question - Crotch Rockets

[EagleKeeper]

Why does it seem (to me anyhow) that those riding on them; be it local streets or highways/interstates, seem to feel that the speed limits do not apply to them.

Yet those riding Hogs, GullWings, etc have no problem staying with the flow of traffic.

Is it a show off attitude or what?
Immaturity?
Attitude that so what if they get a ticket; they can pay for it and their insurance is already so high that who cares?

I have seen this in multiple states; those that have and do not have helmet requirements.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

It is much safer to identify and pass people by going slightly faster than them versus going the "speed limit" and getting passed by idiots not paying any attention. Essentially by passing people my life is in my hands otherwise you're getting passed and just hoping not to get rear-ended.


I put something around ~200k miles on motorcycles over a 10-15 year period. I rode every day, rain or shine, cold or hot. It was VERY rare for me to go less than 15mph faster than every else. I was often going 30mph over the speed limit, which seems extreme to a non-rider.



FYI... As a (former) motorcyclist, I have a lot more faith in super-aggressive people going 15mph over the limit. I feel like they're at least paying attention albeit being dangerous. It's the people half-asleep going the limit that concerned me.

 

[pauldun170]

I've been riding for close to 2 decades with a bajillion trillion miles under my bet.
I pretty much despise 90% of riders I see on the road and stopped riding with other people years ago.

Young men ride like assholes. Sportbike or Cruiser.
There are no young men on Goldwings.

Usually the young doochebag on a sportbike speeds a little faster. Only makes sense the bike was designed to be fast.
The young doochebag on a Harley with the open fucking pipes can only go so fast because of the crappier wind protection and retarded custom riding positions these morons put themselves in.

They speed all over the place with obnoxious exhaust until they can generate their BS "Hey brah...I used to ride but then I had to lay it down" story.

The mature experienced grown ups on both cruisers, sportbikes ride in a manner where you don't even notice them.

Then you get the new riders in their 40's and 50's who pick up a "Hog" because the wife finally wants to cash in on a life insurance policy or a divorce has been finalized so they can finally be "cool" in their harley t-shirt so they buy brand new bikes they can barely ride, stick the loudest most obnoxious exhaust they can and ride through residential sidestreets full throttle on their way to the bar.

So youth and new found immaturity @ post 40 is the source of your complaint.
Not "crotch rockets"

....
Just to keep typing..because I'm annoyed now....

Sportbike riders ride like assholes on highways.
Cruiser riders ride like assholes on residential streets.
Cruiser riders in large packs ride like assholes on highways.

I ride like an asshole in early mornings before people wake up so I have that whole "If a tree falls in a forest" thing going for me. However I am not in the camp of "ride faster in traffic for safety"
As soon as the roads fill up with cagers, I stick to flow of traffic.


If I were to pick a stereotype group to ride with, I'd pick folks on sport tourers.
People who actually put real miles on their bikes but not so much that Goldwing riders are joining the group but not so little that a Sportster can make the trip on one tank of gas. Folks appreciate a fast pace through the twisties without turning every ride into a pissing contest.

Ok...done rambling

 

[JulesMaximus]

I usually ride with the flow of traffic... being that is always so much of it I really have no choice. When it stops moving, I lane split. When I lane split to the front of a line of cars stopped at a light I will usually take off fast enough to quickly put some distance between me and the cars I was stopped at the light with but I'll settle down to the speed limit or slightly over after that.

Oh, and didn't we do this thread already about a week ago?

 

[EagleKeeper]

I usually ride with the flow of traffic... being that is always so much of it I really have no choice. When it stops moving, I lane split. When I lane split to the front of a line of cars stopped at a light I will usually take off fast enough to quickly put some distance between me and the cars I was stopped at the light with but I'll settle down to the speed limit or slightly over after that.

Oh, and didn't we do this thread already about a week ago?

If such a thread was done, I apologize.

This weekend, a pair were just weaving in and out of traffic.
Speed limit was 45; I was tooling along at 50.
The pair were changing front/back lead at at least 65 mph.

I am sure that the local LEO could run out of ticket stubs on weekends from these types of riders.

 

[JulesMaximus]

If such a thread was done, I apologize.

This weekend, a pair were just weaving in and out of traffic.
Speed limit was 45; I was tooling along at 50.
The pair were changing front/back lead at at least 65 mph.

I am sure that the local LEO could run out of ticket stubs on weekends from these types of riders.

It's springtime. There will be many more motorcycles on the roads now through the fall. You may notice more squids during this time of increased activity also. They'll either be ticketed or scraped off the roads by the end of summer.

It is the way of things.

Not exactly the same as this thread but pretty close.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2243908

 

[desy]

One of the things w the rocket I used to own is they are sooo fast
2 gears and you are over the speed limit almost instantly, its just too easy.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Speed limit applies just not as strictly enforced. And this is cruiser or crotch rocket in my experience. I've been pulled over and just let go numerous times when I rode a bike. Never once have I been given a warning in an automobile. Every stop on a car=ticket.

 

[MiataNC]

One of the things w the rocket I used to own is they are sooo fast
2 gears and you are over the speed limit almost instantly, its just too easy.

^This more than anything else

 

[Zenmervolt]

One of the things w the rocket I used to own is they are sooo fast
2 gears and you are over the speed limit almost instantly, its just too easy.

I know that it's all relative, but even on a cruiser you're well into supra-legal speeds if you're running through second. Even my (comparatively) slow Harley will run 0-60 in about 4.5 and you don't run out of 1st until about 50 mph and 2nd will get you to 75 mph. Not extreme for the freeway, but definitely above legal on back roads.

ZV

 

[JulesMaximus]

One of the things w the rocket I used to own is they are sooo fast
2 gears and you are over the speed limit almost instantly, its just too easy.

Hell, you can hit almost 100mph in 1st gear on most 1000cc sportbikes.

 

[z1ggy]

I'd say it's just the person behind the bars. I ride a rocket. I haven't taken it over 80 and I ride on the highway. Doesn't matter if you are on a cbr1000 or on a nightster...Most bikes can go really really fast, really really quick if you want them to.

 

[waggy]

One of the things w the rocket I used to own is they are sooo fast
2 gears and you are over the speed limit almost instantly, its just too easy.

yeap.

i had a CBR 600 F3. the fucker was fast for in town riding. you had to pay attention to what gear and what you were doing or you would be going way to fast.

even on the open road it was hard to keep at a consistent speed. a slight twist and you are doing 20mph faster.

 

[desy]

Lol and mine was old a 84 750 Interceptor
These new bikes are insane

 

[hanoverphist]

It is much safer to identify and pass people by going slightly faster than them versus going the "speed limit" and getting passed by idiots not paying any attention. Essentially by passing people my life is in my hands otherwise you're getting passed and just hoping not to get rear-ended.


I put something around ~200k miles on motorcycles over a 10-15 year period. I rode every day, rain or shine, cold or hot. It was VERY rare for me to go less than 15mph faster than every else. I was often going 30mph over the speed limit, which seems extreme to a non-rider.



FYI... As a (former) motorcyclist, I have a lot more faith in super-aggressive people going 15mph over the limit. I feel like they're at least paying attention albeit being dangerous. It's the people half-asleep going the limit that concerned me.

my bike was my only transpo for a long time before i had kids, and my preferred mode until i parked it when my twins were about 2. i usually kept with traffic, if it was 5ish over id pass them. i stopped squidding around about 6 months after i got my first bike, when i had to help teach a friend how to walk again after he dropped off a cliff at 130mph. it pisses me off to see the rice rocket brigade doing 35+ over the limit, and while you say they are at least paying attention, they are still a hazard to other traffic, especially since they are taking more chances with lane splitting and such.

The mature experienced grown ups on both cruisers, sportbikes ride in a manner where you don't even notice them.

this.

One of the things w the rocket I used to own is they are sooo fast
2 gears and you are over the speed limit almost instantly, its just too easy.

mine was like that as well, but i didnt have any problems keeping with the flow of traffic. i used to have sport bikes try to egg me into races all the time, both at lights and while riding. they would make stupid decisions to try to goad me into it, and sometimes i would. it was stupid, but i was a kid having fun, so whatever. my point is, just because the bikes are capable of that high speed travel doesnt mean you have to do it in traffic.

and why oh why do they always have to do everything at the top of a gear? its not necessary to go through a 45mph neighborhood in 1st gear. its also not necessary to merge onto the freeway at 10k rpm.


(also... calling them cagers just makes you as much of a douche as the assholes we are bitching about... IMO)

 

[JulesMaximus]

mine was like that as well, but i didnt have any problems keeping with the flow of traffic. i used to have sport bikes try to egg me into races all the time, both at lights and while riding. they would make stupid decisions to try to goad me into it, and sometimes i would. it was stupid, but i was a kid having fun, so whatever. my point is, just because the bikes are capable of that high speed travel doesnt mean you have to do it in traffic.

and why oh why do they always have to do everything at the top of a gear? its not necessary to go through a 45mph neighborhood in 1st gear. its also not necessary to merge onto the freeway at 10k rpm.

(also... calling them cagers just makes you as much of a douche as the assholes we are bitching about... IMO)

No it doesn't. I refer to myself as caging it when I'm driving the car sometimes. It's not really a derogatory term... you cagers just seem to take it that way for some reason. It literally means you are inside a cage. Which, of course, you are.

Motorcycle bitch threads are fun. It allows everyone to focus all their negative energy on one small portion of the riding population.

By the way, I'm no angel. I'll admit that I've had times when I've gotten pissed off at some moron tailgating me and just blown him away or crossed over 2 lanes of traffic to pass some idiot who was camped out in the left lane.

Most of the time I ride within the law though. And the exhaust on my bike is stock... for now anyway.

Oh, and I rarely get challenges from other riders, as in it is so rare I can't even remember the last time it happened. It's usually some idiot in a slammed Prelude or Civic with vtec yo! Or some jackhole in an M3.

 

[RockinZ28]

Really don't notice them going overly fast around Los Angeles. Usually ~5mph faster than traffic flow, which is fine by me. Don't like to see them in my mirrors and not see them ride by, cause then I'm looking all over the place for them when I need to exit or change lanes.

Course there is the occasional douche, but car drivers do the same thing.

A lot of these sportbike riders also might have bought them to accelerate quickly and have fun etc. without being a reckless danger. Basically what I do with my car on the weekend, so I can't fault them for that.

I like to put the pedal down when getting onto freeway on ramps, slam it into 2nd and top it out, then just shift to neutral or 6th gear and cruise back down to 70mph.

 

[natto fire]

Anything to take cops attention away from my speeding is good in my book. In my experience people are bad at judging distance when merging and allow wasted space during heavy traffic flow, which causes mini slow downs at ramps.

If you get a group of good drivers that can run a good zipper it is almost shocking how quick you can get through interchanges.

 

[Baked]

Every time I go to Costco and I see the lime green and black Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R, I dream about ditching my fucking coupe and riding on that bike instead.

 

[Away]

Or some jackhole in an M3.

:hmm:

 

[pauldun170]

And the exhaust on my bike is stock... for now anyway.

I occasionally get some 20 something approach me to inform me that "Hey brah, my boy does work on bikes and he could set you up with a nice exhaust and clean up the back to tuck your plate further back in so cops can see it"

No thank you kind sir.
I'm perfectly fine with the stock exhaust and license plate holder for the time being.

 

[hanoverphist]

No it doesn't. I refer to myself as caging it when I'm driving the car sometimes. It's not really a derogatory term... you cagers just seem to take it that way for some reason. It literally means you are inside a cage. Which, of course, you are.

yeah, its like me calling myself a beloved patriot. but there are plenty of times ive seen you (and others) use it in very derogatory ways, regardless of whether you say youre "cagin it today" or whatever. either way, i love being on two wheels. if i had the option of carrying 3 kids on my bike, id ride it every day. so no, im not a 'cager" at all, im a person that uses the best tool available at the time.

By the way, I'm no angel. I'll admit that I've had times when I've gotten pissed off at some moron tailgating me and just blown him away or crossed over 2 lanes of traffic to pass some idiot who was camped out in the left lane.

Most of the time I ride within the law though. And the exhaust on my bike is stock... for now anyway.

Oh, and I rarely get challenges from other riders, as in it is so rare I can't even remember the last time it happened. It's usually some idiot in a slammed Prelude or Civic with vtec yo! Or some jackhole in an M3.

the occasional blow by is inevitable i think, no one is immune from that. and i think that goes for bikes, cars and trucks. also, my bike did not look fast, so people on fast bikes challenged me all the time (hell, harley riders were the worst culprits back then). my friend with the cbr that had an actual race bike rarely saw people trying to get him to race in traffic.

 

[roguerower]

My bike is stock except for aesthetic parts, a la a fly screen, a fender eliminator, and removing my passenger pegs. No performance mods what-so-ever and it accelerates to stupid quick at the flick of a wrist.

I've been riding for almost 2 years now and when I ride around town, I'll usually do 5-10 over, but that's what I do in a car.

-On the highway I do ride at least 10-15 over, sometimes 20 depending on the conditions.
-I will weave, but as I merge into the lane I will accelerate to open up space.
-I will cross a double yellow if there's a slow driver, but only when I can see on-coming traffic and never in a turn.
-I do not lane split, but I will actively ride on the edges of the lane in order to keep the mirrors of the vehicle in front of me in my view.
-I don't do wheelies or stoppies, I don't fuck with a car/truck if they start to merge without knowing I'm there, I'll give them a "da fuck?" with my hand (no, not my finger) but I'll get the hell out of there with a flick of the wrist.

I agree with Spatially. By riding faster than traffic, I have to be MORE aware and ready to act than if I was putzing along and resting on my heels.

These are just things that I've taken to as I've learned.

Now cruiser riders who are on curvy backroads and are riding at 10mph BELOW the speed limit REALLY piss me off. Can't do the speed limit, get rid of the fucking bike.

EDIT: For the "cager" arguement, skydivers use the term whuffos to describe non-jumpers, mainly because we get the question "what for?" all the time. It isn't derogatory, merely a label.

 

[JulesMaximus]

yeah, its like me calling myself a beloved patriot. but there are plenty of times ive seen you (and others) use it in very derogatory ways, regardless of whether you say youre "cagin it today" or whatever. either way, i love being on two wheels. if i had the option of carrying 3 kids on my bike, id ride it every day. so no, im not a 'cager" at all, im a person that uses the best tool available at the time.

That most definitely IS a derogatory term. No question about it.

Don't want to be called a cager? Lose the cage.

Now STFU you cager. :sneaky: