anonstarter wrote: What would you do? Answers on a postcard please...

I get a bit annoyed by anyone slagging off scooters, so I tend to confront people. This is not always a good policy!

So I don't really know what the answer is...
You need to be reasonable,, but maybe just this once go round and twat him one ?

Hahah.

Remember passing through the city centre with no screen, pillion grips and mudguard (or whatever that's called) feeling all sporty when a girl looks at me and says to her friend "Hey! Look this moped".

I'm not intimidated though, if grown up bikers don't know what can kids know.


TA-pa-TA-pa-taPAtalk

On this side of the Pond, I don't get much of that. We have a great deal fewer bikes and scooters on the road compared to you guys, so folks on two wheels tend to stick together. And we don't have the L Plate thing. You either have your license or you don't, so we don't have hoards of kids on 125s buzzing around trying to look cool.

anonstarter wrote:True - it ain't just kids!

One thing that did bug me was from a parent (John - he has a Yam XJR1300) whose kid was having a swimming pool birthday party. I took my 11yr old Son on my Citycom and he came over saying "what have you done?!!" I explained how fab it is, a pleasure to ride, economy etc and he went away with a thoughtful expression - or so I'd thought...
However the next day my Son told me that this John had asked him, in front of everyone at the party, if his Dad had turned 'gay'. My mortified Son insisted no, why and he said "because he is riding a scooter!"

I thought he was a good bloke until I heard that...

What would you do? Answers on a postcard please...

If he owns an XJR1300, he has a very small penis.
All you have to do is ask his missus...

irev wrote: If he owns an XJR1300, he has a very small penis.
All you have to do is ask his missus...

I've never had any of the silly comments about 'getting a real bike' etc But I was asked by a guy at work
if my bike was 50cc! no it's a 250! I reply. Oh... It sounded broken (i'd ridden past him previously)he replied.
I sighed and walked off.

I've never been chased by Learners on my 250. But on my old 125 when I had L plates i was chased twice by
chavs on 50cc's. First time I left them behind but the second time i was stuck in traffic, could hear them shouting crap
at me. When the traffic cleared i gave a little throttle and left them behind.

Though recently a guy at work called my Tonik a 'grannies shopping scooter' though he doesn't even ride himself. Told him to sod off.

I think its great losing the chavs at the lights. Some biker got the huff in Colchester the other week when he couldn't lose me and due to some good traffic light timing I zoomed passed.

I lose a fair few "bikers" (mostly on sports bikes) with filtering if I'm in the mood on my commute. It's not that my filtering is particularly good, it's just I read the road better and can go slowly without wobbling all over the road with my feet dragging the ground unlike most fools on overpowered bikes that don't get taken out more than a few times a year and anything remotely cruiser shaped stands no chance as they don't seem to filter at all


The most fun thing for me though is to let a speeding aggressive biker overtake and then follow them when the traffic gets heavy, you can see them start to wish they hadn't been so cocky and filtering past when they make a bad judgement to sit in traffic is priceless

Having said all that, in London it's the little scoots that are king and I wouldn't stand a chance cause I'm just not mental enough to do undertaking/jumping lights/filtering between two buses etc (I like life too much)

BenR wrote:After work yesterday I went into Woking to check I'd been paid. I parked up in a dedicated motorcycle parking bay next to a Yamaha YZF R125 & a Honda CBR125 both with L-plates on & went to find a cash machine. Upon my return the two lads that owned the bikes were just putting their helmets on getting ready to leave. I'd just put the key in the nexus & was putting my own helmet on when the lad on the Yamaha pipes up "why don't you get a real bike mate!" I burst out laughing to which he asked what I was laughing at I replied "you you've just cheered me up immensely" got on the bike & left. It just made me laugh because of the hypocrisy of his comment. Oh to be young eh? Crap story just thought I'd share.

You should have simply said .. been there, done that.... Now why can't you pass your test?

rtfm wrote:I lose a fair few "bikers" (mostly on sports bikes) with filtering if I'm in the mood on my commute. It's not that my filtering is particularly good, it's just I read the road better and can go slowly without wobbling all over the road with my feet dragging the ground unlike most fools on overpowered bikes that don't get taken out more than a few times a year and anything remotely cruiser shaped stands no chance as they don't seem to filter at all


The most fun thing for me though is to let a speeding aggressive biker overtake and then follow them when the traffic gets heavy, you can see them start to wish they hadn't been so cocky and filtering past when they make a bad judgement to sit in traffic is priceless

Having said all that, in London it's the little scoots that are king and I wouldn't stand a chance cause I'm just not mental enough to do undertaking/jumping lights/filtering between two buses etc (I like life too much)

Totally agree, the trick is not to let the cocky rider get to you and keep calm. That helps you read the road better and see what lane will close up and what lane will not. Also helps if you let them think they won by falling behind and wait for the opportunity for them to get stuck while you ride by them from an opening. Bonus points for riding past them reeeaaallly slow in a mocking kind of way, but then take off cause some come back like a rabid dog taking stupid risks, at which point i usually let them have their vengeance. Not ready to die just yet.

Also agree on the smaller scoots. Even though i can apply the same strategy as above to them too, they usually can fit in even smaller gaps than me and most of them are much bigger risk takers bordering on stupidity. I am no slouch (if you've seen some of my vids posted) but i know the difference between brave and suicidal.

On my daily commute, i have seen some real fast(mad) riders and funny thing is they were mostly tmax owners

Oh and one final note, don't be so sure about cruisers. I did see a harley rider a few times going into london and he was more than capable of doing all kinds of crazy shit...