Bicycles and motorcycles

[w00hoo_kent]

It's partly perception, the things that feel 'OK to do' on a motorbike aren't the same as they are in a car, which in turn aren't the same as on a bicycle. So you get someone doing something to you that you'd never consider safe, while they don't see a problem. With motorbikes that tends to be closer than comfortable passes and high to very high speed differentials which are likely to make a cyclist uncomfortable. I'm pretty sure the motorbiker isn't doing anything maliciously, it probably just feels like an overtake to them. It does make me wonder why they don't have more empathy sometimes, but then I've done more than my share of miles on a motorbike so I think I kind of get what's going on. Commuting out of London I get a decent number of motorbike overtakes and when the pack from the front of the lights catches up it can be a bit overwhelming, multiple engines but you're not sure how many and you just want to ride your line and not risk a wobble by shoulder checking (that's me anyway) and just hope they judge it right going past. But that's just a thing, close passes by cars and vans are going to happen in the same commute, but they are likely to be less conspicuous because they happen constantly and they are quieter in their nobbishness.

 

[w00hoo_kent]

If I want to get to work, I can either use a motorbike or a pushbike

If I get a motorbike, it'll be something small to go around the traffic queues, perhaps a Honda 125 scooter. These cost about £2500.
If I get a pishbike, itll be something fast, so I can use least energy for highest speed. Something like an Allez with light wheels. Maybe that costs £1500.

Now my problem is for only a grand more, I'm getting a machine that can be used in more ways than a pushbike.

Really want to know?
The bike will continue to be cheaper over the time that you own it. You don't pay fuel, tax & insurance on the bicycle. The consumables are all no more expensive although I presume the scooter will be shaft drive which will help.
The kit you buy to ride will be cheaper, unless you intend to really go for it on the cycling kit but scrimp on the scooter kit, 'cause it's only a scooter.
You don't get any of the fitness benefit from the scooter. While more strenuous than driving a car, riding a motorbike isn't that much exercise and nothing compared to riding the bicycle. As you are doing it in your commute it's also 'free exercise' as far as time goes.
I presume the 'do more' means it'll be the only transport in the household either way. Cycle and train will get you just as many places as going on a 125 scooter and just get your groceries delivered, or buy a rucksack.

The reason I don't own a (running and legal) motorbike at present is that I can't justify it to myself because I commute by bicycle. Everything I'd lose by using the motorbike to commute weighs too heavily and without using it as a commuter it becomes a very expensive toy I'm likely to use a handful of times a year because at the end of the day getting out on a motorbike in a lot of the UK weather conditions is still a bit of a pain.

 

[martint235]

Some stop in ASLs on my commute, I can't say I'm fussed. I don't really like ASLs in the first place but given the acceleration of a decent sized motorbike, they are never going to trouble me.

My other main area of interaction with them is on the South Circular. I may generalising here but nevermind. The SC is a wide dual carriageway, if cars pull left and right there is enough room to get an ambulance down the centre line. The road is always backed up in a morning so I ride down the centre so do the motorbikes. If I see a motorbike behind me I look for a convenient space to get out of their way. Now, a large motorbike will wait patiently and then give me a thank you wave afterwards. A moped or scooter will rev behind me and beep and then just feck off without so much as an indication that I helped them. W****rs.

 

[snorri]

You have to worry a bit about motorcyclists, their average age must be higher than most road user groups.

 

[jonny jeez]

If I want to get to work, I can either use a motorbike or a pushbike

If I get a motorbike, it'll be something small to go around the traffic queues, perhaps a Honda 125 scooter. These cost about £2500.
If I get a pishbike, itll be something fast, so I can use least energy for highest speed. Something like an Allez with light wheels. Maybe that costs £1500.

Now my problem is for only a grand more, I'm getting a machine that can be used in more ways than a pushbike.

I have an allez elite, a vespa gt 125 and an mtb.

Have sold the 1050cc triumph as it was pointless.

Vespa carries my luggage and washing and if I am in the country, the allez carries me.

Oh and a good vespa can be bought for a grand....mine is ancient (was a gift) and still bullet proof.

Also a vespa has heating for the winter...trust me, you will want that.

 

[Profpointy]

You have to worry a bit about motorcyclists, their average age must be higher than most road user groups.

hoi ! I resemble that remark

 

[jonny jeez]

My gripe with some idiots that also ride motorbikes is that they often block passage that a cycle can fit down. Very often shouting off at cars that do the same to them.

Good motorcyclists treat cyclists as a fellow road user and ride "with"them

 

[mustang1]

Really want to know?
The bike will continue to be cheaper over the time that you own it. You don't pay fuel, tax & insurance on the bicycle. The consumables are all no more expensive although I presume the scooter will be shaft drive which will help.
The kit you buy to ride will be cheaper, unless you intend to really go for it on the cycling kit but scrimp on the scooter kit, 'cause it's only a scooter.
You don't get any of the fitness benefit from the scooter. While more strenuous than driving a car, riding a motorbike isn't that much exercise and nothing compared to riding the bicycle. As you are doing it in your commute it's also 'free exercise' as far as time goes.
I presume the 'do more' means it'll be the only transport in the household either way. Cycle and train will get you just as many places as going on a 125 scooter and just get your groceries delivered, or buy a rucksack.

The reason I don't own a (running and legal) motorbike at present is that I can't justify it to myself because I commute by bicycle. Everything I'd lose by using the motorbike to commute weighs too heavily and without using it as a commuter it becomes a very expensive toy I'm likely to use a handful of times a year because at the end of the day getting out on a motorbike in a lot of the UK weather conditions is still a bit of a pain.

I appreciate your well thought out points and agree with every one of them. Except the "bike ona train" part because then I have to rely on another entity for my transport needs.

I was thinking of an excuse to buy a motorbike, but I will stick with my bikes.

 

[mustang1]

I have an allez elite, a vespa gt 125 and an mtb.

Have sold the 1050cc triumph as it was pointless.

Vespa carries my luggage and washing and if I am in the country, the allez carries me.

Oh and a good vespa can be bought for a grand....mine is ancient (was a gift) and still bullet proof.

Also a vespa has heating for the winter...trust me, you will want that.

Don't I know it. I had a Honda cg125 some time ago and when I brought it home from the dealer, I was only wearing a t shirt not realising how cold I would get above 20mph.

 

[Simontm]

"Let me tell you what I think of cyclists. Hang on, I’ll just get in my car. It’s a 13-year old Ford Fiesta Zetec with bald tyres and a front bumper literally plastered with hair and blood (mostly squirrel, pigeon and cat, but if there’s human DNA there too then I’ll be the last to swear that it couldn’t possibly have been me).

Right. Where was I? Oh yes. Cyclists. Two-wheeled, vegetarian whoopsies! Festival-going, stinky-armpit, Miliband-voting communist farkheads! That’s a red light, you dreadlocked bastard! Take off your farking pointless pollution mask and accept my fist in your teeth, you whale-hugging piece of urban shoot!

What’s that? You want to know what I think about car-drivers? Hang on, I’ll just hop out of the Fiesta and on to my beloved, hand-made Italian Bella Ciao city bike. Now, then: cars. Do you drive a car? Why the goddam hell are you driving on what is statistically likely to be a journey of less than a mile, you fat loser? See how I get everywhere twice as quickly as you and stay lovely and trim at the same time. AND do the planet no harm. AND do not pollute young lungs. Sending a little text message at the wheel, are we? Here, let me have that off you, at speed, through your window, and then SMASH! - into that skip with it. You should be watching where you’re going, not talking to your bastard capitalist car-loving public school buddies.

And that’s just how it is. If I’m in the car, I am totally anti-cycling (they’re like a million gnus migrating across the Serengeti in the morning rush hour these days - where on earth have they come from? Where the hell are they going?) and if I’m on my bike then I truly, deeply believe that all motor vehicles should be banned. And if I’m on foot then I hate both equally. And however I am travelling I believe in the death penalty for motorcyclists, filling up all the gaps in the traffic I might otherwise have pulled out into or walked through, and making that ungodly racket at all hours of the day and night (how can some leather-clad gimp getting from A to B count for more than a thousand people’s sleep?)"
Giles Coren's last column for Time Out this week

 

[Sludgy]

I've never had any problems with motorbikes. Cars on the other hand !! Tonight I had 2 cars come at me through a traffic calming piece of road where I had the right of way. I've had numerous cars overtake me as we approach a blind corner.
But then again on the days I drive to work most of the cyclists I see in town completely ignore traffic lights, which really p***** me off.

 

[User16625]

Don't know if it's me but the only thing I fear on the road is the noise of an accelerating
Motorbike behind me.

Do they have to be so loud?

Yes. I even gave one a when he opened the tap on his blue and white GSXR, sounded brill! He was on a strait bit of road going the other way tho. It doesnt bother me when they fly passed me aslong as they give me sufficient room.

 

[mrbikerboy73]

Yes. I even gave one a when he opened the tap on his blue and white GSXR, sounded brill! He was on a strait bit of road going the other way tho. It doesnt bother me when they fly passed me aslong as they give me sufficient room.

Until recently, I too was the owner of a blue and white GSXR and they are designed to be ridden fast and thrashed. Fast approaching 40 (years old, not mph) it occurred to me that I no longer enjoyed this activity anymore and it has now been sold. I won't deny, I have cursed people on motorbikes when they scream past within inches of your elbow. I was probably guilty of this at times and I have to remember that. I have also cursed cars, vans, tractors and lorries too. As a cyclist, any other road user can be a threat to your safety and motorbikes are not unique in this threat.

 

[ufkacbln]

Had one who would always pull in front and point to the cycle path

Trouble is he wears the tabard of a local firm.

Quick email with a dozen images

"This motorcyclist signals left, so I stow down to allow him to pull in to the kerb... he then drives off.

Could you please explain how to use hand signals properly as his behaviour is a little strange, why make hand signals when he has (I assume) working indicators, and why not follow through with the intended action that he has clearly signalled?"

Apologetic reply from the company and hasn't occurred since