"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

[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 a year later, they repealed the law due to a massive rise in accidents involving that age group - the kids thought they were invulnerable suddenly and kept riding like idiots.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.