See what happens when you don't shoulder check...

[Electrojake]

Thanks for posting that first video.
http://www.break.com/index/motor-scooter-rear-ended.html
Lots of good input because of it.
Fortunately for us riders that have a brain, fools will always find way to kill or damage themselves and this does have a very positive effect for the rest of us.

There will be a certain number of riders that are going down on their bike this year, (the stats show it).
There will be a certain number of rider fatalities too, (the stats show it).
Every time one of em' go down, that directly and immediately lowers the chance of "YOU" going down.

{Reference: David Hough in his 1st. Proficient Motorcycling book and the NHTSA & Hurt Report numbers}

There are usually about 4500 bikers killed and about 75,000 injured each year (www.nhtsa.dot.gov). Each time one goes down, your chances of same are reduced. You can't deny the facts!

So, any time I see a rider practicing poor judgment, like our friend in the video, I simply think of him as being on his way to making "YOU & I" one digit closer to yet another safe & happy accident free year on the bike.
Thank you Mr. Hough for putting all those stats in a perspective I can grasp.
And thank you squids and fools across the country for filling those NHTSA stats each year so alert & sane riders like us don't have to.
-Ej-

[Shaddow]

[Electrojake]

Morphing the topic. But not too far off;
So why it is that when I commute to work on the Harley I seldom have an issue but when I ride the exact same route on my scooter, I get tail-gated and buzzed almost constantly.
It's as if people want to "touch" the scooter but seem to stay clear of the Harley. <go figure>

By the way. . .
Mopeds are fair game.
You are indeed aloud to tag em' with your cage.
. . .with their stinky annoying 2-stroke engines and their silly 32 MPH top speed.

<Disclaimer: tt-four is exempt if spotted on his rather clean antique TOMOS>

[Shaddow]

Not sure why that is so. I've noticed that when I accidentally loose the P-Plates (Will finally get off them in November officially) off my bike suddenly people stop tail gating me, stop trying to stupidly overtake me. Hell I love the people in their 4Bs trying to undertake me on roundabouts that I don't even have to lean to corner through. Its a MOTORBIKE! Even a half dead one is faster then the average moron in their city only 4B.
I noticed the difference in my cars too. i drive the sedate corolla at above the speed limit on the same route and it gets tailgated and people cut in front of it etc but when I drove my smacked on the ground skyline (it had other rice boy mods but hey I bought it cheap to fill a hole with it all done so ugg) people stayed clear of it. No tailgating, no cutting hell I even drove it slower and it was still steered clear of.
Unfortunately the zed used to get wanna be sport car drivers trying to have a race with you all the time. All I ever wanted to do with them was get out and have a good old beating the living F**K out of them! Shall be interesting when they goes back on the rode and you can hear the turbos whining more bogans and youngin's will want to race it.
I think its a mentality. They assume the scooter, or the p plate driver or Learner driver is an idiot and they need to get past them to avoid them, even though they are exactly the sort of vehicles you should be MORE careful around. Unfortunately those types of people usually are the WORST drivers, can't keep safe braking distances, make sudden rash movements, don't observe their surroundings, blame everyone else when things don't go right, etc. Makes me just want to road rage their arse with a point and click device.
Err I'll end my rant now.

[tt_four]

So why it is that when I commute to work on the Harley I seldom have an issue but when I ride the exact same route on my scooter, I get tail-gated and buzzed almost constantly.

I feel it's because when people see someone on a Harley they assume it's someone who's violent and has nothing to live for, and is therefore not the one on the road you would choose to mess with. When they see someone on a moped or scooter they just assume it's a 40 year old guy who has yet to hit puberty, and is there just to be pushed out of the way. It's a poor stereotype of people on Harleys, but it's the image so many of them shoot for so that's what happens. Well, all of them except the guy we say going down the highway today on his touring bike with a confederate flag license plate hanging off the back all while wearing shorts and some kind of ugly patterned button up short sleeve shirt. He looked about as menacing as Randy Quaid and I was tempted to run him over myself.

<Disclaimer: tt-four is exempt if spotted on his rather clean antique TOMOS>

I was gonna say! haha, mine will almost hit 50 and will wheelie way easier than any GS you'll ever ride. It is not to be messed with.

[pandy]

Yikes....those crashes (especially in the first post) look MIGHTY painful. I've crashed on the freeway in full gear, and THAT hurt a lot...I can't imagine my bare skin hitting the deck like that. OUCH.