Mike ([info]pi3832) wrote in [info]motorcycles,
2005-08-12 14:58:00
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It is NOT a race

I was in the left hand-lane, the third vehicle trapped behind some dipshit in a white Lexus puttering along just ever so slightly faster than the bigfuckingtruck in the right hand lane.

Behind the BFT was a guy in a blue Cavalier, obviously grousing about being slowed down. I was in his blind spot, a bad place to be. But to accelerate up next to his window where he could see me would put me less than 2 seconds behind the car in front of me. Decisions, decisions.

While I dithered, the Cavalier's turn signal came on and here he comes! Luckily, he did a shoulder check, and decided not to kill me. (Thanks.)

The sad thing is, I didn't realize until much later what I should have done: I should have slowed down.

I was so caught up in the competition of traffic, I never even explored the option of slowing down. By slowing down, I would have been out of the danger-zone of the Cavalier coming into my lane and also would have avoided following too close.

Sure, the Cavalier probably would have cut into my lane, forcing me to slow down a little more to make adequate space between us, but so what?!

It's not a race. I will not receive a trophy, a check and a peck on the cheek from a hot chick for getting to my destination 125 milliseconds sooner.

It is so very easy to get caught up in the competition of traffic. Of trying to defend against that asshole who wants to cut you off. Of trying to teach that lane-switching jerk a lesson.

But it's all bullshit. No one cares. That guy isn't learning anything, he's just getting more and more dangerous with every passing mile marker. You're not winning any prize. Indeed, you're losing. You're losing your cool, you're losing your Zen, you're losing your mind.

The only prize is getting to your destination unharmed and sane.

Be the Zen rider. Let the unenlightened go before you.

Once the traffic has cleared, and the road has shed its stoplights and stopsigns and speed bumps like your lover shedding her clothes, that's when you shift it down one, whack the throttle, and welcome the Dark Side into your heart as you roar into triple-digit cold sweats.

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  • 23 comments

[info]ocmik

August 12 2005, 19:18:55 UTC 6 years ago

Good post!

What's funny is when you come across another bike and they assume the race is on!

[info]motomuffin

August 12 2005, 19:59:08 UTC 6 years ago

Heh. I just wave and let them wheelie on by! "Have fun with that! Sorry about your penis!"

;)

[info]vincere

August 12 2005, 19:22:05 UTC 6 years ago

So True, It's so easy to get psyched to blast sometimes but its always that damned if you do or dont situation.

[info]snowwy

August 12 2005, 19:23:58 UTC 6 years ago

Beautiful conclusion...May I [info]metaquotes?>

[info]pi3832

August 12 2005, 19:39:48 UTC 6 years ago

Yeah, sure... what's a [info]metaquotes?

[info]snowwy

August 12 2005, 20:36:10 UTC 6 years ago

This is a metaquote!

[info]darxus

August 15 2005, 19:04:50 UTC 6 years ago

Agreed. And I should read that community more often.

[info]camper4lyfe

August 12 2005, 19:31:50 UTC 6 years ago

I wish a friend of mine would take your viewpoint. I was helping him move his stuff from VA to VT and he couldn't understand why I'd slow down a little to let someone in with their blinker on. Um, because I'm nice and it's not THAT big of a deal? And he wonders why he's gotten somewhere between 3 and 5 speeding tickets in the past 6 months.

[info]the_ogre

August 12 2005, 19:34:49 UTC 6 years ago

Well said!

Just to echo the rest of the audience.

[info]suibhne_geilt

August 12 2005, 19:45:47 UTC 6 years ago

Bravo!

I also have a major aversion to being in a cage's blind spots on my cycle. It's gotten to the point where I avoid the center lane whenever humanly possible, so I only have to watch out for the guy on one side of me, instead of both.

Since I got my cycle license, I've become much, much more aware of other motorists' blind spots when I have to take my own cage. It leaves me feeling that the more people there are that ride, the better, because I'd like to think our good cycling habits carry over to our cars & trucks.

[info]mccaucasianghst

August 12 2005, 20:22:29 UTC 6 years ago

Be the Zen rider. Let the unenlightened go before you.

Just make sure you watch out for the unenlightened behind you ;)

[info]perspicuity

August 12 2005, 20:39:15 UTC 6 years ago

always good advice!

as is this:
http://sportrider.com/ride/146_9306_pace/

http://www.google.com/search?q=motorcycle+%22the+pace%22

#

[info]skreidle

August 12 2005, 22:05:27 UTC 6 years ago

I found myself between a large tank truck speeding up on the left, a car and an SUV jockeying on the right and possibly thinking about changing lanes into me. I slowed down in a hurry to get out of that particular box o' danger.

[info]daz71

August 12 2005, 22:24:54 UTC 6 years ago

I ride a 125 scooter and often use the slow down option to aviod issues. I'll filter through traffic to the lights (we're allowed to split lanes in stationary traffic in the UK) and assess the cars on the line. BMWs Lexi Turbonutter with black windows and I'll aim to tuck in behind them and as they dissapear into the horizon I'll then have the open road in front of me. Regular drivers, I'll accelerate faster than them up to the speed limit then have the open road in front of me.

[info]mittens_of_doom

August 12 2005, 23:32:44 UTC 6 years ago

Words of wisdom!

[info]belleaire

August 12 2005, 23:54:51 UTC 6 years ago

Ah, Grasshopper, you have learned well. "Yield" is my middle name. When I'm on my scooter I'm unhappy when the ride is over, anyway, so slowing down is okay by me.

I've had the lovely experience of riding with a friend in the slow lane on the freeway at the prescribed staggered two-second interval, and some asshat entering said freeway invariably just HAS TO merge in between us. Drives me nuts, but I know who will lose that particular pissing match. I let 'em in and have thus far managed to keep all the paint on my fenders and my skin where it was originally installed.

Keep good thoughts, and be glad you're not as stressed out and fully engaged in hurry-up mode as the guy with the "Cavalier" attitude.

[info]tigress666

August 13 2005, 05:02:41 UTC 6 years ago

You see, that is hwat bugs me when people tell me my 250 can't handle highways. Yeah... I'm not going to speed up and get out of some one's way. But you know what? I got hit doing the speed up to prevent being hit in my car once (and I was definitely at the point they should have seen me by the time they hit. It almost felt like he knew he would get away with it and was feeling stubbern that day). Really, it's better to slow down and just let them have the lane. And keep a track of where everyone is around you and what ways they can get you and what ways they'll probably try to get you (like that guy who is obviously impatient to pass the truck and you happen to be going in the lane that is faster than the truck and are just enough behind him that he's probably going to cut you off. Or the merge coming up where the cars are all bunched together.. better off changing lanes away from the lane being merged into and watching out for the inevitable impatient one who will change two lanes at once to pass the "idiots" in front of him).

Yeah, having a faster bike would definitely give me more options, but I still argue that my bike isn't dangerously slow. It's fast enough I can figure out how to safely ride on the highway (i'm just mostly going to be hanging out in the slow lane not to piss people off). It can still accelerate even up hills. Just not as fast.

Now maybe it's cause I was forced to drive an old automatic Isuzu Trooper in Atlanta traffic. That will force you to learn how to operate a frikkin dangerously slow vehicle in very fast moving traffic (it was way worse than my Rebel, but maybe that's cause my Rebel has a gearshift and I can shift down when it needs power). That vehicle was dangerously slow on the highway (What was worse was the automatic would not shift down unless you severely went down in speed first. No frikkin four cylinder ever should have an automatic, specially not one in heavy vehicle). I mean that car I had to gain speed on one highway entrance ramp (the highway started on the exit ramp from the interstate). Because that vehicle slowed down on the entrance ramp cause it couldn't handle it (and I mean pretty quickly slowed down).

[info]pi3832

August 13 2005, 05:27:15 UTC 6 years ago

Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

[info]tigress666

August 13 2005, 05:50:36 UTC 6 years ago

Nah, I'm just a wordy person :) (and it got me started on the I hate that damn Trooper rant... it's been years since I drove that thing and I can still rant about it. It was my mom's vehicle and I got the honor of using it for 6 months).

Admittedly if I did a lot of highway driving I'd want something with more power. But I think my little 250 does fine for occasional highway riding (and it really is faster than that Trooper which I did have to do a lot of highway driving with when I drove it. Least the Trooper my parents have now is gearshift).

[info]team503

August 15 2005, 19:33:09 UTC 6 years ago

Well said, young sir!

[info]pi3832

August 16 2005, 05:21:08 UTC 6 years ago

[raises eyebrow]

Young?

[info]team503

August 16 2005, 18:08:39 UTC 6 years ago

[arches eyebrow]

and?

[info]wandererrob

August 22 2005, 23:58:22 UTC 6 years ago

I wise insight, and one I'm sure we all tend to overlook. Thanks for bringing it back to the front of my brain.
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