potential "situation" the other day - opinions wanted

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Great discussion. you did the only safe thing you could do but I would also suggest that you call 911 ASAP..(don't wait until you get home) The first caller is considered the victim and the second or non-caller is the agressor. It has happened to many times that some idiot will pick a fight and when they get their butt kicked they call 911 and say you beat them up..
 
I think, overall, you get a "B" for this social interaction. An "A" could have been had if you didn't stop by his car when he pulled over, and if you led him somewhere populated with witnesses, rather than turning towards your house.

Don't lead a nut like that to your house. Also, confronting a road-rager is the best way to send them over the edge. Overall, good job though - you didn't have to shoot that fool, and you weren't injured, primarily due to your ability to anticipate the fool's intentntions.
 
No car has ever beat me off a starting line when on my bike :)

I also NEVER engage in on the road disputes while on my bike. I do not in my truck as a rule either, but a little bumping and shoving with two cars is one thing, on a bike it is a recipe for death.

Also, I would not have continued toward my home if he were following me. I would have eventually considered getting to a position where you could get off your bike, and arm yourself before he could get to you. Bad stuff dude.

Glad you are OK.
 
I stopped riding on the road a loooong time ago. Just to many nut-cakes and do-do birds out there. But here's a thought.

pull up 20 ft. he continues to walk up to you (farther from car)...

pull up 20 ft. again.... if he charges you or keeps coming

pull up 20 ft. more...

when he finally turns back to his vehicle, beat feet the heck out of there.

I can relate to the adrenaline rush, as in my mis spent youth, I was chased twice by someone intent on running me down. Once by a drivers ed. instructor who didn't like me joining in the "parade" of drivers ed. cars tooling around the painted track in the high school parking lot. The second time by a pair of county sheriffs who wanted to teach the kid driving the dirt bike on the road a lesson.
 
One thing I didn't mention because I didn't really think it was relevant at the time is that the motorcycle I was riding at the time was a custom, wide tire show bike. The significance being that it doesn't really accelerate or corner like a regular motorcycle.
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So yer telling me it has all the negatives of a car...and all the negatives of a motorcycle....and none of the benefits of either group? :confused: Why do you ride it then?


I had a similar thing happen. Someone in a mid 90s sedan decided to follow me down a secondary road while I was riding my KLR out to a local rock climbing crag. At first I figured he just wanted to go faster but after hitting 80 with him still on my tail I figure he had other plans. A curve in the road made some distance, I thresh hold braked and turned hard onto a logging road, he followed but got stuck in a mud hole. When I came back through a couple hours later (dead end) he was in the back of a police car and a wrecker was removing the car from the mud hole. Never did figure out what the deal was.
 
When you end up in this scenario the odds are it will turn into a he-said-she-said deal...and the other guy's story to the police will be that you're a fool on a bike who pulled a pistol to prove a point.

It sucks, but the safest (physically, legally, and $$$) bet is to be the guy who retreats safely until there are no more options. Head for witnesses if possible.

Be the first to call 911 and stay on the line while you give the guy the verbal commands.

Don't shoot anyone over a "simple" fistfight (i.e. this scenario). You will hear 10 posts say this is bad for a variety of reasons...there are exceptions to this advice which you can research for yourself.
 
I think you handled it well. You're always better to get the heck out of Dodge, if you can do so safely, than to engage in a physical confrontation. I firmly believe that pulling a gun should only occur once you've reached the point that you have mentally committed to using it, if necessary.

I've ridden motorcycles for decades--nice bike, by the way--and I have run into this type of animosity before. There's no explaining it. It may be a guy who's had confrontations with bikers before, or it could just be irrational thinking. There are a fair number of dangerous nutjobs out there. So, if I could note one criticism, it would be this: when the guy pulled over you made a mistake in confronting him. You got too close. Your addressing and confronting him, someone who was already acting irrationally, had zero chance of de-escalating the situation. Other than that, you reacted appropriately.

Ride on.
 
Beautiful bike. How is your headlight regulated? I know guys who always ride with their brights on or have their light aimed too high. They claim it doesn't matter because they ride in the daytime. Others have those flashing headlights. They supposedly do this for safety reasons, to be seen, but it is very obnoxious to drivers (and other riders) because it makes it harder to estimate the distance and speed of the oncoming bike. He may have simply been mad because you made him wait unnecessarily. Sounds that way according to your description of the event.

I don't believe trying to outrun these maniacs is good advice. It simply puts other innocent people at risk and positions me in front of them where I don't want to be. I hang back looking to take an exit or turn a corner leaving them no choice but to go on ahead without me. If that doesn't end it I will pull off the street and park the bike, dismounting it. If he wants to make it personal that would be his second mistake. His first mistake was assaulting me with a deadly weapon (his vehicle).

I keep a pen handy in my tank bag to write plate numbers on the back of my hand. Not just that of the offender but also potential witnesses who can testify that I was endangered by a crazy driver.
 
Glad things worked out well for you. I think most folks don't really know exactly what they would do in such a situation until they are in that position. I live in South Florida where I think a large segment of the population are on drugs/alcohol and are EDPs or both. They don't need a legit reason to start a problem with you, it is just made up in their head.
 
Glad you are safe.

I have had enough issues with drivers that I've learned some people just hate motorcycles and get angry for no other reason than because you are riding one. So much so they will run you off the road.

I will not ride a motorcycle on the road that can't outrun a car. If the throttle can't get me out of trouble I'm not interested. So, from that point of view the situation wouldn't have happened.

Also, I would never go home with someone following me, something to think about.

With regards to drawing your weapon, I would have done what you did. You had an opportunity to easily avoid rather than draw and I think you did right.
 
I wouldn't have turned towards my house...also on a dead end street. Other than that you did fine. Ride to the police station?
 
Sounds like you ran into Richard Head after he'd drank a sixer while watching American Chopper and getting irritated by the old jerk on that show.
 
Hank327 hit it on the head - escape and evade, brother.

Your bike may not be able to corner like a sportbike, but by the looks of it, that motor has plenty of juice to get you out of a scrape.

The guy was acting really erratic, and you never know what kind of anger sharks are swimming in someone's head.

Pull an about face, twitch that throttle and you're vapor.
 
This reminds me of:

I was in class with my cycle team t shirt. A student asked me that if someone cut me off, would I kick the car. Apparently, his girlfriend cut off a motorcycle. The man on the motorcycle kicked in her door. I had to explain that my t shirt was for a bicycle team not a motorcycle team. And I wouldn't kick in someone's door for that.

Although, I did own a motorcycle. Apparently, a couple months later someone vandalized my motorcycle while I was away. They threw the bike down a river. The cop said that someone took some effort to do this for reasons I will not go into. I think someone had a bad experience with a motorcycle and decided to take it out on me. Because I only lived in that town for 2 years. And I have no enemies. And the apartment is secluded. Or maybe, someone is just an a hole for no apparent reason than to be one.
 
I think you are right in not exposing your weapon until absolutely necessary, for tactical reasons and because:

I have a scanner, periodically, I will hear a call go through for someone caught carrying a weapon or brandishing a weapon. There is a chance that they will call the police to make up a story to get you in trouble.

The only way I could see drawing is if you felt in imminent danger within 21 feet ( based on the tueller rule).
 
''outrun and evade should be your immediate reaction drill...''
Hank got it in one.Also,a hand full of lead musket balls in the sidepocket of your leathers ....
 
First of all, don't draw your weapon unless you're prepared to use it. For those of us who aren't bloodthirsty, that means don't draw unless the use of deadly force is necessary.

What it comes down to in your situation, as with most others, is would a reasonable person think it was necessary to kill the person who was assaulting you. I honestly don't know.

It worked out well for you riding away this time. You mentioned that he pursued you. What if he'd done more than just pursue? What if he'd clipped your back wheel?

He could have killed you while you were trying to ride away and you wouldn't have been able to do much to prevent it. This is assuming you couldn't outrun him, but even if you could, you'd have to endanger yourself and everyone else on the road to do it.

Just something to think about.
 
B yond said:
First of all, don't draw your weapon unless you're prepared to use it. For those of us who aren't bloodthirsty, that means don't draw unless the use of deadly force is necessary.

What it comes down to in your situation, as with most others, is would a reasonable person think it was necessary to kill the person who was assaulting you. I honestly don't know.

It worked out well for you riding away this time. You mentioned that he pursued you. What if he'd done more than just pursue? What if he'd clipped your back wheel?

He could have killed you while you were trying to ride away and you wouldn't have been able to do much to prevent it. This is assuming you couldn't outrun him, but even if you could, you'd have to endanger yourself and everyone else on the road to do it.

Just something to think about.
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agreed. This is why I pulled over in the first place - to asses the situation and see what I was dealing with. He was pulled over on the shoulder. I pulled up beside him, still in the middle of the roadway at about his back wheel, the bike still in gear. I was probably 6 feet from his vehicle. I didn't want to just pass him when he pulled over because I figured he did that so he could get behind me and chase me after I passed, and run me off the road. When I pulled up beside him and he got out of his car, I moved forward. When he followed me on foot, I moved forward again about 10 feet, separating him from his vehicle. When he continued to approach, I turned around, got his license plate and rode off. This bought me some separation as he was about 20 feet from his car and he had to return to his vehicle before he could proceed. I took the first right turn, which happened to be heading towards my house, but he had no idea where I lived. I watched him in my mirrors and he did not follow me making a right turn. Had he done that, I would have gone to the end of the street, got off my bike, had my hand on my weapon and if he continued to approach, I probably would have drawn at that time. Pretty easy to explain and show who the aggressor was when he followed me right to my house - I live at the end of the street.

I guess you had to be there to get an exact picture of the situation, but as I said in my original post, it did seem like I had a lot of time to weigh the scenarios and this is what I came up with at the time. Fortunately, he cooled off and just drove away.

I really do think that I needed to stop because his behavior (trying to run me off the road through the intersection) really made me believe he pulled over to get behind me and intimidate me or even hit me with his car. Again, many nuances of the situation don't necessarily come across in a posting, but I had a gut feeling that this was his intent, especially since this whole deal was completely unprovoked.

Someone mentioned earlier that he may have been annoyed with my headlight, and that is a possibility, I suppose. It was early evening and I have the brightest bulb available for visibility, but it is pointed rather low and I don't have hi beam, so I can't imagine it was blinding him. Ya never know though...
 
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