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I live in SoCal. I ride a bigger bike. Rush hour starts a 5:00 AM and last until 7:30 PM. I have to split lanes. I HATE it, but I do it. It takes all the joy out of the ride.
Me too! I ride the good ol 23 between Thousand Oaks and Moorpark every morning,, splitting lanes almost the whole 10 miles. Kinda get used to it, but it's not very fun or relaxing... Oh well, there's always side streets...
Did it for close to 11 years in Ca- Riverside to Irwindale each day back and forth.Rode the 60/10/210/57 and whatever side street that it was easier to jump off on when not driving the bike. Splitting lanes seemed easy at the time (87 FLHS), but looking back at it realistically now as I'm older and wiser, very lucky I made it that long without a problem. It's not a good timeto be looking down into the car next to you to see if the girl's driving it's got a short dress on...
The times I felt most nervous wasn't the completely stopped traffic (had a door opened on me once though), but it was when the traffic started going again and gaps opened. Gaps= bad! Get the drivers trying to jump into the opened space next to them, they don't typically look very long before moving. Loud pipes save lives when splitting traffic, firm believer in that. Learn the flow patterns and it helps, and always put your bike where the ******** can see you. Gotta love the people that make good eye contact with you, and make their move anyway. Hope that mirror wasn't too expensive for them...
After all that, it was a damned fast way to get back and forth to work in crappy traffic.
I understand the need/desire to lane split but have found
it's another way for the "cagers" to hate bikers.
You do what you have to I guess. Having to drive in the crazy
HEAVY traffic daily would really get to be a drag and anything to
speed it up keeps you sane.
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