My aha moment!!

[ItsAllGood]

Hmmmm…Let’s see. I suppose if I didn’t write this maybe the feeling would go away. I mean nobody would know any different. But I think it’s one of those things I need to get off my chest or I won’t get passed it, after all it’s been some time now since it happened and it still bugs the crap outta me. I’m embarrassed that such a thing could happen.

It’s a nice day, late afternoon & I’m enjoying a ride up through the foothills. I’m not a kneedragger so this road is perfect for me, not really twisties, I’d say more like sweepers with enough straightaways to safely get around the slowpokes. Out of nowhere a guy in a car ends up right on my ass. So yeah, my reaction wasn’t good but I maintained my composure. Not like it’s the first time something like this has happened. I’m not poking along either, I’m making pretty good time going up this mountain but this guy is in a big hurry. And to impress upon me his distaste for my apparent lollygagging, he must now be less than 10 feet behind me. We’re in a series of sweepers (double yellow line, no turnouts) so I really have no alternative than to continue. A nice fairly long straightaway opens up so I decide to create a little distance between the two of us & roll on some throttle (Error #1). Still a double yellow but I’m sure he interpreted this as my reluctance to let him pass. He caught up with me again forthwith and displayed his displeasure by running even closer to my back wheel. Finally another straight opens up and I move to the righthand portion of the lane indicating he could now pass, which he does, within about 4 feet of my left kneecap. I acknowledged this by indicating that he is #1 in my book (Error #2). We played cat & mouse the rest of the way up the mountain (Error #3) with me taking mental images of his car just in case I ran across it again sometime. I wanted so bad for this guy to stop so I could drag him out of his car and beat the ever living sh** out of him. No idea whether I could or not, I just wanted to (Error #4).
Anyway, during all this chasing around he managed to put two cars between us and used this to his advantage to increase the separation.

I guess this is where the point of the story comes in.

My passing of the 2 cars was legal, however; it was done on a short blind uphill straight that I felt so uncomfortable with that although I was on the other side of the divided line, I passed within a couple arm lengths of both cars and dove back in just ahead of the front car so I wouldn’t get plowed by someone else cresting the hill in the other direction. I raced another mile or so looking for the guy before it hit me…..

I had just become that same stupid freaking SOB that I was looking for.

I wanted to pull over, get off the bike and just walk away. I wanted so badly to somehow let the people in those cars know that I wasn’t really like that, I was one of the “good” motorcycle riders. I had just recently posted a link to a Motorcyclist article about the “Dilligaf-ers” and the appearance they portray to the general public as bikers. And now I was one of them….just another stupid guy on a motorcycle who doesn’t give a f**k & has no consideration for others. It really hit me hard because I’M NOT ONE OF THOSE GUYS!!! Damn!!

It’s not like I’m going to give up riding. I’ve been riding everyday since but I do ride now with a completely different attitude. So this for me was a life lesson. Yeah I made a lot of poor choices & that’s the funny thing, I knew they were all the wrong thing to do but until now I’ve never had that so vividly impressed upon me. Amazing after all these years of riding that it would take so long to learn this.
I feel an apology is in order, to those people in the cars certainly, but also to all you guys who ride and collectively suffer the repercussions of such foolish acts.

And to myself, perhaps that’s the closure I need to finally put this to rest.

 

[lytehouse]

Don't be so hard on yourself.....I know there are a couple of times I've done crap I'd like to "undo", I think we all have. Least you realize it and learned from it.

 

[IndyFZ6]

+1 to lytehouse's comment.
Learn from your mistake and try not to make it again. Be thankful that you did not crash or cause something even worse if you did catch him. Glad you learned from it.

 

[Evitzee]

Learn by your mistakes, that is how we learn. No sense beating yourself up over something you can't change.

 

[Solarservant]

Thanks for posting this. I was recently in a similar situation where I reacted poorly, and lost respect for my surroundings and the power of the bike. Luckily, like you, no one was hurt.

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about sport bikes, and the types of dudes that buy them. There's just a lot of potential for disaster when you take a bunch of guys that are arguably risk-takers to begin with, hand them this kind of speed and power, and combine them with all of the egos out there in cages... What I am not saying well is that there's a certain personality type that gets into this sport, and maybe despite our best intentions, we are going to react when pushed, especially because we know how ridiculous it is for a car to be doing the pushing.

I'm going to take my panties off now and go ride.

 

[zackattack784]

As I was reading your post I kept thinking to myself "what an *******, who cares? Why is it the end of the world that some guy tailgated you, just lighten up and let it go." Then I got to the end and saw you had your epiphany. Good for you! :thumbup: It really isn't that big of a deal. You want to stay as far away from those ahole drivers anyway, you shouldn't be trying to chase them down! Besides, who's going to win, a 2 ton car or a 450 pound bike?

Thanks for owning up to your mistakes and learning from them. You just did something the majority of Americans can't or won't do.

 

[abraxas]

I wanted to pull over, get off the bike and just walk away.

:ban:

No ways dude, well done. You stopped before someone got hurt :thumbup:

Got a young rider at the office, who still gets angry at rude cagers ... it's really honestly to goodness not worth it. Move on, have a nice day

peace

 

[MisterX]

I think that at sometime or another, we've all probably found ourselves in a similar situation. I know I've had my fair share. It's easy to get miffed at someone when it seems like they're being disrespectful or rude while on the road. When in situations like that, I really try (more successful on some days than others) to just ignore the joker who is being a feminine hygiene product of cleansing. Like I mentioned though: I'm successful more on some days than others.

 

[2006_FZ6]

First, good story. We'd all be lying if we did not have a similar story on two or four wheels.

You are very mature and smart for realizing what you became in the heat of the moment. And even smarter for knowing how to difuse the situation. Well done!

 

[FIZZER6]

It took me until my late 20's to finally shake off road rage. I'm sure if someone pissed me off enough I would still display some form of road rage but for the most part now I just let tailgaters pass, I honk if someone cuts me off but I won't flick them off. If someone else flicks me off I just give them a big grin and a thumbs up! :thumbup:

My life is much less stressful when I don't let people irritate me.

 

[pookamatic]

I was driving home from the shore last night and some guy in an old dodge pickup got off the highway at the last second -from the middle lane- and cut me off. I immediately thought he was drunk. Using the almighty powers of EzPass, I was ahead of him after the tolls. On the Commodore Barry Bridge, he passes me quickly, then gets in front of me -by about 3/4 of a car length- and slows down.

I get in the left lane, as I'm about to head I95 south, and juuuust as I'm about to pass him, he cuts me off again. That type of behavior would have caused 20 year old pook to see red. These days, I call the cops if they're obviously drunk. He didn't really swerve around a lot so I figured he wasn't drunk... just a huge diiiick. Those cases call for a different tactic: The I'm Better Than You Maneuver

The I'm Better That You Maneuver, aka My Life Is Better That Your Life... a game you play after someone on the road has you pissed off.

"He probably just lost his job shoveling vomit at the local dive bar."
"That car she's driving is probably an automatic."
"My wife has a bigger rack that his wife, AND she's better at..."

etc

 

[Wh0M3]

I agree it's easy to get caught up in the moment and try to prove yourself when someone in a car does something stupid around you. I do battle with road rage from time to time when someone does something to me but I try to rise above it. I like the idea of the "My life is better" game pookamatic posted, it helps put you into a positive mood rather than being upset.

I think more times I think about things I've heard people do, like kick off mirrors as they pass them by or put a dent in the door with my boot, but common sense and the desire not to get killed tend to keep me in check with these.

The other reason I try not to give in is because I'd rather not try to race away only to have a cop catch me going too fast and have that idiot watch me get pulled over.

 

[JimStl]

I think we all have some of that inside of us and that we are all working to do better.

I had a woman tailgate the heck out of me on a very dangerous stretch of highway. I lost it a bit, turned around a flipped her off and that was the end of it, but I was disappointed in how I handled it.

I came here that evening and read a post that said, more or less that, "I ride for fun, if someone is riding my ass I just find a way to let them pass and I continue on with my enjoyment of riding." That has stuck with me and I hope to take that spirit out on the road each time I go out.

The scarey part is that anger blinds one in away, and being blind while operating a motorcycle is not good. Be safe out there guys and thanks for this reminder, I'm sure we all can learn from it!

 

[FIZZER6]

Just remember that anyone in a cage driving like an a$$-hole around you means that person wishes he/she was you. Hating on others is almost always due to jealousy.

Remember: There are only 2 types of people in this world; Those who ride motorcycles and those who wish they could ride motorcycles.