Topic: Allmost accident and retribution

[Kevin D]

A recent incident occurred here in MI where the driver of a Cavalier shot the tires out of a Ram pickup that she said was tailgating her - the shooter is now facing multiple felonies.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070319/NEWS04/703190369/1001/rss01

[Uncle Ernie]

I've had 3 memorable incidents;
One woman tried to direct me into the back of a parked semi (I was in the lane to her right).  I came up on her left later and she steered me into oncoming traffic.  She was NOT of afraid of me, didn't slow or stop and wasn't going to wait for me to do anything.

One guy just pulled his gun on ME.  Bye bye

A guy in a Chevy Nomad (restored- green and white) kept cutting me off on the freeway.  After the 4th time, I came up on his right and yelled at the top of my lungs the usual epithet.  Flames shot out of his eyes and he jerked the steering wheel to the right while punching the gas.  I figured in heavy traffic, I'd have no problem losing him.  W R O N G  I was splitting lanes, cutting in and out, but somehow he managed to stay 2 cars behind me.  I knew of an off-ramp with a stop light at the end where traffis is always backed up, so I took that and lane-split all the way down to the light.  Fortuneately, I guess he wasn't willing to get out and run after me.

I've learned to take a bite of the #$%*e sandwich and chew it.  No one in cars seem to care about my thoughts on what happened in traffic.

[TwoTired]

There's never a caltrop when you need some....

[francisew]

Ditto.

I'm glad I live in Canada.

[francisew]

For you guys thinking of carrying things, my older brother used to keep a mini-crow bar wedged between the engine and the tank. I'm not sure that he ever used it, but I think he did display it once or twice. Very effective.

I think that a much more practical solution would be a telescoping baton. Maybe velcro'ed onto the bottom of the tank. Key points: it's dull, so you won't cut yourself while grabbing it or in case of a spill, it's not evident, so you have less chance of police attention, and it could probably be used as a tool in odd circumstances... so you can justify having it.

http://www.defensedevices.com/aspbaton16inch.html

A friend has one of these... (not for use with a bike) it'd be quick to swing & deploy, and various things would definitely suffer heavy damage from even a single blow. They're pretty heavy, and the 1-1/2 or 2 foot reach is easily enough to dissuade anyone who wants to go for a few rounds (especially if they have friends).

Then again, escalating the violence will probably get you in both legal trouble and increase the chance of retribution.

What ever happened to *losing* a pocket full of marbles over your shoulder at high speed?

I rather just spend 5 minutes hoping that they go find some instant karma all on their own. I'm also acutely aware of the fact that they'll probably pass my (very recognizable) parked bike at some point, and might want to do a little customizing of their own.

Francis