# Bikers and ball peen hammers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 22, 2016, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-ball-peen-hammers/766577 "2016-09-22T14:55:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-ball-peen-hammers/766577/61 "2017-10-31T03:37:19Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > Bike at speed is pretty stable. Besides, I assume the next step is to move away from the vehicle. Most of these dicks are trying to be clever by crowding a bike, not actually trying to commit vehicular manslaughter. Realizing that it may cost them a new windshield may wake them up. I’m not defending the actions of other drivers; I’m sure their actions are sometimes dangerous and motorcyclists are a lot more at risk. That doesn’t justify going after somebody’s car. You (generic) want to be safe? Great, be aware of your surroundings and stay out of situations that could become dangerous, but don’t carry a weapon to swing at someone’s windshield and portray yourself as some sort of righteous crusader. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-ball-peen-hammers/766577/62 "2017-10-31T05:18:34Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > Bike at speed is pretty stable. Besides, I assume the next step is to move away from the vehicle. Most of these dicks are trying to be clever by crowding a bike, not actually trying to commit vehicular manslaughter. Realizing that it may cost them a new windshield may wake them up. I actually got “pinched” between two cars while lane-splitting in Southern California (heading up north on the 405 at 5pm), when the guy to the right slowly crept left and trapped me between the two cars. My right handlebar was stuck behind this ass-hats mirror and I had to beat on his window to get his attention. So goddamn lucky my brake lever didn’t get pinched and put me down! Thankfully, the speeds were really low. I honestly think he had fallen asleep and drifted left. He sprang to life, looked and me and promptly swerved right, probably right into someone else. I seriously can’t believe I survived doing that shit. Did it 5 days a week for a few years. Insanity! (Living there, not riding motorcycles) ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-ball-peen-hammers/766577/63 "2017-10-31T14:48:45Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > I actually got “pinched” between two cars while lane-splitting in Southern California (heading up north on the 405 at 5pm), when the guy to the right slowly crept left and trapped me between the two cars. My right handlebar was stuck behind this ass-hats mirror and I had to beat on his window to get his attention. So goddamn lucky my brake lever didn’t get pinched and put me down! Thankfully, the speeds were really low. > > I honestly think he had fallen asleep and drifted left. He sprang to life, looked and me and promptly swerved right, probably right into someone else. > > I seriously can’t believe I survived doing that shit. Did it 5 days a week for a few years. Insanity! (Living there, not riding motorcycles) Despite the legality in CA, maybe you just shouldn’t lane split. Some asshole wannabe stunt man lane spilt me and another car (on an otherwise empty freeway) while going about 30 mph faster (ie, 90+). He’s lucky he didn’t become a stain under my wheels. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2017, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-ball-peen-hammers/766577/64 "2017-11-03T06:11:54Z")
> [@leftfield6](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Missing apostrophe in Hells Angels? Yes, we know that there is an apostrophe missing but it is you who miss it. We don’t. > > nitpick, but a fascinating one, at least to me. It is NOT Hell’s Angels. It is Hells Angels. No apostrophe. Their website plainly points out that this is intentional. Another explanation I’ve seen on the website, or maybe it was the website of one of the chapters, is that it is supposed to be “hells”, because “history teaches us there are many hells”. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-ball-peen-hammers/766577/65 "2017-11-04T09:37:32Z")
> [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](#): > > I’ve used them on cars (not motorcycles) to loosen rusted brake rotors. You spray the bolt that holds the rotor in place with some rust penetrator, hit it with the ball peen hammer, and it tends to come loose. For anyone interested in hammers, I’ll add that a ball-peen hammer has a softer head than a claw-hammer. So that the ball-peen hammer is less likely to shatter when hitting something hard. The claw hammer has a harder head, so that the claw is less likely to bend when used as a lever. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-ball-peen-hammers/766577/66 "2017-11-04T09:41:11Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > It’s so dangerous when a vehicle gets too close that his response is to get closer, take one hand of the handlebars, and swing a heavy object? What a fine teachable moment that must be. You’ve never had a car run over your foot, have you? When a car comes “too close” to a m/c, you don’t have to “get closer” to hit it with a hammer. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-ball-peen-hammers/766577/67 "2017-11-04T09:49:51Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > You’ve never had a car run over your foot, have you? When a car comes “too close” to a m/c, you don’t have to “get closer” to hit it with a hammer. No, I haven’t. Although if my foot was in a position to be run over that would mean I’m stopped and my foot is on the ground. I don’t get the impression that motorcycle riders are carrying hammers and wrenches to use only when they are stationary. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-ball-peen-hammers/766577/68 "2017-11-04T12:27:02Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > I’m not entirely sure, but I think I just got threatened with violence for reading this thread. It reminds me of a few old threads where we’d be discussing and speculating on how a magic trick was done and someone would enter the thread, announce themselves as a professional or semi-professional magician and pretentiously tell us that we would never know for certain and no real magician would ever tell us, i.e. they were claiming exclusive knowledge that none of us outside the subculture would ever fully grasp and we were being rude for even trying. In this case, mingled with a bit of “and I could beat you up, too.” ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2017, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-ball-peen-hammers/766577/69 "2017-11-06T03:20:06Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > One year zombie? That’s just resting. Still has that new zombie smell. > [@Gatopescado](#): > > Pining for the Fjords? Peening for the Fords. ---
**Author:** ![mattm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@mattm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mattm)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2017, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-ball-peen-hammers/766577/70 "2017-11-06T05:50:59Z")
I don’t carry a ball peen, I used to keep a few dead D cells in my jacket pocket for deserving inDUHviduals. I’ve only deployed them on two occasions, and they both know who did it. With the passage of time, I have come to repudiate my youthful impudence, many other cagers have made far worse transgressions only to receive a stern stare and maybe a single digit rebuke. I am more alert and slower to anger these days, but every once in a while I want to strangle some stupid right at the scene of the stupidity, but I resist. I value my freedom, it would not be worth the momentary ecstasy. But it’s nice to dream. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bikers-and-ball-peen-hammers/766577.md?page=3)