on the bike. What’s the law?

My regular road commute has a nice downhill section thats had its limit reduced to 40mph. I regularly go faster than that, as do a couple of other riders who use the same road.
There are speed camera’s, but i’ve never seen the police there.
What would happen if i got caught?

As an aside…..how many cars will be content to drive behind me even tho’ i’m going faster than the limit?

“Cycling furiously” is the charge I believe.

be very proud and put the fine in a frame on the wall.

I have ridden in groups that have set off speed cameras, never been summoned yet 😆

Thing is, you could roll down it at 30+mph.

IF the police tried to do me for cycling furiously i’d correct them and say you mean stylishly!

Speed limits do not apply to bikes.
“Wanton or furious cycling” could be used instead if you were cycling like a tit.
I take it the road is perfectly safe at 40mph+?
Why has the limit been reduced?

I think there is a possibility of arguing that speed limits don’t apply to bicycles because of certain wordings in the road traffic regulations, but it isn’t cut and dry, and IMO it would take a pretty decent (expensive) lawyer to make it stick.

I believe you need a ‘motor vehicle’ to get done for speeding.

There is also no legal requirement for a speedo, so might not know anyway.

I got pulled over today by the police for speeding on my bike. They clocked me on a speed gun. No fine or anything, but took my details and apparently I’ll get a written warning.

Ashfanman, just because they’re the police, doesn’t mean they know the law.

I got pulled over today by the police for speeding on my bike. They clocked me on a speed gun. No fine or anything, but took my details and apparently I’ll get a written warning.

For arguments sake are you actually obliged to give a Police Officer your details under the Road Traffic Act if stopped when on a bike? I seem to remember some youtube video of some tit a law student talking circles around the copper who stopped him.

I didn’t complain – I was going faster than the speed limit and didn’t have an excuse.

The annoying thing was, I was sitting behind a slow-moving car with the full intention of just staying there, but the guy stuck his hand out the window and waved me past. I thought “oh, that was nice of him” and hit the afterburners. Less than 20 seconds later, I’m talking to an officer. I even wonder if the driver saw them and did it deliberately.

Still, lesson learned and all that.

You cant get done for speeding as there is no legal requirement for a speedo on a bike and it is riding furiously that you can get done for !

This interesting website suggest you are obliged to give the police your details under the Road Traffic Act if stopped on a push bike. Some other interesting nuggets on there too;

Do you have to give your details?

sbob,

it’s downhill and perfectly safe on a bike.

The problem is cars going too fast and running red lights near, not at, the bottom of the hill!

I got a cheerful ‘not quite’ from a speedgun holding bobby once as i was doing approx 28.5mph once!

You have to give the police your details under other legislation if they suspect you of committing an offence. Any offence. So it doesn’t really matter what the RTA says. If you refuse they’ll just nick you.

I think I know the video you mean, and it was a case of that particular policeman either not knowing or momentarily forgetting his powers in the face of the tit’s student of the law’s barrage of asshattery.

You have to give the police your details under other legislation if they suspect you of committing an offence. Any offence. So it doesn’t really matter what the RTA says. If you refuse they’ll just nick you.

Oh really? Nick you for what?

Oh hello, you again.

Nick you for what?

For the offence they suspect you of committing.

But the point of this thread is that speeding on a bike isn’t (or may not be) an offence.

I got a cheerful ‘not quite’ from a speedgun holding bobby once as i was doing approx 28.5mph once!

Yep, a group of 3 of us got shouted at once by a policeman with a speedgun – he said “34, good work lads!”

You can’t be done for speeding on a bike as there’s no legal requirement to have a speedo (in fact the law was written way before computers etc became commonplace) so there’s no way that the cyclist is expected to know their speed.

I was descending Caerphily Hill once years ago, pulled out round a slow moving car and then realised why he was slow moving – there was a police car right in front of him. By then I was committed to the overtake, got 54mph down the hill with the police car behind me. They never said a word, it was quite disappointing really. 😐

i’m asking because the speed limit has been reduced, i go faster than the new speed limit.

The police have been in attendance in two places on my commute enforcing the new lower speed limits *waves at anyone commuting down the a50 between markfield and groby* and i don’t want the hassle of being stopped by the popo….

Onzadog – yes, largely it is (what the thread is about). It was a response to BigEaredBiker’s query as to whether/when you are obliged to give your details or not – the answer to which is when they suspect you of having committed an offence. I wasn’t suggesting that speeding on a bicycle is itself an offence which would invoke that obligation. It was a general answer to what I read as a general query.

ive had my speed shouted at me before from a copper with a speed gun 46mph in a 30mph zone

my grandad had a trip to court over a cycling furiously charge. He also made a petrol driven razor in the 1930’s, got discussed in the commons during the war (too tall for his uniform) and was a handy carpenter. top bloke really!

but yeah, I don’t think you’ll get done for speeding, particuarly off a camera. How would it identify you? Presumably an officer could questionif you were fully in control of your bike at speed and whether you were riding safely for the environment?

Alternative view is that theres a speed limit there for a reason and just because you’re on a bike then its not ok to go as fast as you like. I certainly wouldn’t want my kid to be run over by a fat man on a roadbike going too fast down a hill to stop in time…

Appreciate in your opinion you thought it was probably very safe, and also that it might not technically be an offence, but my big bug bear is cyclists on the road thinking they can act however they like, but kick up a stink when drivers do the same (and rightly so). Gives us all a bad name.

Possibly not a popular view on here however….:-)

I think there is a possibility of arguing that speed limits don’t apply to bicycles because of certain wordings in the road traffic regulations, but it isn’t cut and dry, and IMO it would take a pretty decent (expensive) lawyer to make it stick.

Just how much do you think you’d have to pay somebody to point out that all references to speed limits in the relevant part of the RTA refer to motor vehicles?

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/27/part/VI

[list][*]You can’t be prosecuted for speeding on a bike because as others have said that part of the law (RTA s89(1)) only applies to “motor vehicles”.
[*]This has nothing to do with the presence or absence of speedo’s – you can be ‘done’ for speeding even in vehicles (e.g. classics, some agricultural vehicles etc) which have no speedo.
[*]A police officer in uniform can stop you when riding your bike (RTA s163(2)) for any reason [although case law says it must be in course of their duty].
[*]Dangerous, careless, and or inconsiderate cycling are all offences under the RTA (s28/29). If the officer was of the opinion that your speed was dangerous, careless or inconsiderate he could initiate action under these rules.
[*]RTA s168(b) requires you to provide name and address if required in relation to the above offences.
[*]Cycle racing without authorisation is also not permitted. I’m not sure whether the definition of racing includes Strava!
[*]I think its questionable whether if the speed limit for cars, which usually have much better brakes and tyres for stopping has been reduced to 40 mph, that it is safe to exceed that speed limit on a bike.

[/list]

We were barreling downhill on the tandem and made one of those ‘Your speed is’ signs light up. We were grinning like loons at 42mph 😀

I get the ‘angry face’ on my local speed signs regularly, since I have no speedo it’s quite hard to know how fast I’m going before that point 😀

The big question is can you stop as quickly as a car?

The speed limits are there to stop the Clarksons going too fast to stop if the situation demands.

What happens if a kitten runs out onto the road in front of you? 🙂

epicyclo – bunny kitten hop! 😉

Well if it was a rabbit, I’d bunny hop it

EDIT: ^^ Aaargh, too slow!