Road Rage! Note, avoid in future.

[Allie]

I had an incident once when I merged onto Route 80 in quite dicey traffic. At one point a van tried to block me from merging into the center lane by speeding up from behind. Well big surprise he wasn't fast enough, and it didn't matter because I spent a grand total of five seconds in his lane before moving to the fast lane and leaving him behind. I forgot about him but apparently I REALLY peed him off because a few miles later he comes blasting up the center lane, right up beside me, gives me the finger and comes into my lane - he would have knocked me off the road if I didn't brake. At this point I broke several of my riding tenets. A) I rode up the shoulder (dangerous and illegal, needless to say), B) gave him MY finger and C) escaped through a pre selected pinhole in the traffic (cars tend to clump together in hairballs on that road) where he had no chance of following and left the mess behind.

I definitely let shock and anger get the better of my judgement there.

[pmong]

Thanks for the stories. Misery loves company, but my preference is not having road rage directed every to anyone. A life of riding carries its risks, challenges and excitements. After every close call, I consider quitting, but there are the good moments. Just need to refrain from over reacting and escalating the situation. Even if in the right, cagers have physics on their side, bigger and heavier, but not always faster.

Ride safely everyone.

[Hovmod]

Yesterday I was sitting at a roadside café, when I saw a guy on a bicycle who had to slam on his brakes so hard he actually did a stoppie to avoid hitting a guy in a van. He was backing into traffic crossing the bike lane. Even after he saw the bike, he kept backing up, holding up cars as he swung into the street, and went towards me.
I caught his eyes and calmly pointed to mine. This caused him to slam on the brakes and get out, still in traffic. The honking mess behind him changed his mind.
Guess I was pretty close to an unwanted confrontation there. He didn't look like he was open for reasoning...

[SqDancerLynn1]

Makes me wish I drove a Diesel dully PU. Then let them argue with me !!

[1_v8_merc]

My camaro doesn't know what road rage is.
Neither does the GS.

Just open the throttle and End of story.

[koolaid_kid]

The last time I gave a guy the finger he pulled a gun on me. Case closed.

[bruin]

I don't get too upset. Around here it never seems intentional. Any close calls result in an embarrassed driver once they do see you or hear your horn. They give a sheepish wave and hope you aren't the one with road rage. I know we are virtually invisible and I give them a wave back or a nod. Don't get me wrong, I'm pi$$ed I almost got hit, but I'm not about to start a fight over it. I can only picture it escalating to me getting run over.

[Badooka]

This cures any attempts at road rage towards me.
Don't leave home without my helmet or my holster!

"Never hit anyone in anger, unless you're absolutely sure you can get away with it."

Russel Ziskey

[DevanJones]

I passed a car the other day cause they weren't going as fast as I was wanted to/was comfortable with and they sped up and rode my ass till we hit some twisties and I lost him. At the other side some twenty-some minutes and twenty-some miles I stopped to get some water. When I walked outta the gas station that car was driving out of the parking lot and my bike was laying on the ground. Well that was a terrible idea in my opinion. In my anger I neglected to call the cops and instead rode after the car. I caught the car and it now has a couple of cowboy boot heel dents I imparted while I passed them the second time. I might also be guilty of road rage....

[MadCapsule]

Careful with those Prius owners. You might catch smug from them.

[Blastr2783]

The last time I gave a guy the finger he pulled a gun on me. Case closed.

Was that you?

[koolaid_kid]

Yeah. Where did you say you lived again?

[Jethro]

On a motorcycle is no place to encounter road rage, either your own, or the rage of an auto driver. When people dissapoint me be not paying attention, I simply let it go. No horn, no finger, completely emotionless. If there is any action by me, it is simply 12k RPMS in 2nd gear. There ain't no Prius on earth gonna catch my FZ1 at 12k RPMS. My satisfaction comes from seeing them get smaller and smaller in the mirror.

If I flipped off every cager that tried to kill me, I might as well learn to ride one handed.

[koolaid_kid]

Good point. I usually blow them off, give them a toot of the Freeway Blasters if they earned it, but mainly stay out of their way. They have already proven they are stupid, why further the cause?

[stillads]

Seems like you have a problem between 2 and 4 wheels in the us. Here in Denmark where I come from, I have the experience that we, the lorry drivers have the same problem with the 4 wheels

One day 2 years back, I was hauling around 13 ton of scaffold, on my Volvo FH12 flatbed

down the motorway, when from a onramp a tiny litti bitti car, a Mercedes Smart
,
tried to force me over from the right lane to the middle lane.

I mean, seriusly, the car was not much bigger than my frontwheel. WTF was he thinking ???

Both wehicles are modelphotos, just so that you can see the difference.

A few days later I was on a twisty road, when up from the rear came a touring group of some 30 bikes. They staid behind me, untill I waved them forward 2 - 3 - 5 at a time, as traffic allowed. Almost all of them gave a little toot with the horn as they passed, another day saved