If you’ve never ridden a bike, you’d be amazed that so many things that look stupid and letal from car drivers point of view, are actually very safe and easy to do on a bike, overtaking being the main one.
A bend that’s blind in a car, might not necessarily be so for a bike. It’s all to do with road positioning, anticipation, careful planning, an elevated and wider field of view….. And of course acceleration far in advance of what a car can do, and being physically a lot smaller

this is absolutely true. Non bikers have no idea of the abilities of bikes. Often you know the roads well as well – altho I have not ridden for a couple of years now there are favourite roads that I know every corner, braking point and so on on. Many of these I know of totally safe overtakes on corners as by looking further up the road you can tell that the corner is clear to overtake on. Glen Dochart being one. From knowing the road you can watch a section a couple of miles ahead and thus know when the set of corners has no traffic on it.

i didn’t want people associating me with him.

I must admit that when I go out riding in the summer I try and go early in the morning before there are many other bikes about. I was on the road at lunchtime on a sunny Saturday recently (bad planning on my part) and saw some quite frightening riding from people going in the same direction overtaking in/through traffic on a single carriageway/NSL A-road (as well as into and out of 30 limits in villages along the route). I became very conscious of people thinking I might be with ‘them’.

scaring the shit out of car drivers by overtaking is liable to make them crash

As PP says, there are many more overtaking opportunities on a bike than car – partly down to acceleration, but a lot down to the ability to choose a road position to see further ahead, but this isn’t always obvious if you’ve never ridden.

Certainly not my intention to defend bad riding, but sometimes you see people ‘surprised’ in cars because they simply haven’t been watching what’s happening behind them – they would be equally surprised being overtaken by a car (probably even if it came up behind them with flashing blue lights on it…)

Often you know the roads well as well – altho I have not ridden for a couple of years now there are favourite roads that I know every corner, braking point and so on on

Assuming there’s no diesel / oil / gravel on the road, new potholes etc. Unfortunately familiarity can also be an exceptionally dangerous thing (and not just for motorbikes).

Only downside of this glorious weather is I now have one of the 30 bikes in the company bikeshed – as opposed to the one of 5 I have had for the last 9 months

I try and look on the brightside

The donor list goes down every summer. 😳

Sootyandjim “I can’t say I ever learnt the ‘overtaking on blind bends’ maneuver when I did my IAM. That must have been an optional unit.”

Good road positioning can make a “blind” bend safe to pass on, as you must know if you’ve done IAM- the entire point of offsiding is to improve visibility through the corner, and in some cases this means you can safely make progress when normally you couldn’t.

-m- – Member

Often you know the roads well as well – altho I have not ridden for a couple of years now there are favourite roads that I know every corner, braking point and so on on

Assuming there’s no diesel / oil / gravel on the road, new potholes etc. Unfortunately familiarity can also be an exceptionally dangerous thing (and not just for motorbikes).

Correct – but I am still only riding at 70 – 80 % leaving the remaining 20 -30% for such eventualities.

Have you ridden a fast bike?

Of the 4 bikers I have dealt with recently, all were over 45, all had been riding continuously since their teens and the only one who appeared to be ‘at fault’ was the wrong side of 60 and happily admitted to laying the bike down before he hit a wall after overcooking it into a bend (at least he managed to finally get some scuffs on his sliders) 😀

they would be equally surprised being overtaken by a car (probably even if it came up behind them with flashing blue lights on it…)

Sometimes even that + sirens doesn’t waken them 😯

I thought she was an idiot when she told the viewers of autumn watch one year that spotting deer in the wild was ‘indeed a rare sight’, this isle as everyone knows has a really big deer population and unless you live in a city you can see them everyday if you wish!
Her latest statement just underlines her stupidity.
And she was crap when she did top gear.
oh and Bill Oddy, he’s a kent!

Tj in I am the best rider on earth shocker…

Juan – why the personal attacks all the time? It really gets dull. I didn’t say that – I merely pointed out that what appears to a car driver as unsafe overtakes may not be.

Have you ridden a fast bike?

The relevance being?

There are a number of bikers that boil my piss. You see when you’re going round a right hander at speed and your wheels are inches to the left of the white line, the rest of you is on the wrong side of the road.

The roads aren’t a race track anyone that rides or drives too fast on them is a pure and utter cock. If you want to go fast do it on a track, its much more fun.

m – the relevance being that if you have never ridden a fast bike you don’t understand the capabilities of them.

Have to agree that what often looks a bit dubious from a car in terms of bikes overtaking is down to perception – I don’t overtake on the bike anywhere I feel it would be dodgy, but I can still make passes where I wouldn’t dream of doing it in the car. Just the size, agility and sheer speed of the bike is in an utterly different league (955 Speed Triple).

I know that road down Glen Dochart well TJ – and have been known to upset people in a variety of cars overtaking on “blind” corners as far as they are concearned – but there are loads of places you get great sight lines up or down the road that let you know exactly what is coming. It’s loads of fun going up/down there too… I miss that run through to Glencoe from Stirling now that I have moved south 🙁

Ms Humble though – don’t really care what she has to say on the matter, I still would 😉

That said, people that don’t ride motorbikes just don’t get it though! I suspect that she is picking up on the antics of the cockmerchants on sports bikes who seem to think the world is out to get them since they get pulled over for riding with illegal plates, illegal exhausts, illegal visors and doing a gazillion mph by the rozzers. Persicuted they are, I tells you.

I know that road down Glen Dochart well TJ – and have been known to upset people in a variety of cars overtaking on “blind” corners as far as they are concearned – but there are loads of places you get great sight lines up or down the road that let you know exactly what is coming.

Presumably peeps in socking great 4*4s are even better placed to see down the road than motorbikers?

When I mentioned that I’d noticed “normal looking” bikers seeming to take more risks I actually meant normal commuter type bikers with fluoro sashes and commuterish bikes – it’s a given that a lot of race replica/sports bikers are c*cks.

Have you ridden a fast bike?

The relevance being?

would’ve thought that was obvious

m – the relevance being that if you have never ridden a fast bike you don’t understand the capabilities of them.

I’ve made it clear that I ride in my previous responses. I’m not sure the relevance of a ‘fast’ bike as opposed to any other, particularly in respect of the point(s) I was making. And define ‘fast’…

M – I am sorry but I didn’t know that you did ride bikes. Define fast? In this context anything faster than a commuter bike I guess.

It was fairly clear if you’d read the response before the one you quoted…