So I am riding down a back road today. I come around a bend at 40mph. Bam, right there smack dab in the middle of the road is a deer. Just chilling in the road like its nobodies business. I lock her up and almost lose it trying to avoid this deer. Left a huge skidmark behind and was shaking for a good 5 minutes after that.

But it isn't over yet.

I come up to this busy 4 way intersection with a stop sign for each direction. I pull up, and a car directly across from me pulls up. There is already a car to our right, waiting. The right car goes. Now its me and opposite sides turn. I start going when this van comes flying up from my right, and starts to roll through the intersection. I wave my hand as to say "what the ****?" This guy slams his brakes on. Looks me dead in the eye, gives me the middle finger, then slams the gas and tries to hit me. I slam the throttle and get out of the way. He then continues to peel out through the intersection cutting off the other guy and flies down the road into the distance.

Gotta love people. Any similar situations for you guys?

 

You gotta watch out. If he's running from the cops he could have driven right through you.

 

All the time in DC, yes.

You'd think they'd hear the roaring exhaust next to them, and be able to read the street signs and paint markings on the road. But nooooooooooo. . .they like to try and share a lane with me.

Generally I honk, get their attention, give them a wave and say "HI?!" Most generally they'll get a scared look on their face like I wasn't there 2 seconds before.

The only couple of times I've flipped anyone off was when a bus driver turned left across the lane head on. Flew the bird on that, then a block later a cop flips on his lights to get through the red light and almost took out 2 or 3 cars and me. I flew a middle finger high and loud on that one.

 

I've only been riding since 1999. I learned to ride in Western Kentucky and never had any issues with other motorists. I moved to Virginia and bought Deuce later in 2006. I can say in Virginia, I've had many people crowd me in my lane, cut me off, and tailgate me than ever in my life driving anything(Since 1994).

I think it is in part to our PR state of mind these days. 15 years ago where I grew up, a lot of this behavior would had gotten you roughed up. It's a sad reality.

 

Gotta be careful who you **** off around here (NJ)! Best bet is to let the fool pass you and be on his way.

As far as deer go around here, IT'S EPIDEMIC NUMBERS recently. Any time you ride faster than your ability to stop safely YOU'RE GOING TO FAST! There will always be the one you never saw, but, -

 

Good you are ok. At least nothing happened.

If you were startled by the deer's presence in the bend, it means you were going too fast in the bend relative to your line of sight through the turn. At least that's what I took away from MSF. There are some twisted roads in my area and if I can't see what's coming up, I try to slow down and take an outside line to get a clearer view earlier.

I am just analyzing this from the 'What would you do in this situation?' exercises we did in class and I think about results and consquences when I hear of stories like this.

As far as the intersection, if a vehicle acts supiscious in any way at a stoplight or came flying up from the right, I would just stop right there until I was sure he wasn't going into the intersection. Even then, I would probably wave him to go first since he obviously was in a hurry and was acting irresponsibile. Same thing with cell phones. If I am in my car and someone stops at the intersection with a cell phone in their ear, I wave them to go first. Not giving them the chance.

Been riding only for a short while but been driving for 30 years. Why people do some things they do I don't try to understand. I just avoid them at all costs. Never been in any type of accident or even pulled over and I plan on keeping it that way. When in doubt, I just let the a-holes have the right of way. I plan on doing the same on my bike.

 

My suggestion would be to eat more venison...it's the only revenge we really have.

 

Yes, we have many 4-way stops here and it astonishes me on how many people just blow thru. I've also had cagers intentionally try to run me down, or pass me on the right when I'm turning right at the intersection.

I don't know if there are any set in stone rules for 4-way stops but I was always told you yield to person at right. Cross traffic always has to yeild. But apparently cagers do what they want.

 

Yep! Coming back from having a fantastic 4 day weekend at the Back To The Basics Motorcycle Rally this past weekend. I get to these extremely long hills where there are intermittent right hand slow traffic lanes. As I approach the only car for miles in front of me in the 55Mph zone the car slows down to 30Mph and less. Since the car would not pull to the right, and mind you I was not tailgating in any shape or form) I figured maybe the car was having mechanical issues so I flash to pass as I see the guy looking in his rear view. I signal pull to the right and he jerks over into the right lane as I'm about to pass. I quickly pull back to the left and he does this again. So I'm stuck following him for miles until we come to the next hill and slow traffic lane. In between, the guy keeps accelerating to 60Mph them quickly backs down to under 30Mph causing me to shift up and down constantly. I finally decide it isn't worth the hassle and pull off the road allowing the guy lots of distance to just move on. 10 minutes later I pull out on the road and about 2 miles up the road he comes screaming out of a side road and gets so close to my *** all I can see see is his grill in my rear view and he keeps getting closer and going faster so there is nothing I can do but speed up. I also keep looking for a quick way out from in front of him but there are none. Finally after bouts of 70+ Mph he pulls out around me on a corner, swerves in trying to force me off the side of the road until he spotted the car rounding the corner right in front of him. He jerks it into my lane in front of me while I have the ABS binders locked and the car coming in the other direction is forced off the road almost into a crash. The guy then speeds up and disappears. As I finally approach a four way stop in the small village of Hardwick close to home, low and behold guess whos in front of me and stopped with 3 cars in front of him. I got off that bike and walked up to the side of the car as the kid....He was all of about 17 years old cranked that window up and locked the doors as fast as he could. In the passenger seat was a young lady equally as young looking like she was ready to cry. She had a cell phone in hand and he made a mad attempt to pull out in front of everyone to get away. I just wagged my finger at him from side to side and spoke nice and loudy, ensuring he would hear me......."Punk today is Your Lucky Day! Now please follow through with that phone call!" I still don't have any idea why he did this. I did not provoke this behavior in any way. In fact I did everything to stop it! Just can't figure some people out, particularly these kids today?

 

Rick,

That was some punk kid trying to show off how bad he was to his girlfriend.

Showing that he was tougher than the guy on the Harley--he just didn't expect you to catch him in town.