C
cbr125looksfun
Guest
This is most definitely (and disturbingly) on the rise. Personally, and I don't know why, but my own bike and presence seems to scare the hell out of cagers. I get a lot of cagers that (very nervously) pull over when they see me in their rear view mirror. But the stories I'm hearing are from riders that look very vulnerable (to me).
SS bikes don't seem to be the target of these homicidal cagers, nor are they after the grey beards with straight pipes. They're after vulnerable noobs on wimpy looking bikes. And that's a scary thought as this group is the least likely to know what to do in this situation.
Nothing scares me on a bike, a liter bike, but what would scare me is being on the road with these cagers on a 125 or 250. I can jet past any car in a nano-second. The thought of having to go through three or four gears to pass a car does scare me. I don't know what that says about the whole 600 SS as a first bike debate? The big four are manufacturing these little bikes as starter bikes, but I'll bet they didn't anticipate this problem! Perhaps a non SS like a GS 500 would be a better choice as you'll have the nuts to get yourself out of a bad situation.
There are many pro-active remedies to getting a cager off your tail. I've seen it done, and it scares the **** out of the said cager. Some of my friends carry an extra fork nut on the triple trees. pennies, ball-bearings etc. Only down-side is if they get your plate, you will get the charge. *This method will get any cager off your back, but that's bad advice for this forum as the vast majority of the members here seem to be new riders. So, just take that advice as a piece of history.
Best advice? Be calm, try and get the plate number (even a partial), pull over, call *OPP (that's star OPP) and exaggerate the hell out of the call. "The driver of the car seemed to be pointing something that looked like a gun at me as he tried to run me down..." The key word being "gun." Chances are all existing calls that are being held will be put on hold and this cager will be hunted down by the OPP and dragged out of their car at gun-point and their car searched by a K-9. The cager will get exactly what he/she deserves, and you will remain a victim as your limited vision may have been mistaken, or the crazy (possibly impaired) cager could have tossed the gun?
FWIW, I would only use this method in a severe, clearly "homicidal" attempt on your life as the OP has clearly stated.
Well i know on the 125 you get some dikhead drivers who want to race all the time. If you see them tailgating, slow down below the limit and use the slow down hand motion. They will either slow or pass you in the next lane.
It is actually more thrilling than scary weaving in between hostile cagers and getting ahead using the centerline. Ive even done it in the presence of cops without using signals or anything and they didnt seem to care.