“And play the ‘not going to use the brakes for roundabouts’ game although the rules allow brakes if you actually have to stop or are going downhill. Obviously changing down to use engine braking is not allowed either as that is still scrubbing off excess speed and wasting fuel.”
I would agree with this – it’s how I drive my own normally aspirated Berlingo but I also drive modern diesels as company pool cars and they don’t like it. If you don’t change down then they increase speed thinking a stall is coming up – they can fight quite hard against the brakes if you do this. Leave control with the driver say I.
Giving my age away a bit with this one I suppose but think it would be the one I’d save if the wave hit the island. Duncan Browne http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS1bvFmwtsA
Personal plates? There used to be a blonde lady who drove a Merc round Edinburgh with the registration 10 NOB which had two black screws to make “inch” marks after the 10. I was always puzzled why a female would have this number, I assume she was taking the wotsit.
Gas Gas are definitely not for the “doesn’t know what a spanner is type”, unless he is very keen to know what spanners (and a lot of other things) are.
The vital thing on any trials bike is to have a clean air filter in for every trial – keep two on the go and swap them about. Nuts and bolts tend to slacken off a bit too and must be kept up to the mark or problems ensue with threads in the alloy frame (which obviously is not a Gas Gas problem).
Oh dear. “It really doesn’t matter where you start”.
Well it does, as anyone who has fitted a motorcycle tyre will tell you, and as the gentleman himself demonstrated on the video when he had a job to get the last bit over.
The idea, as stated in the video, is to get the bead of the tyre to sit right down in to the well of the rim. The tyre valve prevents this so the last bit of tyre to go over the rim should be right at the valve. It can just make the difference with an awkward fitment.
I thought the manufacturer could self-certify but it’s a few years since I did the course so I’m not absolutely sure.
However, like most of these things nowadays, people affix them to items that do not comply so they are essentially worthless as you can’t trust the mark.
A typical example most on here are familiar with is the instantly flammable battery charger.
I think it’s true to say that the law does not recognise the term scooter, in essence it’s a style of motorcycle and/or moped as far as that goes. Though where the dividing line between scooters, scooterettes and other sub-categories lies has been debated elsewhere but seems to lie in the hands of manufacturers’ marketing departments.
Just a thought, and a genuine enquiry. I understand that a landowner has vehicular rights over a footpath to reach his dwelling: what if he is not the landowner but a tenant farmer? What does the law say on this?
The last small scooters I rode were Vespas and Lambrettas in the period but from the tests in the scooter mags that I have read the 50s only seem to get about 45 mpg (no doubt due to being flat out everywhere with automatic transmission). I’ve an old C70 Honda and it gets 120 mpg which drops to about 90 on long periods on the open road at what I have been told by followers is 60 mph (don’t ask). I would heartily recommend an old Honda stepthrough but the prices seem to be in collectors’ item territory now.
Not much help directly but I’m sure I saw one in the Hub just before it shut so perhaps worth trying closer to the trails? Several shops in that area now.
You’re missing the point oldnpastit. The Govt’s own research proved there was not a real problem in the vast majority of areas but they still cut tens of thousands of miles of RoW for motor vehicles.
What you actually do with a mountainbike won’t come into it if the “right” people are involved.
At teatime my local Tesco usually has a two lane queue to get out with both lanes in the main road choked both before and after the light controlled exit junction.
Two weeks ago the lights were out and there was hardly a car to be seen either in Tescos or on the main road. It must say something.
“The impact of how they use it” was measured, by the previous Government, but the evidence showed that there was not generally a problem. This did not suit their agenda so they ignored it and massively cut the rights of way forcing users to more concentrated use of certain areas such that it has more potential to be a problem. Don’t blame the users who individually may only be there occasionally.
Do you see any parallels with the use of mountain bikes in certain areas and the attitude of “the authorities”? Wakey, wakey folks.
If you really must have an open face helmet of the type pictured then you should be looking at motorcycle trials helmets which are vented to suit the low speeds involved. It will still be rather hot though.
I can’t recall titles but, in the distant past, I seem to recall Willie Rushton writing some good stuff.
I also find Bill Bryson’s sense of humour good. I dread to think how much research goes in to his more factual books (which also show humour) such as At Home.
” Emergency vehicles. If you hear and / or see an emergency vehicle approaching, IMMEDIATELY stop your vehicle no matter where you are. Emergency vehicles are designed to be able to swerve around you.”
I was told of somebody who had failed his driving test because he did not do this – seemed harsh to me given that the emergency vehicle was going the other way on a perfectly clear road. If we all stopped under those circumstances there’d be a few dented rear ends. But then the Highway Code is advice.
I too was somewhat shocked to find the BoT cafe shut but there was a new one further east just on the shore which we had passed earlier – just went to the pub instead.
“Maybe a licensing scheme with a couple of wardens doing random checks”
There already is a licensing scheme and you pay an annual vehicle excise duty for it. Remember we are talking about routes with legal status for use by motor vehicles therefore requiring full compliance just like surfaced road.
The civil engineers where I once worked spent a lunchtime farting in to the bosses dictaphone. When he eventually went to use it he sent it off to admin for repair as it was “just making strange noises”.
Let’s get the terminology right. A motocrosser is designed for motocross, is not designed to be registered and not built to comply with the laws for the road.
Any motor vehicle used on a BOAT etc has to be registered, taxed, insured, silenced, have road legal tyres etc just as if it were on any other road.
In the old days they had to be accurate to plus or minus 10% somewhere in their range, later altered to plus or minus 10% at 30 mph.
I’m a bit surprised to find that the tolerance is now much greater (33% at 30) and makes it rather unfair on the motorist who does not apparently have access to a speed measuring device supplied by the car manufacturer that he can be sure comes near the accuracy of the authority’s measuring devices with increasingly smaller tolerances before fining etc.
Like it or not (and I don’t) it’s on its way. Two weeks ago “the EU” announced that cyclists should be, and I quote, “encouraged” to wear hi-viz. So far we have only seen one form of encouragement come out of Europe and that is compulsion. Perhaps cyclists should be more supportive of the motorcycle world’s opposition to similar proposals for “PTW” users.
No great surprise that they are more visible in the half light as that is what they are designed for.
A work colleague’s mother had neighbours called Sam and Ella and was highly embarrassed one day when visiting as the kids got out the car and shouted the family nickname for them. “Look there’s Mr and Mrs Foodpoisoning”.
Forget Rain-X. I got some free from Halfords and thought I had scored but was less happy a month or so later when I had to buy a new visor as the Rain-X had removed the anti-scratch coating with very rapid deterioration of the surface. This was well documented as a problem back in the day.
I can’t remember what small car it was, but when we were cycling round the “Applecross loop” a few years ago there was a German chap with an old Norton fitted in by dint of removing the front passenger seat and the bike lying fore and aft. In the days when road racing bikes were proper motorcycles and not four cylinder vacuum cleaners on wheels this was not an uncommon method.
