Aggressive Overtakers

Like all previous posts I've also been through the sports bike crazy faze. The wake up call for me luckily came before I managed to do any permenant damage to myself or anybody else. It is unfortunate that there are still to many riders that have yet to grow up and understand that if you want to ride outside of the national speed limits get on a track day, and not on the open roads.

We can all let the red mist come down especially when we least expect it to happen.. The trick is to quickly manage it away by smiling and saying to yourself don't be daft. Does not alway work, but a good tactic notheless.

Wessa

 

Our local IAM group had a traffic and fire arms officer as speaker the other week. He said their main casualties were in the 17 -24 age group and 45 - 50. The former were in cars, the latter were bornagain bikers. Traffic casualties mind, not the ones he'd shot.

 

Well, some of us at least.

I don't usually like riding out in big groups, but as a new committee member felt it my duty to go on our club's first 'instructional' ride-out of the year, aimed at folk new to the drop off system, but anyone welcome. On a twisty-ish B road, new to me, sat safely behind a couple of cars with a double bend coming up, a two-up bike behind me, I judged there was enough safety margin to get by the first on my 900cc Street Twin and hoped the two-up wouldn't follow cos unlikely they'd make it. So I flicked the indicator, moved to just inside the white line, quick right-shoulder life-safer when three (three!!!!) Busa's flew past me and scared me $h1tless. One got past both cars, causing an oncoming white car (hard not to see it coming) to swerve towards the verge, the other bikes darted in between the cars causing the one I was behind to hit his brakes. God knows how many riders they'd gobbled up to get there cos I don't remember seeing them in my mirrors.

Apparently these three idiots, all mature (age wise) blokes in their race leathers, are well known for it on rides where overtaking is permitted.

Dawdlers and maniacs combined is a reason I don't usually do large group ride-outs.

 

The older I get, the faster I was.
One of the joys of my 'merica is that it curbs my inner hooligan. Having broken bones in my youth, I know that as we get older they don't heal as fast, so I just wave the gixxers and blades past, safe in the knowledge that they they can find the dead badgers in the road, together with plods speed traps.
My simple rule is never throw a leg over a bike after a) watching the moto gp or b) listening to Motorhead's Ace of Spades. It's helped keep me shiny side up so far.

 

First ride on the new street twin up to the PONDEROSA on the horseshoe pass, brill day, cold but bright sun (2/4/17) I could not believe the lunacy I witnessed on that road on that day, Mad overtakes into oncoming traffic, on blind bends etc etc. Get to the cafe and low and behold hundreds of bikes, and I doubt if there was more than a handfull of bikers under 40! I like to push it on, but I also like to get home under my own steam, with my pride and joy unmarked...

 

Btw, latest stats suggest 30-35 is the new bike-buying age group, down from the born-again 40-45 that was. Seems hipsters and especially city-working professionals coming to motorbikes as best for commuting. Read it in dealership trade mag.

 

Had an aprilla rsv 1000 which was ridiculously easy to ride at stupid speeds so got rid to buy a speed triple which has really slowed me down! Not that it's slow but not having a fairing and being upright at 60mph seems like double that, unfortunately when most sensible decent people jump on a sports bike there adrenaline turns them into bellends which normally leads to a life time of regret restraint is the key and for me as an ageing grandfather I just think of my wonderful family and the devastation I'd leave behind!! Ride safe everyone

 

Well put.........
Wessa

 

One must not confuse fast riding with bad riding.

I can have a huge amount of fun riding quickly but have also seen some appalling riding - overtaking on blind bends, forcing other road users to take avoiding action and other behaviour we've all witnessed. However you don't need to do that to ride fast, you just need to learn when to be quick and when not to be.

Some apparent misdemeanours are not really that bad. Several mentions in this thread of crossing the double white line, but that's not necessarily a terrible thing. Illegal yes, but I have come across many, many situations where a bike could safely overtake, yet is legally prevented from doing so by continuous double white lines. I generally avoid crossing them because it's too easy for law enforcement to spot you doing this, but ignoring that and crossing them is not actually dangerous in those locations (needless to say if no oncoming traffic). Of course in other places it would be suicidally foolish to cross, but that's what being a good rider is all about, knowing how to be safe as that doesn't always co-incide with road traffic signage and the law.

 

Not all speed is bad. It comes down to judgement and skill level.
Speed in itself is not necessarily bad. It is just one factor in an accident usually coupled with poor judgement and poor riding skills.
I don't go everywhere at warp factor 9 , sometimes I will be over the speed limit.
I don't think any of us are saying speed and you will die. Those we are against are the pri@ks that can't ride and then speed on top of that.
I see them most times I go out on the bike, I just think there goes another organ donor !
I just ride my ride and get the most enjoyment out of it. It doesn't need to be fast to enjoy it as quite often I'm riding somewhere bueatiful but then I live in Scotland

 

Indeed. It's usually the rapid slowing down to 0 mph that actually causes the problems.

 

I'd tend to agree with those comments. Have a look on Youtube at Yammie Noob - he's a Yank who exhibits the classic trait of his ambition exceeding his ability. So far he's written off two speed triples, and very nearly himself. The bloke is a total bellend and gives bikers a bad name. His latest avoidable accident involved a head on collision with a Porsche.

 

Overtaking by slipping across double whites is in many situations the safest place to overtake, as it is much less likely some car will pull out of the line across you to make an overtake without using their mirrors. Note I said less likely, its never certain...

On the same subject, if the road is wide enough, overtaking between a line of oncoming traffic also has its attractions, again car drivers in the line will be a lot less likely to pull out on you

 

I work on the roads all day. I see the over all standard fall at 5 pm, you can actually feel the difference I see idiots, daily, cars and bikes.
I just keep thinking how you like me to come to your office and race up and down ,getting in peoples way, knocking thinks over, braking the rules and causing trouble,
I also see sensible people taking sensible opportunities to have fun.

 

Hi sprinter, what do think the significance of the 5pm watershed and the drop in standards is?
Wessa

 

You see aggressive overtaking in the morning - morning routine all marked out, get up at 6.03am so every second counts- push on to get bakers coffee and work. by 6.52am .
Then through the day thinks are quieter, most of the drivers are professional lorries, buses, vans, tractors, these people are ,on the road most of the day, they live there,Working so driving some one elses property or their own livelihood around .So lots of thinking ahead ( espesially the bigger ones) polite "do as you would be done by" sort of stuff' safe, sensible ,same again tomorrow,sort of stuff,they think about being on the road.
Then BANG...out of the gates comes Mr done for the day hes happy to be away from work and happy to be going home hes thinking about what he did today what he needs tonight hes between places , not really there, just passing through doing what he has so many times before, free and easy ,radio on, smoking, having fun,racing that mondeo from last night

Both the ones in the morning and at night are not really there, their between places

 

I am interested that so many on here seem to regard the double whites as sacrosanct, but perhaps not speed limits. If an overtake is safe, its safe, the the white lines dont alter that. Likewise if an overtake is not safe then it isnt, even if there are no overtaking restrictions marked on the road. On that particular road in the vid, its too narrow for a safe overtake by anything wider than a bike, so I assume that is why the lines are there. I see the same attitude amongst some drivers, cars mainly, who are obsessed with the idea of getting into the left lane on a motorway as soon as possible after an overtake, then almost immediately they dive out again to get past the next slow truck. Quite often these 'law abiding' drivers are doing this at well over the national speed limit. If you are doing 70 and there is a constant stream of trucks etc doing 55-60 in the inside lane, why is it such a good idea to be constantly lane changing, just because it says you should in the highway code? Because if that is the reason, they why do they break speed limits.?

 

Sorry cant agree with the 'professional' label, just because you drive for a living doest mean you are professional. How many times do you see one truck pull out of a line of trucks because he thinks he can go 1 MPH faster than the truck in front, then after holding up the centre lane for 4 or 5 miles finds that he cant so has to tuck back in. What is so 'professional' about that?