Angry car drivers?

Knubje

Knubje

Knubje

Soldato
Joined
5 Jun 2008
Posts
6,240
Location
Portsmouth/Fareham
Hi,

Just had an interesting experience whilst riding my bike whilst on lunch break. I was riding the usual roads home and I'm behind a brand new 10 plate clio.

I'm keeping a normal distance in traffic and I notice the clio stab its breaks and continue. He then puts his hand up to his rear view as though hes blocking something. I have my lights ON (not half or FULL BEAM). I check my dash to ensure I've not done anything silly.

He puts his hands up again to his rear view mirror. We turn a corner and on the last straight for me before my road and he puts his arm out the mirror and waves frantically as though to stop. (approx 1/4 mile after this first happened).

He stops in the middle of the road so I stop behind him as does other traffic. A man gets out, around 60 I guess and says in quite a forthright manner:

"Do you realise you are blinding me and other on coming road users?!?!"

My response: "Uhhh, no?" (looking down at my dash, which I already checked anyway).

Him: "Well, I don't know if someone put your lights on before you left but they are on and blinding me".

Me: "Uhh, they are just On mate. Not full beam." (I then proceed to demonstrate clicking through, off/ half/ on and then Full).

Him: "Your lights were on and they are causing a distraction".

Me: "Do you ride a bike or have a license at all?"

Him: "...No"

Me: "ooooooohhhh........" (Heavy hints of sarcasm)

At this point he walked back to his car, turns and looks at me, shoots me a dirty look and shakes his head and proceeds to get in. I just check over my shoulder and ride around him.

Had me laughing to myself and have checked with many people since arriving back at work, including my old man who was an Army bike instructor and a bike traffic cop in the 70's. None of which can understand what this guy was on.

I was quite polite to him and could have said a few more things looking back now, such as it's clearly for safety being a biker or have you ever seen a Volvo, but I'm sure I did a pretty good job of handling him without extra sarcasm.

Do you think he was over reacting?

Has anyone had a similar experience with a car driver trying to tell you off for something perfectly legit?
 
Maybe your beam is misaligned? I cant see why a driver would go to all that effort unless he actually was being blinded by it - he must come across dozens of bikes everyday with normal running lights on (especially as all recent bikes are on automatically and you cant turn them off).
 
Possibly, this is what I thought. However, my MOT was last month and I would have thought they would have flagged it up.

Also, as I said, my old man checked out the bike with me when I got back and he said everything seemed fine. After the incident I was trying to keep an eye out on oncoming traffic as well as the person I was driving behind, none of which were reacting adversely to my presence.
 
I've never rode a bike but have plenty experiences on the back of them as a kid and its remarkable how much more considerate it has made me of the 2 wheelers.

Rest assured I think the idiots are exactly that, idiots/ignorant.

Its common sense a bike will have its lights on.
 
But why would he have made all that fuss if he was not actually being blinded?
It's possible that his mirror was at the exact angle to direct the beam into his eyes, or his car was low enough that he was being blinded.
It seems an extreme reaction if he wasn't being affected.
 
I appreciate bikers with their lights on behind me, helps me notice them better.

Not that I don't usually notice them, but between mirror checks it helps catch your eye.
 
emailiscrap said:
But why would he have made all that fuss if he was not actually being blinded?
It's possible that his mirror was at the exact angle to direct the beam into his eyes, or his car was low enough that he was being blinded.
It seems an extreme reaction if he wasn't being affected.
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It does seem a bit extreme, which is why I posted here. The way he spoke to me was quite forthright and pompus, like I was doing something wrong by having them on...almost.

I think his use of the word "blinded" was a bit strong, considering it was still day time. It was overcast so dark for daytime but it's not like I had my full beams on, tailgating him.
 
Flip the dim light thing on the mirror lol...

Whats the bike mate? I know sports bikes can be a bit annoying with their stiff suspension when you go over bumps it looks like you are flashing the car in front, but nothing to blind someone.
 
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Fireskull said:
Flip the dim light thing on the mirror lol...
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Yeah, you would have thought that his brand new clio would have a dim light thing on his rear-view.

Has anyone else had similar stories?

I got another one where I used to pick the Mrs up at Portsmouth Uni, ride out to a xroads where there were nearly always cars queueing at the lights with a cycle lane.

I used to go around the outside (not cycle lane) but park at the front in the main red area at the lights. This woman used to honk me EVERY TIME she was queuing and we skipped to the front of the queue.

Some people are so weird...
 
At least with him stopping and having a a bit of moan at you shows that he saw the the light and knew you were there, thats the whole point of riding with lights on:)./ Must admit, thats never happened to me in 40 years of riding
 
Dogbreath said:
Not got a HID conversion have you? They can be extremely uncomfortable for people in front (and people oncoming) when fitted to reflector type headlamps.
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Nah, my bike is very old man and standard. No frills what so ever.

Mucky_Pup said:
Just sounds like a grumpy old git, I would have just told him to go **** himself, then rode off and got on with my business.
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That's essentially what he was and what I did, without being too rude in the process. :)

Quite a strange experience.
 
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