Looney on the M25

So I'm trundling home this evening on the M25, clockwise, approaching J6
(A22 Godstone turn-off). It's pissing with rain, spray everywhere, but
I'm cocooned behind the K's fairing, doing an indicated 75mph, and
generally feeling peaceful.

Out of the corner of my left eye I see sudden movement, and wham! A
bronzey-copper coloured small car (think it was a Corsa?) comes shooting
up the inside lane, swerves past a car, swerves straight in front of me
and brakes hard.

Fark.

Hit the anchors, and obviously there's more of a margin than I'd
thought, because the ABS didn't cut in.

Gave him the Time Honoured Gesture of The Practiced Onanist and hit the
horn, and the horn(s) on a BMW are LOUD. Decide I don't want to be near
this prat, so move into the outside lane and gas it. He tries to swerve
into my path.

I get past and gas it harder, and he charges up behind me, so I give it
more berries and pull away. In the mirror I see him swerve back across
two lanes into the inside lane, and come charging up again.

Right, here's the exit, so more speed, and move over to take the exit,
and **** me, he comes haring down the off-slip as well. And I am now
braking very hard (albeit still no ABS) because there's traffic at the
bottom, waiting for the lights, and I'm braking hard enough for him to
catch me up before I get there....

So off the brakes, and point the K between the lines of traffic, brakign
again to scrub off the speed. Coo, am I glad that today I left the
panniers off the thing.

Front of the queue, lights turn green, and I'm away.

Was the dickhead planning on taking that exit anyway? No idea, but I
couldn't help thinking of those poor buggers offed on the M25 last week.
Wish I'd got this prat's number.

Ho hum, adrenaline feels *good* afterwards.

 

The Older Gentleman wrote:
snip tale of too close for comfort

It'll be a purely medicinal Claret tonight then ?


Filtering, don't you just love the ability to leave potential trouble
somewhere else !

 

I have come to the conclusion most car driver hate you for a few
reasons.

They aint got the bottle to ride a bike, or their missis wont let 'em.

They dont like the noise & the fact we can filter.

They are fucking clueless, dangerous drivers that just can't see what
devastating consequences can arise from driving like that near bikes.

It will been a chav with his 'bitch' in the car, trying to show off.

More the reason for a video cam on every bike I ride from now on.

Imagine what could have happened if you didn't have the skill mate. A
less able rider could easily be dead.


--
'From day one, I lead you on.....'

Nige

Subaru WRX (54)
Land Rover Discovery II (2001)
BMW GS1200 (2007)
Honda CBR900RR Fireblade (1997)

 

The Older Gentleman wrote:

A small edit IMHO.

Personally I had a similar experience whilst on the M11 in SWMBO's
Sprint. In the roadworks (as were) idiot in a van drinking beer out of
a can. Thinks he can keep up.
When we got held up by the traffic, he actually stopped and got out and
went to the wrong side. he was terribly surprised that I dived off into
traffic instead of waiting for him to open the passenger door.

Final upshot was he chased us all the way to the junction just before
Duxford, where I pulled off hoping he'd not be able to. He saw leave,
saw me indicate right and decided that going the wrong way around the
roundabout would be a good tactic to cut me off. Unfortunately something
threw his skill, and he ploughed it into the embankment where we left
him as we went round the roundabout and back on to the M11.

Which was nice.


--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
Alfa 116 Giulietta 3.0l (Really) Sprint 1.7 75 TS 156 TS S2
Suzuki Bandit 600
#Triumph Speed Triple: Black with extra black bits (I live in hope)
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

*Lovely*

 

In

<snip>

yes it's surprising just how hard you can brake before the ABS kicks in in
the wet.

 

Indeed. I remember testing early ABS systems donkeys' years ago, and
being startled then, but I'd forgotten in the intervening 20-odd years.

 

I dunno if he had a passenger or not - poor light, appalling spray, and
I wasn't concentrating on him; more on where I was going. But he was
fat. I did see that. I mean, fucking *huge*. Ate all the pies, and came
back for seconds.

 

When in Canada a couple of weeks back, I was flirting with the ABS (in a
bog-standard Ford Focus) while driving on *snow*, and the ABS was cutting-in
at a point I'd have expected it to on a simple wet road. Astounding how
calmly it can stop you when the conditions are truly horrific. Combine that
with winter tyres and traction control, and you could drive the thing around
happily at 60mph in conditions that would make (and have frequently made)
the UK grind to a halt.

Mind you, the local 18-wheeler trucks were still passing me, doing 10mph
more. Fecking nutters.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, The Older

It'll be that tedious IAM/ROSPA wanker from up ^^^^ there, trying to
prove a point.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Podium Placed Ducati Race Engineer as featured in
Performance Bikes and Fast Bikes

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
SBS#39 OMF#6 Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (Falling apart) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"
Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Yamaha Vmax Honda ST1100 wiv trailer

 

Did you wave to the prat as you rode by? I think that's a nice parting
gesture.

 

TBH No, for several reasons

1) We were driving
2) He wasn't looking in our direction, more explaining what had happened
to the people that seemed to have been entering the roundabout in a more
normal fashion
3) We were, actually, pretty damned scared. Prim concern was to get me
and SWMBO as far away from that particular threat ASAP. And while I was
(in hindsight) rather proud of the level of driving that I performed, it
was in no way a pleasant experience.

Had I been on the bike, I wouldn't have had to do all that anyway, but
OTOH I probably would have waved

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
Alfa 116 Giulietta 3.0l (Really) Sprint 1.7 75 TS 156 TS S2
Suzuki Bandit 600
#Triumph Speed Triple: Black with extra black bits (I live in hope)
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

(The Older Gentleman) wrote in
message

An unrelated question; is there a better fairing than that on the K
series? How does the PanEuro compare?

Not sure the panniers make any difference. I think the widest part of
the bike is the handlebars; I've gone through tight spots where the
handlebars have almost touched the sides of vans but I've never scraped
a pannier (to the best of my knowledge anyway...)

 

I think the reasons may be valid for those very few drivers that get
angry with bikes.

Possibly. Not convinced by the bottle point though.

This is the big one. Plus the fact that a bike filtering past them
scares them and impinges on what they feel is their personal space;
hence you get an aggressive reaction.

Further they hate the fact that they are delayed and you are not (which
I guess is the impact of filtering)

Quite possibly, or someone having a really shit day in a really shit
life who chooses to unload on the nearest target.

Hmm.... I don't think I want a permanent record of my filtering, speed,
attention to white lines, traffic lights etc. etc. etc.

Imagine what could have happened if he hadn't called the driver a wanker
and sounded the horn... er... nothing. That was what pissed the driver
off in this case and triggered the violent reaction I'd guess.

Personally I only gesticulate at drivers when I feel like a good old row
and have the time to pull over and have a full and frank exchange of
views. If I don't have time to pull over I just ignore them.

 

And you didn't even cross post this. I'm disappointed in you.

 

I've had both an ST1100 and now a K1100LT. I think they're pretty
evenly matched apart from the 'leccy screen which IMHO gives the K a
slight advantage.

 

The Pan didn't really work for me - it's too far away from the rider,
and there's quite a bit of buffeting. If you lean over the tank and get
closer to it it's significantly quieter and less turbulent, but you
can't ride like that.

The K1100LT fairing is superb, and the elecric screen is brilliant. You
can set it just *so* and it makes a real difference.

The number of really good fairings I've experienced can be counted on
the fingers of one hand.

Moto Guzzi Spada (the one where the top section turns with the bars.

BMW R100RS and RT

BMW K1100LT

BMW K100RS

I just can't think of a Japanese touring bike fairing that has given the
same sort of serenity and weather protection as the best BMW items.

Yes, I think you're right.

 

On Sat, 31 Mar 2007 13:56:51 +0100,

Sure, the bars will be wider than the bags, but I've touched both soft
and hard panniers on a few occasions over the years while filtering.
Always when negotiating slowly round stationary traffic, so never a
problem.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3 (slightly broken, currently missing)
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

I'm discussing the K series specifically.

I've rubbed soft panniers when filtering on the zx9 but I've not touched
the K series panniers. I think this is 'cos the K series is well
designed in this (as well as so many other) respects.

 

There is the whole issue of envy but they're hamstrung by social mores
or inertia.

It smacks of "it's your fault and I can prove it! Where's my compo?"

With unpleasant undertones of if we were ever occupied by Nazis/
Soviets/US Homeland Security you'd be one of the first in the queue
reporting your fucking neighbours. "He looked at me in a funny way".

I've been riding bikes for over 20 years, fairly high mileage, quite
quickly, view the vast majority of the highway code as advisory yet
rarely have cars pull out in front of me [1].

I can't really remember the last road rage incident I was involved
in. Perhaps I don't notice or perhaps, more importantly, I don't
care.


[1] I have crashed once or twice and I do keep running pedestrians
over but that's a different story.