"It's not bikes that kill, it's stupid car drivers!"

[azekeil]

Rode to Cheltenham Motorcycles today because my bike was running rough as fuck.

On a straight bit of road there were three cars in a line. The front one turns off right into a sideroad. The other two aren't indicating so I indicate and start to overtake. Just as I draw level with the first car it starts to turn off to the right - no looking in the mirror, no signalling. I must have missed him by inches.

As I roar off onto the road ahead in fright I look in my mirror and see the white van stop halfway through it's turn. At least I gave the driver a shock and they won't be doing that again in a hurry. But had the timing been any different it could have been an entirely different story.

Wake up? Please? You're going to kill someone.

As for myself, I shall be cautious of people who could be going slow enough to turn, whether or not they might be going slowly for other reasons.

Anyway, turns out my bike is running rough because it's most likely fouled the spark plugs. Apparently Triumphs do that, and you have to start it differently in winter to avoid it. In the mean time I have three spark plugs which I need to fit myself because I can't afford another 50 quid bill. I need some help to do it though I think :/

Comments

[gashinryu.livejournal.com]

> Wake up? Please? You're going to kill someone.

They're out to get us, I swear they are. I had someone pull out in front of me on the dual carriageway recently...didn't even look. Mind you, his face was quite entertaining when he saw there was a quarter ton of blue and white metal bearing down on him at 125mph. He swerved back in.

> In the mean time I have three spark plugs which I need to fit myself because I can't afford another 50 quid bill. I need some help to do it though I think :/

If you can get yourself down to Andover at the weekend, I have a garage full of tools and a pair of willing hands.

Woohoo!

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Yes, I had similar with a dual carriageway. I was doing about 80mph but with a strong crosswind and rain around a gentle corner. I didn't leave myself much maneuvering room with the speed and conditions, but luckily I tend to make sure I know the traffic around me so I was able to change lanes into the other lane without needing to check. Stupid bastard.

Anyway, thank you SO much for your kind offer. I may well take you up on it but my weekend is already busy. I am supposed to be doing roleplaying in Bristol from 2pm until 10pm on the Saturday and I have to be in Cheltenham at 7pm to go to a pre-booked viewing of LotR - The Two Towers.

However I could come up on Friday evening (be there whenever you like as I am holiday atm) for a night out perhaps? and head back midday Saturday after doing the work.. or come up and go back on Sunday? I would say I'm easy but that would make too many people snigger ;)

That would be dead groovy. Let me know what's best :)

[dylan.livejournal.com]

One of the best things I ever learnt from my motorbike training is to only ever be going 5mph faster than anything you're overtaking, that way your collision speed is only 5mph which shouldn't cause you to come off. There are lots of little tips like that they tell you on advanced courses.

The only time I've been knocked off a bike was in the same situation as you - a car turning right with no indicator and not checking his mirrors as I was overtaking - except in my case the car was initially stationary and there was no turning on the right (he just decided to do a U turn in the road). Luckily I was using my 5mph ish rule so my collision speed was low and I was unhurt

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Thanks very much, that's a very sensible tip.

I actually had a Volvo do exactly the same - decided to pull a U turn with no indication after I'd been following him for a while. I'd just decided to overtake him and it was wet - we were going only about 15mph but I locked the bike up and slew gently to a halt before revving the engine and glaring (as much as can be done with the helmet on) at the idiotic driver and went past him.

[dylan.livejournal.com]

Another very sensible tip I learnt on training was to steer well clear of Volvos. I'm not joking either, I'm always expecting them to doing totally stupid things. I heighten my alertness and defensive riding whenever I see one

[ghostpaw.livejournal.com]

Volvo drivers are evil (or really dumb, or both), and I'm sure there's a special circle of hell reserved for people who don't know what indicators are for. The number of times I've almost been run over by people turning suddenly with no prior warning ... *growr, nash*

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

The thing with Volvos is a well-known and long-running one. The main reason is what psychologists call 'risk compensation' - they've been told they're safe inside their car by so many adverts, that they automatically up the danger level of their driving so that it balances out to them still being safe to the same degree that they were before they had Side Impact Protection Systems [1] etc. The same theory of risk compensation was noted a few years ago in Australia when they made cycle helmets compulsory for all under-14 year olds... a year later, they repealed the law due to a massive rise in accidents involving that age group - the kids thought they were invulnerable suddenly and kept riding like idiots.

[1] Think about this one; what's the only situation in which you get t-boned in the side of the car the way the Volvo SIPS advert shows? (the one where the guy catches the cassette in the air as he's being crashed into)... It's when you've pulled out in front of some poor bastard who was innocently using the main carriageway at the time. Volvo do it on purpose, I swear they do, they actually encourage the people who purchase their vehicles to try and kill us.

Ride safe people.

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

Interesting... the police that I did my advanced riding training with told us to always complete overtake manouvres as quickly as was safely possible, to get out of the danger zone.

Of course they also taught us never to overtake where there's a right turn - naughty boy azekeil!!!