Shimagnolo

https://denver.cbslocal.com/2021/05/...kout-mountain/

I ride this road frequently on my motorbike, and always hug the centerline when passing cyclists.
Sadly, seeing who the bikers were, does not surprise me at all.

Bald Paul

It's okay. They all pulled over later on and wrote themselves tickets.

Chistophe516

I watched the video of DPD passing the cyclist. The problem is a double-edged sword. While riding two abreast, actually caused the officers' to slow down. They nearly sent the cyclist over the guardrail. OTOH, had the officers' ridden by single file. While giving the cyclist more space. They probably would have sped by the cyclist. So, It comes down to 'the lesser of two evils'.

Shimagnolo

And if the cops had been riding in a staggered formation, (as is taught in the MSF courses), the guys on the right could easily have moved left into a single file formation to pass cyclists.

https://www.msf-usa.org/downloads/group_ride.pdf

Cops are the only motorcyclists I see around here who insist on riding two abreast in large groups.

indyfabz

I had bikers buzz me on Yaak River Rd. in NW Montana back in 2017. No reason as there was no oncoming traffic. But bikers in general have been very courteous to me. When I descended Independence Pass in CO a biker in front of me pointed out rocks in the road. Nice fellow. I gave him a wave once we got to a straighter section as he was about to take off.

scott967

My closest passes are always motorcycles riding 2 abreast.

scott s.
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indyfabz

Yeah. The incident I described above involved a large group that was taking up the entire road. It’s a very scenic road that usually has little car traffic, and there is a dive bar in the one little town along the route, so it’s somewhat popular with bikers on the weekends.

Davswar

I've been run off the road a couple times by cars. Scary AF. I wasn't even taking up the lane. People just wanna rage sometimes.

Inisfallen

Yes. They do it here in NYC too.

Back in my motorcycle days, we never did this when on club rides, or group rides of any kind. It's just not safe. And yet police departments everywhere still do it.

tomato coupe

Let's stick with reality. A couple of the motorcycles passed a bit too close, but no way did they "nearly send the cyclist over the guardrail."

Chistophe516

I said "nearly". How is that unrealistic?

tomato coupe

Your statement is completely false. The video clearly shows the rider was never close to being sent over the guardrail.

Chistophe516

Watch the video again. At 00:10, the cyclist says "Christ!!", when reacting to the first DPD officer passed dangerously close Then, At 00:45-00:47, the cyclist said "I was a foot away from the guardrail with a 1,000ft. drop ." To me, that qualifies for 'nearly'.

Shimagnolo

1. Small consumer cameras always have wide-angle lenses that make everything look further away than it really is. Any lens with Field-Of-View of >=64 degrees is wide-angle. I have one camera with "narrow", "medium", and "wide" FOV settings and the "narrow" is 70 degrees!

2. I have ridden this road many times both on bicycle and motorcycle, and I know firsthand that there is no way in hell to safely pass a cyclist on it unless the motorcycle is in the left half of the lane next to the centerline.

3. The law in CO is to give cyclists a minimum of 3' clearance. Is it too much to expect the police to obey to the law they are expected to enforce?

tomato coupe

It's legitimate to complain about how close the motorcycles passed the cyclist, but it serves no useful purpose to make up BS. The video clearly shows that the cyclist never even crosses over the white line, much less "nearly sent over the guardrail."

Paul Barnard

Getting back out of the weeds, that was completely inappropriate for them to pass that closely. That actually pisses me off quite a bit. For the life of me, I don't understand why officers insist on making their job more difficult by alienating segments of the public through mindless actions like that. I would have yelled at them and given them the single finger salute.

Moe Zhoost

This is seriously presumptive, mate. Let's not dream up stuff to embellish or explain the incident.

Shimagnolo

Here is the location of the incident in Google Streetview:
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.7473...7i16384!8i8192

Chistophe516

I wasn't doing either. I was thinking about the DPD officers' behavior in the two-abreast formation(in the video), and if they had been single-file. That is not embellishing.

scott967

My worst (from perceived danger) passes have been from motorcyclists abreast or even echeloned, and that includes our local HPD cops. The guy on the right just will not move over for anything.

scott s.
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spdntrxi

Harley mentality...

Paul Barnard

If I were the officer's supervisor, I'd make the ones that passed at a safe distance ticket the ones who did not. Then I'd have the ones that passed too closely apologize publicly to the rider.

Milton Keynes

Things like this make me glad I now ride with a camera on my handlebars.

Milton Keynes

Probably because that's the way they always did it on "CHiPs."

tomato coupe

Does it prevent or reduce the occurrence of close passes?