Pull out to my right to get a look and it's a KTM (orange) and a blue bike (Husky?). They're not going quite my speed so I overtake them and a RangeRover in one smooth movement before getting to the M25 r/a and heading off down the link road to the other r/a.
Catch a couple of glimpses of them in my mirrors as I head towards Box, hardly surprising - they were riding quicker than the traffic when I approached them in the first place.
See the blue bike approaching me as I get towards the Texaco R/a above Box, couple of cars in front, so I stick to the left lane, expecting him to hammer past me on the right and onto the r/a. So am rather surprised when he appears on my left - so close we're almost rubbing elbows! Not really a problem for me to be honest, I don't have that much of an issue with bikes being very close, but it was a touch odd.
So I take the opening he appears to have missed: I move right, pass the two cars just at the entrance to the r/a and head left, towards Box. (An unorthodox manoeuvre I know, but satisfying when you get it right). He followed me (risky cos the following bike always has less room in that manoeuvre) and I see him in my mirror hammering up towards me.
Now - I always pootle down that single carriageway stretch of road, despite the chevroned "Motorcycle overtake Lane" on the left - because I've seen stationary cars on the chevrons, and the occasional copper. So as I approach the car that's in front of me, I back off, and move slightly to my right, assuming Mr Husky will cross to his left behind me and go down the Chevrons - we're approaching some more traffic.
But no - Mr Husky hammer past my right side and cuts across my front wheel as he moves left onto the chevrons - I had about 2 car lengths between me and the cage in front (I ride close to cars - yes I know - my bad :dozey: ). Not much margin for error you might think! He disappears down the chevrons. His mate I noticed is far more sedate and stays behind the 2 cars behind me.
Mr Husky is waiting for us at the Boxhill roundabout.
Because he's stationary I pass him again as I go round, and he again pursues me towards Dorking, at the approach to the 1st r/a I do a dodgy filter and get onto the r/a first and accelerate away - he hammers past me again and we get to the first set of lights roughly together.
I stop, and look over at him, expecting a cheeky grin or something - nope. He blanks me, staring straight ahead.
Oh well, each to their own.He accelerates away from the lights a bit harder than me, I always get caught at the lights under the railway bridge so I don't bother to go quick there, and as I pull up, the KTM arrives and starts chatting to Mr Husky.
They miss the light change and I pull away, not quickly to be honest, and get about 10-15 yards on them, I can see them clearly in my mirrors - there's about a 100 metre run up to the main r/a and there's about 6 or 7 cars up there.
Mr Husky, I see in my mirror, is not finished.
I've moved left slightly so that I'm on the right side of the left lane, just left of center of the carriageway.
I watch Mr Husky approach in my mirrors and it's obvous he's moving to the very left of the road - blatantly about to carve up my nearside.
I've had enough of this by now and so as he leaves my view in my nearside mirror (and thus into my blindspot), I twitch the bars, making it appear as if the bike is going to go left.
This obviously spooks Mr Husky (can't imagine why :rolleyes: ), because firstly he aims a kick at my front wheel as he appears to my left and front, (deliberate miss or failed hit??), then turns around on the bike to face me (he's directly in front of me), points and waves his right arm a few times, :dozey: turns back to face front and takes both hands off and does the Sand Dance
then noticing that he's approaching near-stationary traffic at about 50 suddenly grabs the anchors and locks up - causing me to brake hard too. (I was paying more attention to him I admit) :dozey:He arrives at the roundabout and turns in so slowly I've virtually no option but to pass him on his right, and as I do so I think "Enough" and on exiting the r/a I engage the warp engines and just leave. I think he probably tried to follow me but, and I'm not proud to admit this, I rode uber-courier style to the dual-carriageway and then left the throttle on the stop, losing them.
Now, I fully admit that I rode like a twat at times during this "encounter", but I found it odd that he was prepared to do the things he did.
The first time he came up on my left - why?? He missed a perfect overtake position that would have left me stuck behind 2 cars and unable to catch up with him.
When he cut me up leaving the Texaco r/a - why?? why not go round behind me??
When he attempted to spook me by caving up on my nearside - is it so unthinkable that I would move left if I'd seen him approaching? And also - so unfair that I spook him when he's attempting to spook me?
I just hope that none of this happened within the sight of any particularly vociferous local council members who would undoubtedly have more ammo for their "All bikers are hoot idiots" arguments.
