Modern Vespa

I am a brand new rider today i just picked up a new bike pulled off and down the road got cut up by a jeep and then when we stopped at the lights leant out shouting and swearing at me telling me i will kill myself etc. Really didnt need that for confidence as a new rider but finished the ride home safely and securely. I dont understand what people get out of this and do they not realise how nerve racking it is as a new rider, they were new once!

A'holes are everywhere. Try not to engage the idiots (guns aren't as prevalent over there) but those people are unstable. Never know what their going to do. Keep riding within your limits and screw them if they don't like it. I believe Karma will get them. You have a bike safe program over there, that i hear good things about. Might want to do one to increase your confidence. I ride like everybody is out to kill me. Hang in there. It takes time to become a proficient rider.

You need to ride with Ash as shotgun.....he'd intimidate the hell out of anyone (even though he's a pussy cat!)

I think Judy has this one exactly right. Give jerks like this a wide berth. They are basically calamities just waiting to happen.

I sympathize with your plight, and asshole drivers are indeed everywhere. I agree that you should not engage them.

Was your own riding in any way erratic or your speed painfully slow? If so, it may have made you an easy target for abusers. Perhaps you should practice and build your confidence on lightly traveled back streets before venturing out into heavy traffic.

As an aside... you may communicate better with your intended audience here if you'd go to the trouble of punctuating your posts. I had to read yours three times before I got the gist of it. With that terribly run-on first sentence, you risk reader rage along with the road rage.

Yeh i am sorry about punctuation, i was raging when i posted it im afraid.

Would a helmet cam help in this situation?

Miaow!

When I started riding I found that I was annoying other road users. I'm not sure why - possibly I was riding a bit slower or cutting them up unintentionally or perhaps they just picked up on my nervousness.

Of course I am not inferring that you are doing anything wrong at all. Really.

These days I don't get shouted at- I suspect because car drivers barely register that I am there. As long as I don't get in their way or hold them up or make them swerve it's like I'm invisible.

These days I'm riding a big bike of course. Possibly scooter riders get more shtick.

If you're anything like me, you'll worry about it for a while then forget about it and pretty soon there'll be some new thing to worry about.

Im quite a broad shouldered person just feel like it would of been a good idea to never buy thr scooter. I know this is wrong but i worry for my safety with some of these people.

Meh, don't worry about it. Maybe a bad start for you, but enjoy your ride and give the crazies a bit wider birth. It gets better.

I wouldn't worry about too much. Who knows what set the driver off. May be having a bad day or just being a jerk. When I ride I watch for drivers and riders who show signs they are not pleased that I exist. As an example, the other day I was riding down a one lane road and a guy in a pickup wasn't liking it that he was behind me. To make me aware of this he kept an unsafe distance behind me. Rather than hold my ground I just pulled over to the right and waved him pass. He acknowledge my kindness with a fickle finger of fate. I just laughed in my helmet and rode on. I have no clue why he was displeased. It's wasnt worth finding out. Once He overtook me I went about enjoying my ride.

I find your spelling of a cat's noise interesting. I have only ever seen "meow".

I wonder how many other ways there are to spell miaow/meow?

Don't worry about it shit happens , i tend to ride and take it all in my stride and never get pissed off 8)

For you own safety and well being you may want to sharpen your skills a bit before venturing out into traffic.

Paul

You will get used to it. I will never forget the time some young kid in an old pickup truck nearly hit me from behind as I sat patiently waiting at a stop light. He swerved away from me at the last minute. Made my heart pound. I followed him for awhile. Just seemed like one of them jerky type people and they are out there. Not much you can do, but if you get really upset by that kind of thing, it tells me you may not be quite ready to ride in traffic with the new bike. Maybe take some time to first ride during times when traffic is really light until you get used to it and get some good confidence. I did that and it really helped. Of course I was on one of those rides when the guy almost hit me, but I was not to be discouraged. It is riskier than driving a car, so it is a decision not to be taken lightly. I get tired riding everyday during riding season because I'm always in traffic and all my energy is going to staying alert and aware of 5,000 things at once. I've been riding 1 year and 6 months.

Carry some old golf balls. They make good projectiles at high speed and they bounce too.

My 40 years' experience as a cyclist on the streets of New York exposed me to some incredibly raw - perhaps occasionally borderline - motorist behavior. I've long said that sitting behind the wheel does strange and scary things to the human psyche, particularly toward those on two wheels - with or without an engine. While my adventures as a newly-minted scooterist in the somewhat-milder motoring climes of New Jersey have been far less calamitous, there are still some overly aggressive drivers (most of them driving Dodge Rams for some reason...), and the best advice I can give you (as others here already have) for dealing with people who think they own the road is to simply indulge them their fantasy, because most of them will eventually have a go with the wrong person, and have said fantasy shattered (and be lucky if that's all the damage they suffer). I like to think that largely keeping my ego out of the equation kept me alive through my (continuing) pedaling years; that being the case, I hope to maintain this while aboard my Vespa.

This is unfortunately true. And I mean everywhere. Last month in the middle of nowhere in Namibia on a dirt road that was flat and straight for at least 20 miles and was wide enough for four cars I pulled over to pee and take a picture. Keep in mind that there are about three cars per hour on this road. Anyway, some kind gentleman slowed down to tell me how I was endangering his life by stopping on the side of the road. He was so upset he did a U turn and drove off the road to yell at me never slowing down and took off down the road. I was stunned, but just made it another entertainment moment in life. See, I get to share it with you, making it entertainment for me.

Hi mate been riding many years don't worry about it ,most is just posturing and bluster ,i now just hold up my hands tut as if its my fault and ride on works every time,responding can escalate a nothing incident and your on a vulnerable vehicle .......................ramming in not an option
george

In German it is "miau", and in French "miaou".
... hijacking is fun!

Aside from myriad other reasons this would be ill advised, bouncing golf balls, after hitting (or missing) the intended target, may well hit one or more innocent vehicles in a crowded environment, making the PTW rider the proximate cause of someone else having a bad trip.

Hi guys to be perfectly honest some of the riding videos i,ve watch make me cringe.............. filtering at speed through traffic and then pulling in front

As a driver and rider i give preference to motorcycles ,but i get really annoyed with some of the antics people perform,don't get me started on cyclists, jumping red lights !!!!!!!!!! had some complete fool hang on to my roof as he had those lock in shoe things tempted to gas it ,but didn't just smiled
george

There seems to be a number of different ways to spell the sound that a cat makes. I just chose the one that sounds like my own cats when they are being cheeky YCMMV!

Try the sound that a rooster makes in various "languages". Even more creative differences. (Yes, hijacking is fun.)

LB i love that story and how true. I had a suitcase that they left out on the tarmac up in the autonomous zone in China. When i asked why they hadn't put it on the plane they said "it looked suspicious". Mind you these were the same idiots who wouldn't let me put my "yemeni knives" under the plane. They kept showing me a blurb in English that said the knives couldn't go in your carry on luggage (duh). At the last minute they put my luggage on and the knives as well. All 3 of them came out unharmed. Sometimes i think their lives are boring so they make shit up or do stupid things for their enjoyment.

I believe that road rage is to be avoided at all costs. I once had some ass hole behind me blowing his horn while I was on my Honda Met doing 40mph and the idiot in the next lane was doing 41 mph in a 55mph zone. I just pulled over when I could and let them go on. Iv'e had no incidents since upgrading to faster scoots. Because I carry, I will never respond to or escalate any road rage. No one ever should, just back off and let them go as the end results are never predictable.

I was about to write I have never had anyone shout at me during the two years I've been on my Vespa. But now I remember that once - when I was lane splitting slowly between cars standing in two lines at a red light - I fat guy shouted out through his side window: "CAAAAALM DOOOOOOOWN!!!!!!".

I just continued slowly and hoped he didn't get a heart attack trapped in his stupid iron cage, seeing me advancing in dignity out in my wonderful freedom.

Hmmm, I guess we'll just never know

Hi guys i,m old enough to remember when an "L" plate on anything was treated with
care and courtesy "we all have to start somewhere"was the way people thought ,letting people in ,in traffic was the norm, if you broke down too many people would stop to help ................there was a sort of road etiquette that was virtually universal,all two wheeled vehicles would acknowledge each other with a nod and my father carried a can of petrol in case someone ran out of fuel and a tow rope ...........the pace of life was slower people had time for each other

if someone shouted at you, it was to tell you your mirrors fallen off
george

+1 .... dangerous and just plain stupid!

Paul

ha thanks guys ive had some great suggestions and tips here and some not so great but hilarious, i will not be carrying golf balls any time soon however tempting it may be and although confidence is slightly knocked i will pursue ridin in low traffic to get me back to a happy rider.

Good luck!

I'm sure you already know this, but as a novice rider on a small, vulnerable vehicle it can be tempting to ride in the gutter and keep out of everyone's way. Don't do that - own the middle of your lane. You've got as much right to be there as anyone else, and if someone needs to overtake you they can jolly well do it properly, the same as they would a car.

(I once had a lady in a red sports car yell abuse at me because 'you should be over to the side'. No, and I shall filter past you.)

100% on that but don't then pull out and crazy filter,i have seen videos on here of filtering that staggers me as a long term motorcyclist, and irritate the hell out of me when i'm driving..........................it is possible to filter at a sensible speed without swerving in and out and always assume a pedestrian is always about to step out if traffic is slow moving or stationary

be safe
george

I'd say it depends. E.g. doing 30mph mid lane on a 50 road is kind of asking for trouble. People will tailgate a lot which puts the rider in high risk situation.
Also, if you're unconfident and underpowered, try not to filter a bunch of cars at traffic lights, just to hold them all back further down the road. Driver's bruised ego can be a dangerous thing.

smu, I think the assumption is that the rider will be travelling at the speed limit. As a new rider I certainly wouldn't have gone anywhere near a 50mph road until I felt comfortable doing that speed.

lumsdon - there are knob 'eds all over the road, unfortunately - angry people who've probably got something badly broken somewhere in their life and are looking for a target to take it out on. don't give them the power to wreck your day - or your bike - just let them get on with it and don't take it personally. the best bit is when you eventually build up the confidence to filter, you can breeze past them when they're stuck in a traffic queue after going to a lot of angry trouble to overtake you. i usually give them a jaunty wave in these circumstances.

Don't ride in the gutter (it's for rain water and s**t and will mucky your scoot), ride with a positive mind set and you have as much right to be on the road as them, I found over the years if you ride to far to the left people think your unsafe and shouldn't be on the road, if you ride a little further to the right and at a constant but safe speed it works wonders.
Your confidence will grow with experience and don't engage in verbal battles just smile and carry on, your satisfaction will come when they are gridlocked and you are just meandering through at a steady pace past them.
Just echoing what already has been said, you get ar$e holes everywhere.