I don’t think I’ve used my hooter more than twice. Takes longer to hoot than to take the gap or manouver.
Bikers that hoot a lot look stupid.
A quick blip or a flash of your high beam is enough. Most people don’t consider a hooter bleep as a note of caution or warning and take it more as an irritation.
You need to remember if you’re stuck in traffic as a biker, the cagers have been there longer than you and will be long after you’ve gone…if you start tooting your horn you best have a backup plan because road rage is quite a popular hobby in this country.
yeah i hate riding my bike through town. Im going to use the rev thing less as my exhaust is so loud and i think its a bit much sometimes.
But some people are such idiots it hard not to, today im turning and all the people look staright at me and then just walk across the road in front of me, i mean WTF i was so annoyed but then you end up looking like the bad guy just cos your the biker and you make alot of noise.
I think i need to take a chill pill when ridsing through town and just accept that deal with wollys in part of the journey!!
With you on that one Paul. I started riding on a little 50cc scooter so soon learnt to get out of the way of other bike riders. Don’t get it too much now on the 125, but I wouldn’t dream of using my horn to get people out of the way, especially while filtering, if I was on the bike and someone was beeping behind me I would think something was wrong, then I would have to pull over and check the bike… then I would ride like mad to catch up with the prick
The only time I beep people is when they cut you up, like the Taxi driver last week who decided to change lanes then indicate… thats a pet hate, people who don’t indicate.
Heard a story once of a biker who got cut up that way, caught up with the car kicked his indicator off and shouted “if your not gonna use them you don’t need them”. Not great for reputation but makes me laugh when I think about it :w00t:
An interesting debate, since the recently demised Black beauty was so quiet with her standard cans and had a horn like a farting mouse, we are not qualified to comment.
That said, unbeknown to me, Julie had a penchant for kicking cars that got in our way, or indeed cars she didn`t like the look of, mostly expensive late reg Mercs.
This has the desired effect as it makes me filter faster to escape their well founded wrath!
I found that on the whole cars would move out the way, or attempt to. It was only the rare prat that deliberately block you. And then he would get 120+ dB of my uprated horn.
However I did used to follow a bmw from the A312 who would use is horn all the time filtering, and it was embarrassing following, and I found myself apologising on behalf of bikers that we weren’t all ****.
As said above. If someone catches you up in traffic (because you were paying attention 9/10 times you’d have seen’em coming) they’re moving through the traffic faster than you. When this happens to me I give it a few 100yrds to see if they look like they could use me gettin-the-phuck-outa-the-way and I move over like most riders do. It’s usually scooter riders that find my progress too slow. I did get the ar$e with a guy on The High Way in the last week or so one evening. He just would not filter through the stationary traffic on his black gixxer unless he had a full18 inches either side of his handle bars. Thats fair enough, each to their own. But when there’s riders queuing behind you, you can expect to get cut up when they stuff their sh1t past you rather rudely!
Back to this thread. I’d get the right ar$e if someone was beeping like that behind me. But then if someone was behind me doing that I’d first ask myself if I should have already gotten outa the way?:unsure:
Using the horn should be reserved to warn of clear and present danger. Using it for anything else lessens the effectiveness of a horn for this purpose.
And for the “loud pipes save lives” people… geesh. I’d hate to be your neighbor. As, I suppose, do your neighbors.
ive done a bit of everything, never manically though.
nothing more irritating than someone
REV REV,BEEP BEEP BEEEEEEEEEEEP, REV REV
i do occasiionally rev the bike a little, i have occasionally blipped the horn to warn in advance, never to intimidate when im sitting right on someones backside.
Ive also flashed the lights as i filter, but to be absolutely honest, none of them really work. If the vehicle in front hasnt seen you, and cant be arsed shifting, they wont.
I also think the most rude and irritating thing on the road, is other bikers who race up behind fellow bikers, and do it to them.
it does not mention in the highway code about intimidating the road user in front to get them to pull over, and frankly i think if your on a bike your already making good progress, and your an idiot if you think filtering should be done at twice the speed of sound.
Unless your a courier… in which case as charly stated, we should let them through as theyre on a call!
Really? I find that pressing a button is very quick. It doesn’t take long for an ignorant (of your road position) driver to move into your path as you take the gap.
Not sure about this one. Unnecessarily, yes, but as a warning, surely not. I’m happy looking or sounding stupid if it means I can be a little more certain I have done my best to warn other road users where I am.
True, unfortunate, but true. I hit a pedestrian who walked out in front of a bus - I was filtering relatively slowly and beeping, but I can only imagine that he took the noise to be an annoyed scooter.
Indeed! And you can’t be certain how big the driver is until they get out of the car
This is a very interesting topic, and i was chatting to someone about it and he made a good point.
If you ride in london you have to expect to deal with wolly in cars, on cycles, bikes, scooters, on foot in taxis and just swollow your anger and try deal with it.
It is so so so annoying when people do “the little things” which **** people off but i think as “london” bikers we need to chill out.
Im included in this as recently i have been annyoed by idiots a tad more than usual.
Its when you get out of london that you realise its a london thing. I never rev my engine or beep my horn at anyone onceside the M25.
People suddenly have common sense and move over for bikers and make space, its totally different.
SO i guess if we want to get into town quickly and you want to use your bike to do it then we as a collective group of bikers need to try and chill out.
The other thing to try remeber is other bikers are dealing with the same ****, and its just one of the inconvieniences of riding in london, but then there are so many reasons that riding a bike makes so much sense its worth dealing with the odd idiot even if its often on every journey!!!
quick blip on the throttle of a big v-twin with baffle free pipes helps enormously!
normally wakes people up and gets there attention, and my neighbours are kool, we get along juuuust fine:)
when i worked as a courier, the horn button was my friend…a tip i read on here by charly and learned to permently do as a courier while filtering sometimes even riding along somewhere with not alot fo room and side roads, was to keep the horn covered with my thumb…i even ended up doing it while riding my own bike, if a beep like crazy and look like a loon i dont care!! so long as i get the drivers attention and THEY SEE i’m there, use as a warning or and indicator of **‘oi are kin blind mate!’ ** but you have to anticipate and use the horn early…or else it will probably hurt:D but CBF500 sound pants with a stock exhaust, unless its bouncing off the limiter…BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBABBABBBBBABBABABABBBBBBBBABBABBBBBBBBBBBBBBBRP!
headlights are like hi-viz jackets, drivers cant see them if they aint not looking;)
I’m back riding Mate, the friday night Route # rides will be back on soon as it gets bit warmer
My theory on this is…If someone wants to filter quicker than you, pull in and let em past, but cant see the point in sounding the horn/reving or flashing your lights etc to get cagers out of the way, only p*ss’s them off and they try to fu(k you.
Cant beat a decent race can and staying up in the rev range for clearing your path
Agree with that, if a guy I was following me that close I would let him go ahead and then follow him, if he wants to make noise good on him, after having my heated grips at max and my full beam on my horn hardly makes any sound at all:P
Besides I always know what I have behind and if I see people coming fast I tend to move and let them go ahead without slowing his/her progress.
I demand the same from others, not the fastest at filtering but would prefer some people would move off, I know most of the lights and how fast I have to go to get almost all greens. Then again in traffic I prefer to have someone ahead to see where he gets stuck so I can avoid that way:D
Honestly mate when I get people on scooters 125s or big side panier bikes struggling to barely move along sitting between 2 cars moving at the same speed as the cars I just go around, I keep an eye way ahead of me to spot people like that and I move lanes or get ready to go round them. And yes it is a pain in the ass since all they have to do is move slightly left or right in their lane and I can get past and they can be happy doing whatever they want to do. If anyone is moving slighty slower than me I don’t mind sitting behind them until it is safe to move past.
Some people do try to make it early at work, I tend to leave earlier and cand make it in to work even 30 minutes before if not at least 15, today because of the cold and rain a lot of people were moving slowly, missed a few lights, 5 minutes here 1 minute there and I was 15 minutes late, and I got a bollocking… so yeah, I might rush next time beeping you because my job is on the line…
With you on that one Paul. I started riding on a little 50cc scooter so soon learnt to get out of the way of other bike riders. Don’t get it too much now on the 125, but I wouldn’t dream of using my horn to get people out of the way, especially while filtering, if I was on the bike and someone was beeping behind me I would think something was wrong, then I would have to pull over and check the bike… then I would ride like mad to catch up with the prick 
