Think Bike......Think Nutter!

[Phil th Barrow]

Originally Posted by coolcat

Guys,

I posted up the video to show a couple of plonkers riding bikes, it could have been a pair of planks driving cars.

The point was to show somebody's reckless endangerment of other road users and not to get into a heated debate on whether all bikers are cut from the same cloth, which of course we all know they are not.

It just shows the minority idiot for what they are.......mindless twerps of which would no doubt be just as moronic regardless of how many wheels they had underneath them!

Is thee Correct answer

I like cool cats.. This one is a French car anti theft device.

[whitevanman]

Originally Posted by Polly

I think Harry you have just summed up what I tried to say in my previous post, we are not all class 1 advanced drivers, and I think it would also be fair to say most of us are not as observant as we should be. I think most drivers are perfectly aware that they should check mirrors etc before changing lanes, but you don't really need to change lanes to sandwich a motor cyclist do you, simply moving right or left of centre might be sufficient. It just seems to me that if you expect every cager to drive to the book, perhaps you are heading for a huge disappointment.
It's interesting too how you can so easily group all drivers, but has it not occurred to you that when I'm not driving my little box on 4 wheels, I might just possibly fit into any one of the other groups?
Anyway, I think I have made my point, so Safe Riding, and do take care.

As an ex London dispatch rider (10yrs+) I learn't very quickly to pigeon hole ALL other vehicles in the same category 'They are all useless and they are all out to kill me'....That way the odd time one does try I would hope i'm prepared for it.

I'm still here, a bit battered as they can still catch you out, but not had an accident for 10yrs or more. Many friends that are gone and sadly many of them much younger than I..

[milleplod]

On day 1 of my police advanced bike course, I was told by the instructor - 'assume they're all out to get you'.

It stayed with me, that advice, and I apply it every time I ride, not to the point of ride-spoiling paranoia, but it does mean that I'm hyper-aware of what's going on around me. In my experience, far, far too many car drivers simply aren't....because they've never been taught to be.

Pete

[Dorset Bob]

Cars are driven mostly out of necessity - getting to work, kids to school, shopping, attending meetings etc etc.
There are many people who take a pride in their driving, but the majority do not, I'm afraid.

Motorcyclist are a different breed though, they generally ride because they want too.

I think that often the average car driver simply does not understand the potential capabilities of what a motorcycle and a good rider can do.

They often resent the fact is that they can execute a safe overtake, which would not be possible for them, and make progress in congested areas, when they can't.

The guys on the OPs clip though, are dangerous nutters!

[HarryM1BYT]

Originally Posted by Polly

I think Harry you have just summed up what I tried to say in my previous post, we are not all class 1 advanced drivers, and I think it would also be fair to say most of us are not as observant as we should be. I think most drivers are perfectly aware that they should check mirrors etc before changing lanes, but you don't really need to change lanes to sandwich a motor cyclist do you, simply moving right or left of centre might be sufficient.

You hit the nail on the head there...

A vehicle can be a very dangerous piece of equipment, but many do not treat driving with the respect and attention it deserves. I find the standards on the roads truly pathetic, apathetic, but it is far too late now to raise standards to where they should be.

Whilst filtering, I was always careful never to place myself in a position where I could become the meat in the sandwich.

Far from class 1 Advanced driving thing, surely proper observation is something which everyone should be able to do? Looking and seeing hazards is supposed to be part of the basic test. If you don't see them, how can you possibly avoid them?

The bit of teaching I did, I had them to tell me, without looking in the mirror, what was behind and around them. You should always have that constantly updated mental picture of what is around you, so you can respond quickly when you need to.

Originally Posted by Polly

It just seems to me that if you expect every cager to drive to the book, perhaps you are heading for a huge disappointment.

Well you did seem unaware that filtering was not only legal, but encouraged. Now you are hopefully better informed to watch out for them and make their manoeuvre safer. I must say I was surprised by your asking for a valid reason for them to filter - why not, it doesn't delay you.

[HarryM1BYT]

Originally Posted by milleplod

On day 1 of my police advanced bike course, I was told by the instructor - 'assume they're all out to get you'.

Pete

That is very true and some deliberately out to get you, because you ride a bike, is the way I would sum it up.

I feel reasonably safe now, I have just had my third near miss in two days....

Coming off a roundabout (me), where it is split by a barrier into the two sides of the road. An elderly female turned out of a side road, close to the roundabout straight into my path, head on, coming straight for me on the wrong side of the barrier. She was at first insistent that I was on the wrong side of the road, until the traffic began building up behind me. It took her a 20 point turn to get it turned around the right way and brought the roundabout to a stand still while she did it.

[championdaddy]

As a biker.....may I say...... I hope these to stack it in a big way with no-one else involved !!
Idiotic retards.

[COLVERT]

Originally Posted by HarryM1BYT

If I can see them coming up behind, then why cannot everyone? Its a simply a matter of good observation, which all drivers and rider should be doing.

You don't need to watch both mirrors at the same time, just the one where you might be closing the gap, at the time you might be closing the gap. Motorcyclists generally have their headlight(s) on so they are less easy to miss, as the come up behind, they also tend to have noisy exhausts fitted for the same reason. With even poor observation, they are difficult to not know they are there.

Even basic rear observation, should ensure you see them coming up from several hundred yards behind. Just use your mirrors.

You are again totally correct Harry.

If a bike is coming down a long straight road towards you you'll see his headlight long before you would clearly see another car.

Here in France, by law, bikers have to have their headlights on at all times.

With the newer bikes they can't be switched off !! They come on when the bike engine starts.

As for people not seeing bike headlights coming up behind them means they are paying very little attention to what is going on behind them.

In France the government wanted to have all car drivers use their lights ALL of the time. This would mean that it would be difficult to tell a motorbike from a car in the rear view mirror.

All the bikers in France held what they call a MANIFESTATION and blocked all of the traffic in all of the cities in France.

I have been on several of these. There were bikers by the thousands.

We blocked traffic lights, shopping centres, motorways etc.

Just stopped and had a twenty minute chat here and there.

The bikers told the French government this would continue to happen unless the idea of car lights on all the time was dropped. IT WAS.-

The French do like the government to do what the people who voted them in would like them to do and not just anything the government feels like doing.

Unfortunately in Britain the population tends to roll over and play dead.

The politicians get away with murder, almost.


Oooops sorry. Rant over.




Colvert.

[COLVERT]

IMPOSSIBLE DREAM-----


I think EVERYBODY, if physically capable, should start on two wheels and only graduate to four when they've passed the two wheel test and spent 12 months on the road.

They would, if they survived, get an enormous and useful amount of information into road conditions, surfaces, grip and the behavior of motorists around them.

This understanding would be invaluable to them for the rest of their motoring lives. ( OH, And probably help them to actually live longer too. )



Sorry; will now go and find a quite corner to cool down in after Rant No 2.


Live long and prosper, ( and go read your highway code again. A sort of refresher course. Lol. )

[HarryM1BYT]

Originally Posted by COLVERT

The French do like the government to do what the people who voted them in would like them to do and not just anything the government feels like doing.

Unfortunately in Britain the population tends to roll over and play dead.

The politicians get away with murder, almost.


Oooops sorry. Rant over.




Colvert.

Spot on Colvert

Unfortunately, whilst cagers have not been forced to have lights on all of the time, many now do so and with buses, they do anyway - company policies