Yesterday I was riding around sunny London on my day off. I had picked up a friend and this was his first time on the back of my bike. I was riding very gingerly as it take a little time for someone to adjust being on the back of a bike. I was heading out of Barnes up towards Hammersmith Bridge. It

 

i am sorry if this upsets everybody but i would have kicked the side of his car as hard as i could, causing at least a few thousand of pounds worth of damage if the prick had tried to run me off the road i would not be at all happy.

i would not normally do something like that but i had 8 years on bikes and i am thinking of getting back on one, whats kept me off was a transit van that side lined me and ran over me after the crash. alot of road users have no idea what a bike is or how limited they help when they are on the road to make a safe passage for bikes.

if you do call the police you would need to give a statement which takes up your time then they have to follow it up, do they who knows, so its your choice in the end.

glad it didn't ruin your day though.

 

This is generally what happens when a driver gets gobby with our group too .


But Putney , with a new pillion and you being relatively new to the bike scene , take a step back , chill out and always let it go mate, frustrating I know .
Live to fight another day .

 

You had your chance to make your point when you stopped on the bridge and it sounds as if there were several opportunities after that for you to break off the encounter.

If he had wanted to take you out, he surely could have, and at the end of the day he didn't.

I can't see that reporting it will get you very far. It may even if cause you a heap of trouble if he has money, an attitude and connections.

Just goes to show that it's pretty hard to win in these situations.

Irritating as it may seem, your Robocop act on the bridge probably made things worse. You clearly didn't teach him any kind of lesson, in fact it had the opposite effect. Embarresing someone in front of their female partner is well known to provoke.....

Easy to see what else you could have done in hindsight. Still, I'd advise forgetting about it.

It was a funny day yesterday. When I went out for a drive there were a few aggressive/shirty drivers about, and I saw a couple of big accidents (aftermaths). Must have been the heat.

 

i think stopping on the bridge and haveing a quick work with him was a very good idea, maybe a kick in a panel too...

but i think once he went off the bridge you should have taken a slighlt different route. since this guy is already pissed off with you and was showing signs of being a prick by nearly taking you off your bike it would have been better to just leave it alone.

just my 2p

 

If you go and kick in a panel, that makes you as bad as him. It could even make things worse for you, particularly as there is cctv on that bridge.

Whilst people who drive like that really annoy me, i firmly believe that you have to try and ignore it, let them past and let them go and crash into someone other than you. I would never stop and try and talk to them as you run this risk of them getting out of the car with some sort of weapon or even running you over.

People seem to think nowadays that when they are in their cars they are immune to other people. my girlfriend is a prime example of this. If someone is holding her up she will sit on their bumper trying to intimidate them into going faster and start gesturing at them. It scares me because one day she will either end up going into the back of them, or someone will get pissed off, stop and have some sort of go at her.

What goes around comes around. The guy who cut you up will get what he deserves in the end.

 

IIRC the police will only take any notice if they geta few independent reports of this sort of driving.

I have had people deliberately pulling over on me, stopping me overtake a few times but I usually forget about it after a few minutes and kep well out of their way.

(One time in the Euston underpass ..... and the bike behind was a police motorcyclist. He pulled him over and looked like he was booking him )

((Pillions are always usefull for removing wing mirrors, a downward motion with a fist can be enought to remove them ((( So I have heard))) ))

 

I'm amazed at all this tallk of "kicking in" peoples door panels

The Bentley driver made a mistake - maybe he realised it, maybe he didn't.

Someone, at some point in these incidents, has to realise its madness to continue trying to almost injure/kill/drve off the road the other person.

We all make mistakes - give the other guy your pity but don't get out and kick their car. I had a biker come past me in 3 lines of slow (60mph) moving motorway traffic the other night. He undertook me at a ludicrous speed - I just hope he doesn't kill ayone else when his luck runs out

 

I think try and take a step back and forget it ..... I would have let him go after the bit on the bridge, or most probably just ignored him on the bridge and let him go. On a bike you are so vulnerable - he may get a dent in his car through coming together with your bike but you may be dead!

I work in that area as a traffic officer and know exactly where you mean. People drive like idiots down the approach to the bridge (Castelnau) and there have been 2 fatal accidents in the last 9 months to my knowledge on that road. One near the lights before the bridge and one further back.

The A4 is no better and probably the worst road in the entire area for fatals.... I dealt with one triple fatal and that was within sight of flowers from another fatal a month or two before.

If you regularly use that route just be extra careful, I think it's a horrible place to drive - with some choice drivers as you found!

Oh, and given the circumstances you have described, No, I would not report it to police. If you hadn't reacted to him I would say report it..... but as you effectively did I would leave it be and just try to forget him.

 

He will consistently drive like that, sooner or later it will catch him up!