The Secret to Invisibility

Earlier this week on Dirck Edge at Motorcycle Daily wrote a piece on how motorcyclists are invisible on the street.

My main transport around town is a Hyosung SB50 scooter. It's a lovely little scooter than handles most of the 50kmh limits easily, and struggles its way through the 70kmh section I have to navigate daily. It corners with a typical scooter pogo action, but the speeds that can be maintained are impressive, but ultimately much slower than the real motorcycles in my past.

Around town, I am also completely invisible, or a target to be passed as closely as possible, ultimately sort of like the cross between a bicycle and a full blown motorcycle that I am.

Except an 120kg idiot on a 50kmh projectile makes a big dent.

But the ones that get me are the people who are completely determined not to be behind a scooter. If this means going 80kmh and overtaking into oncoming traffic, that's just fair game. In the 70kmh section I cannot maintain the same speed as the surrounding traffic, but as I am only in there for a minute and only one of dozens of scooters that use that area, I'm not too worried.

I have, however, given up sitting to the left of the left lane (NZ drive on the left) which allows the faster cars easier time to pass. Why have I given up on this? mainly because the cars will pass me as closely as possible, I mean I could scratch their head through the open passengers window close, like I am not even there, invisible.

This process is made even more exciting when it is performed under streaming rain.

Ultimately it means that the riding style tends to be aggressive and potentially offensive, but how can people be offended by something that doesn't exist?

Something Invisible?