Unprovoked road rage

[county]

Shoulda just passed both vehicles at once, absent that andabsent a left turn signal you shouldla been going around when he began slowing.Whenever possible a middle finger should be responded to with the throttle.

[sterling]

I thought it was just kids in sporty cars that hated being passed!

Was coming home from a weekend trip to the mountains on I-40 Monday, riding next to the fast lane in a 65MPH zone, bike was sitting at 75, the speedo being about 5MPH off makes it around 70, or 5 over. It's me and a friend of mine behind me, and this kid in a Mustang is in the lane to our right. I was leading, and as I got closer, he starts to speed up. Fine, no problem with me, I want to merge right anyway, a rest area is coming up around Burlington, and I want to stop. Wait, there is a car in front of him, so he slows, just as we were trying to merge. Great, this asshat now thinks we are playing with him, so he floors it, and cuts left in front of me. Problem is...there is a pickup in front of me, maybe 100ft. or so, and we were closing in. I slam on brakes, by buddy slams on brakes, the Mustang guy slams on brakes (I hope the cars behind me did too!), apparently checks his left, and speeds off around the truck into the fast lane, then turns back right in front of the truck, all the way into his original lane. Yah! He won! He beat a coupla guys on bikes trying to go take a piss! What a story!

We duck into the rest area. I really have no idea what to do in these situations, traffic wasn't really heavy, so there were outs for us, but it's so hard to guess what they will do, do we speed up, slow down, maintain speed? We tried maintaining speed and merging into his original lane, which apparently seemed to make him more aggressive. I guess we should start dropping a few gears and seeing if we can get these kids in over their heads, kind of a natural selection, but the ending might not always go as planned

[mept]

I don't know if this counts as road rage, but I had some meth-head redneck in Robbinsville,NC start acting alot like a road rager while stopped at the gas station in town.  My friend was on a HD, but I had the nerve to be riding a VTX.  So this nut-bag is mumbling shit like "jap crap" "POS Honda" etc etc.  So he is doing this all the while holding one hand on some kind of machette stuck in his pants.  Eventually his toothless alcoholic old-lady yells at him enough that he gets in his 1984 POS dodge minivan and drives off.  Being in the Army for almost 20 years at the time, I was not to worried since I always have a plan, but I was surprised when about 10 people poured out of the service station asking if they wanted me to call the cops, and started to tell me all about said loser nut bag.  Apparently he is well known in this area, and is quite the nut job.  Definately makes me consider getting my CC permit, just in case things might escalate further then words.

[sterling]

Well, you were riding a POS Jap bike, dammit! :P

All kidding aside, I found it strange that the locals poured out of the store after he left, sad

My dad was in the Army, and they taught him some wicked things. I only put my finger in his face once, for instance. I think with that sort of training, as long as you were not sucker punched, you could have held the upper hand during the entire scuffle, if there were one.

[servicerifle]

Shoulda just passed both vehicles at once, absent that and absent a left turn signal you shoulda been going around when he began slowing.Whenever possible a middle finger should be responded to with the throttle.

I had to quote County to see what he said,  (LMAO, ok I really didn't) but I cant' believe I actually agree with him.

I have NEVER had a serious problem with roadrage, and certainly not "unprovoked" road rage.  Perhaps it's because I have 0 problem with multiple vehicle double yellow passes, but I just don't wait around for someone to get upset.  Seriously, why are you waiting around inviting trouble?   You ARE on a 1000 I-4 aren't you?  Good grief, what'dya buy it for, to pose?  Twist that throttle and stop bitching to us.

[freecatSV]

Was out riding yesterday and had a tractor-trailer do the speed-up-swerve manuvre on me as I was trying to pass him.  I've also noticed an uptick in seemingly unprovoked road rage around here the last two or three months.  Had an incident Sunday afternoon while driving to a local pizza parlor with my wife and kids in the car.  Apparently, Billy-Bob in the big Chevy pickup behind me didn't think 55 in a 45 was fast enough for him, but yet also didn't think that changing lanes and passing me was something he could do, either. (it was a 4 lane road) Was freakin 3 feet from my rear bumper.  When we came to the next light and I got into the left-turn lane he wound up next to me, and honked his horn and started yelling something.  I just went on about my business.  You can't fix stupid.

If that fuker had hit me and hurt my wife and/or kids, however, I would not have been responsible for what happened to his redneck, inbred adz shortly afterwards.....

In my cage, with its seatbelts and airbags and all that, I tap the brakes just enough to make the lights come on, but not to slow down. On the bike, if I don't feel like going faster, I just slow way down. Then the aggressive driver's impatience, and his desire to go fast, trump his dickish desire to tailgate me, and he passes. The other option is to slow down a bit, then leave him in the dust. But you have to be fairly sure that there won't be a radar gun pointed at you for a while.

[Brent099]

I had to quote County to see what he said,  (LMAO, ok I really didn't) but I cant' believe I actually agree with him.

I have NEVER had a serious problem with roadrage, and certainly not "unprovoked" road rage.  Perhaps it's because I have 0 problem with multiple vehicle double yellow passes, but I just don't wait around for someone to get upset.  Seriously, why are you waiting around inviting trouble?   You ARE on a 1000 I-4 aren't you?  Good grief, what'dya buy it for, to pose?  Twist that throttle and stop bitching to us.

I've never had a problem with road rage either until this incident.

In retrospect, it's easy to say that I should have passed both at once, but under the circumstances at the time that was not the best option.  The road may have been clear, but my visibility was not.  Like I said, there was a huge cloud of thick dust coming from the first truck.  It took a while before I could actually see enough through the dust to make the pass.  I just wanted to get away from the first truck so that I could flip up my visor and see clearly.  The second truck was not close to the first one, if he hadn't slammed on his brakes there would have been way more than enough room for me to move back into my lane without affecting either one.

Yes, I could have passed both at once, but don't you think there is just as much, if not more of a chance for him to react aggressively to a multiple vehicle pass than to a polite and safe pass of the vehicle behind him?  I mean, I was consciously trying to NOT be the guy that upsets the locals by blasting around at 100+ speeds just because I'm on a fast bike.  It's always worked well for me except for this one time.

If I had known all of this beforehand of course I would have made the same decision you guys are offering, but I didn't, so I went with the series of options that seemed the safest as the situation unfolded.

Who knows, maybe I should just screw trying to be a courteous rider.

[TuffguyF4i]

My solution (if i can't pass the car in-front of me) for tailgaters, is to drop a gear and constantly speed up and slow down.  Tailgaters can only tailgate if their performance matches yours.  Clearly, you have to be careful doing this, but it really does work.  After about 10 attempts keeping up they are sick of punching the throttle and just back off.

[ragtoplvr]

All kidding aside, I found it strange that the locals poured out of the store after he left, sad

My dad was in the Army, and they taught him some wicked things. I only put my finger in his face once, for instance. I think with that sort of training, as long as you were not sucker punched, you could have held the upper hand during the entire scuffle, if there were one.

Only 1 problem with that, what if he is ex military, he could even be ex-Special Ops.  You can not assume anything when you plan, you must know.  The only options are avoid a confrontation and get the heck out of there or attack with so much overwhelming force that the opponent is instantly unable to respond, whatever that means.  Anything else is a recipe for disaster.  In a civilian environment, the second option usually means you will be in jail, at least for a while.  

Avoiding a fight is always the best option.

Rod

[M.Brane]

My solution (if i can't pass the car in-front of me) for tailgaters, is to drop a gear and constantly speed up and slow down.  Tailgaters can only tailgate if their performance matches yours.  Clearly, you have to be careful doing this, but it really does work.  After about 10 attempts keeping up they are sick of punching the throttle and just back off.

 I don't fuck with anyone on the road. I'll either pass them with extreme prejudice, hang back, or even pull off somewhere. Whatever it takes to diffuse the situation with the least amount of risk.

 If I do pull off, and they double back I have no doubt I can leave them looking at a rapidly disappearing taillight.

[jay547]

I've had problems on the Ozarks. Some people are just assholes.

i posted this in september of '07 after the central stn meeting at eureka springs. it's the only time i've ever really had a problem and both instances were on the same day.

some locals were screwing with us on 23. a grossly obese blonde and her 6'5" inbred-looking boyfriend. we caught up to them, kept our distance, didn't tailgate, but they insisted on straddling the double-yellow line so we couldn't pass, speeding up in the passing zones, and frequently running their windshield washer. my g/f wanted to report them but i just let it go. another guy on 62 would hit his turn signal about every ten seconds, i guess to keep us behind him. this lasted for about five miles until we got around.

[Snowbird]

In retrospect, it's easy to say that I should have passed both at once, but under the circumstances at the time that was not the best option.  

Everyone here knows exactly what you should have done even though they were not there as you reacted to the situation you saw unfolding ahead of you. STNers have this amazing gift usually only seen in Monday morning quarterbacks. Soon they'll be parsing your sentences and proving just how wrong you were.

If only we could harness all this knowledge. The mind reels....   

[evilted]

I don't really see that you made any mistake here.  For the 1 in 10 clowns like mister diesel pickup here (I'm still not really clear on what his motivation was for jamming on his brakes, and I doubt anyone else is here either), the other 9 would more likely have been offended by a multiple car pass at high speed.  Not that they would have tried to run you off the road, but it may have only further reinforced certain misinformed biker stereotypes in their head.

Nah, I think you made the right call initially, and another when you decided to avoid further confrontation.

I've never had a problem with road rage either until this incident.

In retrospect, it's easy to say that I should have passed both at once, but under the circumstances at the time that was not the best option.  The road may have been clear, but my visibility was not.  Like I said, there was a huge cloud of thick dust coming from the first truck.  It took a while before I could actually see enough through the dust to make the pass.  I just wanted to get away from the first truck so that I could flip up my visor and see clearly.  The second truck was not close to the first one, if he hadn't slammed on his brakes there would have been way more than enough room for me to move back into my lane without affecting either one.

Yes, I could have passed both at once, but don't you think there is just as much, if not more of a chance for him to react aggressively to a multiple vehicle pass than to a polite and safe pass of the vehicle behind him?  I mean, I was consciously trying to NOT be the guy that upsets the locals by blasting around at 100+ speeds just because I'm on a fast bike.  It's always worked well for me except for this one time.

If I had known all of this beforehand of course I would have made the same decision you guys are offering, but I didn't, so I went with the series of options that seemed the safest as the situation unfolded.

Who knows, maybe I should just screw trying to be a courteous rider.

[Uncle Bob]

I was trying to think of the last time someone did a brake check on me....I'm glad to say its been a long time.

Back when I was stupid, I had a van brake check me, but I don't recall what led up to that.  I wasn't surprised by it, so there was something going on up to that point.  So I passed him and then brake checked him, then took off.

You really do think you're immortal when you're young.  I'd never dream of doing that now

[Black Ice]

I've seen more than a few in my day.

The last time was just the other weekend.  Me and the wife were in the cage(I know, I suck, we had stuff to carry) coming back from Flagstaff, and decided to pass a slow-moving pickup on a two-lane road.  No harm, no foul--I just wanted to go faster than he was.

Oncoming traffic, in the form of a Harley rider, appears over the horizon...and this inbred, big-tired, small-dicked motherfucker speeds up, leaving me no choice but to wring that little Corolla's neck to get in front of him.  My wife told me she saw the driver laughing.  

Not that I'd encourage vigilante violence or anything, but I'd really like to have a fist-to-face conversation with that piece of shit.  He put us and a biker in danger for no other reason than proving to his ugly-ass bitch that he's a Real Man even if he hasn't been able to get it up in a year or so.  

[servicerifle]

Sure, what I said could be read as "hindsight is 20/20" but really, it does seem to work.  

[Craigart14]

We could just allow (as the Constitution permits) law abiding person to carry.  An armed society is a polite society.

That explains all those books on etiquette coming out of Texas and the incredible courtesy one finds in America's inner cities.

Craig

[spaz_666]

Don't escalate it. You're on a quicker, faster, more agile vehicle. Just get the hell outta there, Or you could be the one who ends up in police custody.

[stevent]

You did the right thing by just not reacting, any car vs cage (or pos pick-up) confrontation is going to end badly for the bike. Following someone home is not a good idea either unless you do it right, ie find the general area then come back in the car to narrow it down. A few boxes of roofing tacks in the driveway and street do wonders and are a gift that keeps on giving specially if the driveway is gravel.

Shit like this is why I usually pack when I ride, even though I've been very lucky and had no road rage issues. I ride defensively and have out grown my aggressive riding but it's comforting to know if shit hits the fan I have a very powerful reply. The only time I can remember being fucked with was a car load of kids tailgating me on my chopper back in the '80's, I used to carry a used tranny sprocket in my coat pocket, these weighed 2 or 3 pounds and were a little bigger than palm size with 26 teeth. I took off my glove and pulled it out of my pocket intending to flip it over my shoulder into their windshield, as soon as I pulled it out the kid nailed the brakes and backed waaaaaay off.. that was the only time I remember being fucked with.

I think it's always better to try to avoid trouble if you can but like the tweeker with the machete in the gas station, sometimes it finds you. In a situation like that I would be in fear of my life and if the guy actually pulled it out and made threatening moves towards me would be within my legal rights put a couple of .357 hydrashocks in his guts. The law does allow a law abiding citizen to defend themselves with whatever means necessary if you have justification to be in fear of your life.  

[county]

Who knows, maybe I should just screw trying to be a courteous rider.

Yep, courtesy (On the road and on a m/c) is overrated.  I'd say it's about number 3 or 4 on my list of priorities on a bike.