Today's award goes (somewhat belatedly) to the Japanese motorcyclist who rode his vehicle through jammed traffic at insane speeds (watch the speedometer in the corner of the frame).
One vehicle changing lanes quickly, one opened door, one window rolled down to stick an elbow out, a piece of cargo protruding into the gap between the lanes, a patch of oil on the road making it slippery . . . there are any number of ways that could have ended very badly indeed. I rode motorcycles for many years, but I promise you, I was never that foolish!
Peter
14 comments:
Some people need an adrenaline rush that is deadly in nature.
This guy will probably win a Darwin award at some point. Whomever does him in will feel terrible for the rest of their life just so this yahoo can say what he did.
I too rode scooters for a time. Both road and off road kinds.
Most fun I ever had was going straight up a rail road cut embankment.
People used to split lanes like that all the time on the freeways in California. It seemed to be one of the percs of being a motorcyclist. For all the things in Kali that are nonsensically illegal, I couldn't believe there's no law against it.
And yeah, sometimes they scraped'em off the pavement.
Say what you will, but THAT. WAS. AWESOME.
No, I don't ride like that, but the hellraiser in me still has a soft spot for that kind of bosozoku stuff.
The speedometer (in kph?) shows he is doing less than 50 MPH in most of it. There are much crazier videos out there of American riders doing the same things while nearing 100 MPH.
Yikes. I see the spirit of Kamakazi is still evident in Nippon. Wonder if Momma-san had any kids that lived?
Looks to be less than 80kph most of the time. Not the safest thing in the world but not that bad. Traffic is moving too fast most of the time for a door opening to be a realistic threat, and he generally has enough gap that someone sticking an elbow out the window would miss him. Not usually enough space for a car to change lanes so that's not a concern.
CA found that lane splitting in slow traffic results in a lot less bikes getting rear ended. All in all it's generally safer to lane split than to sit in traffic.
Article is good, but after it was written another of the critically injured folks died.
http://jalopnik.com/5502943/the-phoenix-dump-truck-motorcycle-deaths-were-preventable
Okay sir, just pull over to the side. 110 on a crowded highway is a serious crime, especially on a motorbike.
This brings to mind a lane splitter behind me in LA on morning. I don't know exactly what happened, traffic was beginning to clear and I was accelerating away from the pack, but I glanced in my rear view mirror and all I could see was pieces of bike heading my way, faster than most of the traffic. I never did find out what happened to who.
Have you ever had to open your door to adjust your seatbelt?
stay safe.
I gather you are unfamiliar with the Ghostrider series of videos? :-D
Seems like rather an old video from the vehicles in traffic. Ghostrider will get your heart thumping.
I saw the 'result' of that down in Okinawa a few years ago... A helmet stuck in a fence... Head still in it... Pieces/parts scattered for about 200 yards...
Moving or stationary, it doesn't appear that he(?) is moving more than 30mph faster than the cars and trucks. It sounds like a small engine, 250 to at most 400cc, 4 stroke, 4 cylinder.
Here in CA, they frown on moving more than 15-25 mph faster when splitting lanes. He's moving a bit faster than I would feel comfortable, however the Japanese are very courteous, and I saw no intentional movements to impede his passing. Occasionally, you can hear his horn, but I'm not sure why, as nothing obvious occurs. Very polite horns on Japanese vehicles!
I was surprised at how few other bikes were seen, as they are popular there. There is a space at the front of the line at traffic lights for bikes to congregate, to keep them from taking up space in traffic.
It looks very tight when he passes, but camera lenses can distort this view.
What got my attention is the aftermarket exhaust on the bike. A bit noisy for that sort of traffic thrashing. That can be annoying to drivers as you pass.
All in all, as fast as he moves, that ride had a lot less drama than ones I've taken on CA freeways when splitting lanes. Here, I would be guaranteed to have multiple people attempt to keep me from passing them. Including apparent attempts to squash me against the car next to the idiot. Those cars normally just dodge away from them, leaving me room to squeeze through. If stopped and they try this, I would just go around them on their other side, or move over two lanes.
BTW, opening a door, or attempting to pin/squash a bike, is chargeable as assault with a deadly weapon or attempted murder.
The mentality is that people can't deal with someone getting ahead of them. What the idiots can't figure out is that forcing bikes to sit in traffic just takes up as much space as a car. Slows everyone down. Here in the US, a lot of people turn into raving lunatics behind the wheel. Yes, that includes women! They are equal opportunity idiots in my experience.
Death wish: the motorcycle ride?
This looks like a normal rush hour commute around here - nothing the least bit unusual (or overly aggressive on the part of the rider - perhaps a little faster than I'd normally recommend but nothing out of the ordinary). You see dozens of bikes doing this morning and night.
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