Retrospectively, I sould be more carefull. But heres my tale…
I was at the lights on the a40 today near the planetarium. I filtered up between the traffic up alongside a lorry and a car. Plenty of room when I started the filter. Or so I thought…
Then the lights turned. Uh Oh. I slowed from about 15mph (i filter like a puppy as I’m pretty new to this lark) and began to pull back from the lorry who was moving across to the right effectively squishing me against the car.
I dont think i was in his blind spot, but i guess he didnt look. I anticipated this and slowed - i guess he was moving around something on his left - i had to keep the brakes on until I had to drop my left foot or i would have fallen over and the damned lorry continued squishing me, my mirror scraped along side the lorry and the fecker’s double rear wheels ran straight over my left foot.
Luckily I had my construction steel toe boots on and only felt minor pain, no damage. I’m fine, only a minor scrape to the left mirror, but hey, lesson learned. I dont think the truck even knew I was there at all. Must have had my Hi-Vis cloaking bib on :o
oh my lord!, well take it easy, ive done that before, its scary, i hang back now, better to be five minutes late in this world than five minutes early in the next…
Lucky eascape there dude, agree with everyone about hanging back, lorries are difficult to overtake unless there is major roadage, and on the A40 at that part there is very little gap between the two outside lanes, I just wait until you get to the flyover then you can muller it
if it was one of the large bulk carrier wagons they often can’t see what is beside them, particularly at roundabouts where the driver is at a different angle to their trailer.
Saying that a lot of large vehicles think that you’ll move out of the way for them. It is a jungle out there!
Buses are the pits, they abuse traffic lights all the time.
Dangerous situation HGV’s, they have to give way to vunerable road users including motorbikes so don’t be afraid to give a blast of the horn. I filter with my tumb covering the button. Outside the Planaterium is narrow tho with plenty of lights to get to the front.
Tips I follow in city traffic; 1 Filter covering the horn if poss and comfortable.
2 Cover the brakes
3 Switch your lights on if not already on - some use mains when filtering.
4 Are there any vehicles with either none or dirty mirrors on your side of their vehicle?
5 Have the drivers seen you filter- in tight spots or near traffic lights which might turn green.
6 Don’t filter when the traffic starts moving (at a point of speed it becomes undertaking!)
7 Filter down the outside if poss or if not down the middle of the outside two lanes (away from HGV’s and buses)
7 Practice slow manovering when poss -parking up,clutch/balance control in slow traffic
if you know the lights are about to turn green then just sit behind until a gap appears, peoplle find it so hard to pull off from the lights in a straight line!! dunno why!
Well, I’ve been a Class 1 HGV Driver for ten years and I’ve never heard of that one before!!! Personally, when I’m on my bike, I don’t push my luck, and give everyone around me a bit of space.
In town, the lane markings are just about wide enough to fit a Lorry into, and in most cases, are too narrow. Why would you want to filter past something that’s too wide to fit in it’s own lane anyway. Surely that’s asking for trouble.
Glad you got away with it though mate… just think about everything an HGV Driver has to look out for on busy roads, and that he/she may not be looking where you’d like them to be.
I don’t mean to come over as a bloody know it all, but:
There are places in London that I just don’t take chances.
The main tourist spots are defo in that category. There are large numbers of tourists from countries that drive on the right and are stupid enough to step off the kerb looking the wrong way.
I was belted by a bus (avoiding one of the above lemmings), luckily just a nudge, bit it scared the living poo out of me - and the guy driving the artic behind me, as I was pushed right in front of him.
Right of might, i.e. if it’s bigger than you, respect it and give it room! Big vehicles move about far more to get past kerb-side obstacles or to swing-out when taking a corner.
I once did the dumbest overtake of my nearly short motorcylcing career. I was on the M25 and I went between an auto carrier and a car, if I remember correctly.Scared the heck out of me when the A/C drifted in it’s tram lines. I thought I would be coming off again real soon.
Another narrow escape by Road Kill :(Glad you were ok though.
Yeah all was fine in the end, learned a good lesson now I hang back. Also learned to pay more attention to how long the lights are likely to have been red.
A good lesson learned well and its served me well since. Many thanks for all the kind words you lot
