DSA 50 kM/h (emergency stop on test) debacle

Yeah, I got to hear about this one and
was surprised how many other people
had too.

Here is a considered opinion which, as
I have detected some knee-jerk abuse
from one or two regulars here, you may
like to compare with your own thinking,
or "thinking" respectively.

Firstly, presumably the current 50kM/h
EU stipulation applies to car and HGV
tests as well as to bikes. Yet there is
no talk of abandoning all tests. So are
there technicalities or loopholes cagies
are exploiting which haven't filtered down
to the bike examiners?

Otherwise, I thought the idea of speed
cameras and pursuit logging was for
consistent speed to monitored over a
given distance--to allow for any number
of circumstances in which velocity may
creep up. Traditionally this was in the
form of a measured mile. And even then
you were allowed about 10%, as per the
general rule-of-thumb which applies to
most weights and measures in the UK.

If so then, erm, how is there any kind
of a problem? Given the use of headsets
to give instructions surely people can
be told to nudge it up to 50 kM/h in a
state of readiness to pull the stop. Or
is it just that under the new test you're
given no warning but are just told ayt
the start of the test that at some point
you will be yelled at to "STOP!" and at
this time you must?

Otherwise a bike with a speedo scored
in American miles should be fine with
UK imperial measures if the scales on
them are converted by way of a lookup
table. The speedo will read 50 kM/h
but actually the rider will only be doing
29 MPH!

Surely any kind of grey import from the
US market would permit this so sales
of the "My First..." genre capacities of
"...Harley", "...Buell" or "...Indian" need
not be a pre-requisite for training schools
or test centres who prefer not to be tied
quite so specifically to given marques.

Otherwise it sounds like perhaps when
our astronomers get round to naming
the planets in the solar system which
made the news last week "DSA" and
"ACPO" might not be bad choices for
any earth-like ones.

I see no reason for the whole test system
to grind to a halt and can only hope it
is a temporary bureaucratic insanity
that will pass under the scrutiny of
anyone with half a brain cell.

Surely we can just take the 10% allowed
already under law by the Police and their
speed cameras and, thus, 50kM/h is
actually a band between 45-55 kM/h?

G DAEB
COPYRIGHT (C) 2008 SIPSTON
--

 

He's a total tool.

Actually, mph speedos, by law, have had to have kph graduations in
this country as well since... oh, bleedin' ages. And he doesn't seem
to realise that US bikes have had kph graduations similarly applied
for decades: certainly since the early 1980s.

Oddly, Ducati fell foul of this a few years back when it was
discovered that the speedos on the bikes they'd been selling into the
UK for years actually contravened C&U requirements because they were
in mph only with no kph scale at all. Huge embarrassment.

They simply fudged the issue, although in theory all the instruments
on bikes sold should have been replaced. I suppose (a) the fact that
nobody had actually noticed for years meant that nobody GAF and (b) it
was Ducati, and normal rules of engagement don't seem to apply.

So Ducati got away with selling illegally-specced bikes. Love it.

In short, what he's worried about would only affect somebody trying to
take their test on a 1970s SOB of the sort I play with, and so it's
(a) hardly likely and (b) easily rectified with a blob of Tippex on
the glass. Twat.

 

Hahahaha.

 

How does that apply to digital speedos then? My GSXR and the 10R only
showed mph.

 

You need a look up table to convert between miles and miles now do
you?

 

Ah, good point. I bet there was a way to convert them. I think the R1
can be configured to read either way..... I've no idea whether it's a
legal requrement in the US to have kph: it's likely to be a matter of
"the UK and the US both want miles, so we'll sell them the same
unit..."

Oh, and how many learners take their tests on 10Rs anyway?

 

****.

 

Oh they both could have been configured to show either, just it
sounded like the C&U regs said that both should be displayed.

 

Trademark (TM) 2008 Nige.

 

In FCSWorld the Yankee mile is 7/8th of the Imperial mile.

 

Bwaaahahaha! I hadn't noticed that. Yep, 50kph is 31mph, so the
nobber's fucked it up completely.

 

Hold down mode, press reset (or similar special move combo) and it
switches to KPH

 

But that was probably so long ago that your copyright is up.

 

Yeah but you've grown out of it. Time to let go.

Besides, DH Lawrence was ahead of you.

 

See other response.

 

There's a button push scenario that converts them to read kmh. All UK
spec bikes with digital speedos have this facility. If you read the
fucking manual you'd know this.

 

Not all R1s and R6s that left the factory can. Grey imports from Europe
will only show kmh no matter what button pushes you do, and the clocks
have to be changed for UK spec ones to make them legal in UK.

 

<waves hand nonchalantly>

 

It wasn't that I didn't know that. I did. It was TOG's statement
that the C&U regs needed both forms of measurement to be displayed
that prompted my question.

 

Post ? they didn't even pick up a parcel from me last week