About a month ago, my girlfriend and I were on my Harley for a Sunday ride. After driving for about 2 hours it looked like rain was likely so we headed home. We decided to stop to rent a video in town so we headed that way. At a stop light, only 1/2 mile from home, we pulled up next to a minivan.
The road merges from two lanes at the light into one lane past the light. When the light turned green, I accellerated to get in front of the minivan as the road merged. The next thing we knew, the minivan was inches from my rear fender, speeding up and slamming on his breaks as if to intimidate us. Apparently, the driver of the minivan felt that he had the right to go ahead of some silly motorcycle. When I turned around to flip this guy the "bird", my hand was about two feet from his windshield...he was that close. There wasn't really a place for us to safely pull over, so I tried to stay in front of the minivan. Thinking that having him behind me was a better scenario then having him drive us into the curb.
He attempted two or three times to pass on my left on this now very winding narrow two lane street (speed limit 30 mph), but I would not yield to his dangerous actions. He finally got past me after nearly hitting us several times, coming within fractions of an inch of my rear fender and left leg while he attempted passing.
We took his license plate number and stopped to file a complaint at the local police department. They ran a check on this guy and found him to be 73 years old. He actually looked spooky from my standpoint, like the Joker from Batman. Nothing has ever happened.
I can say that I had never felt so defenseless in my life, especially with my girl on the back. I thought about the "what-if's", and the "what should I have done's". But I think what I did was the right thing...keep him behind me, let him pass when it was safe to do so, take his license number. It wouldn't have been appropriate even if we had CCW here in Illinois to have drawn and pointed or even shot.
Eventhough a vehicle can become a deadly weapon, I doubt whether a judge would have believed a biker (stereotype only) with a handgun over a 73 year old man in a minivan. Next time I'll let the other cars go ahead when the light changes.