scootercincinnati.com

I want to recount an incident that I had this evening, to see if it's happened to anybody else.

I was riding home from work, the road is a double yellow two lane, and I'm going right around the speed limit give or take a mile or two (40 MPH). Suddenly (or unexpectedly I should say) I get passed by a car who crosses the double yellow to get around me.

This is the second time I've had this happen, the previous time in a 25 MPH zone.

Now I've driven these roads for a over a year, and never had this happen when I'm in my car, even though I drive the car the same speeds a. Is there something about a scooter that invites these illegal passes, even when traveling at the speed limit? Has having lots of bicyclists in this area trained people to pass anything with two wheels?


And the rest of the story:

I was angry at the pass.

When you make an illegal pass, you better hope you don't get caught by the light a quarter mile down the road. Jerk was turning right, I'm turning left. I pull up next to him in the left turn lane, knock hard on his window to get his attention and then flip him off.

He decides he's now more interested in following me than continuing his right turn, so he turns left and follows behind me. Okay, if he wants to escalate, I'll escalate; there's no way I'm letting this guy follow me home. So I slow to a stop in the middle of the lane. As I'm putting my side stand down, drives around me. I can only assume that he chickened out once he realized I was willing to step up the confrontation. He goes up the road a couple of houses and turns around. Passing each other head on, each of us in our own lane, we exchange one finger salutes.

I realize it could have turned out far, far worse for me, but the jerk was wrong and somebody needed to tell him that.

You should have taken down his plate number call the cops. I have had this happen just last week. The guy was on my rear end and I was going 50 in a 45. He passed on the double yellow like and then put his breaks on so I would hit him. I missed but I got his tags and called the police. They later got him in Milford. I went up there and found the car and the cop in the shopping center up there. I gave my side of the story and he gave his but he was very upset. The cop gave him a ticket on just our conversations. Mainly because he was so ticked off he pissed off the cop. You don't want to pee off a Milford cop.

I was nice and didn't flip the driver of the Dodge Charger the bird when he passed me but he did it to me. Always get the tag number.

My wife and I have ran into this type of issue many times while out on a ride as we are doing 60 in a 55 or at least 5 over the speed limit on any road we may be on normally. However, only problem for them is that they see a scooter doing 5 over the speed limit and get all pissy about it and decide to speed around us crossing the double yellow line while not realizing that we are on a Burgman 650. So as they yell or flip us off because we are going slower than they would like us as if we have slapped their momma, they speed left of center to pass us and I give a little gas and they see passing might not be as easy so they punch the gas and so do I and soon we are doing close to a hundred as they then retreat back behind us as I then go back to 5mph over the posted speed limit for the next 10 miles to give them a chance to think on it and dare them to pass again as they wonder how a scooter was able to defeat them. ; ) We are very friendly drivers and are willing to help people in need or yield to people as needed as we try to enjoy our riding. You have to love the little victories in life though. lol

I know that most scooters and motorcycles speedometers are set in 5% error than the actual car speedometer. It increases as you go faster. Which means your speedometer is reading 55mph for example and the car is going 50mph. Here is one link that sort of explains it.....
http://www.msgroup.org/forums/mtt/topic ... IC_ID=1513

As for road rage or getting pist at someone, I just avoid it & ignore it. As I have learned in many years of over the road cycling. Getting mad at someone who causes them to get mad at you back in a 2000 pound car, could end ugly. Its just not worth it.

Happy riding!

ServoCrow, I have to laugh at this.

So the guy passed you. Who cares? If that is the worst thing that happened that day, then it was a good day.

Unless you are prepared to take it all the way and either give or receive a serious butt whooping stopping was stupid.

And then what does that prove?

I guarantee I have more miles on two wheels than you do and I have done some pretty insane things. I have never tried to pick a fight because someone passed me. I have had people cut me off and come close to taking me out and they are missing a mirror on their car now. But, all you did was give scooterists a black eye.

Scooter Dave

Giving in to road rage on your scooter just sounds like a bad idea for me personally. I take Section Road to work every day and the speed limit is 25mph. I like that because I have a lot of run ins with deer in the morning. I can't count the number of times I have been passed by drivers because I am going 30mph and not 50mph!

I used to get so upset but knew I would not win in a Scooter vs. Car incident. I do not want an angry driver going after me in any way. I hear stories about scooterists and motorcyclists getting in a driver's face and it hasn't always ended well for the biker.

So as much angst as it causes me, I just have to let it go and do my thing. Let them fly by you, Jordan, and give yourself a pat on the back for not participating in the payback or get-even game.

Bonegirl wrote:I hear stories about scooterists and motorcyclists getting in a driver's face and it hasn't always ended well for the biker.

I have to agree Jordan. Rule #1: don't bring a knife to a gunfight.

I'll chime in on the side of "let it go". There's several reasons.

I've had this happen to me nearly every time I ride to/from downtown. If I confronted all of them I'd never have time to make it to work and home again.
You never know what kind of psycho is driving the car, but you can start the scale at jerk and the possibilities get worse from there. They could be a gun toting drunken psycho that just caught their wife with their best friend and they're looking to shoot at the first target that presents itself.
I don't get all freaky when it's car on car idiocy, which I see all the time as well.
Essentially there's no lasting benefit to telling a jerk that they're a jerk. Either they know already or they won't believe you anyway.
Ultimately, confronting them is about revenge and I'm not into revenge.

If they cause an accident, call the cops. I don't call the cops on a close call or aggressive driving because there are too many of them. If they're driving like they're drunk, that's different and I endorse the call to the cops.

I could go on, but you get the idea.