I wish now I had a camera mounted somewhere on the bike last night.
I was riding home from Seattle at about 10PM on Interstate 5 just north of the Pierce/King county line, in the HOV lane, one of four or five lanes in my direction, in relatively light traffic, on a dry road surface, and at an easy 70mph, the flow of traffic most times - the speed limit is 60mph. In Washington state motorbikes are allowed to use the High Occupancy Lanes, otherwise it's two or more humanoids in a car/ute, etc. The HOV lane separates from the other lanes under a flyover (or overpass) a coupla times for several hundred metres in either direction, north and south.
I spotted a set of out-of-adjustment car headlights well behind but rapidly approaching so I wicked it up a smidgen to clear the separate lane and merge right into the 'fast' lane. Suddenly the lights go from low beam to full beam several times and the car speeds up. He's now directly behind me and I'm clocking 85 mph or so. I have no choice but to accelerate harder and move to the right even quicker now. But the car, a slammed, flat black Nissan 240, drift car with an oversize cannon under the bumper, darkly tinted glass, and a formula one-sized spoiler and bulging rubber, jumps to my right, inches away, into the between-lanes, no-go zone to overtake and forces me to the left hard, my elbow millimetres from the retaining wall.
It's a good things I've practised in car parks and have some not insignificant moto miles under me because I became calm and everything round me went quiet, almost zen-like, as I grabbed a handful of servo-assisted 320mm disc ABS and shuddered to a much slower pace on the loose gravel and highway detritus at the roadside. Just at that moment the noise and speed return, like a bad Hollywood action flick, into my consciousness as the driver jams his brakes on hard as if to force me to rear-end him, then clearing the separated lane he quickly moves right and slows down, taunting me. I can see the other drivers moving to either side and as I'm totally vulnerable on two wheels I slow way down and move to the centre lane. I'm not stopping as he now moves to near the breakdown lane ahead of me and, while slowing to a sub-50 mph pace, is gesticulating with his heavily tatted left arm out of the window at me. We are 20 metres apart. As we roll I swivel my head to get a Captain Cook at his back number plate, which is 815 ZNO, and he spots me, yells some gangbanger gibberish out the side of his angry face, and throws a bottle at me which bounces off the road ahead of my front tyre but doesn't break - perhaps plastic.
He then switches off his lights and boots it, giving it some serious stick. In mere seconds he's gone from view in the traffic maze of big trucks and cars ahead of me. I pull over immediately and ring the cops. My exit is a mile further. I don't want anyone waiting for me. They take my statement and I proceed to backtrack to my house a coupla miles away on the side roads. I've heard nothing further.
Woulda been a great slice of footage to share, as well as evidence.
Last edited by Two Wheels Better on Fri Mar 07, 2014 2:17 pm; edited 1 time in total
Inexpensive Riding Movies (K100/1100RS) Thu Mar 06, 2014 7:48 pm
