<Rant>
Right, Sunday is my bike riding day as i go out in the morning and meet some biker guys at around 8am at the harbour, we then all go for breakfast, then back to the harbour. Then at about 1-2 we all go our seperate ways.

So me and my two friends Matt and Craig decide to go for a ride, at about 3-4pm we're coming around a corner and we see a woman stop randomly after pulling halfway out of a T junction get slammed by a car. She comes flying off the bike and crashes down to the pavement, and the bike just hits the floor and slides along, this was quite a horrific thing to see. And even worse after when theres absolute silence for a split second before your hear her screaming in pain. My friend Craig decides its best to turn around and tell the traffic that was coming along to slow down as this crash was just after a corner so they wouldnt be able to see in time. But litterelly as my friend Craig turned around there was a car speeding down towards us, he put his hand out and was telling him to slow down, the guy slams on his brakes and skids quite a bit before stopping. If my friend Craig hadnt turned around then this guy would've come thundering around this corner and pinned all three of us bikers into the car infront. Anyways we just help out by telling traffic to slow down, and diverting it, and then giving statements when the police arrive. Then we set off again on our ride.

<Important part>
About 4 or 5 ish me and Matt are driving back as Craig has left to go home a different way.
Me and Matt approach a T junction, and a car coming from the left signals to let me and Matt go, he pulls away, but i stall. So i signal to the guy in the car to just turn in, which he does. Then another car goes past, and i pull out behind him. Theres Matt infront, this car behind him, and then me behind the car. Matt is going at around 25-30mph to let me catch up. So i overtake both the car and him, i ride down the road a bit and look back....
The idiot in the car (who is a driver from england btw) is right next to Matt bassicly pushing him into the curb and pretty much onto the pavement. Then the guy accelerates off and flies past me. Me and Matt both look at each other and then speed up to ask this guy what the F**K he is playing at! As we catch up this idiot slams on his brakes for no reason whatsoever. Both me and Matt hit our brakes, Matt who is closer smashes into the back of this guys car, does a huge endo sort of thing, nearly goes onto the guys roof before him and his bike both come crashing down to the floor. Then me behind him having also just slammed on my brakes, my rear tyre locks, the back of my bike slides out, and then i see Matts bike falling back down... infront of my bike, i smash into Matts bike and then slam to the floor. We both get up and just run over to this guy, we ask what the hell are you playing at, and he says "i could ask you the same thing". Then after he calls the police down and they take statements from everyone SOMEHOW Matt is left having to pay for his bike to be fixed, and his insurance company will have to pay to get the idiots car fixed.
Argghh it's just really pi**ed me off!
I didn't think there could be such a-hole drivers!
And why is Matt left having to pay when it's hardly his fault!
</Important part>
</Rant>

Well you did the dickhead thing of trying to confront him, if you try and catch up every idiot on the road you''ll never get where your going, atleast hope theres a traffic light somewhere a bike will always end ion tears if you try and battle cars. You'll also get your arse handed to you quite often. I had someone do pretty much the same thing to me on my bike ages ago, he got caught at the light so just called him a wanker and off i went. Your never going to get a decent response from someone that does that. theres nothing you can do, just accept it or get off the roads, your certainly wasn't going to get an apology.

What did he say after the crash?

It's just a lack of respect for bikers, most car drivers don't understand what it's like to ride a motorbike. I myself keep an eye out for bikers because my family all ride motorbikes, and I've been on the back of them enough to know just how clueless most car drivers are. That said you must have been tailgating the guy to end up in the back of him, so your friend shouldn't have any complaints about forking out for the damage. If you had simply taken the license plate and reported the incident, or even followed at a safer distance then it may have worked out for the better. Oh and on the subject of idiot drivers, on my way to work a BMW X6 decided to undertake me and a learner driver then use a bus lane to pass the traffic, it's times like that you hope for a police car to be waiting around the next corner.

Well i dont mean we were going to confront him, but i just mean we just wanted to get close enough so he could see us give him the V in his mirror.

Well after the crash he was blaming us, then he rang the police, and just laughed at us as we talked to witnesses who all said they saw him slam on the brakes for no reason.
He didn't even ask if we were ok or anything, it was only right at the end, just before he left, when the police were there that he suddenly turned around and in a completely different voice to earlier he asked "You two are ok yeah? Good"
I was so close to just sparta kicking him through his car.

And yeah, over here theres a major lack of respect of motorbikes. And we werent that close this guy at all. It was just his brakes were much better then ours, so we didnt have enough time to stop. We must've hit him at around 20 or so.
We were a decent way away from him, obviously not far enough, but we were a safe distance (or so we thought) from this guy.

Edit: Infact i think my friend Matt was acctually trying to catch up to get his Registration Number... but i was just catching up to V the *naughty word*

Well I assume you have his insurance details, can't be too hard to find the guys address and arrange a few friends to bring their bikes and use up their old tyres on his driveway at 4am in the morning.

Quote from ATC Quicksilver :

Well I assume you have his insurance details, can't be too hard to find the guys address and arrange a few friends to bring their bikes and use up their old tyres on his driveway at 4am in the morning.

Sounds like a perfect idea except he doesnt live on this island. He lives in mainland england
Otherise trust me, we'd have a few 1000cc gixers and a couple of hyabusa's having some fun on his driveway

You ride a bike you do not drive it. You never chase someone while you are on a bike. Sucky story but hopefully lesson learnt.

Just a small bit of down to earth logics I tend to use every time I get on a bike (yeah, Im half time biker now, learnig to ride before getting an Intruder or a Road Star Warrior (to impress the ladies, midlife crisis hit at 24))

seriously though

2 wheels and vehicle between the legs makes you more vulnerable than 4 wheels and driver inside the vehicle.

Be careful around cars, especially knowing that half of the people forgot how to drive already, and the other half never knew how to begin with... And ofcourse there are 2 minor groups, one is the group of people who are actually capable of driving/riding in public (and do that safely and responsibly), and another is the one who got their brains and license as a breakfast cereal bonus gift.

I (being as careful as I can be not to end up in a big fridge with a nametag on my toe) try to avoid cars as a general at this point, so only rarely I get into situations that could provoke me to follow somebody to ask "WTF", and everytime I get the urge, I just let it go.

Bikes = ride

Quote from squidhead :

2 wheels and vehicle between the legs makes you more vulnerable than 4 wheels and driver inside the vehicle.

more then enough reason to never jump my dirtbike again and another near death incident

FACT: Cars are there to kill you. Ride accordingly.

I stopped riding on the street when I started doing trackdays. Not because of the cars, though. Because of the demon in my head that takes over when I'm on 2 wheels.

There are many idiotic drivers out there. But keep in mind that there is no way you can “give a lesson” to any of them.
Most of the times you can’t do it even even if you try doing it in a polite manner… let alone insulting…

Turning around to ask WTF is the wrong thing to do in situations like that.
The best that can happen, is scaring a driver who might accidentally didn’t pay much attention at his car’s blind spots. Many people respond to fear by doing foolish things. This could be dangerous…
Many bickers don’t understand that because most bikes have superior acceleration comparing to cars, sometimes they move unpredictably fast so car drivers are not always able to predict their position. This might not be relevant with your case but it is something you must have in mind when approaching another vehicles.

Now considering the worst case scenario, by chasing someone who did something criminally dangerous seconds before, you run the risk meeting a… lets say mentally ill person or some kind of mean person you don’t know how exactly is going to react.
This is dangerous.

Protect yourself by trying to predict other vehicles moves. Be predictable
Avoid as much as possible moving side by side with any car, or passing it close while moving at much higher speed.
Learn to control your anger.

Brake checking is a wonderful thing.

Pushing your mate along wasn't the best idea. But he had every right to brake check you, you were following him and trying to abuse him.

If you can't stop in time, you were too close, so you were in the wrong.

My mind boggles

Quote from kaynd :

There are many idiotic drivers out there. But keep in mind that there is no way you can “give a lesson” to any of them.
Most of the times you can’t do it even even if you try doing it in a polite manner… let alone insulting…

Turning around to ask WTF is the wrong thing to do in situations like that.
The best that can happen, is scaring a driver who might accidentally didn’t pay much attention at his car’s blind spots. Many people respond to fear by doing foolish things. This could be dangerous…
Many bickers don’t understand that because most bikes have superior acceleration comparing to cars, sometimes they move unpredictably fast so car drivers are not always able to predict their position. This might not be relevant with your case but it is something you must have in mind when approaching another vehicles.

Now considering the worst case scenario, by chasing someone who did something criminally dangerous seconds before, you run the risk meeting a… lets say mentally ill person or some kind of mean person you don’t know how exactly is going to react.
This is dangerous.

Protect yourself by trying to predict other vehicles moves. Be predictable
Avoid as much as possible moving side by side with any car, or passing it close while moving at much higher speed.
Learn to control your anger.

Well put.

About the story - this is sadly nothing new. There are so many idiots on the road nowdays, that thinks they can do as they please. People screaming out "roads are the danger" and yells that the road standard is too low and it causes accident. WRONG! What causes accidents are idiot drivers who are not able to predict anything, also the ones that have no idea how to drive when there is wather/ice/snow etc on the road, and crashes and burns.

People get egoistic behind the wheel, and they do stupid things. I don't ride a bike, or even a car since I'm one of these loosers that takes the bus, but more than often I have seen idiot driving from people.

Last week for example, a big-ass truck tried to overtake the bus I was sitting in, while the bus kept the speed limit! (100kmh at that place) It almost crashed with a car, since it used a huge distance to pass. The ongoing car had to throw his car off the road to avoid this truck. Luckely it was farmlands area so it was just grass on both sides of the road, but still

So, think about other and please think forward. If there is a corner you canot see the exit off, be prepared that there will be someone there. Predict is the word I am looking for.

Quote from Klutch :

If you can't stop in time, you were too close, so you were in the wrong.

Was my thoughts exactly, i'm also wondering how your mate can be made to pay all the charges if you actually had witnesses telling the police that he brake checked you guys, more to the point i'm surprised the driver never got charged with anything.

Your 16, so you drive a 50cc? Matt must have been holding the guy up quite a lot for you to have overtaken them both at the same time. It was just in a thread not so long ago about road laws and one of them was that it is illegal to on purposely go slow to have an effect on the car behind you...

I can't help but think there's more to this story... :/

I'm wondering Migz, what kind of motorbikes were you and your friend riding? 'Cause when a car tried to do something like that to me - pull alongside me and push me to the side - I would just give the loud handle a little twist and off I am. Which leads me to believe that you were indeed on a 50cc moped (I refuse to call that a motorbike), in which case it's retarded to even attempt catching a car.

And I gotta agree, if you crash into the back of a car you're almost always going to be in the wrong. No matter if he slams on the brakes for no reason. You should always keep a safe distance That's not to say I don't understand your initial reaction, though, but that's just the way it is.

Yeah true, i do admit it is slightly our faults. But you just wouldnt expect someone to slam on their brakes at nothing. It was a long road with no junctions or anything, there was no like bushes or anything that someone could jump out of. We just werent ready for someone to randomly slam on their brakes, although to be honest on the road you have to expect anything.

Also what do you mean by brake check? I've never heard that phrase used before?

And yes i know on a bike you ride, not drive, i just wasnt thinking last night as i was rather tired, is that really important anyway?

Me and my friend were both on 50cc Geared Bikes, both capable of speeds around 60mph.

And Matt definitly wasnt holding this guy up at all, at least not for us.
In jersey the most you can go is 40mph, thats the speed limit. But on most roads the speed limit is acctually 30mph. Matt was doing about 25mph, but obviously as this guy is from england he's used to moterways and doing 80mph or whatever it is there so he's driving too fast for Jersey roads anyway...


I'll just put it in more detail, the road was a 30 zone, Matt was doing about 25 to let me catch up, i was probably doing about 40 or so (yes speeding) overtook both of them and then slowed down. I was pretty mcuh at 30mph when the guy then tries to ram Matt off the road and then overtakes at an insane speed, im guessing he was doing 45ish.

We could have most likely just twisted the throttle and gone flying past him but there was possibly only 3-4 seconds from him overtaking me to him slamming on his brakes.

have to agree with others, whilst i can understand you're initial reaction, your mate was definatly too close if he couldn't avoid hitting the car. no excuse for leaving yourselves insufficient time to respond to another's maximum braking no matter what you drive / ride. no one's perfect and in theory we should all leave enough space or adjust our speed so we can stop in the distance we can see but it's stupid to deliberately reduce your safety margins just because another has upset you

in general this tale just proves the point that it's not worth getting wound up about things when on the road as any reaction tends to lead to lead to bigger problems especially if you're mode of transport is likely to come off second best with almost every other vehicle on the road. be thankfull the outcome wasn't worse.

p.s. ironic that you're first rant was about a car thats struggled to stop in time

Quote from Migz :

Also what do you mean by brake check? I've never heard that phrase used before?

It means to slam on and/or tap the brakes when someone is following and/or tailgating you.

It makes them fall back a bit and stop following so close

As the *** purposely slammed his brakes on you should have just vented your anger on the back end of his car, dented all his panels & ridden off. (hoping he didn't catch your reg)

Title should be changed to "Idiotic Riders". If you hit someone from behind it's your fault. If you can't stop in time you're driving/riding too close. Road rage + stupid riding = crash.

Quote from anttt69 :

As the *** purposely slammed his brakes on you should have just vented your anger on the back end of his car, dented all his panels & ridden off. (hoping he didn't catch your reg)

**** me you're stupid.

Quote from obsolum :

if you crash into the back of a car you're almost always going to be in the wrong.

only exception is if you are not moving and the car in front of you reverses into your car.

"brake checking" is a ridiculously juvenile thing to do.

Quote from Klutch :

**** me you're stupid.

i think he's being sarcastic/ironic

You followed too close, your fault.

99% of drivers are retarded. deal with it.