OT (a bit) Speed Trap Detectors

Is that what I would have expected to have seen written as 5E15 or
what I would expect to have seen written as 5x10^14? I've just never
seen that format used for the latter.

 

Oh I don't know, I was just being fucking clever! Jeez, 'ang on, let me
look, right, its the 5x10^14 format.

I'm sure my old calculator used to put E numbers into everything.

 

I'm sure it did. If it were 5.67x10^14, your calculator would
probably have shown 5.67E14 - it's a fairly common display format.

 

Too true.

Quite. I take the view that anything travelling as fast I am is
suspicious

 

Which is probably reciprocal IYSWIM

 

Yerbut, I subscribe to the Franco Bertollini school of motoring on this
one...

--
| Wik -UKRMHRC#10- 2000 ZX12R-A1 -DC#1 -'FOT#0 'FOF #39 - BOD#12 BOB#12
|# You don't believe me | "Experience is the worst teacher.
|That the scenery | It always gives the test first
|Could be a cold-blooded killer. | and the instruction afterward."
***** human response from wik at blueyonder dot co dot uk *****

 

There's the wholly unpleasant feeling as you pass a line of cars in lane
2 that are dawdling along, only to find the reason was a marked up plod
car at the front. The moments after that all felt very light and
floaty, until I rounded a bend, got out of the line of sight and put a
car or two between me and them then edged away.

 

<VBG>

Y'know, it must be the season for it.

Happened to me on Tuesday on the M25 as I passed J16, anti-clockwise at
gone 8pm, traffic had settled down and I was, admittedly, giving it /way/
too many beans, especially as the VSL was displaying 60.

If I were an astronomer, I'd know the name for likening the following to;
all eight lanes (I include the four coming off the M40) were occupied and
I happened to pass at the moment when they all lined up in a nice diagonal
from where I was. For those versed in mil-speak, it was a pukka
echelon-right formation.

Trouble was, until I'd "broken formation" I was unaware that our "flight
leader" was a fully marked cop car. Erk.

I've prolly never slowed quite that quickly on the -12R ever before,
partly due to the week-old pads and fluid from its recent service. I
actually /heard/ the brakes working, through earplugs, through a closed
lid, over my exhaust.

Fortunately, plod man had other fish to fry and raced off leaving me at a
sedate 70-ish.

Yesterday, I had a little encounter with a blokey on a KTM LC-something
motard. Orange, it was.

He was filtering, ahem, enthusiastically on the M4 and maneouvering into
position to get off onto the M25 at J5.

I was filtering, ahem, even more enthusiastically than he and I think he
was rather surprised and then possibly annoyed as I blasted past him and
up the slip road. He, no doubt, had had the most offensive can in the
universe up until the moment I overtook him.

Coming home last night, still filtering, ahem, enthusiastically, I'd just
joined the Eastbound M4 at j5 and encountered the same bloke!

He was a little ahead of me and over toward lane one, whereas I was
picking up momentum and headed lane three-wards.

I looked in his direction as I passed and nodded.

I didn't get a nod back.

Oh dear.

The traffic began to back up as we passed J4 and the usual homicidal
maniacs in Mercedes limos and Taxis cut across all three lanes in
formation, regardless of what was coming or at what speed, causing me to
ease up a bit.

As the traffic became more dense, further speed was scrubbed off and I
settled at about *cough*mph with most of the traffic stationary.

A quick mirror check and there's matey on the KTM behind me. Cool.

Increase beans a fraction and check again. Still there. Cool.

Further beans are applied (albeit by the teaspoonful). Still there. Hmm.
Fully aware that it's much easier to follow than be followed, I
momentarily thought I'd pull over and allow him past, but then checked my
speed; eek! Plus, we're approaching a Gatso which I /know/ is kept alive
and well and fed with copious quantities of film and has a trigger speed
of "eek!" minus 20-odd mph.

As I make to move over toward lane one, I spy a marked car ahead and
reduce the beans. I slot in behind the plod car who, of course, begins to
slow down.

"Here we go..." I think, resignedly. Christ, we're down to 40mph! Just
then, a glint of something in my r/h mirror catches my eye; it's
KTM-bloke.

He's just off to the right of me and maybe can't see the plod car.
"Fuggit, away you go, mate. All yours." I move to the left and he gasses
it and then immediately hauls it all up as he decides /not/ to filter
past the plod car.

Tum-te-tum-te-tum, spend next 30 seconds examining road cones in back of
plod car before slip road widens and we both gingerly drift past.

As we get to the bottom of the slip road and the traffic is four abreast
and six deep, motard-boy comes into his element and is able to slip and
slot the traffic like I dream of being able to do, purely down to the
compactness and maneouverability of his steed.

He thump-thump-thumps his way left towards Western International Market, I
slidey-slide my way South under the overbridge toward Parkway and
homewards.

--
| Wik -UKRMHRC#10- 2000 ZX12R-A1 -DC#1 -'FOT#0 'FOF #39 - BOD#12 BOB#12
|# You don't believe me | "Experience is the worst teacher.
|That the scenery | It always gives the test first
|Could be a cold-blooded killer. | and the instruction afterward."
***** human response from wik at blueyonder dot co dot uk *****

 

Nice Wik, ta.
Try as I might I just can't find it in me to miss the M25. In a strange way
that road between the A1(M) and M3 anti clockwise seems to sum up about
everything that's gone wrong in Britain.

 

I submit to the court that, notwithstanding the possibility of extreme
modifications to said KTM, this is evidence that the beans being
applied here were sadly lacking in the required degree of magnitude...

and that this is an outride admission of inferior riding skills

 

Hog wrote

Shit football team, nowhere to park, and all the restaurants are closed
whenever you are hungry. I know exactly what you mean.

 

I present the evidence above in nominating Ace for the prestigious
"Typo Of The Week" award.

Class, mate.

 

Well, yes. I could have applied full beans (prolly another 110degrees of
throttle movement) and launched myself into the back of a taxi at 180mph.
That'd have shown him.

Nice typo ^^^^^^^

Indeed, and what is more,
;-p


--
| Wik -UKRMHRC#10- 2000 ZX12R-A1 -DC#1 -'FOT#0 'FOF #39 - BOD#12 BOB#12
|# You don't believe me | "Experience is the worst teacher.
|That the scenery | It always gives the test first
|Could be a cold-blooded killer. | and the instruction afterward."
***** human response from wik at blueyonder dot co dot uk *****

 

Heh. I'd like to claim it was deliberate...