# To the two crotch rocketeers **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 4, 2007, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-two-crotch-rocketeers/390714 "2007-02-04T00:24:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2007, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-two-crotch-rocketeers/390714/41 "2007-02-04T23:15:31Z")
[QUOTE=OtakuLoki] Quick question for the OP, is the term ‘squid bastards’ your general insult,\*\* or did you have reason to believe these were navy people?\*\* Just being curious. [/QUOTE] Well Maverick was riding a crotch rocket in Top gun Just sayin Declan ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2007, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-two-crotch-rocketeers/390714/42 "2007-02-04T23:32:57Z")
[QUOTE=Declan] If those bikes were doing a 150 mph and he was doing a liesurely speed limit , then ya I can see it happening. [/QUOTE] Happened to us on the Jersey Turnpike a few months ago. We were in a rented SUV doing ~65 in the right lane and I had my head in a map. There was this “waaaaaaaah” and I looked up in time to see the tailight of some motorcycle in the far left lane; must have been doing at least 100. Neither of us saw it until it went by. I picked up my cell phone and called the NJ State Police in hopes they could catch up before the fool wiped out on somoene’s rear bumper. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-two-crotch-rocketeers/390714/43 "2007-02-05T00:30:48Z")
[QUOTE=SpectBrain] No my beef is that they passed between me and the shoulder on a two lane road. And because the road was winding I was looking ahead picking my cornering lines, not watching behind me for a flock of flying assholes. [/QUOTE] I’m English. We have nothing but winding roads. Still doesn’t mean I don’t check my mirrors twenty times a minute, or wonder why the hell I skipped the routine when something comes past that I didn’t know was there. ---
**Author:** ![SpectBrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a87d85/32.png) [@SpectBrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpectBrain)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-two-crotch-rocketeers/390714/44 "2007-02-05T00:43:33Z")
[QUOTE=Malacandra] I’m English. We have nothing but winding roads. Still doesn’t mean I don’t check my mirrors twenty times a minute, or wonder why the hell I skipped the routine when something comes past that I didn’t know was there. [/QUOTE] It really doesn’t matter whether I saw them or not, at the speed they were closing, there was nothing I could do to change or avoid the situation. ---
**Author:** ![komb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4da419/32.png) [@komb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/komb)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-two-crotch-rocketeers/390714/45 "2007-02-05T00:44:34Z")
Motorcycles are inherently unsafe. You can tell this from looking at them. A seat bolted to a bare motor. Wow. And then you say accidents are someone else’s fault? True denial. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-two-crotch-rocketeers/390714/46 "2007-02-05T01:04:42Z")
[QUOTE=komb] And then you say accidents are someone else’s fault? True denial. [/QUOTE] Yeah, because cagers _never_ change lanes without looking and wipe out the motorcyclist they didn’t see. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-two-crotch-rocketeers/390714/47 "2007-02-05T09:31:19Z")
[QUOTE=SpectBrain] It really doesn’t matter whether I saw them or not, at the speed they were closing, there was nothing I could do to change or avoid the situation. [/QUOTE] Well, except that if you’d seen them coming, they wouldn’t have scared the shit out of you when you came past. Perhaps this death-defying overtake was _based_ on the assumption that there was nothing you could do to change or avoid the situation. If I can see that someone else’s line through a corner is predictable, I dare say I could pass him either side if I had a big edge in speed. Not that I ride like that but I’ve been in situations where it’s easy enough to treat slower moving traffic as if it were stationary. And not having been able to do anything to change or avoid this particular situation is still no excuse for not knowing what’s going on behind you. Sorry, but I’ve heard this “Bloody idiots!” line too many times. It’s just possible that the guys who shot past you had far _more_ roadcraft than you, not far less. /aside Wow. **komb** lasted a long time. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-two-crotch-rocketeers/390714/48 "2007-02-05T15:51:45Z")
I take it “lane splitting” means the practice of riding one’s motorcycle between lanes of traffic. It never occurred to me this might actually be _legal_ somewhere in the U.S. That’s ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-two-crotch-rocketeers/390714/49 "2007-02-05T16:18:59Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin] I take it “lane splitting” means the practice of riding one’s motorcycle between lanes of traffic. It never occurred to me this might actually be _legal_ somewhere in the U.S. That’s ridiculous. [/QUOTE] No. I think it means when two motorcycles split or _share_ a lane. But hell, I’m just guessing. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-two-crotch-rocketeers/390714/50 "2007-02-05T16:38:02Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin] I take it “lane splitting” means the practice of riding one’s motorcycle between lanes of traffic. It never occurred to me this might actually be _legal_ somewhere in the U.S. That’s ridiculous. [/QUOTE] One of the reasons I was so glad to get out of Atlanta was the sheer number of dipshits zooming down the dashed white line on I-85. That and the number of people I’d see reading the newspaper on I-285… while barreling down the highway at 75+ miles per hour. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-two-crotch-rocketeers/390714/51 "2007-02-05T16:55:05Z")
[QUOTE=Maus Magill] One of the reasons I was so glad to get out of Atlanta was the sheer number of dipshits zooming down the dashed white line on I-85. That and the number of people I’d see reading the newspaper on I-285… while barreling down the highway at 75+ miles per hour. [/QUOTE] I rarely saw motorcycles on I-85 when I used to drive on it regularly (about three years ago). I guess they wiped out around SC somewhere. The newspaper reading bastards made it all the way up to Durham a couple of times, though. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-two-crotch-rocketeers/390714/52 "2007-02-05T17:56:29Z")
[QUOTE=SpazCat] I rarely saw motorcycles on I-85 when I used to drive on it regularly (about three years ago). I guess they wiped out around SC somewhere. The newspaper reading bastards made it all the way up to Durham a couple of times, though. [/QUOTE] They were all over I-40 between Raleigh and RTP when I was working at Glaxo many, many moons ago. Maybe they disperse around Mooresville. ---
**Author:** ![Snowcarpet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowcarpet/32/257_2.png) [@Snowcarpet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowcarpet)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-two-crotch-rocketeers/390714/53 "2007-02-05T18:23:43Z")
I’ve had the “joy” of sharing the road with these guys: [http://www.starboyz.com/](http://www.starboyz.com/) (Me, looking in rear mirrors, “Oh sh\*\*!!!”) Lately they’ve been doing a better job of confining their more insane tricks to the racetrack, but it was rather unnerving for awhile. Look guys, I’m a crap driver, it’s not really safe for you to pop wheelies on either side of my car! ---
**Author:** ![justrob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9adbd/32.png) [@justrob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justrob)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-two-crotch-rocketeers/390714/54 "2007-02-05T18:57:42Z")
[QUOTE=Bear\_Nenno] No. I think it means when two motorcycles split or _share_ a lane. But hell, I’m just guessing. [/QUOTE] No, **Baldwin** has it exactly correct. It is when motorcycles pass other traffic by travelling between the lanes of traffic. **Ed the Head** had a pretty good explanation. [QUOTE=Ed the Head] Not really. Lane splitting, when done right, is done when traffic is moving between 0-30mph. The motorcyclist shouldn’t be going more then 5-15 mph faster then the rest of traffic. The faster traffic is moving the closer in speed the two should be. [/QUOTE] Of course the idiots being referred to in this thread are those that use lane splitting to go as fast as they like safety be damned. ---
**Author:** ![Leviosaurus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Leviosaurus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leviosaurus)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2007, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-two-crotch-rocketeers/390714/55 "2007-02-05T23:32:56Z")
I find sharing the road with squids like these a lot more terrifying than sharing the road with a bunch of cars. Motorcyclists like to say that ‘all cagers are crazy and will kill you if they get the chance’ as a way of reinforcing the idea that when you’re on a bike, you always have to be alert and looking for the next threat. But in the case of squids, it seems like it’s the truth. There was a case here in the PNW last year where a squid snuck up in the blind spot of another rider on the freeway, then blasted his engine as loudly as he could as a prank. The second rider jumped in his seat, and lost control of his bike. He fell off, was run over, and suffered permanent debilitating injury. The squid sped off. A witness was another biker, who wrote the whole thing up on a local messageboard. Those kinds of bikers are the reason motorcycling is viewed the way it is. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2007, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-two-crotch-rocketeers/390714/56 "2007-02-06T02:04:33Z")
[QUOTE=Bear\_Nenno] No. I think it means when two motorcycles split or _share_ a lane. But hell, I’m just guessing. [/QUOTE] [CHP FAQ](http://www.chp.ca.gov/html/answers.html): > [@](#): > > **Can motorcycle riders “split” lanes and ride between other vehicles?** > > Lane splitting by motorcycles is permissible but must be done in a safe and prudent manner. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-two-crotch-rocketeers/390714.md?page=2)