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Overtaking surprise...


Huzband

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Out for a short ride to St. Augustine just to start rebuilding confidence & muscle memory. Heading home, I come up behind a Vette that's behind a toy SUV running a solid five under. On-coming traffic for over a mile, so I give room & wait patiently. Traffic clears, road is clear for a mile or so. I wait about five seconds expecting the Vette to pass, but it doesn't. Okay, I signal, wait, & then go. Just as I'm even with his left rear tire, he jacks over into the lane I'm occupying to pass said toy. WTF?! eekers.gif I get hard on the brakes & the horn at the same time. If he moves back right now, I can still safely complete the pass. No such luck. While he panics & gets on the brakes, so does the toy driver. Great, now we're three wide on a two lane road. :P Still clear ahead so no worries there. Eventually we fall back in line to our previous positions.

 

At this point I have no idea what the Vette driver is thinking. Dark tinted windows on a heavily clouded day prevent me seeing inside. Is he scared? Mad? Vengeful? So I wait for him to take the lead. Half mile or so & nothing. Bear in mind we are now about fifteen under. So I signal, wait a few seconds, hammer the throttle & swing way wide around them both. Don't lift till I'm well ahead & watch my mirrors. I thought if he was mad he'd give chase. Another half mile or so & he comes around the toy. I watch & he's clearly not chasing. I catch the next red & watch & wait. He turns into a shopping center before the light.

 

So after some thought after that, my conclusion is it scared the bejeebus out of him. I had been behind him for a good mile, with HID low beam & LED aux lights blazing in his mirrors. The ones he clearly doesn't know how to use.

 

Once again, prepared as we may be, we can't always anticipate the stupidity of others. A good ride otherwise.

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Once again, prepared as we may be, we can't always anticipate the stupidity of others. A good ride otherwise.

 

No, we cannot anticipate it at all. I often conclude that there are capital idiots out there, and I have to assume every car I see is being driven by one. But then, one comes along and shows me that I still give the general public too much credit :dopeslap:

 

Glad you survived this one. Could have been bad.

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Out for a short ride to St. Augustine just to start rebuilding confidence & muscle memory. .....

Once again, prepared as we may be, we can't always anticipate the stupidity of others. A good ride otherwise.

 

Thank you for sharing, Danny. I was going to ask you how you felt after you got off the bike, and then I read..."A good ride otherwise". Good for you.

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I was going to ask you how you felt after you got off the bike, and then I read..."A good ride otherwise". Good for you.

 

I have to admit it shook me. For a moment I was trying to avoid hitting the Vette & not running off the road at the same time. It was a brain full. The main reason I stayed behind him was to gather myself. Once digested, I wasn't even mad.

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I can only imagine the way you felt. It's one thing to have these near misses and another to have them occur when you already know what the pavement feels like.

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Happened to me as well the other day in San Antonio. I signaled, stated to pull out, and the other guy pulled right out too. Thankfully I was not in the throttle, just a normal pass, so I just slowed down and moved back. Guy never saw me. I learned to leave enough room to slow back down in case the other guy pulls out.

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Out for a short ride to St. Augustine just to start rebuilding confidence & muscle memory. Heading home, I come up behind a Vette that's behind a toy SUV running a solid five under. On-coming traffic for over a mile, so I give room & wait patiently. Traffic clears, road is clear for a mile or so. I wait about five seconds expecting the Vette to pass, but it doesn't. Okay, I signal, wait, & then go. Just as I'm even with his left rear tire, he jacks over into the lane I'm occupying to pass said toy. WTF?! eekers.gif I get hard on the brakes & the horn at the same time. If he moves back right now, I can still safely complete the pass. No such luck. While he panics & gets on the brakes, so does the toy driver. Great, now we're three wide on a two lane road. :P Still clear ahead so no worries there. Eventually we fall back in line to our previous positions.

 

At this point I have no idea what the Vette driver is thinking. Dark tinted windows on a heavily clouded day prevent me seeing inside. Is he scared? Mad? Vengeful? So I wait for him to take the lead. Half mile or so & nothing. Bear in mind we are now about fifteen under. So I signal, wait a few seconds, hammer the throttle & swing way wide around them both. Don't lift till I'm well ahead & watch my mirrors. I thought if he was mad he'd give chase. Another half mile or so & he comes around the toy. I watch & he's clearly not chasing. I catch the next red & watch & wait. He turns into a shopping center before the light.

 

So after some thought after that, my conclusion is it scared the bejeebus out of him. I had been behind him for a good mile, with HID low beam & LED aux lights blazing in his mirrors. The ones he clearly doesn't know how to use.

 

Once again, prepared as we may be, we can't always anticipate the stupidity of others. A good ride otherwise.

 

Words of wisdom for those with ears to hear. :thumbsup:

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I had a driver's ed teacher way back in the day recommend a friendly beep of the horn when overtaking cars that you're not sure see you.

 

I don't do it near often enough, but I still do when I remember.

Might be a good thought to add to the checklist when making passes on the slow moving.

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I had a driver's ed teacher way back in the day recommend a friendly beep of the horn when overtaking cars that you're not sure see you.

 

I don't do it near often enough, but I still do when I remember.

Might be a good thought to add to the checklist when making passes on the slow moving.

 

Yeah, I suppose my use of the horn was a bit late, & quite unfriendly to boot. :grin:

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I had a driver's ed teacher way back in the day recommend a friendly beep of the horn when overtaking cars that you're not sure see you.

 

I don't do it near often enough, but I still do when I remember.

Might be a good thought to add to the checklist when making passes on the slow moving.

 

Yeah, I suppose my use of the horn was a bit late, & quite unfriendly to boot. :grin:

 

As well it should have been.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Before passing I light the candles on the front of my GS (all 7,000 lumens) and put them up their rear view mirror, usually they get out of the way. Been caught in your situation and didn't like it. I try and remember this sort of thing and then decide not to pass.

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I had a driver's ed teacher way back in the day recommend a friendly beep of the horn when overtaking cars that you're not sure see you.

I too, was taught in the late '50s that a blink of the lights and the toot of the horn was proper before passing.

 

Now around here it is considered ROAD RAGE...go figure

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Lone_RT_rider
I had a driver's ed teacher way back in the day recommend a friendly beep of the horn when overtaking cars that you're not sure see you.

 

I don't do it near often enough, but I still do when I remember.

Might be a good thought to add to the checklist when making passes on the slow moving.

 

Yeah, I suppose my use of the horn was a bit late, & quite unfriendly to boot. :grin:

 

As well it should have been.

 

Those Vette drivers... I swear... ;)

 

I'm glad it turned out to a survivable situation Danny. :)

 

Shawn

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Way back in the 60's when I was taking drivers ed in HS the instructor taught us that in a passing situation, the overtaking vehicle has the responsibility to decide to bail out. Those being passed DO NOT change speed, either speeding up or braking. That rule would avoid a 3 wide situation. It also avoids the situation where the overtaking vehicle and the other vehicle slow down which keeps the overtaking vehicle from falling back in behind.

 

Of all the riding maneuvers, passing is the one where you have to be the most vigilant of those around you.

 

YMMV

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Driving a Corvette is no reflection on the driving ability of the occupants(s).

I think semi-exotics and exotics are bought for the wrong reasons anyway. You buy them to look good not to drive good.

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I can only imagine the way you felt. It's one thing to have these near misses and another to have them occur when you already know what the pavement feels like.

 

Amen to that....been there done that...

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Another one. Sat on the way home from the dealer, I was in the middle lane of a six lane divided highway. Clipping along at something well over the legal, I wasn't too worried about my six. Next thing I know, there's this broad passing me on my right, HALF IN MY LANE! Damned Lexus drivers must be blind. Soon as I caught a glimpse, I sat on the horn. At the next light, where she was turning, she gave me a polite "I'm sorry" wave. Still...

 

Maybe it's time to stick to trials.

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There are some drivers that never ever look in their rear view mirror. I think the vette driver fits in this category. Luckily you were on the ball and avoided an ugly situation.

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Lone_RT_rider
There are some drivers that never ever look in their rear view mirror. I think the vette driver fits in this category.

 

Not all Vette drivers.... but some of us follow

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There are some drivers that never ever look in their rear view mirror. I think the vette driver fits in this category.

 

Not all Vette drivers.... but some of us follow

 

Dream on, Shawn. Maybe if you had a Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona Spider, you really would never have to think about whatsa behinda you. Nor whatsa ina your bank accounta. :grin:

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Lone_RT_rider
There are some drivers that never ever look in their rear view mirror. I think the vette driver fits in this category.

 

Not all Vette drivers.... but some of us follow

 

Dream on, Shawn. Maybe if you had a Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona Spider.....

 

Hell, I would settle for a 275 GTB :)

 

And if you haven't driven a 3200 lb 430 HP V-8 GT car recently, I highly recommend it. ;)

 

Shawn

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There are some drivers that never ever look in their rear view mirror. I think the vette driver fits in this category.

 

Not all Vette drivers.... but some of us follow

 

Dream on, Shawn. Maybe if you had a Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona Spider.....

 

Hell, I would settle for a 275 GTB :)

 

And if you haven't driven a 3200 lb 430 HP V-8 GT car recently, I highly recommend it. ;)

 

Shawn

 

I'll be right over. :grin:

 

 

BTW, I saw that sale on Chasing Classic Cars a few weeks ago. The Wife & I were laughing our butts off.

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BTW, I saw that sale on Chasing Classic Cars a few weeks ago. The Wife & I were laughing our butts off.

 

Not me, I was sad that I was 23 mil short. Would love that car.

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There are some drivers that never ever look in their rear view mirror. I think the vette driver fits in this category.

 

Not all Vette drivers.... but some of us follow

 

Dream on, Shawn. Maybe if you had a Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona Spider.....

 

Hell, I would settle for a 275 GTB :)

 

And if you haven't driven a 3200 lb 430 HP V-8 GT car recently, I highly recommend it. ;)

 

Shawn

 

I'll be right over. :grin:

 

 

Keys are up on the sun visor.

:/

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