They're all out there, this weekend

Just got back from spending Saturday night with The Doctor's ma, so in
the car.

And all the ropads are stuffed with bikes. They're all bright and shiny,
and unless someone's spent most of Easter cleaning them, this means
they've been tucked away since, oh, maybe October. Which isn't
necessarily a bad thing.

But the riders....

We were being tailed by a couple on a Tiger and a bloke, solo, on a
Monster. Headlights on, reflective gear, and content to trundle along
behind a line of cars at 55mph. They wouldn't overtake because they
never positioned themselves so they could see if it was clear enough to
do so.

And it was, many times. Not an overtake I'd have gone for in a car, but
on a bike, yes, every time. Plenty of road space, plenty of time to zap
quickly up the line of cars, picking them off one or two at a time, in
perfect safety

But these people don't, do they? They don't know how. Their frames of
reference are still made up of car driving experience and performance.
They're actually afraid to use the performance, and my guess is that
don't ride enough miles in a year to build up any useful experience.

The couple on the Triumph had all the matching kit. Thick Cordura (or
similar) two-piece suits, and never mind that it's fabulous warm
weather. Later on there was some twonk on a CBR-RRRRR with matching
helmet, again, trundling along at 70 on a dual carriageway. Before him
it was some geezer on a ZZR-600, and I actually overtook him with the
cruise control on the car set at 75.

Is this motorcycling? It isn't my idea of it. Is it pleasurable? For
these people, perhaps. It's fresh air and a bike on the road. Perhaps
they think they portray an image of dashing devil-may-care modernity:
this is risk-taking behaviour. But it isn't.

This week, in the Times, there was a write-up on some transport report
that singled out motorcyclists as deliberate speeders, who habitually
broke speed limits. That's me, and lots of others here, I guess, but so
what?

And then, just as I was feeling depressed, there was a rumble and some
bloke zoomed past on an Aprilia RSV. Head down, tucked in, black
leather, black helmet, doing an easy 90+ up the M23. And I cheered up.

 

I've not ridden the VFR this year, but the Hongdou has been out a few
times. We're off out on the VFR this afternoon, though.

I noticed that when I took the shite old Alfa for a run on good Friday.

Bikes sat in 'trains' of cars on the road up to Brecon. All the cars
nose-to-tail making it very hard to pass in the car. But I did - picking
them off 2 or 3 at a time - lots of drivers flashing their headlamps at
me 'cos I was squeezing back into the too-small gap they'd left between
them and the car in front. Couldn't understand why the bikes didn't
follow. I started off making room for bikes to pass or to pull out and
make the overtakes before me, but none of them did.

You'd swear that overtaking on A and B roads had recently been declared
illegal.

 

If they're not going to overtake then they should leave a fucking gap so
people can.

Was perfectly safe, so long as the car being overtaken was paying
attention to what was going on around them.

 

Let us not forget that the dear old Highway Code states that " A
vehicle being overtaken should give way to the vehicle overtaking it"
or somesuch.

Ah, here it is:

"144: Being overtaken. If a driver is trying to overtake you,
maintain a steady course and speed, slowing down if necessary to let
the vehicle pass. Never obstruct drivers who wish to pass. Speeding up
or driving unpredictably while someone is overtaking you is dangerous.
Drop back to maintain a two-second gap if someone overtakes and pulls
into the gap in front of you."

 

You say that like it's a bad thing.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3 (slightly broken, currently missing)
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

It's probably the closest I get to riding dangerously. Usually I'll
only overtake when the gap is definitely big enough, but once in a
blue moon there comes a point where impatience kicks in.

Commiserations on the arm btw.

 

I never used to wait for the impatience - overtaking anything,
anytime, anywhere, was always an integral part of my riding.

Should be better by next weekend, I hope, which will probably be the
last decent skiing of the season.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3 (slightly broken, currently missing)
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

On 8/4/07 12:20, in article
1hw92qu.1d6dhewn0cstxN%, "The Older

<snip>
What depresses me is that they hibernate all winter.From November to March
I've seen maybe 6 bikes a day on my commute to work , now all of a sudden
there's dozens of them.
Where do they all go? Join the daily queues in the car every day?
And don't get me started on the sportsbike riders who whizz past me on the
A3 only for me to overtake them again when we get to the filtery bits....

Steve

 

After this winters experiment with riding, I most certainly won't repeat
it with a brand new supersports. I think I got off lightly with just
a 75 quid cleanup of the front brakes a few weeks ago.

I don't think it's a bad thing to take it easy getting your "bike legs"
for the start of the season. You never know maybe they'd been hooning
around and were on the home stage nicely tired out and relaxed.

Horses for courses etc. I still fancy a shot on a diesel enfield, just
to see what life in the slow lane is like.

I hope they did the same article for car drivers. Pretty sure more car
drivers get points for speeding than bikes ;-).

Doubt if there any publicly available statistics that we could do a
proportional analysis.

Motorway, who cares about motorways ?

 

Donald says...

I thought you had a BMW K75 for that kind of thing, there's not much
difference.

--
Lozzo
Triumph Daytona 955i SE (Black with added black bits)
Suzuki Bandit 600S (Green with added shit bits)
Yamaha SR250 Delusion (It's "Special")
I ride way too fast to worry about cholestorol.

 

's funny, I've just got back from a ride where I was doing a few (what
I presume must have been) similar overtakes and yet didn't get flashed
once.

Make of that what you will.

 

This was 11am.

 

Rarely happens on a bike, 'cos you can squeeze them in quite easily.
It's a bit different when you're doing the same in a 4-door saloon.

FWIW, I've just been out on the bike for 3 hours or so - huge numbers of
totally incompetent riders out there again today.

I'm by no means even averagely quick by UKRM standards, but I was only
overtaken once, but overtook well over a dozen bikes - usually because
they didn't appear to have the confidence to pass slower traffic.

 

And driving, come to think of it.

 

Which is where we came in, with my original posting....

 

you'd have probably overtaken me if you'd been down my way today. Spent
most of the afternoon dawdling along with the SO on the Trumpet waiting
for the BIL to catch up. Next time we go out I think we'll meet them there.

 

They can't touch you for it.

 

Why shouldn't they ride along at licence friendly speed when it's such
a boring road? What's the point of having to be on full alert for
speed cameras / idiots in cars who are hell bent on demonstrating that
they're better than the folk on the bikes?

Save the concentration for the twisty bits - it's what I do.

 

Well, yes, except that something about all of them screamed
"inexperienced and worried".

The bods on theTriumph and Monster *were* on a twisty road - the road
from Mayfield to Tunbridge Wells, in fact.

 

fx: pulls hook from cheek and spits out mouldy bait.


I am particlarly fond of the beemer, I like the noise of the fuel system
and the noise of it's exhaust.

Since I haven't dusted it off for over three years now, I guess I should
make an effort to punt it and admit I've gone over to the UJM side.