Why is it that cagers can't see a hi-beam headlight and spots at 1:00 in the afternoon. Very busy street, vehicle in front of me about 30 feet goes thru green light, jacka$$ turns left between us. Damn near have to lock up front and rear to avoid accident, WTF. Must be because I ride that I very seldom if ever miss seeing a scoot. I guess these idiots think we can get it stopped since it's not as big as a 4 wheel vehicle. They have no idea how hard it is to stop 900 lbs on two wheels. Just iritates the $hit out of me....Sorry for the rant...Folks on this forum understand my frustration.

 

feel the same way bro, same thing happen to me but no cage in front of me , idiot just turn left in front of me and ofcourse dumba#$@ was on cell phone!
and he let me know with the 1 finger salute that he heard my horn

 

Grrrr, ten years ago I would have chased him down and shoved that phone up his tailpipe!!

Now, I just laugh and smile. His day will come being a dumbass behind the wheel.

"Cagers make it hard for us to soar like an eagle when they are driving like turkeys"

 

We need to be able to carry rifles in a scabbord like they used to in the old west. A$$hole pulls in front of you, pull rifle, get attention fast!!!

 

I installed a headlight modulator on my bike. It appears the instances of dumb-asses not seeing me have decreased since then.

 

Educate us - what is a headlight modulator???

 

Just for the record, I also own and drive a 24,000 lb class A motorhome and do you know what??? It's a hell of a lot harder to stop than my 845 lb Ultra and those stupid azz cagers cut in front of me all the freaking time... one of these days I'm not going to slam on my brakes when driving that thing and I'll just roll across their trunk, should leave a lasting impression or two.

I hear your vent and I'm with you all the way. But I actually believe it's not that they can't see you, it's either that they're on the phone or eating a big mac or doing something other than paying attention - - - or they don't give two sh*ts about anybody else on the road (which is most likely the case).

A few years back I had to attend one of those driver improvement classes (I swear I didn't see that 35 mph sign... honest) and when we got to the discussion of "safe following distance" I had to interrupt the instructor/officer and point out that whenever I create enough space between myself and the car in front of me for a safe following distance, some azzhole in the lane next to me cuts into it hoping to arrive at the next traffic light exactly .5 seconds before me. So these days I just let 'em in and wave. While they think I' being friendly, I'm just waving them off to their funerals.

 

Very often, they simply do not see us. This is the default expectation you should operate under when riding. Expect that they do not see you and take appropriate precautionary action. Worked for me so far in 28 years of street riding.

 

Hang in There!

The physics and human nature of it are all working against us: Cagers make visual scans and then their turning decisions based often on no more than one-fourth second of visual scan and processing in their brain. They have trained themselves to register on objects that have a frontal silhouette of maybe 35 square feet, wheras even my Ultra has only a fraction of that!

Assume that they all want to kill or maim you. Turn on every damn light you have on the bike all the time. The posted speed limit, on city streets in particular, is very often TOO fast given the above facts and the fact that scoots can't just simply panic stop without often bad consequences. KEEP YOUR COOL.... you can become very skillful at identifying the risky cagers before they get within lethal range of you: silver hair in big ol' Buicks, teens in spiffy little "Too Fast, Too Furious" cars, rolling junkheaps, and cellphoneheads and unfortunately just about everyone else who can make a rare mistake (that's all of us). It's all about Speed, and a Distance Cushion, and those Damn Intersections.

I'll bet others have their own suggestions on how to stay alive and thrive....

 

I agree. I assume that no one can see me and if they CAN see me, they are looking to run me off the road. I spend alot of my time covering brakes and swiveling my head around.....