Well, not really, it wasn't following by a wink or any other emoticon so for all i know you were being serious.
Tailgating lorries - I dont want to be another statistic!
- Thread starter Matthew_T
- Start date
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Well, not really, it wasn't following by a wink or any other emoticon so for all i know you were being serious.
GrasB
Veteran
- Location
- Nr Cambridge
Nice to have but takes a degree of sadomasochism to get... In some ways it's not a muscular barrier but rather a pain tolerance one.
The reaction time of any individual is gonna be the same on a bike, in a car etc. Modern car brakes are pretty good, and with good tyres then the stopping power is far better than any bike.
mark st1
Plastic Manc
- Location
- Leafy Berkshire
kedab
Veteran
- Location
- nr cambridge
I do the hand behind the back & thumbs up thing too 
40 miles of riding yesterday and only one close pass from a hgv on a very busy a10 - the crosswind wasn't helping me and as he pushed the air past me, it turned my front wheel left, then, as I caught his slipstream, it pulled the wheel right...a bit hairy but for 2 hours on the bike, that was the only head shake I had cause to make...got pretty sunburnt though - the tan lines a crisp and sharp, I follow the rules 
40 miles of riding yesterday and only one close pass from a hgv on a very busy a10 - the crosswind wasn't helping me and as he pushed the air past me, it turned my front wheel left, then, as I caught his slipstream, it pulled the wheel right...a bit hairy but for 2 hours on the bike, that was the only head shake I had cause to make...got pretty sunburnt though - the tan lines a crisp and sharp, I follow the rules 
Had a lorry right up me round a few corners this morning, he tried to overtake me but it was too narrow and there was no opportunity for me to pull over safely. Thankfully, a Royal Mail van was stopped and partially blocking the road as it couldn't proceed fully on the road that crossed ours so I cycled behind it and up the street, Mr Van Man was stuck having to wait till the Royal Mail van was able to move. That's appalling to intimidate someone like that though, if I'd hit a pothole (and there are TONS round here), I'd have been under his front wheels.
D
Deleted member 20519
Guest
Now I would have acknowledged him behind me, with a wave or similar..... then pointed and indicated to bus stop to say - off you go - and he would have got the right gear and passed safely. I don't even think it was that close I am afraid!
Sorry
jarlrmai
Veteran
thanks I require your validation..
The guy bought his truck too close to me, I am in front, if I let him pass that is up to me, I didn't want him to pass as I was trying to get up to speed up hill into a headwind after the lights I could also see cars in the other lane, last thing I want is an aborted pass by a truck.
What wasn't close, the pass? Yeah the pass isn't the problem mainly 'cos I pulled over and by the time he's mostly past me he's just into the other lane. My issue was the truck was too close behind me and moving closer. Hence the tailgating which is the reason I posted it in this thread.
Hate posting videos here, to be honest you can't get a sense of what it felt like at the time from them, things are a little different when you are there and hear the wagon behind you getting closer and see the shadow looming up.
The guy bought his truck too close to me, I am in front, if I let him pass that is up to me, I didn't want him to pass as I was trying to get up to speed up hill into a headwind after the lights I could also see cars in the other lane, last thing I want is an aborted pass by a truck.
What wasn't close, the pass? Yeah the pass isn't the problem mainly 'cos I pulled over and by the time he's mostly past me he's just into the other lane. My issue was the truck was too close behind me and moving closer. Hence the tailgating which is the reason I posted it in this thread.
Hate posting videos here, to be honest you can't get a sense of what it felt like at the time from them, things are a little different when you are there and hear the wagon behind you getting closer and see the shadow looming up.
GrasB
Veteran
- Location
- Nr Cambridge
People are talking about letting a lorry pass but how do you do that when they're too close? Slowing down works but it's a risk increasing strategy. In a car you've got a lot of protection as the impact speed won't be high but on a s bike it involves a high risk because if the driver behind doesn't respond you've not got any protection against an impact. A lorry carries more more than enough momentum at 5mph to simply roll over the top of a person on a bike, it's also heavy enough to seriously injure or even kill you.
The italic section, it's entirely the responsibility of the overtaking driver to maintain a proper gap to the vehicle in front. This includes before, during & after the overtake. If the driver made jarlrmai feel intimidated by his presence this driver failed on a safe overtake before the manoeuvre had even started. Why? By putting someone under pressure you're increasing the risk of irrational behaviour which makes subsequent manoeuvres much more risky.
This goes back to gaz's red light jump. It's easy to post-incident say there was ways out, however the fact gas felt pressed enough to jump the light meant he was under metal pressure & more likely to make a miss-judgment of distance/speed. Under these situations it's generally safer to commit to the jump in marginal situations, as it requires the fewest critical judgments to be made.
