Conjure up in your head a turn lane. A right hand turn lane, the kind you can turn right on red at. It leads from a rather busy two lane road on to an even busier four lane road. Idylwood and Gallows, to be exact. So I'm sitting there on my little Honda motorbike waiting to turn... and so is the guy in a big white SUV behind me.... what is it with white SUV's and traffic incidences, anyway? OJ wasn't driving. I'm keeping an eye on traffic, waiting to filter in and wouldn't you know it? The SUV driver, lets call him Frank since I'll need to reference him a couple times, was doing the same thing. For the record, Frank's real name isn't Frank, I don't know what it is. Please don't hunt down men named Frank with white SUV's in NOVA and give them trouble... for all I know his name could be Frank, but that would sure be a funny coincidence. For a morning commute everything seems pretty normal... it looks like it'll be another day of lots of normal at the office.

Oh, I didn't mention. Frank was waiting for his turn to filter in as if I wasn't there! He's paying attention to traffic, preparing to gas up and filter in. I'm paying attention to traffic as well and out of the corner of my eye I can see him getting closer and closer to my rear tire. Eventually I think he's too close and I give a shout. He doesn't hear me and keeps inching forward. The next idea I get is top on every motorcyclist's list of things to down when cagers act up: I gave his bumper a good kick. The idea was to get the guy's attention, not really screw his stuff up, and I figure denting up his cherry SUV might just do the trick. No such luck, Frank is still off in la-la land. At this point his rear bump presses up against my tire and the fuse blows in my head. Now bear in mind that I can't go forward because the traffic in front of me won't allow it, I can't go backwards because Frank is chilling there, and the sideways escape routes lead to hard objects before they lead out of Frank's way. So I really wind up and kick his bumper so hard that my foot hurts just at the same moment that my license plate folds up. Frank snaps back to reality.

I put my side stand down, an act that's kind of pointless now that the sandwhich Frank made is holding my bike up for me, and get off the bike. Frank gets out and I survey the damage to the bike... I don't have any clue if his SUV got damaged, but then again I don't really care. The only casualty is my license plate, I can live with that. Frank was incredibly apologetic and more shaken up by the whole mess than I was. I tell him it's OK, nobody's hurt, after all and he insists that it's not OK at all: "I could have really fucked your **** up!" Well... yes, but he didn't, I tell him, and after giving everything a once over there's really not much point in making a big to do about it. I think twice about intentionally getting the Police to come to me these days and there was no damage that an insurance company would have paid out for (what, give me a new license plate?). So, I let it go, unwedged my bike, and went on my merry. Quickly.

Oops.

Quick isn't the way things work in VA anymore... remember those new traffic penalties? Sorry, Goodspeed, the cops aren't being less nitpicky. They're being worse, much worse. And who do I gas it throgh the first couple gears in front of as I pull out? You guessed it, Virginia's finest!

No, I didn't get a ticket.... but that's a heart stopper.

*edit* Nevermind the Goodspeed name - posted here from another forum I post on.

 

wtf, charles?!

 

if that were me, i would have probably went nuts!! for keeping your cool....

 

maybe reving around 10,000 rpm would catch his attention

 

nothing will get his attention until he had run you over and then he might of thought it was some thing small like road kill i had 2 people the other day pull out in front of me it scared the **** out of them when i was right next to them inches away from there door and chance lane in front of me they are all in lala land with to much on there minds and they shouldnt be driving or should spend a week on a bike just to see what we go through

 

I've found it best when making a right turn while stopped to be in the center of lane. I've been off by the curb before and found that cagers are willing to pull up right beside you or close to it; either becuase they feel like it or don't see you. I have also considered getting one of those orange construction worker vests, there kind of lame looking, but they do make you more visable.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by slm &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I've found it best when making a right turn while stopped to be in the center of lane. I've been off by the curb before and found that cagers are willing to pull up right beside you or close to it; either becuase they feel like it or don't see you. I have also considered getting one of those orange construction worker vests, there kind of lame looking, but they do make you more visable.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Iwas in the center of the lane... and the vest won't do you much good if the cager isn't even looking in your direction. Believe me, I've been at this street riding thing for a while, there aren't man situations where a rider doesn't have any escape routes... but this was one of them.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by crxma22 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> if that were me, i would have probably went nuts!! for keeping your cool.... </TD></TR></TABLE>

+1

"Frank" would have had a bloody nose and one less window in his pretty little gas sucker.

 

good call on the BOOT.
you got some pretty sweet boots too.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ASteele2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
At this point his rear bump presses up against my tire and the fuse blows in my head.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Sorry that threw me off. Glad it worked out without you getting hurt.

 

^ No worries. I'm glad I wasn't hurt, too. I think this bike is cursed... all kinds of stupid stuff has happened to me on it. This was the first day I rode it to work since the streetfighter conversion, too. Now, for an FI conversion