I can imagine your plight bro. Plus, its a brand new NS we're talking about.

Galat baat. We may end up getting beaten ourselves. You know road rage.

Ride safe bro. Fatigue or no fatigue, this is no excuse for the driver to be so harsh. No humanitarian feelings here.

You're lucky you came out without a scratch.

Buses carry more passengers (and you are 1 on your bike) so you must show some respect and have patience while overtaking them, they give you way most of the times on highways when they see that you're and will be faster than them.

^^^ Would that be within or outside India?

I've seen buses yielding only when we ride as large group. Even the arrogant COVERment bus drivers yield to us gracefully when they see bunch of us with our headlights turned ON; and this is India

can you please elaborate, on what heat, harshness and noise is...??they are paid to do a job, and they have to do it perfectly.we will not get beaten, because i was talking about ST buses and not private buses. you may get beaten up if you abuse private bus driver, coz they have lots of assistants on bus. not with ST bus.we show all respect and patience while overtaking them, it is they who do not show any respect while overtaking us on motorcycles.well, here in maharashtra, they do not give way easily to two wheelers, don't know where you ride mate?

I have mixed experience with Truck and Bus drivers.. Surely, me and my family is alive coz of one of them!
One my way back after a cool day out with my family on NH7 - Kuntala water falls and back. I was some 150 kms away from hyd and it was dark.
I was driving at a speed of around 80 - 100 km/hr. On one dark stretch, I was making quick overtaking maneuvers.. and somehow got between two trucks which were at some 60 km/hr speed. I spotted one overtaking opportunity as the oncoming traffic was quite far off (the road was without divider and under construction). I made a quick maneuver and nearly completed the overtaking when I realised there was a stationary truck in front of the truck I was overtaking and there was no space in between the lane I was in and the oncoming traffic. I always knew I will not be able to complete the overtaking and hit the oncoming traffic. The same was the opinions of the screams from my back seat. I stepped on the brakes to minimize the impact and came to 10-20 km/hr speed. Out of nowhere I realized that the oncoming traffic which was spear headed by a white colored bus had stopped, keeping space for my car to let me go. Though I failed to spot the stationary vehicle(even the truck I was overtaking couldn't spot it, or may be it did in time and stopped, but i dont know anything about it). This gentleman in the bus has spotted the whole scene(he even knew that i wont be able to spot the dead truck) and saw me coming and completely slowed down to give me way! Hats off to him!
There are some very nice ppl also in the driver's seat. Though the number is far less than the ones we encounter usually.

^^^ THAT WAS WHEN YOU WERE IN A FOUR WHEELER. we are discussing how most four wheelers and specially bigger ones dont show any respect to two wheelers.

if you would have been on a two wheeler, you would have been forced to take the footpath route.

As I am not at all experienced on touring on bikes. I would take what you have told as you would have got some experience.
But, I have many at times encountered arrogance of Truck and Bus drivers on highway.. Some do it intentionally. It doesn't matter whether you are on a car or on a bike to them(unless you are on anything similar or bigger than a Scorpio/Safari). They are slow and will not let you go past them.
Mostly I encounter arrogance from the ones coming from opposite side. They will overtake oncoming traffic and you cant do anything except pressing the brakes and cursing them.. else you will hit them. It doesn't matter if you are on a car/bike (its the same situation). On a bike you will get some space(atleast off road). On a car, there is no where to go.

In india, every big vehicle does the same to smaller vehicles. buses and trucks do it to cars, and cars do the same to two-wheelers.

Originally posted by aargee View Post

^^^ Would that be within or outside India?

I've seen buses yielding only when we ride as large group. Even the arrogant COVERment bus drivers yield to us gracefully when they see bunch of us with our headlights turned ON; and this is India

definitely in India Sir ji.

Originally posted by princesirohi View Post

we show all respect and patience while overtaking them, it is they who do not show any respect while overtaking us on motorcycles.well, here in maharashtra, they do not give way easily to two wheelers, don't know where you ride mate?

Originally posted by muztariq View Post

This gentleman in the bus has spotted the whole scene(he even knew that i wont be able to spot the dead truck) and saw me coming and completely slowed down to give me way! Hats off to him!
There are some very nice ppl also in the driver's seat. Though the number is far less than the ones we encounter usually.

This is quite a common example, and "many" accidents take place on highways due to dead stop trucks; or a queue of trucks parked taking the shoulder lane and suddenly some truck moving at 50-60 kph decides to join the queue and hit the brakes assuming the relative speed of the vehicles coming from behind ~+/-20kph, OR a truck from the queue suddenly wants to join you for a long drive and turns right without properly judging the speed with which you're approaching and whether you're aware of that or not! There might be a situation if you are approaching it at a high speed.

Originally posted by princesirohi View Post

^^^ THAT WAS WHEN YOU WERE IN A FOUR WHEELER. we are discussing how most four wheelers and specially bigger ones dont show any respect to two wheelers.

if you would have been on a two wheeler, you would have been forced to take the footpath route.

Lets categorise this:

4 lane highways: I have never experienced some heavy vehicle showing complete negligence to me whether I'm riding my Karizma or driving the Xylo/Indigo/Swift (none of them is mine). I just want to share what I do normally if I wish to overtake a heavy vehicle in the fast lane: I keep a safe distance matching the speed, flash the lights or high beam plus RIGHT indicator if he is completely touching the rightmost line of the fast lane to grab his attention, this works mostly unless he is himself planning to overtake some vehicle that is in the slow/travelling lane, just keep my eye at the window (they use hand signals often). I, at once, be patient for a while and do not just swerve and try to overtake him from left (undertake actually) NO! that is dangerous, as there is always a possibility that a SLOWER or (Thank God its India) a COMPLETELY halted vehicle which you might gonna give a push! Once they are clear and start giving way, I overtake him with LEFT indicator ON to make him more alert regarding my position and so that he should completely move out of the passing lane.
Also, regardless of our speed, we must not always occupy the fast lane.
This is the most important things which heavy vehicles should follow, which is totally absent (even on 6 lanes GVK expressway) and sometimes there is a sight that in all the lanes there are trucks and you have to use all of your physics and mental presence to judge which one will be overtaking the others faster and then follow him.
But driving at 60+ on the slow lane is not possible specially at nights 'cause you might find a rickshaw or a deadass moving at ~30 and thats the reason truck drivers choose the fast lane so that they need not change back lanes frequently. (their ego: jisko jaana hoga wo jayega left se)

2 lane highways: Agreed, that heavy vehicles (plus cars, YES) tend to throw you out of the road during oncoming overtaking. Few things that I follow:
Always keep my low beam ON, and keep closer to the median rather than the left continuous line and each time a vehicle is to the right (his right) of the median, flash and keep RIGHT indicator ON. (This works best at nights, and I have seen many bus drivers then going back to his lane within the divider) "because at nights good drivers drive according to the median/divider"

I follow the same thing when I wish to overtake some vehicle going in the oncoming lane with RIGHT indicator ON and coming back after overtake with LEFT indicator.

If you ride closer to the leftmost continuous line they "assume" that you're not doing much speeds and judge their overtakes accordingly, it is not always that they will completely ignore a bike.

let me tell you, what i experience-->

if a 4-wheeler is driving on the right most lane, and you approach it for overtaking, mostly (90%) will ignore you, remaining 10% will give way.

out of that 90%, if someone notices your riding gear (gloves, jacket, knee guard, boots etc) some of them may give way, while some will block your way or increase their speed, so you won't be able to overtake, others keep on ignoring.

you try to catch their attention by blowing horn, and/or flashing whatever 35/55 W puny headlights you may have, some will give way, rest still don't care.

now you are irritated like hell and honk continuously, and/or flash aggressively, some will give way but rest of them (60-70%) still ignores you.

irritated like hell, you undertake (overtake from left side) them, and give a strong angry glance to them, and they return your glance with a look which says- "C'mon man, do you even exist, who are you riding a 2-wheeler, why do you give me that glance, does a 2-wheeler even have a right to overtake a car/4-wheeler, you should be thankful to us that we are allowing a 2-wheeler to ride on roads, since we own them"

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60% of my riding happens in night, and when i had that 35W puny headlights, no amount of flashing/signalling will compel oncoming 4-wheelers to use dipper.
so now i have an HID, now i don't need to flash. as simple as that, and 50% of oncoming 4-wheelers will simply surrender (yes, i love the use of this word, coz i have suffered) without even me blinking. then i say in my mind "f***-you" did you listened when i use to flash with my puny headlight earlier, now its payback time , now you suffer.
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only exception to above, are the mercs, BMW's, AUDI's and like, basically you can say costly cars, coz the driver fear for their costly cars, a nobody like me hits or even scratches a BMW, and he is in for costly repairs. either this or the owner is the driver and is simply a decent man and knows how to drive.

other few exceptions are drivers employed on payroll by corporates and MNC's

there are few negligible individual exceptions too, but they are far too few.

either way you give me respect and i give you respect. otherwise don't expect it.
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you may think, i am a hooligan on road, but i am not. i simply wrote what happens in india and how you have to ride to survive.
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how many times my colleagues have banged and knocked down my perfectly parked bike in office parking or residential parking and have not even bothered to say sorry or pick-up the bike.
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anyway, that is my personal experience and other's experiences may vary depending on geographical or other conditions.

Replies in Color

I agree to this. I become yielded to temporary rage, adrenaline rush and realize later what a mess I have done. What if things gone wrong?. Before the thrill what we get outsmarting others, we forget our family/friends waiting to see us, waiting for a call from us. One cannot be lucky all the times. I have realized it many times...and whenever some one wants to go past me ..I let them go with pleasure..even if it is TVS 50 or Volvo driven by all genders of all ages. Moreover I love the way I am. In city roads I ride at 50s with my earphone humming. I see hell a lot of pleasure in it. Unless be it a need of hour dont overspeed. Nothing we gonna loose reaching home 15 mins late is my mantra as far as city ride is concerned. In highways rules are different subject to traffic, of course with common sense.

One more incident i remember:

Earlier i use to ride Kawasaki Aspire 110cc, This is my best bike coz it had very little maintenance, rough n tough nature with excellent fuel efficiency!!

But after some 7-8 yrs my bike started giving problem in rains!! Don't know from where does water use to sip in my fuel tank leading the engine to shut off!! Once after my 12th i was searching admission in Pen college of engineering. It was some Wednesday afternoon raining like "no tomorrow"!! It was very very heavy rain and suddenly my bike started shutting off!! So i use to carry a screw driver so i can drain the water through opening the screw below carburetor!!
i headed to panvel and ask one village man for the route to Pen. That gentleman showed me the route to Pen via Jungle river ride road, that Jungle was dense!! He said it's a shortcut but forgot to mention it's a jungle route!!

I rode towards that direction hardly rode for 5kms and realized that it's JUNGLE with no human or cars or bike !! with many Boards all over "Beware of leopards n wild animal, Do not Stop"!! And the Kms indicator 18kms to Pen!! And i started wondering if my bike stops here than what will Happen or if some Goons attacks me then what?? I was alone and scared like hell!! That moment i started riding my bike at 80-90kmph. Later KMs started to decrease and only one point in my mind when will i get out of this ?? When will Pen come ?? And suddenly after riding for 30-40mins i came out of that route near a Toll Boot!!

Luckily my bike din't stop that moment, but while returning i came by highway only and in that route my bike stopped 2-3 times even visited a mech and he did something near the fuel cap and water din't sip in!!!
Still i remember that moment and happy alot!! But i know how i felt at that time!!

I could feel my heart beats rising... Thank god you are safe bro..

Sometimes its only God, Seriously.
After the incident(it happened one and a half year back), today I was thinking what were my options then.
1) Steer left and hit the stationary truck.
2) Brake hard and continue to move forward.
I dont know why I didnt took the first option. May be as my half slept wife and fully slept kid were on the front seat that's why. My friend and his wife and kid were on the rear seat (incidentally they are also from Bhopal like you) completely awake!!
I relied more on the brakes of the bus and attentiveness of the driver. May be he will just turn aside giving me some space. May be the impact would be very low if he brakes in time.
Now, all sorts of what could have happened, what went wrong, how could I have avoided etc etc come to mind. If I would have hit and survived - I would have thought the first option was the correct option and likewise. But thanks to the 'over attentiveness' of the driver, we all are safe.
When I switched back to first gear and was strolling past him, I waived to say thanks.. he didnt respond! May be he wanted to say - You are a complete waste, wasted my time too! But I, after the incident, am filled with gratitude and respect for him.