How do you deal with stupid drivers? | GTAMotorcycle.com

How do you deal with stupid drivers?

rinomato1

rinomato1

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as a motorcyclist who has been on hiatus for 5 years, I always wondered how other fellow riders dealt with stupid drivers. ie.: tailgaiters, Impatient drivers, distracted drivers, aggressive drivers etc..... because in a perfect world there would be perfect drivers..... but that's not the case. About 5 years ago we were out on a group ride, and we were going along the Allen, towards Lawrence and a man was tailgating us, flashing at us honking just plain putting our lives at risk... now we got to the stop and the fellow I was riding with got off his Harley, reached into his pants pulled out a nightstick and just shattered the guys front windshield, then another rider with us, decided to follow suit and pulled the guy out of his car and just thrash him. the driver certainly deserved his fate had he hit anybody but that was an overreaction from others and not myself I woulda just let the goof pass me. Now, my biggest fear was oh crap there are other drivers they are probably gonna call the cops on us, so we eventually pulled off somewhere along Lawrence gathered our thoughts and came up with a plan to disperse. Point is these terrible drivers constantly put Our lives at risk why arent entitled to defend ourselves!?!!? the best way imho is to always record record record! cameras baby. What's or how were some of the ways you dealt with these kinds of people.

another scary thing is being stopped at a red light and someone narrowly rear ends you. scary stuff

Thanks
 
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1. Shake head, move on. Whatever happens, generally isn't worth starting road rage over.
2. Pick riding circumstances where there is less exposure to the stupidity. Riding in dense urban conditions isn't pleasant, highway droning isn't pleasant.
3. Leave. Quickly. Drop a gear and disappear.

I have turned around and caught up to someone who nearly took me out at an intersection; the driver stopped when he saw me coming and was extremely apologetic because he knew he almost killed me. Worth reminding those people that there is a human being underneath that helmet.
 
If you ride long enough you do see some pretty amazing things.
Some of them you would not care to re-live, others meh not so bad.
Ride like you are invisible to everyone who is not intentionally out to kill you, that seems to work.
 
One other thing. Never forget that in the majority of such confrontations, it takes two to tango. Ask yourself what you might have been doing that contributed to the situation. Were you sitting in the other driver's blind spot? Were you correctly signalling and shoulder checking? Do all of your lights work? Were you doing something that the general public views as unsavoury or risky? (Wheelies, stoppies, lane splitting, riding up the shoulder, risky overtakes, etc) Were you doing an abnormal speed for the conditions, whether too fast or too slow?
 
you're never going to win a car vs. motorbike road rage incident
don't get involved in them, ride defensively

if you ride with guys that smash windshields and assault drivers
and think that's okay
we are at complete opposite ends of the riding spectrum

getting that stupid sh!t on the news is part of the reason cagers don't respect riders

as for Brian's typically good advice
I'm a big fan of #3
 
You don't.

Keep a helmet cam running and record as much as you can and try to remove yourself from the situation.
 
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So a guy flashing his lights and honking his horn deserves to be beaten and have his windshield smashed? Check your head man. If you think that your buddies' behaviour was acceptable, do us all a favour and turn in your license.

Just ride your ride. If the idiot is tailgating try moving to the right and waving them through. If they still won't take the hint then blast ahead and turn off the road or pull over until they go past.

On multi-lane roads I'm a fan of the reverse pass. I change lanes to the left and brake. Once the idiot has gone well past I pull back into the right lane and carry on. Nobody wins when you try to fight stupid with stupid.
 
Try not to leave a bad driver behind you. Many times I have done a reverse pass on a two-lane road to get them in front of me (pull into oncoming lane, slow down to let scary driver pass, pull in behind them). That puts you in control and able to create space and avoid stupidity. If they are behind you, unless you can blast away (which causes its own issues) you are relying on them to keep you alive.

EDIT:
I see KLR guy does the reverse pass too. You get very strange looks but it is very effective.
 
OP. Maybe RAM makes a tank mount to hold a machine gun? If you and your riding buddies have these, it would save y'all from getting off your rides, to dig around for bats etc, wasting time. Or. Take another 5 yr hiatus with the 'boys', and check back then.
 
Did you ever have somebody in a totally gutless car try to chase you down for no understandable reason? :ROFLMAO:
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Trials said:
Did you ever have somebody in a totally gutless car try to chase you down for no understandable reason? :ROFLMAO:
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Often. And how about red light drag racers? (I enjoy letting them win......especially the teenagers who would smoke me on my busa, with mom's K-car)
 
Gary said:
Often. And how about red light drag racers? (I enjoy letting them win......especially the teenagers who would smoke me on my busa, with mom's K-car)
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You mean Taxi cabs and Pizza delivery drivers?
 
I think the point is you can't let other people on the road ruin it for you and the best way to avoid impact is like in karate, No be there.

When road rage happens to you and it will, you need to get the heck out of there and not let it ruin your day, or even worse have it escalate into a violent conflict as rinomato1 witnessed, that's not good for anybody.
 
I usually jump onto the right lane and cruise, hopefully the guy passes and leaves me. Just not worth my safety, Esp when I'm 2up. Also, now that I'm on an adv instead of sports bike, I feel less drivers want to 'race'. Kinda like scooters, noone bugs them cause the automatic assumption is he's slow and not time worthy?
 
KLR Junkie said:
So a guy flashing his lights and honking his horn deserves to be beaten and have his windshield smashed? Check your head man. If you think that your buddies' behaviour was acceptable, do us all a favour and turn in your license.

Just ride your ride. If the idiot is tailgating try moving to the right and waving them through. If they still won't take the hint then blast ahead and turn off the road or pull over until they go past.

On multi-lane roads I'm a fan of the reverse pass. I change lanes to the left and brake. Once the idiot has gone well past I pull back into the right lane and carry on. Nobody wins when you try to fight stupid with stupid.
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I was just as shocked as you were.... I was going to let him pass me if he felt I was too slow. nonetheless, had he hit me well I'm insured so it his life hes ruining and maybe then I justify a broken windshield. I had no idea that my acquaintance that day was riding around with a night stick rather bizarre. I usually like to avoid conflict with a cool head.
 
Gary said:
OP. Maybe RAM makes a tank mount to hold a machine gun? If you and your riding buddies have these, it would save y'all from getting off your rides, to dig around for bats etc, wasting time. Or. Take another 5 yr hiatus with the 'boys', and check back then.
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no I'm not that kind of guy.... I was just as surprised to see that go down. I hadn't the slightest clue this gent was riding around with a night stick let alone a temper. I'm usually level headed. I get out the way if someone wants to blow by me.
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