Do cars try to "race" you all the time?

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Area57

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I have noticed two things on my first two days of riding. Except how much more fun it is than I even thought it would be.

I have noticed that other cyclists are very friendly and wave, for the most part, and

Cars seem to be trying to race me, or burn me, or pass me even when I am going pretty fast. Going even faster than I normally drive my car on the highway today, I had a couple people just acting like they were trying to pass me to prove something. And often at a takeoff from a light. Especially sports cars. Is it just in my head or does this happen a lot?
 
I very, very rarely attract attention when I ride. If I do, it's almost always positive. I don't quite know what to say about your experience but I find things like that are often attracted by the rider & bike.
 
I get the odd one or two boy racers at the lights ,, but I have nothing to prove ,, you can normally make them look stupid by racing themselves!!
 
Depends on what you think racing is. 1/4 throttle take off will see most cars off. So I don't really notice them. I just ride my normal way. If one really thinks they have beaten me I just chuckle and let them think so.
 
Here in Perth I get the occasional guy who wants to race or have a bit of fun but Ive found that there are two types, theres the ones that know they will never beat you and want to see you give it some cause who doesnt wanna see/hear a sweet bike at full throttle and then there are the dickheads who actually think they can beat you in their 'fully sik turbo with a blow off valve and exhaust' cause nothing could be faster because they have boost haha. Also you get the rich middle aged guys in their porches and bmws that wanna have a bit of fun
 
All you need to remember is that you have a vehicle that does 0-60 in the three second range. There may be a few cars that can beat it but they usually cost well over $100,000 and you won't see them trying to race you at a light.

Let the racer-boys with their enlarged exhaust tips think their 0-60 in 7-9 second Honda Civic think they can beat you.
 
It sounds like its in my head then. What I am taking about is very subtle. Like what the above poster said. I think it's probably just my attitude. I don't mean I'm racing anybody, I'm not. I'm keeping up with the flow of traffic but not speeding like a lot of people are.

I think what it is is that I have always had slow vehicles. Either 4x4 type or just economy cars to get good fuel mileage. So the attitude and the world of owning a fast vehicle is new to me. So I'm seeing the streets with different eyes. Maybe I'm paying a little but more attention at a stoplight tor a Camaro stopped next to me. Where in my car I would pay no attention maybe now I'm trying to think what he thinks and if he looks over at me and then takes off from the light pretty fast, I'm always imagining it's a tiny race and maybe sometimes the car is.

I'm doing a really terrible job of explaining this. Basically the TL;DR version is. For the first time in my life I have a fast vehicle and believe it changes the riders attitude but also the attitude of the drivers around him or her,
 
OldBiker said:
All you need to remember is that you have a vehicle that does 0-60 in the three second range. There may be a few cars that can beat it but they usually cost well over $100,000 and you won't see them trying to race you at a light.

Let the racer-boys with their enlarged exhaust tips think their 0-60 in 7-9 second Honda Civic think they can beat you.
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And I will try to not let tis go to my head, it's pretty cool though,
 
OldBiker said:
All you need to remember is that you have a vehicle that does 0-60 in the three second range. There may be a few cars that can beat it but they usually cost well over $100,000 and you won't see them trying to race you at a light.

Let the racer-boys with their enlarged exhaust tips think their 0-60 in 7-9 second Honda Civic think they can beat you.
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And I will try to not let tis go to my head, it's pretty cool though,
 
ignore them

Especially as a new rider, it is better to just worry about your own ride, and being safe. You should always be aware of what other traffic is doing, but not allow their actions bait you into being irresponsible on the road. That rarely ends well for the person on two wheels.

There are tracks that offer street machines, bikes and cars to settle questions of who is quicker in a controlled environment. They usually have paramedics standing by as well.

Have I ever shown off at a light? Yes, but I have been riding for decades, and suffer failure of judgment occasionally.

Remember, the other guy won't pay your ticket, or get you your license back. Like others have said; let them think they are faster.
 
I for one do experience that exact same thing. I normally do as the others but there is the occasional BMW driving ahole I smoke when no one is watching lol. On the other hand it is quite fun enough to pass them at the light when I split lanes and watch them look stupid sitting there behind a clunker :)
 
I agree with the others that said let them think they are fast, as you KNOW they can't outrun you in a 3500lbs sled. I laugh as well and let them get the ticket as I ride a safe distance behind them, at their illegal speed.
 
Area57 said:
Cars seem to be trying to race me, or burn me, or pass me even when I am going pretty fast. Going even faster than I normally drive my car on the highway today, I had a couple people just acting like they were trying to pass me to prove something. And often at a takeoff from a light. Especially sports cars. Is it just in my head or does this happen a lot?
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I live in the South and we have our share of rednecks around here. Those tend to drive trucks or modded US made pony cars (you know, with the loud pipes and the wide tires on fancy wheels). This is fairly common in my neck of the woods, even though I ride quite conservatively and I have the stock pipe, nothing to get anybody excited. I noticed behaviors that I very rarely experience when I drive my car, like people speeding to get next to me (or maybe to prevent me from passing or changing lane.) I do not know what the motivation is, but the behavior is relatively common around here when I ride and extremely rare when I drive my Nissan Altima.
I have also noticed another behavior which I may actually be encouraging. On the highway, I do not like to follow cars and even more so trucks too close because of the buffeting, so I usually leave some distance between me and the car or truck in front of me, more so than when I drive my car. That seems totally unacceptable to some drivers who feel it necessary to hug my rear wheel to express their discontent, even though I am going at the same speed as the traffic, and I will change lane if the traffic is faster in the other lane, so I am not actually slowing anybody down. This is something that most drivers are not even aware that it is an issue specific to bike riding, so even though it is irritating, I try not to make the situation worse and I usually try to either let them go through or get out of the way some other way (no lane splitting around here).
 
didier9 said:
I live in the South and we have our share of rednecks around here. Those tend to drive trucks or modded US made pony cars (you know, with the loud pipes and the wide tires on fancy wheels). This is fairly common in my neck of the woods, even though I ride quite conservatively and I have the stock pipe, nothing to get anybody excited. I noticed behaviors that I very rarely experience when I drive my car, like people speeding to get next to me (or maybe to prevent me from passing or changing lane.) I do not know what the motivation is, but the behavior is relatively common around here when I ride and extremely rare when I drive my Nissan Altima.
I have also noticed another behavior which I may actually be encouraging. On the highway, I do not like to follow cars and even more so trucks too close because of the buffeting, so I usually leave some distance between me and the car or truck in front of me, more so than when I drive my car. That seems totally unacceptable to some drivers who feel it necessary to hug my rear wheel to express their discontent, even though I am going at the same speed as the traffic, and I will change lane if the traffic is faster in the other lane, so I am not actually slowing anybody down. This is something that most drivers are not even aware that it is an issue specific to bike riding, so even though it is irritating, I try not to make the situation worse and I usually try to either let them go through or get out of the way some other way (no lane splitting around here).
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What he said! This is EXACTLY what I have noticed. And I have a nissan sentra, so we aren't too far off.

What do you mean no lane splitting? I kind thought that was illegal everywhere, but people did it anyways. Lane splitting is where you drive down the center in between the cars right?
 
didier9;194989I have also noticed another behavior which I may actually be encouraging. On the highway said:
Same thing here in the Mid-West. I also like to leave extra space between any minivan or SUV (the worst for dirty air buffeting) and the idiots drive right up to you before they realize that there is a passing lane. They also do that when I drive my Altima too. I tend to stay off the slabs for those reasons when there are really nice scenic secondary roads that parallel the slab.
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Area57 said:
What do you mean no lane splitting? I kind thought that was illegal everywhere, but people did it anyways. Lane splitting is where you drive down the center in between the cars right?
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Yes, there are places like California where it is illegal but widely done, and even the police has issued recommendations to do it safely, and places like Florida where if you did it one time, it would be your last. People around here don't mind a bit breaking the law (and make you crash if that's what it takes) to prevent you from breaking the law all the while thinking they are doing you a favor.
 
I have had cars try and race me to and I have raced a few bikes also with my car. Some guys on bikes around here are cocky and cut people off all the time which gets real annoying. I live about 15m away from the Drag strip also and their are plenty of cars around here that have raced bigger bikes than the FZ1 and have won. My car is only setting at at 600whp and will match my bike down the 1/4 mile and is faster from a roll. My advice don't get to cocky when running some of the cars out there. Here is a video of a buddy of mines T/A from 1320 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjR5xLN72us
 
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