[quote]Yes. But don’t imagine that because someone has seen you they won’t cut you off Wink
Give this a try sometime. Ride through intersections relying on peripheral vision, pretending you’re not looking where you’re going. My experience is that people won’t pull out in front of you because they think you’ll hit them. If you’ve seen them (or were at least looking in the general direction) they feel it’s now your job to stop in time when they pull out on you. [/quote]
I think you are spot on.
I also think all Taiwanese drivers are wankers, regardless of their personality outside of a vehicle.
I was nearly hit by a blue truck today turning left infront of me. He emerged from the wrong side of a bus turning left from my side of the road.
What really got me is the fact that after a narrow escape from hitting the truck and also a narrow escape from the car behind me hitting me, the driver of the offending vehicle leant out of the window and gave me th “up yours” sign.
Wasn’t me Sandman. And to answer Poagao’s question, I don’t speed on purpose, but I do go faster than most scooters. It’s hard to ride in a pack of scooters when in first gear my bike can do 130km. I don’t do wrap speed or anything close, I cruise on most roads in Taipei at about 70km with the occasional 5 second burst of 90-100km to pass. I never said I go fast in the city. I just feel I shouldn’t have to compete for space with (let’s not say slower, but slower accelerating) scooters. Plus, in the scooter lane, I sometimes encounter guys who ride really close to me to get a look at the bike. And my braking distance is fine. I usually keep a 2-3 car lengths distance from the car in front of me. I’m more worried about guys tailing behind me. I’m always worried that one of these days I’m going to have to brake hard and some f**ker is going to rear-end me. I usually give it some extra gas when I spot someone tail gating me.
I have the brakelight on my front brake real tight, so I can flash the light without actually engaging the brake. Usually works, or at least it did this morning when a blue truck rode my arse at 80 through the Hsinhai tunnel with about 6 inces clear of my back wheel. That’s the shit that scares me the most.
I have the brakelight on my front brake real tight, so I can flash the light without actually engaging the brake. Usually works, or at least it did this morning when a blue truck rode my arse at 80 through the Hsinhai (Xinhai) tunnel with about 6 inces clear of my back wheel. That’s the shit that scares me the most.[/quote]
When I’m in my car and some racer boy in a car gets on my ass…I usually down shift two or three gears…locking up the tires and shooting back at them with no brake light whatsoever…my car needs a new paint job…and those wanna-bes are the right people to pay for it.
[quote=“hsiadogah”][quote=“Mordeth”]
I didn’t write it…I wrote that I didn’t write it…[/quote]So you posted this because you disagree with it? :loco: yourself… [/quote]
Never said I disagreed with it either…just said it wasn’t me that wrote it…so how long I’ve been in Taiwan has no relation to the advice given…anything else that needs explaining?
[quote=“Mordeth”]
Never said I disagreed with it either…just said it wasn’t me that wrote it…so how long I’ve been in Taiwan has no relation to the advice given…anything else that needs explaining?[/quote]Well, it does in the sense written. If you’d been around that long, or paying attention you’d know that people don’t always (or even often) look where they’re going. I regularly get cut off by (for example) people windowshopping right, while cutting left. I just thought perhaps you haven’t been here long enough for that to happen to you, but perhaps your luck is better than most, or your hard-ass vigilante attitude frightens them out of this behaviour
It is dangerous to assume people are going to turn the way they are looking and not vice versa. Many of us have learned this the hard way.
I’m done with this here. You want to go on, let’s take it to f&f.
[quote]11. May sound obvious, but give other bikes more room, especially the young locals with half-hats slung to the back of their head, riding with a slouch, and mirrors askew or missing. They
A top-of-the-line helmet is great if you can afford it, but don’t think that the only choice is between that and a 500 dollar night market special. You can get reasonable protection for a few thousand NT:
[forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.ph … 017#128017](Motorcycle Helmets (Arai, Shoei)
Mesh jackets are the way to go here. Marsee make good ones as well. Lots of companies do now. They can be fine in the winter. Just put a windbreaker/raincoat on top and you’ve got pretty good insulation. More on mesh jackets here:
[forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.ph … 929#129929](Motorcycle Helmets (Arai, Shoei)
[quote=“Dangermouse”]he he he…and be especially wary of the ones who wear helmets with a picture of a birds face on them. They are without exception all maniacs.[/quote]Hmmmm… When did I ever show you my motorbike helmet?
no doubt some excellent suggestions and strategies to improve the quality of your riding and get home in one piece in this thread…
don’t forget though, you can sit around reading about this stuff all day, but you’ll never improve without doing the miles… you need to impliment these sugestions every time you ride… as you get more and more accustomed to it, it should take up less and less active attention until it becomes second nature whenever you’re on the bike… in an emergency situation you cannot think, you can only react, and that reaction must be making the correct control inputs during the first split second, that can mean the difference between close call and the hospital…
you also need to teach your brain some new tricks… for example targeting and tracking objects and road hazzards in your peripheral vision whilst keeping your focus on where the road is going, is a skill your brain ordinarily isn’t good at, you need to develope and practice these skills and that only happens on the bike… luckily that’s the part we all like the best… :happybiker:
And with summer coming up, that special Taiwan experience when the scooter in front of you slams on the brakes 50 feet before the stoplight because the rider has spotted a patch of shade (not meaning to be sexist, but seems to be especially a fault of the, literally, ‘fairer’ gender).
And to answer Poagao’s question, I don’t speed on purpose, but I do go faster than most scooters. It’s hard to ride in a pack of scooters when in first gear my bike can do 130km. I don’t do wrap speed or anything close, I cruise on most roads in Taipei at about 70km with the occasional 5 second burst of 90-100km to pass. I never said I go fast in the city. I just feel I shouldn’t have to compete for space with (let’s not say slower, but slower accelerating) scooters. Plus, in the scooter lane, I sometimes encounter guys who ride really close to me to get a look at the bike. And my braking distance is fine. I usually keep a 2-3 car lengths distance from the car in front of me. I’m more worried about guys tailing behind me. I’m always worried that one of these days I’m going to have to brake hard and some f**ker is going to rear-end me. I usually give it some extra gas when I spot someone tail gating me.
Again, wasn’t me. It was the one armed man.
