And I've already admitted that the video wasn't the best example. Why not go by my description of how I do it rather than a video of a guy who I have already conceded was not the best example?
Because your original description of how you do it was --in your own words-- exactly like it was shown in the video that you again asked us to critique. Then, when people started criticizing what was happening in the video, suddenly your whole story changed and that was no longer indicative of how you split-lanes and you started getting indignant about people critiquing the video just like you asked them to do.
That's pretty typical
Flux. Lots of goalpost moving and only posting the thread in the hope of getting Yes Men to reaffirm your own opinion. There's never any actual desire to listen or learn and alter your established position.
And 'll say again, if you're going to make judgments based on a video why not watch the one I posted originally? Here it is, embedded since nobody seems to be willing to go back and find the link.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNGD9AAIfFU[/yt]
If you want to pick a video apart, use this one. These are professional riders advocating lane splitting. Go ahead and call the idiots but they know what they're doing. Novices they are not.
Of course, if people don't agree with you it must be because they ignored the link. It can't just be that they think you're wrong or anything like that.
Fine, I'll pick apart this one too:
1) They're experienced professional riders, you are neither. Nor are most riders pros either.
2) The guy in the black leather jacket immediately opens up by bragging about the huge stack of tickets he's gotten for reckless driving for lane-splitting in New York, which basically establishes that he doesn't give a shit about the law, he's gotta be free and can do whatever the fuck he wants. Arrogant and reckless, despite his claims to the contrary. Drivers in New York, unlike the half of drivers in California who know the law, are even less expectant of motorcyclists splitting lanes because it's against the law there. So this douche is endangering himself and them because he thinks he's above the law.
3) Right away they show a video of the motorcycles weaving in and out of moving traffic and then cutting into the bicycle lane, which is illegal and dangerous as hell for the bicyclists, two of which he sped by on his much larger motorcycle. So for all the whining about how motorcycles are smaller and more vulnerable than cars, the first chance he gets, he guns it past two smaller, more vulnerable bicycles and endangers their riders. Not to mention how scary and distracting it must be for the bicyclists to have a motorcycle zip by unexpectedly in the bike lane, where they're not supposed to be.
4) Again, they were lane-splitting in perfectly fast-moving traffic half the time. It's one thing when it's stop and go, but if the cars are moving at a decent pace, why are you taking a risk and splitting-lanes to get a little bit of a time savings? That just shows that it's all about feeling entitled to go faster and not have to move with the flow of traffic.
5) A couple of times they were weaving in an out of traffic again instead of just staying in a single corridor between lanes.
6) The video itself points out that the centerline paint has less traction than the surrounding asphalt, so you shouldn't ride on it. Which means that you're going to be leaning further to the left or right of the lane and closer to clipping other cars. It also means that if you do cross the centerline and need to maneuver, you have less acceleration and braking control than normal and therefor less reaction time.
7) He lane-split a narrow gap between a car and a big truck, which strikes me as extremely dangerous.
8) They were all on smaller crotch rocket type bikes that have a lot more space to fit between the cars than your bike does. Also, they're faster and more maneuverable, and the rider sits in a leaning forward position which I suspect grants greater focus on the road ahead and a faster reaction time than a more laid back style of riding.
9) There's not all that much lane-splitting in the video (maybe less than a minute out the entire 14), so it's kind of a waste of time.
