Tailgaters

[jonnierock]

Yes !!!! I'm serious. If you spend all your time looking in the rear veiw mirror, sooner or later your going to have an accident. If you really want to drive defenceably keep an eye on the things in front of you. You really can't do anything about a tailgater except speed up, pull over, or let him pass. Most of time accedents, are caused by people not paying attention to what is going on in front of you. Continually looking in the rear view mirror, will take away valuable response for braking.
Jonnierock

 

[Dr. Dolittle]

Your not serious are you? Properly driving your vehicle is being aware of all your surroundings and more so on a motorcycle. I may be wrong on this but I thought I read or saw a video that you should check your mirrors every five seconds..

Yes !!!! I'm serious. If you spend all your time looking in the rear veiw mirror, sooner or later your going to have an accident. If you really want to drive defenceably keep an eye on the things in front of you. You really can't do anything about a tailgater except speed up, pull over, or let him pass. Most of time accedents, are caused by people not paying attention to what is going on in front of you. Continually looking in the rear view mirror, will take away valuable response for braking.
Jonnierock

Nobody is suggesting that you look in your mirrors continuously. That would be foolish. But they're there for a very good reason. Use them to enhance your situational awareness of what's going on in ALL quadrants. If you had to rank order the level of importance, then yes, what's happening in front of you is at the top of the list. But danger can develop behind just as easily.

One further point. Mirrors are great but if you're not actually turning your head and putting your eyeballs on the situation behind you, especially when changing lanes, you're just begging for trouble.

 

[66cruiser]

Yes !!!! I'm serious. If you spend all your time looking in the rear veiw mirror, sooner or later your going to have an accident. If you really want to drive defenceably keep an eye on the things in front of you. You really can't do anything about a tailgater except speed up, pull over, or let him pass. Most of time accedents, are caused by people not paying attention to what is going on in front of you. Continually looking in the rear view mirror, will take away valuable response for braking.
Jonnierock

The reason for checking the mirrors continuously is to make sure you have an escape route (move right, left or hit brakes) in case of a problem in front. It's every bit as important to know what's going on in back of you as in front... even more so on a motorcycle. & if you have any peripheral vision, you wont miss a thing by glancing in the mirror.

 

[The4opps1]

One of the things that I love about my area of South Jersey is the long streaches of country roads out in the pine barrens. 90% of the traffic is other bikers. Yes, it bothers me when people tailgate, and like others who have responded, I let them pass. I am out to enjoy my time in the saddle. If they need to get somewhere in a hurry, I won't stand in their way. As a point of interest, many commercial concerns have safety directors, whose job it is to field complaints from the public on aggressive driving by their employees. I had an experience, in a car,where a dump truck from a big concern got on my tail (all I could see was the word "MACK" in the mirror) and regardless of how much I sped up, he maintained his stance right off my rear bumper. I got the truck number and called it in. A day or so later, I received a phone call from their safety director telling me the driver had been spoken to, and that "one more incident and he's gone". They told me several times that they take public complaints seriously.

 

[garlab1]

I've always thought of mounting a hidden paintball gun on my bike and car just for that reason, remote controlled, just a thought and would never do it, it would sure scare the you know what out of them, the tailgaters use to really tic me off, now I pull over and let them go by or try to get out of the way, cage vs. bike, cage wins every time