Commuting: The strange. The Odd. And the FUN

Probably because plenty of people fantasize about it but never really do it.

I'm kinda the same but I don't wobble. What I do is just turn around and look at tailgaters and they almost always back off. Over the years that's mostly worked fairly well.

I think that dropping ball bearings and other debris risks hurting innocent people so I would never do that.

I also believe most tailgaters are doing it through ignorance, and don't deserve to be harmed or have their property damaged, that's just stupid. Those few who are intentionally being aggressive, and intimidating are more likely to escalate than to back off because of such actions.

If its not possible to safely, and legally mitigate the situation as required, I'll slowly vary my speed up and down 1 or 2 mph. Most will naturally back off, and its not perceived as hostile like a "brake check", or other threatening actions. I've also had success standing up and scratching my butt.

I've had success with the arm signal for stop/slowing.

I may have tossed a handful of change out the top of my jeep (at night) to get an aggressively driving asshat off my ass in the past. It worked, FWIW. There was no traffic around, but apparently I slighted him in some way. Earlier he was cutting in front of me and slamming on brakes and just being a dickhead. Then he dropped back to follow me as close as he possibly could. Fistfull of change was probably not the best course of action, but I was pissed off at this point. He swerved around me and rolled coal into my open jeep, and disappeared into the distance. Which was fine with me.

Charles.

I find a more Zen approach is to recognize that I control my actions, not their reactions. So my goal is to get myself away from the miscreant rather than trying to get them away from me. Generally that means I want to make sure they're in front of me. Then if necessary I can choose an alternate route, and if they still insist on messing they have to turn around and find me - which is generally too much trouble.

I'd rather avoid a bad situation than create a worse one in order to "win".

Gotta be careful doing this. Was doing exactly this when a lady in a buick pulled out in front of me and ended my poor Super Tenere

Today’s road nitwit:

guy on a naked cruiser type bike, Me on the GS.

Big sweeping right hand curve. The kind you set your speed and turn angle in at the beginning and roll thru the whole thing.

Cruiser guy coming at me and in the middle of the turn, no helmet (and no hair but the flying billy goat beard) 2’ over into my lane.

seriously.

I saw a guy try to tackle Hwy 17 to Santa Cruz on one of those ape hanger sled bikes once. He looked absolutely terrified.

But you were impressed with his bike choice, right?

It did match his chamber pot helmet.

Yes , the 2 foot in your lane is something that can happen quite often and anywhere nowadays , with poor driving / riding skills , and distracted operators...

This can really end badly if you don't expect it and or , place your line in said corner , to the inside or outside of your lane , right or left , to give you a little extra room to avoid the dummy that's over in your lane...

The racer line that's in a lot of us track day riders , hunting for the perfect apex , are really not very helpful when trying to just commute to work or stay alive..

Glad you were able to avoid the potential carnage , and thanks for the friendly reminder to always expect the unexpected

I’ve easily ridden that road now 50+ times. It’s my regular fun route. That curve is just a big easy sweeping thing. Seriously easy for anyone not pushing it. For the life of me I was amazed to see this guy over the line. There are plenty of other curves on that road where crossing the line would be easy enough to do, but this one is so ‘set it and forget it’ I was really surprised.

in my case I try never to ride the outside line anywhere I can see down the road in a curve. I’ll just take it down a notch.

my biggest regret was that I forgot to turn on the GoPro after stopping at the Circle K. Everyone could have enjoyed it then.

Isn’t that how it’s SUPPOSED to work ?

I believe that "Logic" and "Tailgater" do not belong in the same sentence

I learned that you don't tailgate in New Jersey...

Visiting a client near Newark, we went to lunch in his truck. Looking down at my feet, I said "Just curious as to why you have these bricks cut in half on the floor of your truck."

"Dat's for the tailgaters. You guys don't brick 'em in California?"
"Brick 'em? Someone tailgates and you actually throw a brick at them?"
"Nah... you don't have to throw the brick. Ya just drop it out the window and they back off real fast."

Imagine if you had to regularly dodge bricks in the roadway because idiots regularly dropped them out of their cars, in addition to the other obstacles riders already face from distracted drivers and other debris in the road? Let's hope that isn't actually much of a trend in NJ, and if it is I certainly hope it doesn't spread to the left coast.

Leaving a half brick on the road. Just the thing to do. Effing A-hole. Reminds me again why I never want to go there, or even close to there.

On that trip, I was labelled "Dat snowflake what came from California." As such, I figured it was in my best interest not to question the local driving customs.

@Gone in 60
You're getting your 9 annual posts out of the way all at once, aren't you?