Second day on the road - complete nutter experience

Gimpymoo

Gimpymoo

Gimpymoo

Soldato
Joined
31 May 2005
Posts
15,640
Location
Nottingham
Happily tootling along at 40mph, in "position 2".

I see a car waiting at a side road junction to get onto the road I am on, they have noticed me, all good. I then notice a car coming up behind them but they do not stop behind, they swing round and enter the road regardless cutting me up.

I end up being infront of him but am a little shook up/annoyed at this point so flip him the finger. He then starts trying to intimidate me by tailgating me, so I flip him another fresh finger.

He then overtakes me at a roundabout. He then slows down infront of me so I drive alongside reminding him he could have wiped me out, he then turns his car so is almost diagonal in the lane, while I am in "position 3" trying to use his car to wipe me out.

He then stops at lights and gets out his car, I sit there thinking "here we go", he moans to the car infront "Am going to knock him off that ******* bike" or something to that effect, but then gets back in his own car, weirdo.

Complete and utter moron.

I admit, flipping the bird was not a smart move on my behalf, I should have been more composed. Obviously, that triggered the idiot even more but what was he thinking the second time when I had to emergency stop to avoid getting knocked off?

Lessons learnt:

Move on and get away from idiots as quickly as possible, high chance they will be more idiot
Do not drive alongside said idiots
Hurry up and get a camera
Be thankful nothing happened and get on with your day

Is it worth reporting to the police with no evidence? A van stopped to ask me if I was OK as he saw what happened which was nice of him but I forgot to ask for his details.

Have a great day all.
 
Don't antagonize people. Yes it was a stupid and careless thing for him to do but flipping the bird just escalated it. These things happen all the time, I was recently in a bus lane on the left, bus lane ends, cars move in to bus lane to turn left, standard fare. I've always got my senses at Defcon 1 when riding but missed this chap who decided at the last second that he wanted to turn left so flung his car over and almost wiped me out in the process. I gave him a little beep and at the red lights pulled up next to him, I told him he owes me a new pair of underwear and he apologised profusely and said he genuinely didn't see me, and that was the end of that. No harm, no foul.


I will say that I've seen a few cars driving around with their mirrors folded in lately, and on two occasions I've pulled their mirrors out for them. One was a chap in a van who gave me a thumbs up and the other was an old bint who looked like she didn't even know that other people used the roads. And I'll continue to do it too, I do my best to look out for others and am a very considerate road user. I generally expect my fellow road users to be absolute windowlicking morons but when the I-give-zero-***** mentality is that obvious, I'll always pop their mirrors back out, that could literally save someone's life.
 
I had similar for filtering many years ago, guy shouting out of his window that it was illegal while trying to brake check me and swerve into my lane. The irony was not lost on me.

All fun and games and an amusing story to tell but yeah try and avoid antagonising people...until you're on a bigger bike and can get away quickly :cry:
 
I knew when he was using his car as a weapon I had messed up but it all felt "personal" if that makes sense? Not saying "it was ok" to do what I did, it put myself in more danger.

Lesson learned.
 
Nutters gonna nutter and unfortunately we're the soft squidgy ones so you've definitely got to learn to swallow your pride and move on even though caving in their window would make you feel better :o .
 
That's an unnerving start to you riding life ! I've got my CBT coming up and now I'm not sure if 2 wheels is a safe format with all the nutters around with 4 wheels.
 
Fluffybob said:
That's an unnerving start to you riding life ! I've got my CBT coming up and now I'm not sure if 2 wheels is a safe format with all the nutters around with 4 wheels.
Click to expand...
I've been riding for 7 years, easily covered 100+k miles and the one I mentioned above is the only nutter I've really encountered. Don't let it put you off.
 
Fluffybob said:
That's an unnerving start to you riding life ! I've got my CBT coming up and now I'm not sure if 2 wheels is a safe format with all the nutters around with 4 wheels.
Click to expand...
I am not letting that nutter make me miss out on all the fun.

Lesson learnt, if I didn't give him the finger, however much he deserved it, things may have been different.

Been riding for three days now, I love an excuse to ride.

Commuting is fun. Driving is just yuk in comparison.
 
I used to have motorbikes in the 70s, it wasn't too bad then on the roads but there seem to be so many car drivers on the road now that shouldn't be driving. Its bad enough in a car with people pulling out in front of you etc, I wouldn't dare ride a bike now
 
Gimpymoo said:
snip
Click to expand...
Just try not to engage with them is all I can say – don’t let a dented ego, lead to you getting knocked off; I know it’s hard at the time, as sometimes the idiots have almost wiped you out - but they’ll likely drive off with scuff marks, whilst you’re left counting the costs.

I once had an incident when commuting through Chippenham 6-7 years ago – a white van almost ploughed into me on a roundabout in a 50 zone after failing to give way, even when I was making my turn they kept on driving over the ‘give way’ point and ended up too close for comfort – I gave a quick single blip as a way of me saying “I’m here” but got up to speed, and followed the traffic - they then proceeded to tailgate me all the way up to a set of light (and change to a 30 zone).

Anyway, throughout the 30 zone through the town, they were pretty much right up my bum, but again I maintained my speed and didn’t gesture or anything (just a few choice words in my lid). We came to a point where the road splits, one goes to the M4, and the other towards Wootton Bassett; I stayed in the former as I was heading to Swindon via the M4 – just as we were about to part ways I flipped them off…. BIG MISTAKE!!

Before I could register what happened, the white van had cut back into the lane I took, and was even closer this time! I tried to act nonchalant, and maintained my speed through the 30 zone, and into a 40 zone up ahead – luckily for me that bit gets a bit choked up in the morning, so I planned to filter past the traffic to get me some distance from the white van…. only the driver decided to also filter, and drove into incoming traffic to keep up with me!!

I know the road well, and at the end are a couple of small roundabouts – again a choke-point for traffic in the morning; only I made sure to give myself plenty of room from the car in front when I stopped, and lucky I did as the white van raced past me and came to an abrupt stop in this space; I quickly shot around them as 3 blokes got out shouting at me – the driver trying to grab me as I rode past! I then pinned it through a couple of rat run roads to get myself onto the A350 to junction 17…. Thankfully giving the nut jobs the slip.

A camera is pretty useless imo – even with the above incident, unless it’s a clear cut case of dangerous driving, I don’t think the Police have the time or inclination to follow anything up. I’ve submitted a few videos of cars aiming for me during my commute, or blindly swerving into my lane, forcing me to have to take avoiding action – never heard a peep back!

As for reporting to the Police, you can – but it’s quite a drawn-out process, and at best, the other driver might get a letter through the post warning them about their conduct on the road. I have been on both sides of that process – got a letter out of the blue that someone had complained I gave them the finger whilst riding the bike; I didn’t have the opportunity to answer this one as the Police blanked my retort – but upon checking my footage, some old biddy blindly followed a lorry out of a roundabout without looking to see that I was coming and she should have given way to me… thankfully I wasn’t speeding or anything as I was able to avoid her, but I did treat her to a gesture. On the other occasion I was driving the Wife’s car with the family on board, and had some idiot tailgating us, and then racing past us to brake check us and get out of his car – I understand that he was sent a letter.

The joys of the road eh! I think it’s a lot worse these days, people seem far more combative now, and less focused on what they are doing – and sadly for us, that just means even more idiots we have the keep an eye out for. That’s one of the reasons why I love hacking around on little B roads now, I just let Calimoto take me down the lanes and enjoy often having the road to myself.

Above all though, stay safe out there.
 
I passed my test, i phoned my older bestfriend (at the time he was 52 i was 31) to tell him i passed as he got me into bikes.

He gave me his old fazer fzs he was using as a winter bike, the thing im still using and desperate to upgrade as per other thread, as he handed me the keys (after insurance and taxing etc) he said something along the lines of

"PEOPLE WILL PULL OUT ON YOU, THEY WILL NOT SEE YOU EVER AND BLAME YOU FOR IT, NEVER TRUST ANYONE!"

Not even 5 minutes on the bike and someone pulled out right in front of me causing a lot of poo!,

I give people the finger quite a lot, but im a big guy and quite good at shouting so its never resorted to violence, yet.....
 
Last edited:
Philz0r said:
I passed my test, i phoned my older bestfriend (at the time he was 52 i was 31) to tell him i passed as he got me into bikes.

He gave me his old fazer fzs he was using as a winter bike, the thing im still using and desperate to upgrade as per other thread, as he handed me the keys (after insurance and taxing etc) he said something along the lines of

"PEOPLE WILL PULL OUT ON YOU, THEY WILL NOT SEE YOU EVER AND BLAME YOU FOR IT, NEVER TRUST ANYONE!"

Not even 5 minutes on the bike and someone pulled out right in front of me causing a lot of poo!,

I give people the finger quite a lot, but im a big guy and quite good at shouting so its never resorted to violence, yet.....
Click to expand...
Guy I was working with when I got my CBT gave me some advice that has probably saved my backside on multiple occasions.

"Ride like everyone is trying to kill you".
 
Captain said:
If you’re going to indulge in road rage, you need to be prepared to fight in the road.

Been there many times, it’s not worth it.
Click to expand...
Exactly this.
Don’t talk the talk if you can’t walk the walk.
I watch loads of biking YouTube channels and it looks pathetic when the biker skulks off after the car driver confronts him.
 
We had a road rage incident whilst doing bike lessons.
My riding instructor confronted the rough ass driver of a transit van and met with aggression from the driver.
The other bloke on the lesson was a Polish bouncer.
It was soon over much to my amusement.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom