Motorbikes

[davefb]

This twat rather annoyed me last week, I'm equally amused and horrified by his comments on the video:

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=uSiCfvaAmSg

jesus wept...

irony him moaning about 'get a car' , i believe the term is 'sez the scooter rider'...


whats depressing is that the only 'positive' is they wont be around long riding like that,,, hopefully not taking anyone else with them ( sadly I know 3 motorcyclists who'd died, one a close work colleague, none were their fault in any way oh hum)

 

[cd365]

I too ride a motorbike and always give a cyclist plenty of room. In a lot of overtakes I don't need to cross the line because the cyclist is close to the kerb. I will always leave at least 6 feet of space. It is purely the noise of bikes that can scare a cyclist, not a close overtake. With the wind in my ears I can rarely hear something come up from behind as I'm cycling so when a motorbike goes past it can be slightly startling especially, as mentioned previously, when a motorbike has a race can on or they have taken the baffles out.

 

[BentMikey]

Now there's a nice wide generalisation along the lines of 'all cyclists RLJ'.

I can't agree with Yello and GrasB more (and not just because I ride a motorbike).

Well, that's true enough, not all motorcyclists ride badly. On the other hand though, there are some rather depressing stats out there about how very many motorcyclists do ride poorly. It brings to mind the speeds of riders measured in the bus lane, which was truely shocking. More than half, IIRC.

 

[Angelfishsolo]

I find that the boys on Off Road bikes are a menace. The fellows on the road machines are always polite and leave plenty of passing space.

 

[Jezston]

I've only had two bad incidents with motorcyclists:

1. A guy cut me up going round a corner, before immediately stopping at some lights. Some comments from me along the lines of "you wouldn't like it if a car did that to you", two wheelers looking out for each other etc were replied to by him revving his engine. Sad micropenised little tosser.

2. Got passed a little too close by a guy on a fairly powerful motorbike and my right ear was ringing for a few minutes afterwards. Turned out it was a friend from work and he was very apologetic!

 

[zizou]

Generally i find motorcyclists ok, sometimes even get a wave or nod from them as a fellow two wheeler

However i did noticed an awful lot of very close passes during all the bank holiday weekends we had about a month ago - all were on sunny days on an otherwise empty country roads so really no need to cut it so fine. Mentioned this to a riding buddy (who is also into motorbikes) and i asked if it was the weekend warriors doing it because of inexperience and he said partly that but apparently a couple of the magazines have articles about 'buzzing' cyclists for fun...a worrying development.

 

[Chris.IOW]

Not the Military Road is it Chris?

It is the Military Road yes, seems to be a bit of a racetrack.

That said reading the comments on here and thinking back, they probably were not passing that close to me, I think the noise and the speed amplified the effect as they went past and made it feel more unsafe then it was for me. The fact I was battling to stay upright in a particularly unpleasant crosswind may have contributed too!

And I have to agree there are some very pleasant motorcyclists out there as well.

 

[crumpetman]

Most bikers I see give me plenty of room when overtaking and don't tailgate.

I have had the odd few that decide to pull alongside me or slightly in front when I am doing 20 plus keeping up with the car in front. This annoys me as I am keeping up with traffic so there is no need to try and overtake or to sit next to me taking up space which I might need if the car in front brakes or the road conditions change.

 

[Dragonwight]

It is the Military Road yes, seems to be a bit of a racetrack.

That said reading the comments on here and thinking back, they probably were not passing that close to me, I think the noise and the speed amplified the effect as they went past and made it feel more unsafe then it was for me. The fact I was battling to stay upright in a particularly unpleasant crosswind may have contributed too!

And I have to agree there are some very pleasant motorcyclists out there as well.

Thats petrol head central. If you want to give your car\bike a good caning thats where most of them go at some point. That guy a few years back got done for doing 150+ down there in his Porsche.

I find most bikers are pretty good the only ones i dont like are the 125`s & scooters that are so loud they leave your ears ringing for 5 minutes afterwards. Most bikers that are a bit nuts dont last long anyway tis the nature of the beast.

 

[Norm]

Most bikers I see give me plenty of room when overtaking and don't tailgate.

I have had the odd few that decide to pull alongside me or slightly in front when I am doing 20 plus keeping up with the car in front. This annoys me as I am keeping up with traffic so there is no need to try and overtake or to sit next to me taking up space which I might need if the car in front brakes or the road conditions change.

I guess that this could be mis-understood as tail-gating but I'll use my extra road presence on the motorbike to preserve space around cyclists. I sit some distance behind, to minimise the risk that I'll be perceived as tail-gating, but I sit wide behind any cyclist who is keeping up with traffic because no car will overtake me.

I've also slowed down in traffic to create space to allow cyclists out to turn right without having their left shins shaved.

Sounds like I need to get over to the Military Road, though. My old man lives in Cowes, so I always try to use Yarmouth or Ryde to maintain a distance.

 

[evilclive]

I too ride a motorbike and always give a cyclist plenty of room. In a lot of overtakes I don't need to cross the line because the cyclist is close to the kerb. I will always leave at least 6 feet of space. It is purely the noise of bikes that can scare a cyclist, not a close overtake. With the wind in my ears I can rarely hear something come up from behind as I'm cycling so when a motorbike goes past it can be slightly startling especially, as mentioned previously, when a motorbike has a race can on or they have taken the baffles out.

Loud bike exhausts piss me off - putting a race can on for the road is the action of an inconsiderate idiot.

 

[mog35]

Loud bike exhausts piss me off

Same here. Particularly the ones on scooters. There's a lot of them around my area. I don't know what they do to them to get that sound, but it annoys me like nothing else can - horrible, whiny, high-pitched droning that drills into your skull.

No doubt the owners of these vehicles and their mates are impressed: 'hur hur hur I gone dun a big noise hur hur hur!'

I don't remember having any problems with motorbikes, nor with scooters apart from the noise some of them make.

 

[2PedalsTez]

Thats petrol head central. If you want to give your car\bike a good caning thats where most of them go at some point. That guy a few years back got done for doing 150+ down there in his Porsche.

Aah... good days. I remember thrashing my fiesta 1.1 along there as a lad.. I am sure I even got as fast as 35mph at one point

 

[jackthelad]

jesus wept...

irony him moaning about 'get a car' , i believe the term is 'sez the scooter rider'...


whats depressing is that the only 'positive' is they wont be around long riding like that,,, hopefully not taking anyone else with them ( sadly I know 3 motorcyclists who'd died, one a close work colleague, none were their fault in any way oh hum)

 

[jackthelad]

This guy has L plates and does not represent the motorcycle riders as a general group