Bike safe London; a rider?s eye view (Warning: Long!)

[killa]

[bazza]

[G]

Delvard:
Thanks for the comment. I appreciate at times that I do come accross with a rather arrogant attitude.
This is rarely the intention.
Believe it or not, when it's bike related, usually it's because I have looked into the subject in a fair bit of detail in the past and thus am confident in the knowledge I have.
(Most of the time, anyway!)

fatoldtramp:
Just because I usually ride in a twat-ish manner, doesn't mean I can't or have a problem riding otherwise.
I do believe I can ride in a relatively 'safe' manner and still enjoy riding on country roads. However setting your speed so early before a corner loses a lot for me.
As for other parts of the riding displayed, I would consider them more dangerous or rude - so can hardly be considered to be using such a riding style as a basis for criticism.
I did not approach this day expecting to have a 'filtering battle' at over the ton, through changeable m25 traffic; thus did not complain when we didn't do that!
I would still consider doing an advanced riding qualification, but the lack of use of Brakes puts me off the most.


Creeping into junctions:
Depending on the vehicle I will often cruise slowly up to a junction.
While he was doing this, he would also then carry on at a very slow pace the whie line, into the junction.
It always annoys me when cars creep out, regardless of whether it is safe or not. While you may have good observation, I'm sure there's some circumstances still that could mean that you have to stop, stuck half way out - say a couple of bikes or fast cars come up behind quickly, followed by a big truck.
Ok, unlikely, but (as he didn't have short legs), I don't really see the need. Also stopped at a Junction I would expect is less likely to see you rear-ended than creeping forwards.


Killa specific:

Some responses to those that I haven't covered above.

They did make a point that they only had speed cameras on 30,40 and 50s - so even if they wanted to go faster, they wouldn't on these because they didn't want to get flashed themselves - and definitely didn't want to have a student getting a NIP while they were on bikesafe.
There has been cases of cops getting done for speeding - though in most cases I expect that rather than not speeding, they just make sure they know where camera vans are going to be, etc.

Thought I mentioned it, but yes, I wouldn't be at all surprised if he was just measuring my 'smoothness' by my brake light - the times where I used it near corners, it was mostly very gently.

Personally, I'm definitely don't agree with 'the limit is the limit' as far as safety goes. However, I'm not sure I've heard of many people being done by police (rather than cameras, vans etc) in national speed limit areas when they weren't much over the speed limit.
Heard about quite a few people being let off with a telling off for speeds a fair bit over the speed limit. When I got caught, they suggested they wouldn't have bothered to chase me had I been just doing 119 in the outside lane, rather than while undertaking!

When he was doing higher speeds in lower speed limits - Well to be fair I'd rather they were realistic for a day even if I do get busted the next time I do this.

I actually went off on a bit of a rant about how you can't hold stunt days on private land because of insurance, though from a slightly detached 3rd person perspective - prefer not to give any police the view that I may regularly do naughty things.

I was initially also a bit confused by a couple of things in Killa's posts (ie was it painful (and thus 'slated') because it was badly written, or because it was long, or because he didn't like what was being described - though the situation has now become clearer).
Oh and while I did want it to be quite long, there was also stuff that I left out still - but I did want to give a fairly 'complete' view of how I found it. I didn't really like the presentation; did consider editing it, chopping bits around; but didn't have the time (thus it was posted about a week after I wrote it!).

As for the cop not crashing as much as me, I was suggesting that was better, at least from his point of view; as the aim of the day is to reduce the number of people crashing.

[Luke_Retrofly]

no point in addressing killa g, hes probably forgotten what the hell he was going on about

Luke
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[Mister James]

[Luke_Retrofly]

i see it more as having a dig at killa actually . Why would i have to brown nose someone who is already my friend anyway.



Luke
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[killa]

Lukey boy, trying his best to make everyone a friend.

I smell shit

Cheers for the reply G, you took sometime to do that without just making abusive remarks, cleared some points up to.
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Cleverly disguised as a responsible adult.
Bike:- Yamaha TRX850 | Killas Biking History | Killas Gaming History | Killas autmotive history

[G]

[Luke_Retrofly]

Hi

[Kris]

Nice write up Gspot

It's things like this that really fecking boil my piss tbh. The police go out and actively encourage 'progress', breaking the law in the process and doing over 90 in a 70 etc, expecting you to follow their lead and giving you a fake impression that being sensible will see you right.

Well sorry officer but that is one huge fecking lie

I did 88 in a 70 on an empty dual carriageway in darkest Suffolk on a quiet Sunday. I got caught by a police 'biker' and subsequently lost my licence. ( I even doubt that figure of 88 by the way)

Basically if the speed limits are flexible then why are they not being policed that way? Fucking joke to be honest. Either it is the law and important or it's not and should not be policed like it currently is. There's no bloody consistency anymore and to think I lost my bike and nearly £1k and there's some copper on a police bike showing people how to do what I got punished for... .

/rant
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[G]

Just to confirm - I or the other rider was leading in the NSLs - so he was following one of us.

However he was ahead when he was doing a highish speed in the 50.

Sadly the limits are policied 'flexibly', it's just how flexible seems to depend on the mood of the cop more than anything else .

[colin1]

[bazza]

[killa]

[flamegrape]

Great review... thanks G!
I'm going to look into taking a course!!
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[MonkeyKnuckle]

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[Redoko]

[The Shaggy D.A.]

I booked one a couple of months back, earliest I could get that's not miles away was the beginning of October.
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[ulster exile]

Sounds like the London Bikesafe course is far from oversubscribed....the Met were up helping West Mids police at the recent On Two Wheels bikeshow at St Andrew's in Brum and I had a Met officer take me out for taster Bikesafe session.

He told me that they have plenty of spaces left on their course when I moaned that the West Mids are way oversubscribed; when I signed up in April-ish I was told there were about 340 registered for about 140 places here.

[The Tot]

G, which officer did you have when you did this?

Was it Paul Mostyn that was doing the day? I had Brady Woods out on my ride. Since I was the only guy on L's it was a 1 to 1. You've done ROSPA since then haven't you?

Bit of a massive 4 year bump but I'm tempted to do bikesafe again!
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[G]

Afraid I don't remember, but think he was the most senior one there. He had a moustache I believe.

I've done some bits of IAM, but not got around to completing it; need more practice at doing their stuff instinctively; know what I should be doing generally .

[The Tot]

Moustache, glasses, dry sense of humor? Yeah I remember him. I also remember this guy Parris who looked like bob hoskins! He was sound as a pound
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The Tot 2007 Yamaha R1 4C8 2002 Yamaha FZS1000 Fazer &
www.youtube.com/Titot182 for your bike gear reviews and pop punk covers
Earl Of Easycore Pop Punk Will Never Die!

[Mister James]

https://www.bikesafe-london.co.uk/team/

Fux me - he does look like Bob Hoskins.

My boss keeps trying to get me to go on one of these - we get them for free (probably because the biggest cause of dead rozzers is motorcyclists commuting to/from the nick).
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>Soultrader Mister James, I bet you are a copper
>Bazza Wow. Eyes like a shithouse rat, you...

[G]

Get a free lunch at ace cafe .

[Mister James]

Well, I've fixed my outrageously-loose chain today after seeing a Rat eyeing it up in the yard, so maybe it's time I bit the bullet!
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>Soultrader Mister James, I bet you are a copper
>Bazza Wow. Eyes like a shithouse rat, you...