The silly season has started with the clocks changes - I live in a tourist area and we get plagued by motorbikers who a) cannot read speed restriction signs when passing through the local villages and b) cannot read road signs that say BLIND corner/dip/ hump.

It's a lovely sunny day here but not for 3 of them who will not see another sunny day

Why, why why can motorcyclists not read the road and traffic (I know, it's because they are going so fast.............) and also think of the poor car drivers who 2 of said cyclists hit head on at about 120mph on a blind hump. The cars driving along minding their own business and next thing there is this crazy thing with dazzling headlights driving up their bonnet. I don't doubt we will be hearing the wailing of police and ambulance sirens every weekend from now until October. Such a tragic waste of generally young lives.

One of the guys who died today didn't hit any cars, he overtook a line of traffic slowing for traffic lights at roadworks and ended up driving into a section of excavations and down a 5 ft drop for a new section of road..............at what I imagine was great speed.

Guys, if you are a motorcyclist as well as a RR driver please remember that some of us are also those who have to scrape your remains out of cars and off the road and please please ease up on the speed - in addition to my normal job I am also a qualified paramedic and often get called out to local accidents by the local police at weekends - 2 today and unfortunately both were fatal for the motorcyclists 2018 Mini Countryman Cooper S E All4 PHEV in Melting Silver - it’s whisper quiet in EV and polluter modes

We get the same sometimes Tim. Roaring through the village (30mph zone) at obviously a lot more mph.

I agree, a waste of life. But reckless life as the sensible ones go slower.
I'm sure the people waiting for donors are grateful though.

I dislike them - intensely.

To the nobber who was riding my ass 2" off my bumper today - you're a cockend! 

I find just lightly putting my left foot on the brake pedal while keeping the speed up with the right works wonders for Saxo boy when he gets so close astern that I can only see the roof aerial and we are doing 60-70. Usually works first time and they pull back to a sensible distance , if not I just slow right down to 20mph to frustrate them even more............... childish i know but then they only have limited brain power so you have to treat them like the smally boys they really are. 2018 Mini Countryman Cooper S E All4 PHEV in Melting Silver - it’s whisper quiet in EV and polluter modes

i also ride bikes as well as having a porsche 911 and a RR TDV8
have a very powerfull honda fireblade and a harley v rod.
not all bikers have limited brain cells and i certainly am not like a little child.
in fact being a biker makes me more aware of my surroundings and probably makes me a safer car driver.
the amount of times i have been coming around a corner to see, to my horror, a car, and yes sometimes a RR , on my side of the road due to the driver being on his mobile phone.
not to mention cars pulling out of junctions not having seen the oncoming motorbike.
i guess we are not all perfect , but it's wrong to judge all motorcyclists the same

I thought Tim was talking about Saxo boy IMO chavvy boy racers etc.

EDIT: In the last post anyhow

@ian

Agree with you totally, having ridden bikes since childhood I would argue that without a shadow of a doubt riding a motorcycle increases your road awareness, be that when driving or riding.

And I can also attest to having had more than a few 'issues' with car drivers, most annoying of which was in the central lane of 3 in traffic in central london. The other 2 lanes started moving so the in the car behind starts to move forward, our lane is stationery, so he drives into me, i'm looking at him, he's looking at me AND STILL MOVING FORWARD!! Suffice to say, once we'd stopped I had a word with him.

The other half's had a larger one where a car coming round the corner on the wrong side of the road and a head-on ensued, the brat in the car got 3 points (which daddy paid) she got a broken pelvis.

Having said all this there are bikers who ride like t s but at the end of the day if I was in a car and one came up behind I'd just slow down and let them past as if something has to go wrong I'd prefer to drive past following the event than be part of it.

Still think all drivers should have to do a week on a motorcycle, you'd be surprised how much more aware it makes you on the road and how you'd take the 2nd or 3rd look before pulling out in a car.

Oh, and speeding through villages.....does my bloody head in, I live in a non-urban area with miles of lanes around me (roads are bloody awful but that's another story) yet cars & bikes still speed through the village...

iancollins wrote:

Not to mention cars pulling out of junctions not having seen the oncoming motorbike.

As with most things in life, we can only go by our own experiences:

I live off of a fairly busy road, it's not an A road, I live in the middle of the strait section and there is a bend at each end, one way goes off into the countryside - this means bikes come round the corner way faster than any car would, then they tank it down the road past my drive.

I have to edge out so slowly because of the near misses I've had, on more than one occasion I'm sure it's the same guy. The issue is that when you're doing 70mph on a road meant for 30mph you are going to get missed.

Then at the end of the day when I pull onto my drive, the same overtakes me at speed as I'm turning right! Last time I checked, my indicators do work. Yet it's always the fault of the car driver when it comes to bikes. He didn't look, he wasn't paying attention, he wasn't aware of his surroundings etc etc etc.


k'off. 

iancollins wrote:

i also ride bikes as well as having a porsche 911 and a RR TDV8
have a very powerfull honda fireblade and a harley v rod.
not all bikers have limited brain cells and i certainly am not like a little child.
in fact being a biker makes me more aware of my surroundings and probably makes me a safer car driver.
the amount of times i have been coming around a corner to see, to my horror, a car, and yes sometimes a RR , on my side of the road due to the driver being on his mobile phone.
not to mention cars pulling out of junctions not having seen the oncoming motorbike.
i guess we are not all perfect , but it's wrong to judge all motorcyclists the same

@Dan

Your scenario would drive me mad.....especially as the guy on the bike seems to be a regular, and as such cannot failed to have noticed your FFRR and where you turn......so many places you can ride fast on the road and only endanger yourself, it does not need to be done in populated areas...thoughts do go out to E.Services who have to clean up of course.

Just thought I'd mention the fact that with track Days so easily accessible nowadays this is where the balls-out action should be taking place, that way WHEN it all goes pear shaped there's a fair chance of it not being too bad (experienced an 80mph highside (biker will know) on the track and walked away (ish) with a broken arm and 'clicky' neck - on the road this may have been GAME OVER)....Bikers, book a track day then a nice sedate ride/drive home

Last edited by Dogman on 28th Mar 2011 11:35am. Edited 1 time in total

Such sudden pointless loss of life saddens me greatly.

I used to ride fast motorbikes but realised that sooner or later I was likely to have a serious accident so I sold the GSX1100R & Kawasaki Z1H and have been a car driver only ever since.

I feel sick when I see a fatal bike (or car) accident and I think it is the responsibility of all car & bike owners to be constantly thinking of when and how an accident may occur. Sensible forward thinking that's all that's necessary.

Gazellio wrote:

Such sudden pointless loss of life saddens me greatly.

I used to ride fast motorbikes but realised that sooner or later I was likely to have a serious accident so I sold the GSX1100R & Kawasaki Z1H and have been a car driver only ever since.

I feel sick when I see a fatal bike (or car) accident and I think it is the responsibility of all car & bike owners to be constantly thinking of when and how an accident may occur. Sensible forward thinking that's all that's necessary.

Likewise, I hit a patch of diesel on my VFR800 and must have looked like Todd Carty when he was on Dancing on ice (Youtube it if you want a laugh), and I realised that no amount of skill can save you if those tiny contact areas lose traction, so that was the end of that mid-life crisis!

I still see guys out riding fast sports bikes in a way that makes me wonder how short their lives will be!

 Got - 2017 SDV8 Autobiography in Loire Blue
Had- 2008 TDV8 Vogue SE in Java black
Had - 2007 S/C in Stornoway Grey