| Author | Message | ||
     Djkaplan |
Took the bike to work this morning and the first car I encountered turned left in front of me; full panic stop less than 1 minute into the ride. The young man who pulled in front of me; I hope he doesn't have anyone with him the next time he does that, because this is the kind of idiot that gets hit by trains too. But I digress... that makes three rides in a row where I had to save my life, or at least the good parts of it, because of some inattentive dolt. They came at me in every age bracket, sex, and race. The evidence clearly indicates that all drivers are out to kill me for some reason. I can't get over the feeling that I am a marked man. I don't want to die on the bike, but I really want to keep riding. Damned if you do, doomed if you don't. Is it our shared curse? | ||
| Cereal |
The worst is when they do see you. I was riding in NY just outside of the city on the freeway, and some 40ish man in an AMG Mercedes was weaving in and out of traffic being a real prick. While going about 60, he pulled up along side me and saw that there was not enough room to get in front of me. So he stared right at me, established eye contact then started coming into my lane, keeping his eyes on mine. My choices were to slow down, or be run off the road. Now I am a pretty calm and peaceful guy, but it took all of my will power not to follow this guy home and pistol whip him like Ray Liotta in Goodfellas. | ||
| Glitch |
Ah, the trials of riding in the Greater Atlanta Metro Area! I ride to work from L'ville, to Atlanta, so I feel your pain. One almost common denominator I've found, is that most of the idiots not paying attention, are on the phone. I'm buying one of these, and a vest that says on the back in big bold letters, HANG UP AND DRIVE! | ||
| Cereal |
Hey Glitch, as funny as that jammer would be, could you imagine everyone looking at there phone trying to figure out why it won't work? I'd rather the phone be on their ear vs in their face. | ||
| Darthane |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now I am a pretty calm and peaceful guy, but it took all of my will power not to follow this guy home and pistol whip him like Ray Liotta in Goodfellas. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The one time I had someone do that to me was on I94 on my way out to a friend's house. ••••••• looked me right in the eye and came on over. I put my boot in his door in a move straight out of that old Sega Genesis game Road Rash. I know I left a mark, I PRAY I left a dent. | ||
| Xb9ser |
Glich If it works good let us know.all Buellers should have one!  .I want one of these on mine | ||
| Bomber |
Deej -- it IS our shared curse -- the bright side is that it's gotten so much better in teh last 20 years -- along with the growth in the number of riders is an exponential growth in the number of people that are married to, children of, parents of, aunt and uncles . . . . riders. They tend to watch a lil bit more. cell phones are killing people, but seem to be entirely under the lawmakers' and LEO radar . . . . sad, ain't it? stay alert, stay alive | ||
| Glitch |
Look twice, save a life, motorcycles are everywhere. | ||
| Pwnzor |
so... what makes you think that someone's cell phone suddenly not working when they approach you will somehow make them stop using the phone? They will most likely pay MORE attention to the phone itself, taking their eyes off the road completely to push buttons. I like the idea of the gadget but I think it would be detrimental to the cause of a motorcyclist. Just my opinion. (careful, opinions are dangerous. wouldn't want to be labeled a cell phone bigot) Someone tries to crash into me every day. Welcome to the Democratik People's Republic of Kalifornia. Kim Jong Il for Governor!} | ||
| Khollister |
"Now I am a pretty calm and peaceful guy, but it took all of my will power not to follow this guy home and pistol whip him like Ray Liotta in Goodfellas." Actually, I prefer the Joe Pesci ballpoint pen in the neck treatment in Goodfellas. Or was that in Casino? - I get all those mob movies confused. (Message edited by khollister on October 20, 2006) | ||
| Indy_bueller |
You should have got his license plate number. Go to the BMV, find out his address, and sign him up for every single mail-order deal you can find.  | ||
| Glitch |
I'm a proud cell-phone bigot, I hate 'em. If I remember to carry mine, I turn it off every chance I get. I may just take y'all's advise, but I'm gonna experiment with it first. Maybe just drive around with it when I'm in the truck, and see what happens. The truck already has a bumper sticker with the Hang Up and Drive slogan. | ||
| Pwnzor |
yeah let us know if it actually works, like get some buddies together and try to jam all their phones. I'll buy one if it actually works. | ||
| Diablobrian |
>10 meter radius is not large enough range even for city streets. That jammer needs more juice, but it is still very enticing. | ||
| Bomber |
I was horrified when I saw the first ad for a GPS enabled cellphone -- it's tough enough to get folks heads outa the cockpit, but staring at direction on an inch-and-a-half screen can only make a bad situation worser | ||
| Blublak |
Just a thought.. I don't think that lil' gadget will work.. at least not the way you think it will.. One, I've seen the real deal. and both power and system requirements don't seem to jibe with the size of the package. But then again, it has been a couple years so I'm probably going on outdated information.. Two, the company selling them is off shore.. way off shore, like the other side of the Atlantic. Since such a device is a regulated Title III item in the US, it is a felony to posses. So buying one would constitute no problem for them, but a big one for you. | ||
| Diablobrian |
There is no way around being invisible on motorcycles short of making every driver on the road spend at least a month riding a motorcycle to give them some awareness. Cell phones just make the problem worse. Increase awareness by putting one of these on your car (I'm not a bumper sticker person either, but I have one on my car)and they are free while they last. They will send more than one on request.: http://groups.msn.com/looktwicesavealifemotorcyclesareeverywhere (be sure to send them an email saying thanks, and that Lance will be remembered) More good stuff: http://www.smsa.org/motorcycle_awareness/promotional_materials/bumper_stickers/ | ||
| Cixyx_pilot |
The very first week I had my new City X , while I was making a right turn into my drive way . Some guy in a mini van passes me on the right side . Had to lock up the brakes to keep from getting hit. Since then I have lost count of the close calls not caused by myself. | ||
| Glitch |
Well, I'm far beyond breaking any laws, so I'll pass on the jammer, until the law gets changed if it does. •••••••• I just spent an hour and a half riding 33miles through ATL Traffic. It sucks, and I confirmed all our fears, they are indeed out to get us all. Cell phoners just gripe me so bad, they're weaving in their lane, not paying attention, driving too slow, driving too fast, actually I don't think what they are doing is driving at all. •••••••• | ||
| Dfbutler |
I'm with Pwnzor, California is the worst. The area I commute through, most of the signs are in Spanish which generally means that a driver's license, like lane markers and red lights, are just a suggestions not requirements and insurance is something you get if you can qualify for a license. | ||
| Kdan |
You guys want a rush. Ride all the way down Piedmont into downtown Atlanta, take a right and ride Peachtree all the way out of town. Talk about an adrenaline pump like you've never seen!! I did this yesterday and I'm still buzzed! I recommend this training for everyone that wants to ride. I only had to ride on the sidewalk twice the whole trip! | ||
| Tx05xb12s |
Here's a road rage story for you guys. I had just walked out of the local Wallyworld; backpack laden with milk, bread, and cereal and had gotten on my bike. I had parked up against the building, so I was across the roadway from the general parking lot. When I pulled out into traffic where there was a line of cars waiting at the edge of the parking lot for the light to change, there was a guy in a one ton Ford van on the other side of the road waiting to pull into the same line. As I approached him he made eye contact and then pulled out in front of me right about the time I was passing him. I just swung wide and went around him, not really thinking much about it since we were in a congested parking lot moving at low speed. When I got to the line of cars I braked to a stop and put a foot down. No sooner than I had when the guy bumped my back tire with his giant van. It wasn't enough to knock me off, but it definitely got my attention. I of course whipped around in the saddle to see what was going on behind me. This was evidently all the provocation the guy needed. He immediately shouted as he was exiting his van on the run, "You picked the wrong day to f**k with me!" Before I even had time to get my kickstand down the guy ran up behind me and slugged me in the back of the helmet hard enough to send me sailing off the bike. The bike crashed over on its right side and so did I (Luckily the pucks did their job and there was no damage). Just as I was rising back to my knees in anticipation of responding in kind, two Wallyworld employees tackled the guy and pulled him away from me. Right away multiple people got out of their cars and came running over. Several were already on their phones calling the cops. Then the guy jerks away from my protectors and strolls over to his van. On the way by, he tells me to pick up my POS (lying on its side under his front bumper) or he was going to run it and me over with his van. He then gets in his van, backs up, and peels out through the developing crowd of onlookers, practically running down several pedestrians. The cops showed up about 30 seconds late, so we gave the officers the license plate number. The guy turned out to be a local bigshot, so they allegedly called him to the station house and had him pay a token fine for failing to provide information at the scene of an accident. I ended up with a $850 chipped front tooth and a stiff neck out of the deal. Also, the owners manual for my helmet says if it's even dropped (much less slugged as hard as someone can) it should be replaced. Well it's a carbon fiber FXRG, so add another $500 to the bill. I tried to get a local attorney to help me recover damages. Out of 12 contacted, three responded. The local police dept. refused to give me any information about the man's identity or a copy of the incident report. When I asked the three attorneys to find out from the PD who we were talking about here, none ever called me back despite my trying to reach each of them on a couple of different occasions. Nice story, eh? Really makes you love your fellow man. But that's OK, I learned something. Tiny man on tiny motorcycle should not assume he will win a pecker measuring contest with big man in very big van. (-: | ||
| Swampy |
XB9ser, Can you guys get those things in North Carolina? I am beginning to love the south more every day! | ||
| Cowboy |
Tx05xb12s.Look You have his tag NO. get his address. invest in $10.00 worth of roofing tax, and make his life HELL | ||
| Tx05xb12s |
LOL! I know I paint a rosy picture of forgiveness and act like it wasn't a big deal, but trust me brother, I spent a few nights lying there studying the guy's face in my mind and thinking... Nobody likes to have their manhood taken away from them like that. Being 5'7" and 145 lbs, I've had more than my share of opportunities to become quite the scrapper over the years. Everybody likes to test the little guy evidently. I'm trying to be bigger than that though. I think it would be fair to have the guy pay for damages, but that is all. I don't want to be a punk, but I don't think I'd get much satisfaction from getting him back after the fact. What would have helped me get over it a lot faster would have been if the employees hadn't been right there to restrain the guy. If I could have gotten at least a good lick or two back at him or put a few dents in his shiny company van, I would have felt much better. Besides, I was dressed for a bear attack in all my gear. He'd have had a pretty hard time really hurting me. I Don't know what the guy was thinking. | ||
| Diablobrian |
Another bonus of ATGATT  It's almost like having a "Red man" sparring suit on. Minus groin protection so you know to keep a low guard. | ||
| Xb9ser |
Swampy yes NC is a state where you can leagley own a full auto if you jump through all hoops. $200 hundred federal resistraion and sheriff has to aprove I think. There are semi auto allso avalible. | ||
| Jackbequick |
Philip, It seems like with the Wal-Mart employees and any other witnesses you could dig up that there would be a chance for justice to prevail. If you can figure out who that guy is, and find a local lawyer that either already knows and hates the guy or will take the issues to heart, you might have a chance for justice. Good luck with that! Jack | ||
| Brucelee |
I'm with Pwnzor, California is the worst. The area I commute through, most of the signs are in Spanish which generally means that a driver's license, like lane markers and red lights, are just a suggestions not requirements and insurance is something you get if you can qualify for a license. I'll second that! | ||
| Pwnzor |
If I saw someone approaching me on foot, I wouldn't have tried to park the bike. I'd have dropped it in gear and hit the gas. Been there. | ||
| Chainsaw |
Tx05xb12s wrote: The local police dept. refused to give me any information about the man's identity or a copy of the incident report. That's illegal. The incident report is public, that's how reporters get copies. Pay a token sum per page, walk out with the public record. Try again, ask for a supervisor, quote the Texas Public access law and say you next call will be to the local TV news station. | ||
| Interceptor |
Tx05XB12s, That is so F'ed up. He really should have been charged with something, at the very least leaving the scene of an accident. He chipped your tooth?!, man, that would take all of my patience just to not go after this guy. Mean people suck! | ||
| Tx05xb12s |
Pwnzor - I was stuck in a line of traffic with this guy's bumper on my back tire. I wasn't going anywhere. This happened several months ago, so I'm over it. Dental insurance took care of the tooth, I was tired of that helmet anyway, and time even heals wounded pride. LOL! Since the time this happened I did learn that according to the Open Records Act I do in fact have the right to receive information about the man's identity. But it's really not that big of a deal. Four more semesters and I'll be out of this little podunk town and their small time big shots can have it. What goes around comes around. Thanks for ya'lls concern. What were we talking about again? (-: | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
I have this idea, don't know if it's legal anywhere. Here it is, you have a roll of very sticky stickers in very bright colours about 4" x 6" printed both sides, on the sticky side it says HANG UP on the non sticky side it says something like BEWARE INCOMPETENT DRIVER or something similar, you have the roll mounted in a dispenser on the tank & you slap one on the glass of every a-hole you see driving along holding a phone to their ear. No serious damage but a huge satisfaction level. | ||
| Fullpower |
Oh you are in TEXAS I see, Actually If you were on the ground and in fear of your personal safety you would have been well within your rights to use deadly force on the "gentleman" with the van. Texas is one of the enlightened states, that does not charge its citizens with the "duty to retreat". see, you could have poked neat little .45 inch holes in his thoracic cavity. then you would certainly have access to the entire incident report. | ||
| Jerseyguy |
DJ - "all drivers are out to kill me for some reason" Keep that attitude. It has kept me safe for 46 years of riding. |
