Are motorcycles suppose to go faster than traffic?

It's pretty obvious by the volume of responses... this subject is an important one. It's a very good question many riders feel strongly about.

To me it's absolutely not a good idea to ride along with traffic. If you speed up or slow down is okay, just don't ride along in traffic where you're the completely unprotected piece of steel and they're the "ooops I'm so sorry I didn'' see you, have a nice day" steel cage.

One of the few things we have in our favor is to quickly speed up if the situation calls for it, being surrounded by BDC's calls for it...

regards,
 
I ride on the empty pockets of the freeway if possible on the carpool lane or on the fast lane.

Basicly you try to have less cars as possible around you. On the fast lane you don't have cars changing lanes from your left, on the carpool you don't have cars coming from you left and just sometimes from your right.

Speed can also save your life if you know how to use it.
 
jwayden said:
I went out and tried it (although there were no handy race tracks nearby)... My ST won't do 160!!! :mw1:

Should I ask for my money back?
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Just to clarify, I have a CBR 600 for the track. But the skills learned transfer over. And I don't think I would try doing 160 on my ST. I take it easy on the highway, I know what it's like to crash (on the track), and doing it on the street would not be fun.
 
I always try to be creeping up on other traffic on multi lane roads, for the same reasons.
When passing trucks in traffic I will get into the next lane and then wait for the vehicle ahead of me to clear the truck and make enough room for me before I pass quickly, no way I want to get trapped alongside big ol' tires.
 
Buzz said:
Always slightly faster. At least until I can find a good opening in traffic to settle into. Safer having space around me whenever possible.
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+1 on this one....stay out of the big packs of cages....speed up, slow down whatever it takes. find you a hole in the traffic if you can..
 
I think it's mostly unanimous, faster then the flow of traffic. I get looks from the CHP's at times as they watch me work around a volume of cars to find my safety zone again. I have been trailed a few times during my maneuvers only to have them wave and give me the thumbs up.

I would have to say if I was on a purely sport bike I would most likely get ticketed for these maneuvers but being on the ST and in my gear I have yet to see a ticket (knocks on wood).

Safety for me is as much space between myself and the cages.
 
I have to agree with the majority. I've always felt safer and more in control if I have some slight positive velocity with respect to the traffic around me. Sometimes this means just tucking in behind someone else moving a bit faster when in traffic. As SoloTotoCoyote stated, if you ride in SoCal traffic is a fact of life, avoiding it neigh but impossible. I have to agree with Rick, the LEO seem to be more accepting with regards to motorcycles in traffic, but as with most things, this only holds for a certain degree. I was riding along the other day and cruising along at a pretty good clip when a squid passed me doing probably 20+ over the limit. It wasn't long before I was overtaken by a motor officer running lights. A minute or so later, I seen he had the squid pulled over to the side. The traffic was running a bit fast as we had all just cleared a jam created by an accident that backed up traffic for miles. The difference between me and the squid was that I was for the most part flowing with traffic (little difference in speed). He stood out like a sore thumb at the speed he was moving (not to mention that he was on a green bike...hehe).

Everyone be careful out there.
 
maybe you forgot left lane = fast lane and right lane = slow lane .
Ride where you feel good and dont worry about others .
Not your yob to make them ride what you think is safer so ride for you
 
The answer is dependent on the location, traffic congestion, speed limit, speed range of traffic, road conditions, LEO density in the area, the local culture drivers as well as LEOs, and probably many other parameters that I forget right now: too may parameters to give one answer to all possible cases.

I can see situations where +5 to +10 may feel good, others where it will not make a difference whatsoever, and yet others where it will guaranty a ticket.
 
A good friend with several hundred thousand miles on bikes under his belt has 4 tenets for riding:
1. dress like you are going to fall down
2. alcohol and bikes do not go well together
3. Nothing good ever happens after midnight
4. always ride faster than traffic

Rod
 
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