Since 5-5's deal at the traffic light I have been really watching my rear veiw mirrors, especially at traffic lights. Bout 98% of the time I ride by myself, most of the time out in the country, but ride in traffic some too. I kinda gear my thinking up more when I am going to ride in traffic that someone is going to get too close or I have going to make serious moves to keep from getting run over "Everytime"! I have kind of got used to it around here. I feel fortunate to be riding a scooter that is loud and catches most people's attention, not just the "Wow" factor but they just see me and stay far enough away.
I got to thinking about this a while back, people saying"They don't see motorcycles!" I noticed when I put the American Flags on it when I get to ride with the Patriot Guard that people seems to notice the rear end of it more in traffic, so they stay on there all the time now. A couple wire ties from the axle up by the blinkers on both sides and the 2 foot flags from Walmart have rode with me a few thousand miles now. My scooters is always clean and I avoid the rain so they aren't getting wet. They last really good. I also looked on Ebay and purchased a Monster sticker bright green that I put in the middle of my rear fender,about the entire width of the fender too, a few bucks. It makes it more noticable at traffic lights ( hopefully). I am also fixing to start carrying my pistol in plain sight, maybe shoulder holster, because the people I see carrying them around here, I notice the motorcycle and the gun they have in the open about the same time. Anything to catch someone's attention is for our safety, especially these people that either could care less about motorcycles or are not focused on driving with a phone stuck to their ear.
I have tremendous patience with most things, fortunely or unfortunaely I have -0% patience for this kind of crap on the roads. I really try not lose it anymore with people and stay calm and collected all the time, but when people ride me too close moving or at a light, motorcycle or the F250, it tends to drive those phycotic
tendencies back around,( eyes bug out, voice gets loud, very possibly doing things not well thought out
).
We all go out on these scooters to enjoy them as safely as we can for the most part, so lets do whatever we can to do the best we can to make these non driving, phone talking/texting, dog riding, hamburger eating see us while we are out there on the roads with them. Next time your out remember there are a lot more of them than there is of us!
Ray
