Lane Splitting - Riders Etiquette Part Deux
written by sideout
I had already blogged about this a little bit. Today is the time to revisit this subject.
I was riding back from the office, traffic as usual, splitting lanes at around 30 mph I caught up to a cruiser rider. My aftermarket Taylormade Racing exhaust has a pretty loud note, usually I don’t have to rev my engine above 5000 rpms for people to hear me even when their car windows are closed all the way. So I would imagine that a rider in a brain bucket style helmet would not have any trouble hear me too. Apparently either I was wrong and he did not hear me or he did not bother paying attention to a faster rider behind him. I was patiently droning after him at a whopping speed of 10-15 mph. Not trying to be aggressive or obnoxious I decided to keep pacing him and see how long would it take for him to realize that there was a faster rider behind him and move over. It is pretty simple in my book - it does not matter who the better or the more experienced rider is, it is just the matter of someone having a wider bike and not being able to split lanes as effectively as another rider.
Well, it took him 2 miles, and approximately 7 minutes. He had had plenty of opportunities to move aside but he chose not to. When finally he lazily moved aside he did not wave like most of the riders usually do. Correction, most of the sport bike riders. For some reason cruiser/chopper style riders don’t wave at the sport bike riders.
Not sure where this whole thing stems from and not sure if I want to come up with any kind of stereotypes for this matter. But this incident annoyed me a little bit. Oh well, I will get over it. I think I already did.
Lane Splitting is for IDIOTs
gus
May 20th, 2008
Read this article about why lane splitting should be legalized not only California but across the US and then make your judgment.
sideout
May 20th, 2008
Perhaps lane splitting should be legalized, but with the following conditions. You cannot pass other cars at a rate of 5 or 10 mph faster than the surrounding traffic. Also, you cannot pass other cars until you have established your position in between lanes for at least 3 - 5 seconds. And you must have your headlights on when you are passing other cars. I think these rules should be reasonable and would make it easier for motorists to see bikers coming up behind them.
Todd
May 21st, 2008
I would agree on these terms.
Also would like to point out that the original topic of this post was related more to rider to rider courtesy rather then the legalization of lane splitting or filtering as they call it in Europe.
sideout
May 21st, 2008
Maybe he couldn’t hear your bike because he got deaf from not wearing the earplugs?
Motodisiac
May 21st, 2008
Its funny, I actually asked the whole “cruiser riders not waving at sportsbike riders” question in another blog and about 90% of cruiser riders said they wave at everyone.
Funnily enough, about 90% of those didnt come from California, so maybe it’s a geographical thing.
Stoafer
May 21st, 2008
Guys, are you saying you’re “that” concerned about riders waving at you?
Steve
May 21st, 2008
Haha, of course not. I believe Stoafer has shifter a focus a little bit.
I wrote this post to point out how some riders are unaware of what is going on around them and not being able to recognize that they have to move over. I check my rear views probably once a minute if not more when splitting lanes. I know I am not the fastest one out there.
sideout
May 21st, 2008