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I am no longer in love with Kate Humble ....
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Posted 2 years ago #
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i've ridden for quite a few years now, and think i'm safe. i overtake when i know it's safe, ie i can see where i'm going and know what i'll do if i can't get there. i ride within my limits and am completely prepared to back off the throttle or abandon an overtake for no other reason than i don't feel comfortable with it.
someone i know passed their test recently. on passing his test, went to the ducati dealter and walked out with branded leathers and a amonster with termis. you might be able to guess where this going. his more interesting tricks included, undertaking in the same lane on a single cariiageway, overtaking on blind and reverse camber corners and sitting with his does just off the ground (just waiting to hit a pot hole. even after being spoken to about his riding, he kept it up. i shared a lockup with him for a short while but moved out because i didn't want people associating me with him.
then he went on holiday - riding his unfaired m600cc monster to greece. afaik, he has never and doesn't know how to check his tyre pressures, oil levels or chain tension. he reckoned that an old combat jacket constituted "waterproofs".
i think all this is because people are taught to pass their test, not to ride bikes, and if this is the standard people are being taught to, i'm surprised there are so few fatalities on the road. i'm also not surprised there is such a strong anti-biker vibe.that said, i was up the west highlands this weekend, totally c)ck free riding (which can be taken several ways, but i'm sticking to topic here), and some generally poitive vibes from the motorists. but then the highlands are someplace you need to think abut going to and they're only really attractive to people ready to make the effort to go there.
Posted 2 years ago # -
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 smallerI'm not saying there aren't some risk takers around, plainly there are. but I'd say 98% of the overtakes I do on a bike you couldn't even begin to think about looking at in any car, and probably half of those would look risky to the uninitiated.
And there's nothing illegal, wrong or risky about overtaking or being on the 'wrong' side of the road either. In fact the IAM teach you to get well over the other side bfore you even start to overtake.....
Even if all that might be true, scaring the shit out of car drivers by overtaking is liable to make them crash.
The fact is, the reason why many people ride motorbikes is the thrill of pushing it - I imagine it's amazing fun but it's pretty selfish.
Posted 2 years ago # -
i think all this is because people are taught to pass their test, not to ride bikes
good point. After I passed my test 15 years ago I then spent a weekend with an "advanced instructor", chasing him across S Yorkshire & actually learned how to ride the thing. I'd pretty much agree with PPs assessment, but that doesn't mean accidents don't happen.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I don't mind bikers killing themselves in high speed accidents, I'd just prefer it if they didn't do it near where I am.
Posted 2 years ago # -
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 smallerthis 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.
Posted 2 years ago # -
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...)
Posted 2 years ago # -
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).
Posted 2 years ago # -
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
Posted 2 years ago # -
I try and look on the brightside
The donor list goes down every summer.
Posted 2 years ago # -
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.
Posted 2 years ago # -
-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?
Posted 2 years ago # -
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
Posted 2 years ago # -
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!Posted 2 years ago # -
Tj in I am the best rider on earth shocker...
Posted 2 years ago # -
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.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Have you ridden a fast bike?
The relevance being?
Posted 2 years ago # -
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.
Posted 2 years ago # -
m - the relevance being that if you have never ridden a fast bike you don't understand the capabilities of them.
Posted 2 years ago # -
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.
Posted 2 years ago # -
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.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Have you ridden a fast bike?
The relevance being?
would've thought that was obvious
Posted 2 years ago # -
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'...
Posted 2 years ago # -
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.
Posted 2 years ago # -
It was fairly clear if you'd read the response before the one you quoted...
Posted 2 years ago #
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