Interstate Riding Tips for a Beginner?

[noworries]

Guess you all saw that one of those in court a week or so back in regard to the NY road-rage incident is a serving police officer? Fascinating.

[Kijona]

I was followed Very closely by a car last night when riding with a buddy and I only did the slow down speed up routine to try and send him the message (which he didn't get).  I wanted to flip him off but didn't. 

As much as it sucks, giving a nice long signal warning and pulling off the road where safe tends to be quicker, safer, and less stressful than any other method I've found.

As far as weapons on bikes... I'll put it this way. As soon as you pull any form of weapon on someone, whether you intend to use it or not, they can generally pull a gun and shoot you and/or ram you with no repercussions.

Rule of thumb is if you pull a weapon, you better be unquestionably within your right to do so and you better make good use of it before the other party can retaliate, period, for numerous reasons. It's definitely not something to mess around with.

I understand the laws around the matter, but if I can de-escalate a situation by showing that I am not defenseless I will choose that route if it spares the use of deadly force.  Just because it's legally safer to shoot if you draw your gun doesn't make it right to do so if simply the threat is enough to stop them (stopping is the goal, anyway).  I know it's a very "you know it when you see it" type of situation where this approach would work, so I'm more saying that I keep it on the table as an option than that it is my go-to move.  De-escalation by exiting (or completely avoiding) the situation clearly comes first, though.

I agree with Watcher that it would take me fearing for my life due to intentionally aggressive driving before I'd feel the need to take a more aggressive approach to defend myself.  I'm thinking more along the lines of some helmet-cam footage I've seen of violent road-rage against lane-splitting cyclists/motorcyclists (where it is legal to do so).  This would be another know-it-when-see-it situation, where avoidance was unsafe/impossible.  The unfortunate incident in NY last year where the Range Rover ran over several bikers is evidence enough that aggressive driving is enough to justify that you are in fear for your life.  The guy paralyzed a man and got off with no charges.  (the bikers were WAY in the wrong on this one, though)

The guy that was tailgating me in my example had been doing so for maybe 5 miles of curvy country roads with many blind turns from a distance of about 15 feet, so I was quite concerned with it but I'm fairly certain the guy was just an idiot just following taillights and would do the same to a car without realizing it.  He wasn't revving or making any other aggressive gestures.  It was actually the other rider with me who tried the slow-down-speed-up routine to get him to back off, but the idiot just stayed close and probably had no idea what was going on anyway.  We didn't pull the slow-down speed-up routine until we got to some city roads, but admittedly we should have probably just pulled over and gotten the hell away from him.

It's never a good thing when you have to produce a firearm. I myself have a license to carry a firearm, and there have been times I was glad I was. That being said, at least here where I live, it definitely would be wise to avoid anything of the nature on the roadways. If you open fire on a vehicle, or even produce some kind of weapon on the roadway, you're opening yourself up for a very bad day in court - that's not to say that you wouldn't be able to explain it away; it just would best to avoid that situation at all costs.

There's been a few times where I've been confronted on the roadways. It hasn't happened on a motorcycle, but has definitely happened in my vehicle. In every instance, I was approached while sitting in my own vehicle. I did not get out of my vehicle at any point (bad idea to get out - an argument could be made that you could have avoided the situation but escalated by getting out). In every instance, it wasn't even necessary to produce any weapons. Just letting them see I was reaching for something and coupling it with a serious look and tone while saying "You need to back away." completely dissolved the situation. Even still, my next plan in those situations, was never to actually produce a weapon - it would be to either open the door and hit them with it, or simply drive away if I could. Only if I was in grave danger would I be willing to produce a weapon. Even still, there was a situation where someone approached my vehicle with a tire iron. In that situation I simply drove away. No sense in making things worse.