[CANTSiR]

in my experience drivers doing below the speed limit are very dangerous. yesterday heading home following some driver with LE license tag driving ranging from speed limit to 5 below. I figure he's trying to get me to pass, but I don't count on his ability to safely let me. eventually he comes to a near stop in the road drifting a bit right then as he's turning in some road throws his blinker on. He doesn't complete his turn but instead parks across the road. He sots on the road like that so I confidently speed pass him continuing on my road. He then turns his vehicle around with a u turn.

Had I gone on either side of him he probably would have swiped me down in a turn of his car...This happens too much to me with these driving below the speed limit folks. always gotta respect them and try to figure out what idiocy they will be doing before you safely clear them.

 

[ChuteTheMall]

All drivers are dangerous.
Here in Florida, elderly drivers poking along in the left lane and baffled tourists won't see motorcycles.
Sometimes speeding past them is the only way to minimize exposure. Convince yourself that you are invisible.

Some couldn't find the ocean from the beach.

 

[hogcowboy]

So why not safely pass LE doing at least 3 over if not 5? I do it all the time. Even had several wave. They like going below the limit because they know very few will pass them. I'm sure they run my plates but if you got no violations you are good to go. Now that does require enough space but if you get a little more than halfway around and suddenly someone pulls out heading in your direction, I'd kick it up to complete the pass. I've done it before and got away with it. But you have to be doing everything safely and just had a new threat.

 

[CANTSiR]

pass them all the time. had a feeling this guy had a lack of awareness of literally anything happening around him and that he was going the wrong way. since he u turned, failed signals, and broke traffic patterns, I'd say I made an accurate assessment.

only reason i included the LE is that it's extra sad to see one doing that much terrible driving.

 

[CANTSiR]

sometimes its hard to tell if they are wanting u to pass or just clueless. reason i didnt pass is i leaned towards clueless

 

[Retired Guy]

I've had drivers pass me and then slow down in front of me. When I pass them back, sometimes they're yakking away on a cell phone! I'm sure it's happened somewheres, but so far I haven't seen another motorcyclist hold a phone to his/her ear and jabber about God only knows what!

 

[Critter]

I have the ability to talk on my phone (speakers and mike inside my helmet) without ever taking a hand off the bars or my eyes off the road. I choose not to, depending on the caller I will either ignore the call or pull off the road if possible and answer. If I have to make a call I pull over to do so.

People do look at you strangely when you are leaning against the bike talking to yourself!

 

[Retired Guy]

My phone is in the saddle bag. Anyone that wants to contact me has to send a text. I'll check for messages at a gas station, or lunch or some other time I'm off the road.

 

[Critter]

Earplugs drive me crazy. So I have Pandora on my phone playing just loud enough to be there and knock the edge off the wind and other noises. Doesn't really matter where the phone is physically located as is is all bluetooth.

 

[Retired Guy]

My phone is turned off in the saddle bag. Do have a MP3 I like to listen to.

 

[BWB75]

Sometimes, as happened today, there will be a vehicle in the right hand lane traveling 20+ mph below the speed limit. Today it was 45 in a 65. Look around, watch for a while, then go to pass because I don't want to be the speedbump that alerts the texter behind me that he is about to rear end the slowpoke.

Passing becomes work, because slowpoke doesn't want to be passed. Then you find yourself driving faster than you wanted, with slowpoke on your fender.

Sometimes this happens with big rigs, and you just have to let them manage their load for the rise and fall of the terrain. Today's slowpoke was just such a semi, except the terrain was flat or downhill, so that did not explain it.

Made me happy to have a fast and secure motorcycle that can handle higher speed without disrupting a nice book on tape.

 

[Tobacco Road]

To ride a motorcycle is to be continually reminded the Grim Reaper is lurking around the next turn. All drivers believe they excel at driving, but the reality is most suffer from the Dunning-Kruger effect.

They constantly overestimate their own driving ability while underestimating or diminishing everyone else's, all while being the most self-assured person on the highway. Only they are capable of talking on their cell phone while steering with a sandwich, but anyone else doing same should have their license revoked.

 

[450zuki]

I've had drivers pass me and then slow down in front of me. When I pass them back, sometimes they're yakking away on a cell phone! I'm sure it's happened somewheres, but so far I haven't seen another motorcyclist hold a phone to his/her ear and jabber about God only knows what!

OMG! Yes!

That drives me insane. I will see a car a mile behind me, 5 minutes later they're behind me, they pass me, they now go slower than me and I'm forced to kick off the cruise control and try to pass them...only to have them tailgate me if I do pass...the whole world is nuts....WTH?!

 

[FlipFlop]

I've had drivers pass me and then slow down in front of me. When I pass them back, sometimes they're yakking away on a cell phone! I'm sure it's happened somewheres, but so far I haven't seen another motorcyclist hold a phone to his/her ear and jabber about God only knows what!

OMG! Yes!

That drives me insane. I will see a car a mile behind me, 5 minutes later they're behind me, they pass me, they now go slower than me and I'm forced to kick off the cruise control and try to pass them...only to have them tailgate me if I do pass...the whole world is nuts....WTH?!

Everyday all day life for me.

"Right after me, you come first." This is my saying I repeat everytime it happens, people just have to be in front.

 

[Tobacco Road]

I hear ya BK. I drove 18 wheeler hauling gasoline for many years and 4 wheelers constantly had to get around me and usually cut me off. Some would cut me off then put their brakes on. I always had the mind-set to do everything possible to avoid hitting the vehicle in front of me and possible killing them.... if it was my fault. If one of those clowns that cut me off and then hit the brakes, well, I wasn't going to die for someone else being an idiot. I was going over them. Fortunately that never happened.

 

[mike721]

I hate that, someone will speed up to pass me (I'm already going 10 or more over) , OK, that's fine, it's not a race, they go by like a rocket and then once they are 100 feet in front of me they realize that they don't want to go that fast and let off the gas to about 3 over the speed limit, and then I have to pass them, and then the cycle repeats...

Pick the damn speed you want to go and stick with it!

OMG! Yes!

That drives me insane. I will see a car a mile behind me, 5 minutes later they're behind me, they pass me, they now go slower than me and I'm forced to kick off the cruise control and try to pass them...only to have them tailgate me if I do pass...the whole world is nuts....WTH?!

 

[hogcowboy]

Leaders and followers. That’s what our roads are full of. Problem is the followers want to lead until they are. Then they get scared and slow down which irritates the original leaders to no end. Okay, it does me. I wish it was legal to waste them on the spot.


Sent by one or two fingers.

 

[Offcenter]

I hear ya BK. I drove 18 wheeler hauling gasoline for many years and 4 wheelers constantly had to get around me and usually cut me off. Some would cut me off then put their brakes on. I always had the mind-set to do everything possible to avoid hitting the vehicle in front of me and possible killing them.... if it was my fault. If one of those clowns that cut me off and then hit the brakes, well, I wasn't going to die for someone else being an idiot. I was going over them. Fortunately that never happened.

I hauled gasoline too, only for a couple of years though.
My attitude was the same as yours. I wasn't about to crash with 9,000 gallons of
gas behind me because of some idiot.
On an exit ramp from Route 24 to Route 287, I had one of those morons who drive the airport limos try to pass me ON THE RAMP in a big Lincoln Town Car.
I just held my line as I was gearing down into the ramp.
He suddenly found himself with nowhere to go, and ended up on the curb against the guardrail with my tractor's big drive wheels just inches from his right window.
He had a woman passenger in the right back seat. Her eyes were the size of dinner plates.
When I came out of the ramp onto route 287, he was way behind me in the right lane driving slowly. She must have been giving him hell for that!
Had a guy in a BMW try the same thing at the same spot.
Last I saw of him, his front end was up on top of a big snow pile with the front wheels spinning. LOL!!!!

 

[dcstrng]

I think this happens a lot when the passer and the passed are both flirting right around the speed limit… speed-limit plus four folks… Most bikes should be able to blow them into the weeds and leave plenty of room… if all I do is pass (and they aren’t on cruise control), human nature almost compells them to pace the car/bike that just passed them… I catch myself doing it from time to time, and either back off sufficiently to break contact or blast on by…

Seems to happen especially if the bike has a slightly louder exhaust – I passed a lady over on the eastern shore (Chesapeake) some years back and notice that she crept right up to me, once the rode went to four lanes, I eased right around her, slowly, but made a point of not blasting by just to tease her – I kept inching up the throttle and she being totally oblivious (apparently) to anything other than the exhaust note hung right in there with me until she must have suddenly realize her hoopty Nova was doing slightly over 80 in a 55mph zone – had to laugh cuz she let off like she’d just wonted into a pot of glue…

But I catch myself doing it when riding tired, or zone out, a chauffeur buddy of mine calls it “road hypnosis” – I’ll accidently pace other cars until I realize what I’m don’t and then break contact…

 

[johnnyvee]

I had a LEO in a marked squad car crunch into my left front fender one day.

He's driving slow northbound in a bad part of town, on a major city artery, with me following respectfully. As we near an intersection, he drifts over to the left, no signals of any kind. I assume he's going to make a left turn without signals. Who needs signals if you are a cop, right? I move over to the right, to go around, and suddenly he cuts a hard right to make a right turn in the intersection. Unfortunately by then, that's right where I was. Fortunately, I was in an Econoline 250 stretch, and not on two wheels. Unfortunately, when a cop hits you, it's your fault, no matter what, this is what they told me. He was a gangs cop, looking for the gangbanger whose diaper needed changing. Fortunately, insurance covered me and it wasn't all that expensive, back in the days of sheet metal cars. Ford Crown Vic, vs Ford Econoline, Econoline wins, but I was the biggest loser.