true confessions: doing the stupid cager thing to other bikers

i had a perfect record of never having copped a horn blast, middle finger or abuse from another biker when i'm driving.

but recently i eased out into an intersection slowly due to the sun being in my eyes, after trying to make sure nothing was coming.

next thing there's the squeal of a locked up rear wheel and an XR650 stopped just short of my car's front fender. heaps of angry gestures from him, lots of apologetic gestures through the windscreen from me, and he took off again.

anyone else with true confessions of temporarily acting like a typical cager?

I would hardly call that typical of a cager!

I have yet to ever cause a rider any grief, but I sure do holler whenever I happen to be inside a cage where the current driver does!

I gave Monkeyfez the adv salute from inside the Jeep once.

likewise. non-riding buddies of min change lanes without indicating. or change lanes fast with a 0.5 second warning of the indicators. i try to diplomatically explain why these moves are very dangerous bikers and just get blank stares or grunts in reply.

My wife - who I love very much - is a hazard to navigation. She is just a terrible driver and I often wonder how she gets home alive.

I was heading West out of Phoenix on I 10 one night with my camper on my truck. I had pulled off for a cup of coffee, it was dark and the freeway was a construction zone.

As I'm getting back on the interstate I realize the construction barricades block a decent view of traffic that your trying to merge with. After I'm almost on the freeway I see a bike about a car length or so back. I think the car behind me actually cut him off.

There was nowhere for anyone to go there, except accelerate to get out of the way. If I had a shoulder I'd have used it, if I'd have stopped, the car behind me would have hit me and the bike probably hit him.

I keep trying to figure out what I could have done differently.

My worst offense was cutting off a chick on a bike (kinda hot too ) when I changed lanes without bothering to headcheck. I knew the spot was previously clear since the car occupying it had just turned left and changed lanes to my left without looking over my shoulder first. Well, there was a chickonabike there. She was not next to me but I did swoop pretty damn close in front of her. No honking or gesturing or anything but had I been in her position I would have been fairly annoyed.

It happens to us all, and not just when we are in cars. I've turned across in front of an oncoming bike art an intersection - I simply didn't see him AND I was on my bike at the time! :eek1

It sounds to me like you did all you could, and that rider likely understood.

1982. I flew down to Phoenix with a friend to buy my then dream car (Triumph TR-6) Limited time and flush with money wanting to do the perfect Fly and Buy... Get the car, off to the coast up 101/1 cut back to Portland... sight see in Oregon some, then hit HWY 12 on the way back to back to Missoula, MT.

Being from Montana I had never seen or even heard of lane sharing. My eyes were opened as I am drifting around in my lane a bit as traffic slowed somewhere near L.A. and I get the Beep Beep from a rider I had almost forced into the rear bumper of the car in the next lane just ahead.

I remember talking about what an ass the rider was for doing something so dangerous. Then there was another... and another... and another. Our conversation went from "those riders are idiots" to "that is cool as hell." After stopping for fuel in Santa Barbara and learning that it was the norm and quite legal I went to an Auto parts store and invested in one of these:


NO BLIND SPOTS!!! Vowing to never again be surprised by a rider and also vowing to return on a bike and ride CA!!!

Sounds like the name for a tastey snack!

I'd be a liar if I said I was perfect.
More than once, I've pulled out in front of a person on a M.C. because I didn't see them.
Once or twice has been in the spring and they were wearing their Camo neon green riding suit that helped them blend right into the trees and they were rounding a corner so that their headlight either wasn't visible to me or it wasn't on high beam and therefore not yet aimed in my line of sight. (you can't avoid what you can't see)

I've also done the same thing when they appeared WAY back there but, were then right on top of me in an instant because they were going way over the speed limit. (which, if they hadn't been speeding would have given me plenty of time to pull out and accelerate away from them while still maintaining a safe distance between us)

If you notice here that I'm putting most of the blame on them, you'd be right. As careful as you are, some one will/can always do something that contributes to their own hazards. I always look twice to make sure but, you can't always count on people to not be doing something stupid that negates the thought you put into a situation.

F.W.I.W. I always place all the responsability for my own safety on myself and anticipate the "what ifs" because I know no one is a perfect driver no matter how hard they try. (my own "I didn't see him" momments have proven this to me)

Just the once about 12 years ago. Way before I got into bikes.

Just a simple right turn into a car park. Didn't see him coming in the opposite direction. My then girlfriend saw him and just screamed stop. I slammed on the brakes and he swung it round the bonnet of my car.

If it wasn't for the girlfriend he would have been embedded in my front left wing... Wasn't into bikes then and vowed to myself at that point I would never ride a motorbike... Yeah. That didn't pan out.

One time at band camp......oh wait.....one time when I was driving the wifes Patriot for the first time I started to change lanes then caught a guy on a sport bike sitting in my blind spot....he honked I jerked the wheel back....felt bad but he probably shouldn't have been hanging in the blind spot...still my bad though....he should have had loud pipes then I may have heard him

I wonder if our wives are related? I try not to ride in the car with my wife unless I am driving. She scares the crap out of me. Doesn't have accidents though. I wonder if this is because other people are just avoiding her (driving defensively).

If I ever did this would be the last place I would admit having done that ........ Thankfully I haven't, yet.





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Confession is good for the soul, and the lessons are good for a long healthy riding life

i honestly don't think i have ever accidentally screwed a motorcycle while driving. of course, it is entirely possible that i have and just didn't realize it.

i have intentionally f'd with a group of cruisers who thought it was OK for their "road captain" to block off an intersection and run the red light while forcing everyone else going the other way to sit at a green light just so all frickin' 30 of them could stay together. i went around the "road captain" and got smack in the middle of them. if looks could kill...

not sure if that counts, but i would not call that a stupid cager thing. i would call that a cagey response to a stupid biker thing.

I ride with the opinion that everyone on the road is an idiot, not because they all are, but just because we all have those 'lapses' from time to time and I need to be on high-alert! (.. and some of the other drivers are idiots). Zuti

I was on the Ohio Turnpike in the center lane towing a trailer at the legal speed limit, when a large truck began over-taking me on the right.

There was a merge lane for traffic entering the X-way, and the truck wasn't going to be able to slow down in time, so I moved into the left lane so the truck could take the center lane.

As the truck was passing me, I had approaching traffic from behind in the left lane, and was signalling a right merge - my intention was to drop back into the center lane just as soon as the truck cleared my front bumper.

Rear view mirror check showed no one behind the truck, so I began moving into the lane immediately behind the truck - and was instantly rewarded with the blaring horns of a Gold Wing rider who was tailgating the truck.

I recovered back into the left lane until he was past - him flipping me off and then proceeding to continue tailgating other vehicles as he wove through the three lanes of traffic.

My fault for trying to make a quick blend behind the truck, but I have always considered the Wing rider to be somewhat of an idiot for riding invisible in heavy traffic.

He was probably cussing the "stupid cager" for some time afterward.

good to hear i'm not the only one who has pharked up in the cage! i think a major issue in australia the past 15 years is a lot of drivers have increasingly forgotten that indicators exist, and sprint across in lane changes. is this happening in the states as well?

if cagers indicated, and did so slowly, at least we get plenty of time to blow that horn, prepare the middle finger, yell a bit...