Rob's Blog
I’m a biker, not an idiot
25th Jul 2007 11:07
You might think that the hardest transition between driving a car and riding a motorbike would be be going from four wheels to two wheels. Or from one brake to two independent brakes. Or from hand operated gears and a foot operated clutch to a hand operated clutch and foot operated gears...
... but the most difficult thing I've found so far is getting used to the attitudes of other road users. The worst thing is that they're so utterly unpredictable.
a) Some of them are scared of you. They signal me to overtake them regardless of the fact that we're doing 30 in a 30 zone and there's solid white lines in the middle of the road as we approach a blind corner. I even had one guy pull in to 'let me' overtake at the crest of a blind hill. Trust me, I'm probably going to overtake you if it's safe, legal, and necessary for making good progress. But that's my job; not yours.
b) Some of them seem to need to prove they're faster than you. On two occasions recently I've been overtaken by people who have just joined the road and almost immediately tried to pass me in stupid places at ludicrous risk to their own lives. On both occasions they slowed me down and blocked me from overtaking almost as soon as they've finished their suicidal endeavours. On these winding country roads I'm almost always going to make better progress on two wheels than you are on four, even if you're smashing the speed limit and I'm not.
c) The police really don't like you. The other day I was just idling along at the speed limit, in my lane, with cars in front and cars behind. A police car coming the other way saw me, indicated, pulled a high speed u-turn in the road, overtook the two vehicles behind me, and proceeded to very obviously sit right on my tail for the next 10 minutes waiting for an excuse to pull me over until I eventually managed to lose them at a petrol station. Other than distracting me and perpetuating a very negative stereotype of police profiling I'm not sure what they were hoping to achieve.
d) People at roundabouts don't seem to understand that a motorbike has the same priorities as a car. I've lost count of the number of times people to my right seemed to assume I'm going to cut them up and people to my left have completely ignored my priorities. I'm a road user just the same as you.
To all intents and purposes my Kawasaki is just a very economical drop-top sports car... so why does everybody see me and assume that I'm an idiot? It's something that I'm very slowly starting to get used to, but it's definitely not easy!
