Hey guys, So experienced my first up close road rage incident on Monday: White van man cuts me up badly on a 3 in to 2 lane, so I go on the inside (as clear) and give the hand gestures. He swerves his van close to me and back. Then gets out his van a 100 yards down the road (as we have to stop at a crossing) and shouts abuse and tries a two handed push to try to remove me from my bike! I managed to stay on somehow but thought better of retaliating as he had a mate in the van and would involve dismounting and leaving my bike in the middle of the road. Plus was not far from work and not the best warm up for the day at 7AM. Thinking of getting a go pro or something as had nothing on him or the van.
Drift Ghost XL Action Camera https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07ST83GKZ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_gCW3Db49RKCYD Ignore the single one star review Drift are blimmin good cameras I have had one for over 6 years and saved my ass from the insurance companies on two separate occasions Worth their weight in gold Search in YouTube for Red Thunder Triumph and you will find my channel of odd clips in the results
Insurers wanted to immediately go for 50/50 responsibility. After they had seen the video I successfully argued 100 other parties fault and won...pluse personal damage, injured and loss of earnings.... paid for new helmet, trousers and jacket. Always have a camera if you can
I was wondering that. I tend to do around 15mph above stationary due to t*wats such as the one you encountered. Gives you a little bit of reaction time anyway. Glad you won mate.
Haha love it. What a coward though. You're obviously vulnerable in that position. I was riding the new Blackbird commuter I bought and she's a very baby. Getting that off my leg wouldn't have been nice.
You have to expect lane changers. Filtering at speed isn’t ‘filtering’ - it’s an active search for the one waiting to get you! I would rather avert the accident than moan about being ‘in the right’ from my hospital bed........
You have overly high expectations of your average motorist who is more concerned with his distractions than his driving.
Mirror signal manoeuvre isn't that hard though. Agreed. I commute on the motorway on a daily basis and the ones draping across the next lane are inevitably messing with their mobile phone.
I used a slightly different version of that saying when teaching my son to ride a motorcycle, but it does stand true mate, being right is no comfort when your in the ambulance!
Not guilty, not my video! Interested to see what speed @Red Thunder was actually doing as appears faster on camera. As above I generally go around 15mph tops above stationary and 10 above in moving traffic (if that) depending on the variable speed limit.
Being spread across the motorway isn't anyones idea of fun! Great demonstration of how the camera can influence insurance companies as I bet 50/50 would have been agreed without witnesses
Yer I thought the same We need confirmation on the speed. Clear the Audi (surprise) skipped the first two steps when changing lanes.
In the eyes of the insurance company whoever changes lane is the 'at fault' party, I run a fleet of HGV's, believe me it is frustrating as hell but if someone undertakes my truck while he is changing lane & truck hits undertaker because it's in blind spot & driver doesn't see them, it always comes down to at fault for us as we were vehicle changing lane . I have tried to contest these types of incident over the years, pointing to the fact that undertaking is illegal in the UK but have lost on each occasion. My view on RT's video is that it clearly showed the car changing lane, therefore in the eyes of the insurers, car at fault, end of story.
Just got caught up on the comments... I was doing about 30mph to start, then slowed to 20mph when the traffic was nearer a stand still and closer together. The lens angle is on its widest selection which is why cars appear to suddenly rush past. I was commuting on this road every day for six years, I could clearly see into the distance up to 15 cars ahead, but the she motorist was on the far right of lane 3 with a van blocking her view behind and my view of her there, she saw the gap in lane 2 and went for it. I had 1 second from seeing her to contact. My bike slid for about 15 feet before coming to a rest so not going fast. I agree, best to avoid than be able to say "But I was in the right" Personally, the way I see it, if I am in an accident, then there must have been something I could have done to avoid it, but only realised in retrospect. But this has to be balanced with practical riding, you can't do a 30 mile commute at walking speed just in case something happens. There are a dozen reason I can think of to go really slow, and there are probably another 50 reasons I can't think of... If I didn't have the camera, it would have cost me to replace the bike, the damaged helmet, clothing, equipment, plus premium increase. I would also not have any financial recognition for my bruised leg and shoulder In all, I was about £8,000 better off due to having the camera, otherwise the insurer would only have recognised 50% cost of repairs/value of bike, so about £2,500 The camera cost me £400 a few years before that...so yes, it is worth it's weight in gold....literally
I also have a drift ghost HD, good quality video and easy to use. I must admit I don't use it every time I ride, given your experience I might just re-evaluate my use of my camera... Like many before on the forum I do filter but do keep the speed down to a very slow speed to allow time to react to dumb ass car drivers. I'm please your claim with the insurance company worked out for you.
I've been going to get a camera not for accidents but to catch the T**ts that are on thier phones, and pull out on me usually driving German cars or Range Rovers.
Filtering or as we say here in California, lane sharing, is legal however. We HAVE to expect lane changers and its YOUR responsibility to see and react. Its bad enuf when we are in our own lane with txters and stupid drivers. If I need to filter i always watch drivers body language of drivers which is a good indicator of intentions and i activate my emergency blinkers which isn’t exactly legal but it gets drivers attention I’ve noticed. I started doing this after once followed a motor cop filtering who had his 4 ways on. After we got off at the same off ramp he gave me a thumbs up.
Quite a few of us bought cheap action cameras from Amazon, see thread below, TBH I got one for racing as I figured if I destroyed a £35 camera in an accident I wouldn't be that bothered, I did my best to destroy mine my having the bike upside down on it, but it still works! 2 Batteries and loads of mountings & cases etc. https://www.thetriumphforum.com/threads/action-camera-thread.17016/