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| UncleFester |
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UncleFester
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Joined: 30 Jun 2013
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| Shaft |
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Shaft
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 Posted: 22:45 - 05 May 2018  Post subject: |
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Some things you never get over; my arse still puckers when I see someone approaching too quick from a side turning - I got T boned off my TS50 about 3 months after my 16th birthday and I'll be 53 this year.
On the other hand, my biggest fear is running out of grip and losing it on a corner, which has always slowed me down on bends. The odd thing about that is, the only occasion where I've ever fallen off due to losing adhesion, was also on my TS50 - it had knobblies, the road was damp, it was on a roundabout regularly soaked in diesel and I went into it far too hot, so I know why it happened and it was entirely my own fault, nothing to do with the tyres.
Since then, I've always had road bikes (with one exception) they always have good tyres on them and, whilst I've had a couple of big 'moments' (always involving unusual surface conditions, like oil slicks) and got away with it, my bottle still goes on fast bends, to the point where I've put myself in more danger by running wide.
I don't know why this is, or what I can do to get over it, but it doesn't stop me riding, I just go a bit slower.
tl:dr Get back in the saddle and enjoy riding for what it is, just keep your wits about you and know your limits.
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| M.C |
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M.C
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| Teflon-Mike |
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Teflon-Mike
tl;dr
Joined: 01 Jun 2010
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Posted: 05:05 - 06 May 2018  Post subject: |
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| M.C wrote: | | Teflon-Mike wrote: | You do know more cyclists are hurt each year than motor-cyclists? |
How seriously? |
Is this a punctuation conundrum? How? comma, Seriously? or How? (did they get hurt? Were they hurt) seriously?
There's also the ambiguous use of 'seriously' as synonym for 'severely' eg Were you seriously hurt... to which I always think, "No, I was joking! It just tickled a bit! See the BLOOD?!?!?"
But I detract.......
It's a nebulous topic; roughly 60 motorcyclists are killed each year on UK public roads... around 100 pedal-cyclists are killed... there are a lot more of them, but they dont cover as many miles.. there are aprox three and a half to four thousand 'serious' injuries recorded for either a year.
But the stats are pretty crap... dot-gov can be fairly sure that there are 'about' 200,000 motorcyles on UK roads, cos they have bought a tax disc...... they have almost no idea how many push-bikes there are or are regularly used, or how many miles they cover.. because they dont have to be put on for an MOT each year and have thier odometer reading recorded.
ISTR that there have been a few studies, campagns or conundrums come out of London, and Transport-For-London probably have the best data on the topic as a result; to do with thier concerns over the rise of the push-bike as counter to congestion charges as well as the lycra-clad loons getting fit getting to work, giving themselves heart attacks!.... on which topic, ISTR a comment on the 'spike' in pedal cyclist hospital addmissions, shortly after Christmas each year, before the sun peeps out and the motorcyclists get all exited.... was suggested to be down to the number of middle aged men, who got the idea of buying a push bike and getting fit on it, around Christmas when they went and bought one in the toy-shop for the kids!
Main ones though were in response to the cyling lobby petitioning for more dedicated cycle lanes, and cycle routes, and 'cycle refuges', particularly after one cause-celeb, was made a lot of, when she was run over by the back-axle of a lorry turning a corner, and was in the truckers blind-spot.
Facts are though, that there are a lot more push-bikes than there are motorbikes... so you would expect more push-bike accidents. Push-bikes are also significantly unregulated, they dont have to have a registration number, or collission insurance, a trained, licenced safety garbed rider, and sold as toys, they are significantly sold and used with abandon to the dangers, which, are mush the same to each rider, whether on a push-bike, moped or scooter..... a 10ton truck is still a ten-ton truck, and it cares little what you were sat on when it crushes you!
Interestingly, when it comes to motorbikes, L-Platers are still the most hurt on our roads, and under 25's....
More skew stats.... few under 25's bother to get a full licence, when they cant ride anything bigger than a 125 they could on L's anyway...... and more over 25's ride 125's on L's cos they got one cos cheaper than a car, and paying an extra grand to get a licence would rather defeat that notion......
B-U-T... the inference is that training and licencing, or lack of, combined with yoouth and the exhuberance there-off, seriousely inflates the risks to a rider over the 'normal'.. and by far the largest number of regular cylists are untrained, un licenced yooths, often beneath school age... they are an accident looking for a place to happen...
Which is some suggestion WHY push-bikes may seem more dangerouse than motorbikes.... BUT still doesn't change the fact, that more pedal cyclists each year are killed and more seriousely injured, than are motorcyclists...
So on bag, if you think the risks of riding a motorbike to work each day are too big to bear, what the heck are you doing with a push bike!?!?
Oh, I think its in the RoSPa figures, the 'minor' injuries for push bike accidents seem inordinately low compared to those for a motorbike.... this is probably down to recording as much as anything, and the fact that it seems standard protocol for any motorcycle accident to get an ambulance call out, where falling off a push bike, cos it dont have a number-plate and insurance cert (or co that can be charged!) doesn't!
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Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?' |
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| G |
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G
The Voice of Reason
Joined: 02 Feb 2002
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| Ste |
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Ste
Not Work Safe
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| Ste |
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Ste
Not Work Safe
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Posted: 10:15 - 06 May 2018  Post subject: |
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| UncleFester |
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UncleFester
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| G |
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G
The Voice of Reason
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| Posted: 12:44 - 06 May 2018 Post subject: Re: Missing the nerve |
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| UncleBFester wrote: |
It was more of a loose comment about not charging around blind bends ... i'm sure we're all guilty of it to a degree, especially on roads that we know - which is why i really try and pay more attention on those roads. |
I had a lovely one on my ride-safe day.
If I can, I'll go out wide, but in this case I decided the visibility wasn't good enough and it could put me in more danger.
And, as it goes in this case there was a car cutting the corner a bit, about centre in the road.
I saw the police biker behind, who had gone wide, go over to the other side of the road to avoid it.
Now, his situation worked fine - but if there had been another car behind this car, say, he'd have had some issues.
If the car had been even closer to the verge, whether I could have avoided it is another matter (try and go up the bank on that side to avoid a head on impact would probably be the way.) |
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M.C
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| UncleFester |
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UncleFester
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| Posted: 07:13 - 07 May 2018 Post subject: Re: Missing the nerve |
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| G wrote: | | UncleBFester wrote: |
It was more of a loose comment about not charging around blind bends ... i'm sure we're all guilty of it to a degree, especially on roads that we know - which is why i really try and pay more attention on those roads. |
I had a lovely one on my ride-safe day.
If I can, I'll go out wide, but in this case I decided the visibility wasn't good enough and it could put me in more danger.
And, as it goes in this case there was a car cutting the corner a bit, about centre in the road.
I saw the police biker behind, who had gone wide, go over to the other side of the road to avoid it.
Now, his situation worked fine - but if there had been another car behind this car, say, he'd have had some issues.
If the car had been even closer to the verge, whether I could have avoided it is another matter (try and go up the bank on that side to avoid a head on impact would probably be the way.) |
Yep - i do like Bikesafe (they call it that here ) and there is a lot to learn from them but they aim for an extreme of positioning that i am just not comfortable with as i don't have the skill to deal with the thinner margins for error, be it a pothole / gravel on the surface on the line i have committed to.
I caught a line of peagravel the other day, right over the road from gutter to gutter on the hidden side of a blind bend - even at low speeds it caused the front end to skip about 8" to the right. Had i been further over ( i'd seen the crap on the road approaching the bend and moved further left ) it would have spat me over the centre line and into the other lane.
To be fair to the OP, i don't know if falling off would put me off, it would depend how close to potato i put myself and how much at fault i was. As it stands, Bikesafe and other courses give you the skill and confidence to manage risks to the best of your ability and those are odds i'm comfortable with AND in control of.
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Skudd
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| Pigeon |
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Pigeon
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| Rogerborg |
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Rogerborg
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| Posted: 09:24 - 09 May 2018 Post subject: |
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| Teflon-Mike wrote: | It's a nebulous topic; roughly 60 motorcyclists are killed each year on UK public roads... around 100 pedal-cyclists are killed... |
Mike, serious question: why do you persist on spouting such trivially disproved garbage?
It takes a matter of seconds to find the actual numbers, as Ste demonstrated.
When it's so easy to be right, why do you insist on being so stubbornly, comically wrong?
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GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike |
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Old Thread Alert!
The last post was made 5 years, 351 days ago. Instead of replying here, would creating a new thread be more useful? |
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