Dangerous rider

Yesterday morning at 8:15am a rider on a big sports bike with small number plate ending in "BAD" tried to punch, kick and swerve at my bike to try and knock me off.

If anyone sees this idiot please get the full number plate for me so I can give it to the police. I don't particularly like to put number plates online, but this idiot needs to be stopped, named and shamed.

He was an extremely angry rider that didn't like being stuck behind me riding between stationary traffic queues along Embankment during rush hour. I'm far from being a slow rider, but there's no way I'm going to race down the cycle lane at 50mph.

The idiot finally raced by me in the cycle lane near Embankment tube stations, tried to kick my front wheel and swerved in front of me, only to stop at the red lights where he continued shouting, screaming, shaking his fists, and revving his engine to max. When he pulled away his bike fished tailed down the road before finally managing to get it under control. I watched him race off for at least five seconds, so god knows how fast he was going.

Wish I was wearing my helmet cam!

What a nut job. Thats pretty scary, glad he didnt knock you off.

Come to think of it, I might have seen you yesterday morning - saw a white 696 (with some beautifully noisy pipes!) turn onto vauxhall bridge going north, just as I'd come off it south side? I guess between 8:30 and 9am.

edit: sorry not vauxhall, cant remember the name!

Blackfriars bridge I meant.

Surely he'll be on one of Embankment CCTV, you can report him for several crimes.

Yep, that could have been me going over Blackfriars Bridge, although I was at work for 8.30!

report it...

If you have the model of bike colour and part plate thats enough I would think with a plate with Bad on it..

Hes a liability and twats like that give bikers a bad name...

I had that with students in a car .. tried to take me out in a car on my 125 on purpose for a giggle.. then ran red lights. I had to swerve and arced my back wheel round..spun off.. I was steaming..
I hit the car good and hard in anger.. they soon changed the look on their faces when I got them at the lights the set they did choose to stop at!

Have to say I reported them could only recall part of the plate..
Theres enough CCTV for him to be picked up...
Also put word about...

I know what I would do if I saw the bike parked up... ooopssss I tripped over.. twat.

I've twice encountered a pair of twats on my commute back home around 17.30 from victoria embankment all the way to Mile end/bow rd/A12, one was on a gixxer 1000 cant remember the other, both wearing 1 piece leathers, tiny number plates and popping power wheelies at each traffic light and revving the f*** out of the bikes to make way. I'll keep a look out for 'BAD...' as I've got a feeling it might be one of them.

Probaby was you stuart, think it was earlier you're right, as I was dropping off for 8:30am for a service.

[slob]

If you report it, be prepared to be nicked for riding in the cycle lane yourself... and then find out his plate is false and he's got away with it.
Assuming they can be bothered to look at the CCTV.

[utopia]

There have always been aggressive retards out there, and as fast as they die out as a consequence, there seem to be even more waiting to replace them. I tend to just smile behind my visor, get out my imaginary bazooka and vapourise them. There's no place for aggression on the roads, so I try not to let them arouse any in me either, though its not always easy, but over the years I'm getting better at it. These individuals do need stopping though. But how? Don't wanna be a vigilante man, but there are some whose tyres I might let down if I saw them parked up. Now that would be a smile....what was that plate again?

[crust]

Originally Posted by utopia

But how? Don't wanna be a vigilante man, but there are some whose tyres I might let down if I saw them parked up. Now that would be a smile....what was that plate again?

So you think interfering with some one else's bike is the answer?

You going to leave him a note telling him you've made his bike unsafe?

Who appointed you judge, jury and executioner?

Before you go interfering with other peoples bikes think how you'd react if you saw somebody else doing it. If I saw some letting a bikes tyres down, anyone's not just mine, is stop them or if there was a copper get him to.

Methinks there's two sides to every story and I'm curious as to what made Mr angry so wound up.

Originally Posted by crust

Methinks there's two sides to every story and I'm curious as to what made Mr angry so wound up.

Still, no excuse to try and intentially knock a stranger off their bike, no matter how bad their day was.

Originally Posted by crust

So you think interfering with some one else's bike is the answer?

You going to leave him a note telling him you've made his bike unsafe?

Who appointed you judge, jury and executioner?

Before you go interfering with other peoples bikes think how you'd react if you saw somebody else doing it. If I saw some letting a bikes tyres down, anyone's not just mine, is stop them or if there was a copper get him to.

Methinks there's two sides to every story and I'm curious as to what made Mr angry so wound up.

Don't try to defend this idiots actions. Some one trying to smash their way past your bike in the cycling lane, kicking at your wheels, throwing punches at you and swerving in front to try to knock you off is indefensible regardless of what made them angry.

Granted I shouldn't have been in the cycling lane either, but this is London rush hour and most of us will filter down the cycling lane occasionally.

If you ride at break neck speed in the cycling lane through stationary traffic, you can't get angry if someone steps out, another rider pulls in or a cyclist gets in your way. If you can't stop in time, you're going too fast, period.

The cycling lane isn't his own personal race course, and who appointed him judge, jury and most likely executioner in the near future?

I totally agree, why on earth try and work out what his reasons for the aggressive behaviour are?! He sounds nuts, he sounds scary, the commute in town is tricky enough without that kind of crap and he'll give the rest of us good riders a bad name with other road users and probably end up killing someone.

Chin up Stuart!

[utopia]

oops, ...er,... Actually I wasn't being serious at all about the tyres. That last bit was kinda satirical, and meant only to caricature the angry demon that we all need to avoid. Maybe I should have made that more obvious, though in my defence I had previously been preaching the "don't react" message (the serious bit) quite loudly,I thought. Your criticisms of someone who would do such a thing are spot on, by the way. My point was that there's a lot of mindless arrogance out there (this type of aggression in a london morning rush hour bus lane would seem to be an example,by anyone's judgement). If I'm honest I've probably behaved a bit like that myself on occaision, but for all those who learn tolerance, humility, awareness and avoidance, there are likely to be more following who havent yet learned, and it is THIS about which it is hard to know what to do. (the letting down of tyres was meant as some sort of comic frustration at this, I certainly didn't mean it personally). Is there more aggression in the culture these days? Or am I just getting old? Anyway I think this all goes way deeper than roadcraft. Its raises all sorts of emotions when it happens to you, at a time when you need to be focussing even more on the road cos others around you are more likely to be distracted too. The bazooka zapping thing is just my strategy for maintaining a smile while I try to react dispassionately, which is about all you can do at the time. While this mr bad might be quite nice generally, the behaviour described has to be judged inconsiderate and dangerous, on the evidence given. Whether or not he was provoked by something Stuart might have done to annoy him, my advice would still be the same..he would have been better to smile, react dispassionately with tolerence, humility etc, then zapped him with his imaginary bazooka and rode on. Its all too easy to get drawn in. Blimey..no-one expects the spanish inquisition..our chief weapons are tolerance, humility, awareness, avoidance, dispassionate reactions, smiles and a bl**y great imaginary bazooka. Hope I'm redeemed now. I'll be more careful.