It is your lane if your in it!!!! cages are operated by idoits and never trust one, they do the damnest things. Their doors should vibrate when next to you. right on to all who refuse to conform.

 

I have been doing that since the late 50's. It is second nature to me. Never had much trouble with it. Just once going from Rapid city to Sturgis some a-hole on a VTX1800 going 80 trying to weave between everyone. Both lanes were full of bikes. I was in the right lane and countered him three times to keep him from passing me in my lane. He finally gave up and got into the left lane where he keep weaving between bikes for as far up as I could see him.

Wish the law let you shoot one person a year. I would have picked him.

 

Native Californian here... and before anyone starts in, most of the fruits and nuts that live there now came from out of state... it used to be a fantastic place to live. Used to be... I'm happily living in Colorado now.

Anyway.

We're allowed to "share / split" lanes out there. Considering the traffic in the big cities, AND that we ride bikes with air cooled motors .. it makes sense.

What doesn't make sense are the *** bandits shooting up through traffic like kamikaze pilots going maybe 30 or 40 mph faster than the flow of traffic.

Like most anything, lane splitting is safe as long as you are smart about how you do it.

First, you should NOT do it at all unless the traffic is going slower than say 5 or 10 mph.

Second, you should only ride about 10-15 mph faster than the flow of traffic.

Third, realize that you are going to encounter 1) cagers that aren't paying attention and are swerving around in their lane, and 2) cagers that are paying attention AND see you AND will deliberately try to block you or run their vehicle into you, and 3) trucks and RV's with mirrors that stick way out. You need to be prepared for all this, and be riding slow enough to react.

In the last few years I was living in California, there were a few people that died because they "defended their lane".

One guy I remember was riding along and had a cager aggressively cut him off. Traffic was slow, so the biker pulled along side the car and yelled at the driver. They decided to pull off the road to "discuss" it.. The biker pulled off first, and the cager rammed him - trying to run him over... then took off leaving the biker for dead at the road side.

Actually, now that I think on it, this biker did survive.. but he was paralyzed from the waist down. They eventually caught the guy that ran him over. He was an illegal... no insurance.. you can guess the rest.

There were other guys that were shot..

So I guess my point is that regarding defending your lane, you need to pick when it's appropriate and smart to do it.

With riding on country roads, that's a whole different subject.... and strategy. My opinion is that there isn't one strategy that works in all situations.

Just a quick example.. if I'm riding a country road I ride in the left part of the lane, but if the road turns left I slide to the right so that when I lean into the turn my body doesn't extend into opposing traffic.

Also.. if I come up on a hill I generally slide to the right.. this has saved my *** more than once when I encountered some idiot going the other way trying to pass the guy in front of him.

 

All you are trying to do is not encourage another to share your lane.
Ride too far on either side will encourage someone to pass you while still in your lane.

Smart riders will yield to the tank trying to squeeze by instead of finding out, skin and bone doesn't make great armor.

 

lived in the south SF bay for seven yrs and had to split lanes every day. Nothing to it, even a complete A-hole can survive there, I'm proof. Its all the other states that give no consideration to bikers that make it so freakin hard.

 

Ponder this: if its legal to lane split here then how can you go off on a cage that comes over on you....he only wants to split/share the lane with you.

 

they are not looking, just taking what ever part of the road they find necessary.

 

In the late 60's the cage drivers understood responsibility and accountable when operating vehicles around others. the generations that have followed do not understand the resp. and account. thing, they will just let their insurance handle their share of the mess. I learned the old school of riding but in todays environment it's about self preservation, when you are are on two wheels the cages will win.Just keep your head on a swivel.

 

protectign your lane is an extremly valuable practice to both your sanity and safety, also if your on long highway runs a little bit of movment weatehr its a shift in position an arm/leg stretch or even a concious drift (not from one side to the ther but just enough to cause noticable movment) in your space every now and then is also another practice i use as the brain of the half asleep zombie on auto pilot behind you will instinclivly*usualy* snap to once it sees movment within its realm of observence

 

So you are saying that the truck driver didn't put enough safe distance between himself and the vehicle in front of him and as a result almost had to kill you. Flippin idiot.