It interesting that many cars seen to move over to one side of their lane and allow bikes to split lanes. Some of those big truck mirrors can ruin your day though if you are not careful!
It's true: A LOT of vehicles pull over to let bikes by. I waved a "thank you!" to the white truck at 1:00. I think a lot of pickup truck drivers dig motorcycles. I believe vehicles pull over for one of two reasons: 1) They know it's legal and want the motorcyclist to be safe and for everyone to have a nice day, or 2) They don't want the crazy @#$*% motorcyclist to scratch their paint!
Thanks for sharing that - I enjoyed watching it and am intrigued by the entire issue. The Go-pro depth of field is surely skewing things, but man - on the computer things look "tight". I kept waiting to hear a saddle bag get re-textured.
On a wet road, does riding on the paint stripe hinder your confidence? What about the reflector bumps - do you have to play motorcycle hop scotch on those?
The more I look at it, the more I'm convinced that overall - the rider is safer in the split than in the lane with the cages.
Yeah, I did some fancy body English with my hiney with the red car at :23 and thought I might feel a bump, but no. It's been years since I bumped a car, and it's only happened a couple times in thousands of lane splitting / sharing / filtering miles.
I don't think wet paint stripes are a problem, but the dots are unnerving: they lose all traction, so your tires slip and slide along them. But I don't try to avoid them because I need to focus on car proximity; so I ignore them knowing they won't materially change my path of travel. But rain is kryptonite to my super commute powers
: it reduces traction and visibility (mine and drivers'); so I kinda turn into a car and get in line like a chump.
I agree it's safer, of course. I think one thing the video shows is just how wide those lanes are up between the cars (particularly on the freeway; splitting on streets to get to the front is a little more...invigorating
).
^^^^I think JB only commutes...I haven't seen any group ride reports from him with "thought bubbles" since MM2 organized a ride.
In fact I went out there specifically to see JB and he was a no show at Paso Robles, Santa Clara, Bodega Bay, Eureka, Fortuna, etc. Never saw him.
So I think JB just commutes and likes the thrill of dodging bumpers...
I'm sorry I missed you. Yes, it's true: I pretty much only use the bike nowadays (last couple years really) as transportation. I very seldom ride on weekends for pleasure, or with groups. Maybe it's something in the water (what's left of it in Calif.
): It seems to me the once very active NorCal forum contingent has gone kinda quiet... I DID shoot up a couple weeks ago to say howdy to Tyler when she passed close by on her Dangerous Curves ride to Calistoga:
Cool video, I just got back from California and while I knew it was legal, I just am not
comfortable doing it. No experience, so I chose not too, and got some weird looks from some of the drivers- which I really didn't think about until now. I bet they were thinking wtf is that moron doing... then they saw the Utah plate...
... tourist.
LOL. I bet they were thinking, "Man! I'd never be crazy enough to get on a donor-cycle, but if I did--I sure as sh*t would not sit in this traffic if I didn't have to!"
I remember when I first dove up between freeway lanes on my Harley Sportster: Traffic was just crawling, so first I just leapfrog one car that was doddling; then eventually I leaped a couple of cars, then five....
Slowly you gain comfort that the world will not end, and off you go, slowly, two fingers covering the front brake and your foot hovering over the brake pedal when things get really tight (I practice rapid braking to a stop with a foot down every day when I ride in on this one side street where there's no traffic)....
