Invisibility switch

[HowardQ]

Actually I don't think we are far apart. Anywhere I know there is a hazzard around a corner or slight bend. I move out to the centre line well in advance, before I can see it. Then again on a straight road with a junction some way down it I would obviously not stay on the centre line all the way down it. If I see a car there at the junction, I would reactively move to the right, but if the view of an upcoming driveway, field entrance or whatever is obstructed in some way I would move out to the centre line well in advance for various reasons.
The reason for reactively moving out if you see a car at a junction is because it is proven that anybody looking down the road is more likely to "see" you if there is some sideways movent as well as movement towards them. If you don't do this they tend to look through you (SMIDSY).
Another obvious reason being they can see you and you can see them earlier, if it is a junction on a slight bend.
As a final gain, if they start to pull out and you are well over to the right, they might just see or hear you at the last minute and you have more chance of avoiding them.
I've also used police cornering techniques for very many years rather than full racing lines. Out wide on entry where you can do so safely and tight in after the apex, so if you do end up drifting out on the exit for some unforeseen circumstance, you have a safety margin. By that I mean an exit near to the curb on a left hand bend and towards the centre on a right hand bend.
Other obvious little things help like hanging back on overtakes and taking a look down the left hand side of a car in front where it can give you a better view.
The other thing is never stop reading the road, if there is a factory unit or farm in the distance, expect lorries or tractors to be turning.
Sorry for going on, as you will almost certainly do all the same things and possibly much more. You cannot really explain such techniques in a post like this, and I would think most people on here already use them or similar.
I still think bikers are significantly better than your average car drivers, (and make better car drivers), but I do see more idiots on bikes these days, particularly in groups, and have seen way too many taking bad lines into corners then jumping on brakes, and not all of them get away with it. There are also lots of bikers these days who cannot handle all the power of modern bikes, I rarely use anything like full power on the Falco and will probably never reallyuse the full 148 bhp or so of the ZX9R.
Unfortunately this means I now tend to ride much more on my own these days and more regularly on country roads I know well, where I tend to know all the blind junctions, funny cambers, poor road surfaces, field exits where tractors regularly leave mud on the roads and any other dodgy bits, which tends to include dangerous potholes as well these days!
I feel safer this way.

[yellowasp]

like I said, you ride very, very well

[Gio]

For years I've been riding/driving on the understanding that we keep to the left hand side of the road, but recently it apears that this is no longer the case. Other road users appear to be treating the left rule more as guidance rather than law. It was most noticible this morning when riding to work, setting myself up for left hand corners and twice finding some numpty in his big metal box stradling the white lines and coming straight at me.
No matter how much I searched couldn't find the switch that had turned me and the bike invisible, so I can only assume that they were idiots.
Anybody else finding this problem on the increase???

If you think thats bad, what about mini roundabouts nearly everyone straight lines or if turning right does so before reaching it, I've handed in 4 pictures this week of people ignoring right turns at them, I'd stick the pictures up on here but its an infingement of rights (you can see their faces and numberplates)

[Aladinsaneuk]

post them - if some one complains, apologise and remove it - if they don't complain then .....

[Panda]

My only reply is that I was (luckily) riding defensively - if I hadn't been I wouldn't have seen them nor had the time to react and get out their way. I have no intention of becoming a bonnet ornament on an Audi or any other vehicle.
It just seems that this corner cutting problem is getting worse. I've certainly noticed it a lot more over the last few years. And it seems especially true for bigger cars.
Hey ho, perhaps I need to perfect that idea I had of mounting a machine gun through the screen.

[D-Rider]

.... a bit like this :

[yellowasp]

Now THAT is what we need, but without the Olive from on the Buses Sidecar

[Samray]

The one I encounter most often is idiots completely ignoring the lanes on roundabouts, entering in one, drifting across in front of you without a care in the world to one nearer the centre of the roundabout and drifting back across again as they exit.
.... and when you beep your horn, get in front and wave your arms at them like a demented Dodo trying to take off, they have no idea what they've done or they even blame you!

There's also the assumption that just because a bike is narrow, you can also give up huge swathes of your side of the road to let them through (usually past parked cars) .... failing to appreciate that the line you are taking is because it's raining and you are avoiding the worst of the adverse camber away from the crown of the road on the bend and avoiding that slippery manhole cover...
In fact they are probably not even aware it's raining, have no concept of camber and no idea that manhole covers are slippery - let alone the dynamics of a bike ....

Good example of just that here. Ignorant bloody cagers!!
Link