I’ll leave you lot to squabble – as I say, the risks are well known, documented and appreciated.

I’ve had many years of doing a regular 40 mile commute on a bicycle and to be honest, apart from the higher speeds the motorbike feels much safer.

Pretty much all the accidents the people I know have had have been the fault of someone else. Attitude and training won’t help one bit.

Really! What naive statement. When I ride I fully expect everyone to pull out on me. Riding according to conditions and within your limits, road positioning, etc.etc. all play a part in how safe or unsafe it is to ride or drive. As for who’s at fault in motorbike accidents, 4 out of the last 5 crashes I’ve attended have definitely been the fault of the rider.

monkeyp

I entirely agree with your last post – I feel much safer on a motorbike too as I much prefer the cars to be whizzed by on my left than them doing the whizzing past my right shoulder. Enjoy the bike, it’s great.

Motorbikes are safer than cars, I’ve heard it all now 🙄

Have a read of this link (I’m sure there are plenty more if you bother searching)

http://www.readingmag.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=89:bike-accident-statistics&catid=25:the-project:

Now tell me what I’ve said is wrong

Starting to think people on here really are short of braincells

Motorbikes are safer than cars

?

Who said that? I have just skimmed through the previous posts and there isn’t a single person who has even hinted at that.

Brain cells you say…

Now tell me what I’ve said is wrong

Seeing as you asked……………..

Get some life insurance because you will eventually die, or a car to decrease the chances.

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I’m pretty certain that the chances of me dying are identical whether I drive a car or ride a motorbike 🙄

Did my DAS last summer (but not got a bike yet 🙁 ) I found it was nerves more than anything that affected me. I could do perfect u-turns and figs of 8 in the car park where I had my lessons but nearly dropped the bike on my test doing the u-turn. Just try to stay relaxed for it and you should walk it. Still passed as I corrected it and didn’t put my feet down.

Seems a stupid test really, the swerve test at 32 mph particularly, WTF is that all about?

Anyway, good luck and stay relaxed, it’s a piece of cake on a big bike (My first attempt was on a 125 and I couldn’t get enough speed on the bend for the emergency stop which was a bit annoying 😡 )

Passed my Mod 1 today on a 600cc bike. Hardest part for me was the slalom as I tried to do it too fast which made me nearly hit the cones. The u-turn was easy as they give you a huge area to do it in. (My instructor always made me do it in a narrower area which required full lock, so I was pleasely surprised.)

I’ve always found the swerve fun to do as the bike leans so much when you come off the power and make it turn. It’s quite hard to judge the speed as you don’t have time too look at the speedometer, but I’m pretty sure it could be done well in excess of 32. The area you have is huge and the tarmac is so grippy.

The emergency stop is OK as it is in a straight line. Judging the speed is tricky as well. I did it at 40mph by accident (Is houdl have done it slowly first time as they will let you do it again).

Overall, I found the slow maneuvers are the most tricky as nerves make it hard to control the bike smoothly. I do think a good bike helps. The CBF600N I used is a joy to ride.

Edit: Jim_Kirk thanks for the tips – good advice. Much easier to control the bike like that at slow speed. I’ve watched quite a few MOD 1 tests and I’ve seen people to not using the rear brake – tricky. the main problem I had was lack of faith in the bike (and my abilities) as it felt so much beefier than the 125 I had been on before.

Your counterweighting idea def works for me as I find it a lot easier if I move myself the opposite way to the direction the bike is turning. I can’t control a full lock uturn at all unless I get my weight all the way over.

Well done! Good init.

Just been out for a couple of hours for the first propa ride of the year. Grrrrrrrrrrt 🙂 Just about reached 69.7mph as well 😉

Just about reached 69.7mph as well

After prolonged heavy braking?

Motorbikes are safer than cars
?

Who said that?

I think monkeyp said that he felt safer on a motorbike than on a pushbike

Timothius; glad you passed, well done!

Argh, why do almost all bikes have black engines… I’m sure they used to be more silver out there…

Flow – just pish – attitude and training are critical – most smidsy accidents are avoidable by a skilled rider.

Lost of sense from Teej. But more riders still believe that chucking £500+ at a noisy exhaust will ‘help people notice them’ than will go and do some advanced training.

Crap fact: IAM training has no affect on insurance premiums (well mine anyway) 🙁 WTF

Might help keep you alive long enough to claim though….

“Pretty much all the accidents the people I know have had have been the fault of someone else. Attitude and training won’t help one bit.”

The “no amount of training or having a good attitude” part might seem like the answer if drivers are going to pull out of junctions etc.. but its only once you start biking and pass the test that you realize that the training will have a huge effect on your attitude compared to when you first sat there on the morning of your CBT.As for the training,although the instructors wont go into too much detail re: better road use out of town too much,you will benefit from further training which will definately give you a few extra lives.

A good example would be approaching a left hand bend with a junction on the left just after it.approaching close to the white line in the middle of the road would enable many more yards of visability,flow.Not only will you see oncoming traffic sooner,The nutcases see you sooner too.Including the granma sitting at the junction with slower reactions than you do.If any motorcyclist learns to do this,they have done their part.. which could also save their life as old hilda has spotted you sooner.This might give her enough time to decide against pulling out and killing you.

So theres one of many examples on how to be safer regardless of what other drivers might do.Training helps.