Canadian politely turns himself in for speeding
July 26, 2012 1:47 AM   Subscribe

Randy George Scott turns himself in for riding through British Columbia at speeds in excess of 180 mph (300 km/h).

Not as fast as this Italian duo popping wheelies at 220+ mph, still, but the footage is still quite nerve-wrecking.
posted by Blazecock Pileon (66 comments total)
 
It's also nerve-wracking, as well as nerve-wrecking.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:47 AM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]


Typical poutine run.
posted by hellojed at 1:50 AM on July 26, 2012 [4 favorites]


Nice scenery. At least I think that's what I was seeing whipping past in a blur.
posted by asok at 1:53 AM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]


Racing is for the track.

Dangerous fools like these give all motorcyclists a bad name.
posted by gen at 2:02 AM on July 26, 2012 [21 favorites]


I used to do manoeuvres like that... at 10 to 20 mph with stationary traffic, anything else is being an irresponsible idiot.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:08 AM on July 26, 2012


Randy George Scott turns himself in for riding through British Columbia at speeds in excess of 180 mph (300 km/h)

The article provides a more accurate description of the sequence of events:

Randy George Scott turned himself in after police issued a warrant in connection with a video of the incident that was anonymously posted on YouTube and he was charged for dangerous driving.

Riding at high speed is one thing, there is nothing cool about reckless riding, riding between lanes of traffic, and being a general hazard to other travelers on the road.

I guess it's not the worst way to draw attention to yourself - dressing up like robocop and shooting up a movie theatre is hard to top - but it shows the same careless disregard for others. "Politely" turing himself in hardly makes up for it.
posted by three blind mice at 2:08 AM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]


Is randy his name or his motivation for getting home quickly?
posted by biffa at 2:23 AM on July 26, 2012 [2 favorites]


I think it's his pro wrastlin' name.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:26 AM on July 26, 2012


Dangerous fools like these give all motorcyclists a bad name.

.. but not the beards, ill fitting leather protective clothing and love of warm ale.
posted by MuffinMan at 2:41 AM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]


Good. He should turn himself in. Anyone who does that is recklessly and intentionally endangering everyone else on or near the road.

I remember one night in a suburb of Chicago, passing a scene on the freeway where I eventually realized that a motorcycle had rear-ended a minivan at speed. Except, I got to watch the scene unfold in reverse order as I was on the opposite side of the freeway in traffic. First, the cop cars marking off the front of the scene. Then a few yards beyond that the rider's helmet. Then for the next 50 yards or so the various pieces of his body and some debris from the car that he went through. Then one of the bodies of the kids he impacted as he came through the back of the car. Then the front of the car with the dead or dying family in it.

Then the back of a minivan, although it wasn't really that any more. All I can say is that it looked like a comet had impacted the vehicle from behind, it was literally a horizontal crater of twisted metal, that ended somewhere around the back of the driver's seat. Glass and blood and motorcycle frame everywhere. I never saw the engine of the bike, assuming it was in one piece it was probably somewhere inside the car, maybe resting on a kid.

That's exactly what Randy George Scott would have done to some innocent family had the driver decided to change lanes 300 yards ahead of him. Lock him up.
posted by allkindsoftime at 2:45 AM on July 26, 2012 [76 favorites]


The first time I was in London, England I stepped off the curb to cross to a traffic island and some stranger grabbed me and pulled me back before anything was even visible. They had only heard the unseen motorcycle that was going to careen around the corner at extreme speed seconds later and they probably saved my life and the maybe the motorcyclists as well.

Thanks stranger!
posted by srboisvert at 2:58 AM on July 26, 2012 [7 favorites]


A friend took his Honda 1100cc up to 255km/h while I was on the back of it and all I noticed was every single crack in the highway pavement.
posted by furtive at 3:24 AM on July 26, 2012


Selfish moron. Our lives are not your video game.
posted by stargell at 4:06 AM on July 26, 2012 [12 favorites]


Dangerous fools like these give all motorcyclists a bad name.

One of my pet peeves is that "Look twice, motorcycles are everywhere" campaign. I do not wish death or injury on anyone, ever, but I do find grating the idea that we need to develop a safety campaign targeted at automobile drivers as if they are primarily responsible for motorcycle accidents. Every time I see one of those signs I ask myself when was the last time I saw a motorcyclist in traffic and thought to myself, "What a safe and respectful driver." Every time, same answer.
posted by cribcage at 4:11 AM on July 26, 2012 [4 favorites]


One of my pet peeves is that "Look twice, motorcycles are everywhere" campaign. I do not wish death or injury on anyone, ever, but I do find grating the idea that we need to develop a safety campaign targeted at automobile drivers as if they are primarily responsible for motorcycle accidents. Every time I see one of those signs I ask myself when was the last time I saw a motorcyclist in traffic and thought to myself, "What a safe and respectful driver." Every time, same answer.

I suspect selective vision at work here. Here are the statistics:

" There are many common causes of motorcycle accidents, of which the most frequent, and clearly the predominant cause, seems to be a result of other motorists simply not seeing and recognizing motorcycles in dense traffic.

Several reports lend support to this claim as they suggest that virtually two thirds of all accidents involving a motorcycle and another motor vehicle are a direct result of a motorist in the car turning into the lane of a motorcycle and violating the motorcyclist’s right of way.


As a motorcyclist who has had to lay down a bike more than once because someone pulled out in front of me, and as the parent of a 20 year old that died in exactly that type of accident, please do not deride the campagne to save lives.
posted by HuronBob at 4:30 AM on July 26, 2012 [43 favorites]


Cool video, and it looks like awesome fun!

But fuck that guy.
posted by Drexen at 4:55 AM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]


but I do find grating the idea that we need to develop a safety campaign targeted at automobile drivers as if they are primarily responsible for motorcycle accidents

European safety researchers have published what is being termed "the most comprehensive in-depth data currently available for Powered Two Wheelers (PTWs) accidents in Europe." Based on investigations of 921 motorcycle accidents (with 103 fatalities) in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain, Motorcycle Accidents In Depth Study (MAIDS), provides the sort of comprehensive results rarely seen in motorcycle safety research. [...]

The object motorcyclists most often collided with were passenger cars. In half of the collision accidents, the driver of the other vehicle was judged to have made the primary error that caused the crash, and he failed to "perceive" the motorcyclist in 70 percent of the two--vehicle collisions. In 37 percent of the the accidents with a partner, it was the motorcyclist who created the problem. As other research has concluded, drivers with motorcycling experience are more likely to see and avoid motorcyclists.
posted by MuffinMan at 5:13 AM on July 26, 2012 [15 favorites]


He should at least register as an organ donor before riding like that.
posted by ceribus peribus at 5:15 AM on July 26, 2012


So YouTube can be held liable for copyright infringement, but not for promoting actions that endanger the public?
posted by superelastic at 5:23 AM on July 26, 2012


I really thought the bike perspective would be something novel and crazy. But watching it, it just looks like the other cars are standing still, and the bike is traveling at normal highway speeds relative to the seemingly stationary surrounding cars. Then I thought for 1 second about the relative Galilean frames involved and realized that that of course should be exactly how it looks.

So basically show me someone traveling at 120 MPH into on coming traffic at 60 MPH, then maybe I'll be amazed.
posted by Chekhovian at 5:24 AM on July 26, 2012


If he crashed at that speed, I don't think there'd be much left of the organs.
posted by Drexen at 5:25 AM on July 26, 2012


at least register as an organ donor

Probably wouldn't be enough left for a stew, let alone something to donate.

Think of the children, that is, think of all the young YouTube copycat riders.
posted by sammyo at 5:26 AM on July 26, 2012


I do find grating the idea that we need to develop a safety campaign targeted at automobile drivers as if they are primarily responsible for motorcycle accidents.

As well-cited above, that's because automobile drivers are primarily responsible for motorcycle accidents. People have quoted the studies; at the level of anecdote, I'll add that this is why I've almost entirely stopped riding. No matter what gear I wear, no matter how careful I am, there's simply no protection against a person making a turn while adjusting the radio or looking the other way. Whenever I ride, I notice people who clearly don't see me at all. They would certainly describe themselves as safe and good drivers, but the only thing preventing them from crushing someone is other people staying hyperaware.

Drivers genuinely, literally do not see motorcycles, bicycles, and pedestrians. It's one of those mistakes that probably seemed smart at the time, to allow our roads to be treated as the sole property of cars and trucks, but we are paying the costs now and it is a huge barrier to coaxing people to start bicycling, for example. Safety campaigns are good, but until drivers (including myself) face far, far greater penalties for running over a pedestrian or bicyclist, drivers aren't going to start seeing them.

You see videos like this of speeding motorcycles because you can get this kind of speed thrill for crazy cheap on a bike (low thousands will get you a used bike capable of 180+ mph); to get the same speed on a car would cost at least an order of magnitude more, not to mention insurance and other costs.

I really thought the bike perspective would be something novel and crazy. But watching it, it just looks like the other cars are standing still, and the bike is traveling at normal highway speeds relative to the seemingly stationary surrounding cars. Then I thought for 1 second about the relative Galilean frames involved and realized that that of course should be exactly how it looks.

As a dumb youth, I drove cars and rode motorcycles a few times in traffic at about 120-140 mph, double the speed of the other vehicles. It is exactly like driving down the highway at 60 mph after the zombie invasion has left all the other cars sitting abandoned; you have to actively remind yourself that indeed those vehicles are moving, not sitting still.
posted by Forktine at 5:31 AM on July 26, 2012 [13 favorites]


I'm all for people flaunting speeding laws on empty highways - but if they want to live on the edge, do so without taking anyone with you. But through traffic like that is ridiculous. He also didn't even do it intelligently - weaving between two rows of traffic is just asking for someone to drift into a lane change close enough that you can't avoid them without hitting another car in the reaction and guaranteeing a crash. Any sane, um idiot, would have at least gone down the outside of the traffic rather than through it.

That Minivan story above is precisely what makes speeding in traffic so utterly indefensible.

I've noticed a big difference between biker attitudes and traffic awareness of it in the US/Canada. Sport bikes are nowhere near as prevalent and so less bikes per capita are of the 'whizz through traffic' type I am used to from back home. Also, there is not the same respect to and from bikers. I'm used to seeing bikes come up behind me in traffic back home in the UK (and in Europe) and (if I can't move over anyway) I would either flash an indicator one side, move to the edge of a lane or point to one side of my car to acknowledge I have seen the biker and am expecting him to pass me. This is a universal signal style back home and almost every biker will acknowledge and/or react to it.

I've done the same thing here, and not one biker has even either noticed me doing it (repeatedly) nor realised what I am doing.

But there are hardly ANY sport bikes this side of the pond compared to home. Just those stupid fat loud things that weigh more than a car, and not that many bikes per capita anyway, it seems.
posted by Brockles at 5:33 AM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]


Drivers genuinely, literally do not see motorcycles, bicycles, and pedestrians.

I coudl see that being more of a problem in the US/Canada (and to a lesser extent) Europe. The automatic transmissions, comfy and disconnecting cars/trucks and huge wide open roads make driving ridiculously easy compared to the twisty and cramped roads I grew up with. Honestly, it takes so little effort to drive in the US that it is no wonder people can drive drunk so much, or that people pay so little attention - you just don't need to put that much thought into it 90% of the time, so it doesn't encourage a vigilant mentality.

Big, nominally safe, roads are a bit of a double edged sword in that respect. They are incredibly safe for aware drivers, but allow and encourage a lesser level of alertness over time and familiarity.
posted by Brockles at 5:37 AM on July 26, 2012


The object motorcyclists most often collided with were passenger cars.

I have been in one bad bicycle accident, whacked by a minivan (they told me) turning into a parking lot. The driver was unequivocally at fault.

After thinking about it for a long time I really should not have been where I was at the time. If I'd been riding defensively, staying alert and being aware of the entire situation and environment I would have slowed just a tad much earlier and nothing would have happened.

When I see a motorcycle come by, I try to stay way far away, I just don't want to be involved in a microsecond of miscalculation. When I see a motorcycle "getting away" with something "clever" I just feel sad.
posted by sammyo at 5:44 AM on July 26, 2012 [2 favorites]


The guy really must be a complete bastard, because this has been a big story here for the past six months. When the video was originally posted to YouTube, and the police deciphered who he was six months ago, he went into hiding, and his mother tried to cover up for him.

It's really quite unbelievable that this moron decided to go racing like this in the first place. There are no freeways here on the South Island. The stretch of roadway where the video was captured is typically congested - he did a very dangerous thing. All the roadways are congested here.

On top of that, motorists here in sleepy Victoria don't really have the driving skills to anticipate such jackassery. Go over to Vancouver, and there is a definite etiquette when driving at speed on the highway, but over here people often dawdle in the passing lane or change lanes even when being overtaken by faster traffic.

Just loony.
posted by KokuRyu at 5:46 AM on July 26, 2012 [3 favorites]


I'd like to see someone try doing a stoppie at 220+ mph.

For two reasons, really.
posted by rlk at 5:47 AM on July 26, 2012


That SLYT is also notable because it actually has a youtube comment worth reading:
It's Canadia. He will be out after he serves the maximum sentence - three hours of a Celine Dion concert at which he is forced to sit in the front row.

But yeah, I ride a motorcycle and hate shit like this; the result could easily have been this.
posted by TedW at 6:09 AM on July 26, 2012 [2 favorites]


My brother used to ride like this. Mercifully he never caused or was otherwise involved in any accidents before he grew up and gained a sense of responsibility and/or his own mortality, but the one time I rode with him was probably the most frightening experience I've had as an adult. It wasn't the speed, it was the unpredictable weaving; it was as though he was assuming every other driver on the road could read his mind and anticipate his actions.
posted by "But who are the Chefs?" at 6:13 AM on July 26, 2012


*sigh*

This is why the perception of motorcyclists is either asshats like this or hairy Hell's Angels types.

Bikers, IRL, that I know fall into a few actual categories:
- Wannabe Hells Angels, weekend warrior types on Harleys, usually lawyers (and often RUBs; rich urban bikers). Often fall into the "loud pipes save lives" BS crowd.
- Squids, like this guy. Usually seen wearing a helmet unstrapped on top of their head (where helmet is required), often in a Corona t-shirt and wearing shorts. They do not last long, but they *seem* to be so prolific because there is a continually replenished supply of them. The motorcycle for these first two classes is a lifestyle accessory.
- Riders who have been riding/survived riding for more than 2 years, who usually can be seen on touring bikes, sport tourers, or dual sports. They ride to work, not just on the weekends, and ride in all kinds of weather (I once showed up at an event with a thin layer of slush on my helmet; one of only two people who came on their bikes, and the other guy only had to travel < 5 mi. to get there).

They're the ones you don't see, because they're not out there being ostentatious. They're riding like they're invisible, because you don't see them. Like the gorilla in the "count the passes" video. You're not expecting to see them, so you don't. And they don't draw attention to themselves through asshat behavior or ridiculously loud drilled straight pipes. A lot of these bikers (at least the ones I know) are computer programmers/sys admins/writers and photographers. They're usually either *nix or mac users; not really Windows people. They tend to be liberals who own and shoot guns. They'd rather drive a crappy beat-up stick shift than the newest and sparkliest automatic. They're used to standing out not because they choose to make a statement but because they have come to accept and enjoy the ways they are different from others. Nonconformists but not for nonconformity's sake.

They're the ones you don't see because they eschew highways, especially interstates. They're the people who know how to get from Boston to NYC without taking a single numbered route. Back roads, period. They are out there because of the sheer joy of riding, the sights, the smells (omg fresh snow smells best through a helmet; out before 6am when it's just you and the plows (I was on my way to work)), the very lust for life. They're not the kind who think life is cheap, but they know that it's fleeting, and we've all got to go some way. They prefer to live rather than merely exist. They understand risk. They welcome—even flat-out invite—virtual strangers into their home (or garage, esp. if they have a welding rig and you're in need). Some of them are women who can't understand riding behind someone else, almost a fashion accessory yourself. They stop to help motorists in need, or to clear the road of felled trees (has happened to me more than once, thankfully usually while riding in a group). They're people who can feel and smell the weather hours or even days in advance (want to know the forecast? ask a motorcyclist). They understand how positively mad it is to be racing along at a mile a minute (60 mph for you non-math types) and how it involves putting your life in the hands of every other person on the road (something I find car drivers tend to forget). They're in tune with life on a very deep, spiritual level. Both their own and others' (I've been known to duck/swerve slightly to avoid splatting a butterfly on my windscreen, heh).

In the end, we're all people. Humans. And we need to recognize this quality in other people, whether they're going slow on the highway, making longwinded comments on the Internet, or whatever. And that means living and letting live, and not putting others' lives in unnecessary danger.

There's a reason this guy was riding alone. No group I know would have his ilk.
posted by Eideteker at 6:26 AM on July 26, 2012 [19 favorites]


I ride, have ridden for more than 20 years, and even at my most youthful and invulnerable would never have done something as ridiculously fucktard as this. I couldn't watch more than 20 seconds ... when he started lanesplitting at high speed, I just had to close the window, because I've been in accidents (at least partly) caused by other drivers.

If you want to ride like this, go and do a track day. If you want to ride like this all the time, take up racing, on a track.

Lock this dickhead up.
posted by nonspecialist at 6:34 AM on July 26, 2012


Ghost Rider is Swedish, not Italian.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getaway_in_Stockholm
posted by Algebra at 6:43 AM on July 26, 2012


Ghost rider goes straight past a police car @ 1m.40, apparently.
posted by MuffinMan at 7:00 AM on July 26, 2012


those stupid fat loud things

lol.. hey check out this Harley of the electric bike.
posted by stbalbach at 7:18 AM on July 26, 2012 [2 favorites]


Christ, what an asshole.
posted by etherist at 7:23 AM on July 26, 2012


"I think it's his pro wrastlin' name."
posted by Blazecock Pileon

- eponysterical?
posted by etherist at 7:24 AM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]


Riders moving that fast in traffic are right up against the limits of human perception. Saccadic masking means someone could be checking their mirrors for you and still not see you, even if from a third party viewpoint you were in plain view.

When I had my motorcycle safety training class, they said "Don't ride like they don't see you. Ride like they do see you, and are actively trying to kill you." This video and others like it follow a different, and worse, philosophy.

They also called riding in traffic "rollerskating with the buffalo". I've always thought that was a good image.
posted by BeeDo at 7:36 AM on July 26, 2012


So, after watching the video.... this guy needs an ass kicking of the most serious sort.

After reading Eideteker's comment I'm leaning more and more towards the idea of a small touring/sport touring bike for a secondary vehicle to supplement the much loved, but not fun as a primary vehicle '62 Beetle when Ms. Eld, presumably and hopefully, takes our Yaris out of state for her clinical psych internship at some yet to be determined location in the next year or two. Anyone with resources/blogs/forums for like-minded people please throw them my way, memail or whatever. That and I might be able to look forward to joining some kick ass peeps further down the, literal and figurative, road.
posted by RolandOfEld at 7:38 AM on July 26, 2012


Muffinman: "European safety researchers have published what is being termed "the most comprehensive in-depth data currently available for Powered Two Wheelers (PTWs) accidents in Europe." Based on investigations of 921 motorcycle accidents (with 103 fatalities) in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain, Motorcycle Accidents In Depth Study (MAIDS), provides the sort of comprehensive results rarely seen in motorcycle safety research. [...]"

I do wonder how applicable that is to North America, though. When I think of Europe, I think of 'powered two-wheelers' being little mopeds maneuvering through crowded, too-small streets. That perception may not be accurate.

I don't know if they have the sport bike and crotch rocket types we have here; the hey-look-at-me assholes you can hear coming from 4 blocks away, gunning their engines as they drive downtown at 6am, or just sitting at a stop light; gathering in large groups on a Friday night and drunkenly driving in circles in a busy(ish) street while blasting gangsta rap from an '80s-style boombox loud enough to clearly hear 30 floors up and two blocks away. Why? Because fuck you, that's why.

American biker culture is practically contingent upon that "fuck you, I'll do what I want" creedo. At least the most visible audible segment of it is. I have a really hard time imagining it's the same in Europe, but I don't know. Is it? I've seen a fair number of American-style bikers in Vancouver and Windsor over the years, so I'm thinking the Canadians are more like us than the Europeans.

My point is, behaving like an asshole is theraison d'être for a very large segment of American bikers. I'm suspect of the notion that most moving accidents - injury accidents in particular - are caused by drivers in cars here (or in Canada).
posted by Vox Nihili at 7:49 AM on July 26, 2012


Not exactly the first to say this in this thread, but what an absolute bastard. All of those cars contain people; perhaps families, children... he's a fraction of a second away from destroying entire lives, entire generations, solely for his little buzz. Far, far stiffer sentences should exist for this sort of behaviour. Extreme reckless selfish endangerment feels like it could easily deserve a life sentence to me. (No, I'm not a reactionary Daily Mail reader. Yes, I'm serious about the sentence).
posted by Hartham's Hugging Robots at 7:56 AM on July 26, 2012


I'm suspect of the notion that most moving accidents - injury accidents in particular - are caused by drivers in cars here (or in Canada).

Sadly, you are wrong. Here, for example, are some conclusions from the Hurt report, via wikipedia:

75% of accidents were found to involve a motorcycle and a passenger vehicle, while the remaining 25% of accidents were single motorcycle accidents...

In the multiple vehicle accidents, the driver of the other vehicle violated the motorcycle right-of-way and caused the accident in two-thirds of those accidents...

"The failure of motorists to detect and recognize motorcycles in traffic is the predominating cause of motorcycle accidents...


Seriously, drivers just don't see non-car road users. That's not in the slightest an excuse for reckless people like this guy (if anything, it's a reason to not be reckless), but it's the reality: bicyclists, motorcyclists, and pedestrians are overwhelmingly at risk from inattentive drivers. That is the case regardless of whether you are being a law-abiding pedestrian or rider and obeying signals and traffic laws, or whether you are a jay-walking, red-light-running scofflaw -- the biggest risk you face is ordinary drivers who have become accustomed to only noticing other automobiles and trucks.
posted by Forktine at 8:05 AM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]


I don't know if they have the sport bike and crotch rocket types we have here

The exact opposite. There are way, WAY more fast Japanese/Non-american bikes over in Europe than in the US. There are very few Harleys to the point of them being unusual (because we have corners in Europe). I see more bikes in Europe/UK day to day than I see in the US (outside of a biker rally).

To convert, assume every bike you see in the US would be a crotch rocket in Europe. And there are likely more of them that you see every day than you do in the US. There are lots more scooters, yes, but this is in addition to the bikes.
posted by Brockles at 8:05 AM on July 26, 2012 [3 favorites]


After reading Eideteker's comment I'm leaning more and more towards the idea of a small touring/sport touring bike for a secondary vehicle to supplement the much loved, but not fun as a primary vehicle '62 Beetle when Ms. Eld, presumably and hopefully, takes our Yaris out of state for her clinical psych internship at some yet to be determined location in the next year or two. Anyone with resources/blogs/forums for like-minded people please throw them my way, memail or whatever.

It's been linked here before, but I suspect you'll find your people at ADVRider, though down that path lies an empty wallet and a frowning spouse.
posted by Forktine at 8:10 AM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]


that was sooo dangerous. he should get the same extreme penalty as for texting while driving.
posted by moss free at 8:21 AM on July 26, 2012


Eideteker, as a sysadmin/programmer/photographer who rides adventure bikes in freezing weather, an avid linux/mac user, and a very progressive-minded competitive pistol shooter, I'm more than a bit surprised to come across a comment that nails me so well, and I'd like to know where the surveillance truck is located.
posted by MysticMCJ at 8:55 AM on July 26, 2012 [3 favorites]


Surveillance truck? Did you not read the comment?

And anyway, it's a guy on a DRZ 400 with a helmet-mounted GoPro. I mean, duh.
posted by Eideteker at 9:00 AM on July 26, 2012


Having cleaned up the gutsy aftermath of similar folks who were fractionally less lucky, I really despise this guy. I can't even plumb the bottom of my hatred, which troubles me a little. Yes, he's endangering other people, although mostly through a kind of narcissistic stupidity. Other people destroy lives through active malice, which should incite my anger on a far greater scale, but I somehow accept them as points on the bell curve of humanity. Why recklessness should eclipse malevolence in triggering my emotions is something of a mystery to me.
posted by itstheclamsname at 9:11 AM on July 26, 2012


I was joking a bit, just never realized that I was actually that much of a stereotype.
posted by MysticMCJ at 9:12 AM on July 26, 2012


RolandofEld: Try a DRZ-400. It's what I ride to work everyday. It's cheap, easy to maintain, fun to drive by not too powerful, and I get something like 65mpg.
I finished in November last year and started up again in March, which is no mean feat.
Also, check out an MSF course. At least here in MN, it gets you your m/c endorsement (and they let you screw up a bit in the testing).
posted by mfu at 9:15 AM on July 26, 2012


when was the last time I saw a motorcyclist in traffic and thought to myself, "What a safe and respectful driver."

I see them every day on my commute. I live in California, where lane-splitting is legal, and the vast majority of riders I see doing that are behaving perfectly well and in line with traffic conditions.

Not that I never see asshat motorcyclists, of course. I left work early one day and was enjoying a lovely, traffic-free commute home on 280 when a motorcyclist passed me going very very fast (I was going 70). Maybe a quarter-mile ahead of me, a car put on its turn signal and moved over to pass a slower car in front of it; the motorcyclist was moving so fast that he was forced to fishtail wildly to avoid hitting the passing car. I'm pretty sure that, like me, the driver of the car never saw the motorcyclist in the rear or side mirrors, because the biker was going so fast he wasn't there long enough for either of us to see him.
posted by rtha at 9:17 AM on July 26, 2012 [2 favorites]


Ghost rider goes straight past a police car @ 1m.40 yt , apparently.
It looked like that cop was already on the side of the road having pulled someone over (or, I suppose he was in the process of pulling someone over)

There wasn't much he could have done anyway, I suppose, other radioing about it.
posted by delmoi at 9:21 AM on July 26, 2012


Why recklessness should eclipse malevolence in triggering my emotions is something of a mystery to me.

It's probably the stupid. It wears you down.
posted by Trochanter at 9:35 AM on July 26, 2012


There wasn't much he (the copy) could have done anyway, I suppose, other radioing about it.
You can't outrun a Motorola.
posted by MikeWarot at 10:10 AM on July 26, 2012


Ugh... spell check fail
posted by MikeWarot at 10:10 AM on July 26, 2012


I'd heard before that this guy's mother was charged with the excessive speeding and so on, because she owned the bike. So I poked around. The Kelowna Courier is reporting that Scott's mother was, indeed, the owner of the motorcycle and that she didn't have a license to drive it. Scott apparently only had a learner's permit. His girlfriend reportedly lives in Kelowna.

I wonder if he finally turned himself in to spare his mother the charges and had been hiding out in the Okanagan, although his admission certainly was a long time in coming.
posted by Chaussette and the Pussy Cats at 12:15 PM on July 26, 2012


At first as I was watching it, I was thinking "Ok, doesn't seem so bad, the road looks fairly empty"... and shortly it became "OMG OMG OMG FUCK NO OMG LOOK OUT ARE YOU LANESPLITTING AT THAT SPEED YOU MANIAC AHH I CAN'T WATCH I CAN'T WATCH" and I had to turn it off.

Nothing scared me more than people lane splitting in traffic in Dublin, especially in torrential rainstorms where you can't see a god damn thing. Go to make a lane change, check your blind spot, everything's clear, check your mirror one last time and ZOOM goes a moped from behind the giant (in Irish terms) lorry behind you, that you only saw at the absolute last second. The number of times I came within inches of killing lane splitting moped-ists has made me HYPER aware of motorcycles on the roads back here in Toronto, even though lane splitting isn't (that I'm aware of) legal here.
posted by antifuse at 12:40 PM on July 26, 2012


Nothing scared me more than people lane splitting in traffic in Dublin

Sao Paolo was the pinnacle for me - traffic is terrible so there are a lot of scooters and they all drive maximum attack at all times up the dotted lines. The worst times is when traffic is backing up in one of the lanes and they are all still full on up the middle while the slowing lane is diving into the still moving ones.

I did more wincing that week than I could even count.
posted by Brockles at 12:50 PM on July 26, 2012


India's pretty horrible to see motorcyclists drive in. Lanes - even oncoming lanes - are always up for dispute. Whenever I've been there, I've not driven myself and just sat in the back of the car studiously not watching the traffic.
posted by MuffinMan at 1:06 PM on July 26, 2012


Considering how many people's lives he endangered with that crap, it was awfully thoughtful of him to provide the rope to hang him with.
posted by Twang at 3:47 PM on July 26, 2012


So basically show me someone traveling at 120 MPH into on coming traffic at 60 MPH, then maybe I'll be amazed.
posted by Chekhovian at 7:24 AM on July 26

Okay, here you go.
posted by dancestoblue at 4:45 PM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]


>The exact opposite. There are way, WAY more fast Japanese/Non-american bikes over in Europe than in the US. <

More importantly, in many cases the US sport bikes are programmed to be restricted more. RPM/Top speed/etc. are limited by the ECU.

(so naturally getting that deprogrammed is an often first step).

No doubt, this is idiotic behavior. Like many have said (and like I taught my son) if you want to go fast--go to the track. It costs way less than the potential tickets much less the other, more obvious likely consequences.
posted by twidget at 6:28 PM on July 26, 2012


Okay, here you go.

Not quite into oncoming traffic, certainly adjacent to oncoming traffic though. Popping a wheelie while doing it was some serious lilly-gilding. Repeatedly popping that wheelie was like...um...doubly gilding the lilly?

The scariest part honestly was probably the tight navigation at like 30 MPH in the stopped traffic. I swear I felt air from those passing cars moving past me.

And accompanying it all with the soundtrack from the same scene in The Matrix Reloaded...Priceless.
posted by Chekhovian at 6:29 PM on July 26, 2012


I ride every day to commute because cars are incredibly uncomfortable for me to sit in for more than 5 minutes. As a rule I generally move 5-10 mph faster than traffic to avoid being run into by people who simply don't see me. This isn't because I'm a reckless individual, but rather it's a response to almost being killed on multiple occasions. I've watched people look right at me, or possibly _through_ me, and just merge like the lane was empty. It's almost a game now, to predict which driver will direct their 2+ ton vehicle directly into my path of travel without a second glance.

I am very aware of my environment and never pass if I can't see far enough ahead to make it safe enough to brake if I need to. On several occasions in the past couple of months I've been passed (in my lane, no less!) by asshat fucking asshole motorcyclists traveling at least 20-50mph faster in jeans and not much else. The only indication I have that they're nearby is the sound of their japanese 4-cylinder making that trademark sound as it passes by faster than I can react. Speed doesn't kill you, but the difference in speed certainly does.

I can't wait for the winter so I can get the roads all to myself again. Jerks.
posted by tmt at 8:18 PM on July 26, 2012


Part of the reason I'll never own/ride a bike is because while I trust my ability to drive safely and with good awareness 100%, I trust other cars on the road about as far as I can throw them. My feeling about motorcycle riding is fairly well summed up by the statement "It's not *if* you'll have to drop your bike at some point, it's *when*." Just about everybody I know who rides motorcycles either has, or knows somebody who has, due to stupidity of other drivers. All of them super safe riders who wouldn't even DREAM of doing something insane like this guy did.

(And nothing satisfies me more than the time I saw some jackass in SHORTS AND CROCS AND A T-SHIRT blast past me at 170 km/h on the highway, only to see him pulled over by the cops 5km down the road)
posted by antifuse at 7:05 AM on July 27, 2012


There was a warrant out. Had he been identified and arrested, no doubt he'd get a harsher sentence than if he turned himself in.

If I had to choose between being punched in the face and having them say they were awfully sorry about it or some random person being a garden-variety non-punching douche I'll take the douche any day of the week.

You wanna talk polite? How about all the nice cars and trucks in the videos who apparently all stopped their vehicles while he was driving by. Don't even act like that's not what it looks like when you watch the video.
posted by Deathalicious at 10:28 PM on August 1, 2012


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