less that I've never riden a bike, if something is too close to the back of me, I know it. Whether it's a car, a bike or a sherman tank - it's irellevant what you can see, your machine's capabilities etc. Likewise, speed laws are there and are pretty clear cut.
I really dont care that bikers go past me in traffic - if I can SAFELY move over to give them space I will, but I'm not going to drive in a cycle lane or get within an inch of the kerb to do it. At this time of year, I'm the one feeling smug with my heated seats and music
. Jealousy has nothing to do with it, and FWIW, most of the poor riding I see is on faster roads.
And yes, I'm lumping mopeds in there too, just like you probably lump the i10 drivers in with 7 series BMW drivers
All I'm saying is I encounter many more poor riders, in percentage terms, than I do car drivers. It's difficult to put a number on it (taking the time to count would be dangerous to say the least), but I don't really see how that can be considered "wrong". You either disagree that the quantities are as I find (god knows how you'd know that) or have had a different experience yourself. What sort of percentages would you put on it?
Your posts are verging on trolling - I'm just trying to relay first hand experience and you're taking it personally. You might be in the other 50% for all I know (although previous posts would indicate otherwise)
And yes, there was the expected "you dont ride so you dont know" post - I couldnt care less that I've never riden a bike, if something is too close to the back of me, I know it. Whether it's a car, a bike or a sherman tank - it's irellevant what you can see, your machine's capabilities etc. Likewise, speed laws are there and are pretty clear cut.
I really dont care that bikers go past me in traffic - if I can SAFELY move over to give them space I will, but I'm not going to drive in a cycle lane or get within an inch of the kerb to do it. At this time of year, I'm the one feeling smug with my heated seats and music
. Jealousy has nothing to do with it, and FWIW, most of the poor riding I see is on faster roads.And yes, I'm lumping mopeds in there too, just like you probably lump the i10 drivers in with 7 series BMW drivers
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Ah but did you know that 76.34% of statistics are made up??
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Driving in London I come across more cab drivers, van drivers and car drivers behaving appallingly vs the number of bikes. Don't even get me started on cyclists!
However, it could be that as a biker myself I look out for bikes and have a rough idea on what they're able to do so give them the space to do it - then again I like being a considerate driver.
And I'm afraid old bean, there's absolutely no way you can quantify any of the opinions made with "gut feeling" statistics... The reason you remember "more" bikers is possibly because you spot more of them as they are rarer therefore stick in your mind more? I don't know. However, I see so much bad driving (and I'm no angel I admit) that I couldn't possibly remember all the events, be they bikers, cars, vans, buses, trucks etc...
Then again I'll freely admit if people were posting on bike forum about car drivers the reverse conversation would undoubtedly be happening in the thread.
Driving in London I come across more cab drivers, van drivers and car drivers behaving appallingly vs the number of bikes. Don't even get me started on cyclists!
However, it could be that as a biker myself I look out for bikes and have a rough idea on what they're able to do so give them the space to do it - then again I like being a considerate driver.
I think if I started to break the "driving" populous down into subsections, I'm sure I could find one worse than bikes.
I'm considerate too, I'll move over when I can, let people out of junctions etc etc. As I said above though, most of the poor riding I see is on dual carriageways and faster 40mph town roads, so it's going to be a very different experience from what people are seeing in bigger cities. Although it drives me mad when a biker/moped rider filters past when I'm at the front of the queue at the lights, and pulls infront of me in the cycle lane "box"...before reacting much slower than me when the lights change
I think people are far too quick to take posts like mine as an accusation that all riders are crap. If you're happy that you're riding in a safe manner, then who cares? Everyone is going to have a different experience on the roads - I'm just trying to relay mine
And I'm afraid old bean, there's absolutely no way you can quantify any of the opinions made with "gut feeling" statistics... The reason you remember "more" bikers is possibly because you spot more of them as they are rarer therefore stick in your mind more? I don't know. However, I see so much bad driving (and I'm no angel I admit) that I couldn't possibly remember all the events, be they bikers, cars, vans, buses, trucks etc...
Then again I'll freely admit if people were posting on bike forum about car drivers the reverse conversation would undoubtedly be happening in the thread.
I'm not really trying to quantify it, maybe putting a percentage to it was a bad idea.
There's 2 things that make me think the quantities are what I do - firstly, I'm pretty conscious of the amount of cars vs bikes on the road. Putting accurate figures on what I'm seeing is impossible, but it's not hard to get a reasonable idea.
Secondly, any "incidents" on the road stick in my mind - maybe not for long but they do stand out. Whether that's something happening to me, like the stupid old woman in a smart car yesterday who nearly drove into the side of me as she cut across 2 lanes then flashed and gestured at me as though it was my fault, or just seeing someone do something stupid and thinking "idiot" - I don't think it's hard to get a rough idea of what's going on.
Then again, it's all just my experience - maybe I'm incredibly lucky with other car drivers or I just attract the idiot bikers
So Hang on, let me get this right
People who get a license after 2 driving tests and an additionally theory test (+CBT) should be grouped with people who simply bought a couple of hundred quid run abouts?
Thats a bit drastic.
And no, I dont "lump" car drivers as one. You tend to be able to make very fast judgements of drivers who are paying attention to the road in its entirety and those who are just looking for bikes to hate on
Also note the subtle irony of you judging a whole group of people after saying you wouldnt judge a whole group of people.
Troll less, relax more and stop taking bikes on the road as personal threats to your safety etc. Youve made your points about not liking bikers very clear
How have I judged an entire group of people? I just said my experiences on the road were that a higher percentage of bikers did stupid things. It's not saying "all bikers are idiots", it's not even saying "half the bikers are idiots", just "half the bikers I encounter do something idiotic".
Not sure why everyone's taking that so personally or struggling to understand what I'm actually saying
Remember, I have a very low tolerance of stuff like speed, tailgaiting etc - whether it's a driver or a rider
Not sure why everyone's taking that so personally or struggling to understand what I'm actually saying
Remember, I have a very low tolerance of stuff like speed, tailgaiting etc - whether it's a driver or a rider
Those arent statistics, they are figures i made up to illustrate a point:
That regular bike riders tend to ride more sensibly than the weekend warriors with a death wish and a sports bike
wouldn't you agree ?