One of my favourite activities on a bike run was to drive as much as possible without using the brakes; as many on here will know, the engine braking on a big twin makes this a fun and fairly safe exercise; I used to use the technique when trying to help a friend improve his riding skills by attempting to rid him of the dangerous habit of going into a corner too fast and then braking in the bend (the bike then wants to stand up and go straight ahead making cornering even harder!) and if you have ever followed a rider doing this on a ride or even worse a long tour it's a nightmare. To be honest I try to use the same technique in the Morgan at times and it's amazing how smooth the drive can be if you're not using the brakes all the time and just concentrating on being in the right gear and doing the right speed.
The other thing I used to enjoy on the bike was coming up behind another vehicle and waiting - patiently - to see how long it took before the driver realised I was there; I could look straight into their rear view mirrors and could tell quite easily whether or not they knew I was there; sometimes it took them minutes rather than seconds to realise there was a bike behind them. Of course wearing a white helmet, reflective jacket and riding a predominantly big white bike with some blue and red bits here and there meant that nine times out of ten the first response to seeing me in their mirror was to hit the panic switch and brake! But at least I knew that when I came to overtake they knew I was there.....too many bikers (and possibly cars, especially those that come up at speed) are hit by vehicles pulling out of a line to overtake without going though the mirror, signal, mirror procedure....all down to lazy and dangerous driving. Sadly this is almost a weekly occurrence here in North Wales (and no doubt other areas of the UK as well).
I have no problem with people driving slowly (well not too slowly, but say well within the specified speed limit) but what I hate (and it has been mentioned on here already) is the fact that they drive so close to each other that those that wish to press on cannot get past them at all. Waiting behind a nose to tail queue of 4 or more vehicles all driving along like 'follow my leader' with their driver's minds in neutral (or looking down at their mobile phones) is extremely tedious and often results in those that wish to pass having to take bigger risks than they should need to in order to get past a long line of vehicles. It's poor driving and discourteous to hold up other road users without good reason. It was less of a problem on the bike as I had a lot more power to hand and just had to watch out for them trying to do something to kill me.....in the car it's an issue because I don't have as much responsive power to hand and I have less room for manouevre if they do decide to step or wander out of the line - and even if I had more power in the car, I would still be short of space to take avoiding action if someone moved out into my path.
So apart from ranting I'm afraid that I just have to accept that a lot of other drivers just don't give a toss about anything or anyone else on the road and, if I try to pass them I assume that they will try to kill me by doing something unpredictable. Or I have to go out early or late and avoid the traffic as best I can.
G&T time I think.....
