UK Bike Forum / UK Bike Forum / Roads and Routes

Long way up

Black Dog — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:02:24 GMT

Hello all - sorry I haven't been around lately. Too busy with work stuff, and a new addiction to Second Life, which seems to take up a lot of my spare time. Any other addicts out there?

On topic for a change - Saturday here was a beautiful day, so in the afternoon I got my exit visa from the better half and took myself off for a tootle round the lanes. There's a lovely run from here over the Preseli Hills to Cardigan, and I started off that way, intending to come back a different route in a circle. But when I got to Cardigan, the road was just carrying me on, and the sun was out, and the roads were dry, and the Ducati was on song - so I went up the coast to Aberystwyth, turned in Morrison's car park, and came home again. 137 miles, and most of it flat out.

I have had the Duc since November, but almost all the mileage has been winter commuting - not the greatest way to get to know a new steed. On Saturday, we had a real bonding session, and I feel I know the bike far better than before. What a sweet handling bike! It's the only bike I have ever had where I feel confident to ride to the edge of the tyres. As a bonus, I filled up when I got home and, unless I have made a bad miscalculation, it was doing almost 60mpg (normal commute is about 42-ish). And that was a fast A-road run, most of the time between 70 and 90.

Oh, summer is on its way, I'm sure of it.

Now to go back and read the hundreds of posts I have missed.

Bikes and Bus Lanes

Trick3003 — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 12:23:48 GMT

So i have been doing a bit of reading on the old googleometer and found that they have been considering and trialing the use of bus lanes for bikes.

Did this ever go ahead?

If so it will make getting around Leeds alot easier on L Plates!

Thanks

Rich

UKBike.com are looking for blog writers!

tom@ukbike.com — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 11:12:44 GMT

Hi everyone, I'm Tom from the UKBike.com team.

We are looking to launch our new blog soon, which will highlight the latest bike reviews, news and video items, information on UK bike events, and updates from UKBike.com.

Our blog is also a platform for quality writing. We're looking for bike riders who can regularly turn their stories, thoughts, bike reviews, and most of all their passion for motorbikes into words.

UKBike.com is the UK's leading motorbike reviews site - in August alone we had 90,000 individual visitors. Today there are 4,401 bike reviews in our archive, and we'd really like to bring the qualities of these reviews to our new blog.

If you're interested in writing for UKBike.com, then please drop me an e-mail at tom@ukbike.com or leave a private message through this site. Look forward to hearing from you!

Cheers

Tom @ UKBike.com

Is this the turn signal light and horn system you were looking for?

alice123 — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 06:17:11 GMT

Hey Steve is this the light system you were looking for? It has the white lense for the headlight and the orange turn signals. It also has eight different alarm/horn sounds AND has he break light and break light switch you were looking for. If you are still building go karts for people then I think it would work well for you. They say it can be used with scooters, mini bikes, go carts, and or bicycles. It uses two AA batteries so you won't need to wire it into the karts electrical system but I guess you could if you can figure that out. I found it at www.lducompany.com and here is the link to the LED page that has the light system http://www.liangdianup.com/led_1.htm

I lost your email address so I hope you see this. Post a message back and let me know how to get in touch with you. I don't want to leave me email address out here for bots to grab.

Oh yeah, that same company also has that little compass with a carabiner you were looking for http://www.liangdianup.com/camping_1.htm

Get back to me ok

My Favourite route

vic.finch@btopenworld.com — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 18:34:25 GMT

I live in Tunbridge Wells so am pretty central but I like to ride down to Eastbourne (A22) via Crowborough, Stop and have a cuppa/fag on Eastbourne seafront,then ride on to Bexhill and then Hastings. Toilet break/fag break is optional here before riding back home via A21 in time for breakfast with the wife and kids.

Any thoughts on your routes, how I could add even more excitment to my route??? All suggestions will of course be overlooked unless your route is a blinder!!!!!!!

Discuss

Vic

Anyone ride today?!!!

Ems — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:39:32 GMT

So was anyone brave enough to ride today? I opted for the car for obv reasons!! I work 12 miles away from home and it's country roads all the way so not a good idea in this lovely weather! I saw 3 bikers out, and thought they were off their tops! But i know that people like Mazz unfortunately don't have the option of choosing.

It's totally mad out there. Tree debris everywhere, and even a basketball in the road this morning, and parts of the roads flooded!! 4 trees down too!

So did everyone go ok?

Goading Police Officers

Mazz — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 16:29:58 GMT

earlier this week my cousin was pulled over for speeding down the A23. we was duely cautioned and recieved a fine. What made me slightly miffed was his story behind it...

He was travelling along at 70 when a car came up behind him and started to get right up his backside. Now usually when this happens you get a bit annoyed and open it up a bit to put some distance between yourself and the car, which he did. Unfortunatly this particular car was an unmarked Police Volvo and it caught up with him and clocked him at 90mph.

Now, I'm not defending him, he shouldn't've been doing 90, but it worried me slightly the Cops may have intentionally pushed him into exceeding the limit. Why? I'm not sure, perhaps it was slow day and they wanted something to do, but riders beware. If you see a Volvo or Focus estate pull up close behind you, don't crack it open... Hold your speed and pull in when you can... flip them the bird as well, however this is optional!!

Unity Ride London

Simplezi-GSXR — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:47:54 GMT

Hey there people, just wondering who from here is going to attend the unity bike ride in london on the 19th, this Sunday???

Im going to be attending this charity event and hope to see some of use there. I will be there with my lovely finacee on the back and hope to meet and make friends with new bikers.

Many Thanks

Simplezi

A Horse, A Horse. My Safety for your Horse

Mazz — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 09:56:10 GMT

It's that time of year when all the horse jockeys mount their trusty steads and jump ferlons and gates and all manner of other things...

My office building is right next to the Hickstead show ground, which some of you may know holds major showjumping competitions. I turn straight onto a slip road which is only about 100m long until I hit the A23 Northbound, so I've got a pick up some speed for filtering.

So, I pull out and give it a bit of welly (as it's FRI and the weekend is now on me) and suddenly "Wayhey, what the hell is that?!?!?" It was mud... everywhere!!! Horses nowadays need transporting in rather large box things. These park in muddy fields. said mud then sticks to tyres and hey presto, this is then spread across the road. A Car probably won't have a problem with it... but a bike! It's not like it's small pieces either, it's huge, almost Badger sized, lumps that get left in the middle of the road. I have to slow down and almost emergency stop before I get to it all. And to make matters worse, horse boxes just pull out without thinking! And they're so bloody huge they take up the whole road, can't accelerate and thus hold up everyone.

These probles further cement my theory that horses shouldn't be on the roads in any way. I't dangerous for the horse as it's vunerable. Dangerous for the jockey as the horse can spook, rear and throw them off. Dangerous for bikers as hitting a horse is as good as hitting a wall, and those transporters are death traps.

Get horses off the roads, it'll save lives. Have paths at the side of the road they can walk down, at least they'd be able to run then.

Police bike cops

roadhoover — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 09:57:24 GMT

Whilst meandering home last night on the venerable 9, I saw a bike in the distance, that looked like it was achieving respectable speeds. Funnly colour leathers though.

Over the next few minutes I managed to gain some ground on this completely flourescent clad rider on a very late sports bike, he even had a badge on the back of the jacket. I wasn't close enough to read the sigil as he kept darting past traffic.

It couldn't be a copper surely, not on what looked like a c model ZX-10R, riding like (well, like I would if I had a C model ZX-10R), the 9 wasn't struggling to keep up in terms of power it was just the weight of traffic. Ahead it cleared and a series of relatively fast bends opened up, I saw flouro man, move out and negotiate the sweepers, his line was classic police training, line of sight, opposite apexing etc for fast road riding. I caught him up at a roundabout. Sure enough the sigil said 'Police' and the helmet was white with chequers around the base.

Have Sussex constabulary finally seen the light and scrapped orders for the Pans instead reverting to sports bikes for support patrol and pursuit. I know some forces have pursuit bikes which are Blades etc, Also the NCS have stealth riders to track suspects. Perhaps he was testing the bike out, perhaps it was private transport and he was on the way home after a heavy shift of paperwork and doughnuts. Most unusual!

Still he seemed to be enjoying himself, whoever or whatever the scenario.

Death Driver Told "Expect Jail"

Mazz — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 12:32:39 GMT

This is what confronted me on THU morning in the local Leader newspaper. Not really realising at the time, I read on. It described, in the way reporters do, about a crash that happened last year, just outside the South Of England Showground in Ardingly. I realised then that this was a case that I had just convicted a man of death by Dangerous Driving.

As you can imagine, there was a lot to take in, so I'm going to give you all the paticulars so I get the idea of what happened.

Picture the scene.... It's Dusk, about the time you start thinking of putting your lights on... this is important so keep it in mind. It's just past 5pm, so it's the 'Drive Home' hour. Mr Legry's is driving his mothers Ford Fiesta Finese 1.3 home from work. He works for the NHS as a Patient Transport Driver. He approaches a Pick Up truck and a tractor pulling a trailor doing 20mph max. It's down a country road which is wide enough for two cars to pass, probably two buses, but there are hedgerows and trees on either side. Your typical 'B' road you might say. Now, I said it was dusk, some cars have lights on, some cars don't. The Tractor doesn't have it's lights on... mainly because it doesn't have any. Lights are fitted to the Tractor and trailer but aren't wired up so he can't turn them on.

Mr Legrys decides to overtake the 'convoy' of Pick Up, Trailer and Tractor. (The Pick Up and Tractor drivers are friends. They're literally 200m away from where they were going to park the tractor over night.) He begins his manouver and quickly sees a headlight coming towards him. He thinks "I have enough time to complete the overtake, I will continue to do so". Needless to say he didn't. At the trial, Mr Legrys stated he didn't know there was a Tractor and Trailer ahead of the Pick Up (But two cars behind him knew there was something there, even if the didn't know what) and he was totally mislead to the length of the vehicle he was over taking. The headlight flashed at him. He then realises he needs to get out the way, fast! He slams the wheel to the left to get out the way but he hasn't completed the manouver yet. He strikes the rear, drivers side wheel of the tractor and rebounds straight into the line of the headlight. BANG. The headlight was a Kawasaki ZZR1100... he didn't have a chance. He was pronounced dead at the scene, being killed out right when he came to a stop.

Ok, they were the particulars, painted a bit of a picture in your mind?

Phorensics / Crash Investigators took the stand and had some very interesting things to say. When they found the car, it was in 4th gear. Now, remember I said the 'Convoy' was doing 20mph. This means, Mr Legrys must've been following in 3rd gear at 20mph. Once he thought of doing the overtake, he kept it in 3rd. 3rd gear, 20mph, 1.3 engine, floored it... no f**king way! There is no way it has any acceleration at that speed in that gear. The crash speed of the car was 36mph (approx). He was in 4th at 36mph. I think we all know that if you need to overtake, you drop it down and pin it back... he didn't.

At the beginning of the manouver, Mr Legry (at best) would have had 2sec worth of clear road (it could have been shorter, but given the benefit of doubt) before he saw the Kwak. He had a further 6sec to do something about it. EG, get the f**k out the way. He left it to late to do anything.

The said Mr Legrys needed to have 110metres (approx) to complete the manouver safely. He got 50 meters at the time of impact, not even half way. Even if he could have done it, there is a blind left hand bend a further 40-50m on from the point where he could get back in... that isn't enough time at 40-50mph.

The ZZR was being ridden in a controled and profesional manner says eye witnesess. So nothing was done wrong by the ZZR. Strangely, there was no emergany braking by the rider. No skid marks, and no evidence on the pads or disk (I have no idea how they can tell but they can!) this was a pondering question that I can up with the answer for. Imagine yourself coming around the corner and seeing lights on your side of the road. You'd flash your lights and lay off the throttle a bit but there is still some time between you and the car. You see the lights ahead of you turn right to go over to their side of the road... you hold steady, thinking all's ok. Then, suddenly, it's back in front of you. Nowhere to go, no way to avoid it. I don't think the rider saw the tractor (we'll never know now) so didn't realise that the car was still overtaking and couldn't do anything about it. Once he saw the lights go in he thought "I'm clear through now, that was close" Only to have the lights come back again.

Basically, taht's what happened. In a nutshell, he made a manouver, didn't have time, he couldn't pull in and the bike hit him. The manouver was dangerous and should never have been attempted. It was unlike Mr Legrys to consider, or try something like this. He is an 'Ultrasafe' driver, never had a shunt, a scratch, a ding, not even a parking ticket. He has made one mistake, it's taken a life.

We had to find him guilty of the offence. He's disqualified, probably fined, and expecting a jail sentance. Sentancing has been suspended until the 10th April so I don't know what he's got.

Hope that's clear enough, I know there's a lot read there but that's a brief overview of what happened... needless to say, it was a lot more complicated than that but that's how it looked.

May Day Ride

Mazz — Thu, 03 May 2007 17:28:09 GMT

Hastings is hosting the annual Biker gathering on the 7th of May... who's going? I shall be... on the Fazer! Rock!

Happy Friday!

Black Dog — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 15:00:45 GMT

Friday, going home time, dry and warm (ish). Forecast for the weekend good.

Enjoy the weekend, folks. Keep the shiny side up.

Bloody Gov't

Mazz — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 09:28:46 GMT

So, here we go again. Yet again the Government thinks it'll be a good idea to descriminate against bikers to 'keep us safer'. I'm sure you're all well aware, new proposals are to be laid out about making it compulsary for faster, sportier bikes to have a restrictor put in. Sod Off!

Bikers make up 1% of the vehicals on the road, yet account for 5% of road traffic accidents. Now, this sounds like a bad figure, but how much of that is at the fault of the rider? I recently did Jury Service and a biker had been killed by the driver of a car driving dangerously. He was at 60mph (on the 60mph road) so how is it his fault? A major accident on the A23 the other day when a car and lorry collided. The lorry crossed the central reservation and went head-on into a group of bikes. Again, thier fault? How about making it compulary for all car drivers to take an advanced lesson in handling the car?

The Government are just picking on us because we're more vunerable on the roads. Well, we know we are. Everytime we get on the bike we understand and except the risk we're taking. We won't win a head on and we'll come off worse in an accident, we know all this... but we still ride. Does this mean a Bugatti Veron, Ferrari, Porshe, Alfa and all the other GTI twin turbo etc etc cars out there will be getting a restrictor too? I highly doubt it. It infuriates me to the point of screaming when this happens. I have a good mind to march on parliment at the weekend (or ride!) with a board saying F**K OFF!!

How about Blair and his croanies back off and leave us alone. No sooner have they done something good for us (Opening up bus lanes!) they flip it around and bring out some ludicrus legislation like this. If this is implimented then I'm off, I can't stand this country anymore.

Bye bye bike ... hello tarmac

RogerRoger — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 12:18:22 GMT

Riding home Wednesday eve, warmest it's been in ages and lovely dry roads.

So there I was taking this right hander near Littlehampton and all of a sudden with no warning, the bike felt like a lump of high speed jelly. I realised something was not quite right but couldn't possibly comprehend the possibility of NOT staying on.

Then presumably the bike high-side and weeeeee... off I go, feeling vaguely like a circus performer being shot from a canon (without the nice safety net though).

I hear the sickening crash (or was it crunch) of my beloved Fazer smashing into the deck and thought "right, best get up out of the road". But, soon realised I was still moving a a fair old rate, sliding down the road on my back with one's brand new £300 lid being ruined, but perhaps at least saving me a life being fed through a tube...

Finally came to rest and instinctively jumped to my feet and cleared the road. No sooner than I'd composed myself the a local house owner and 3 blokes from 2 vans were right there, making sure I was alright.

Thankfully I'm OK. A bit sore but no broken bones. My crash was caused by the a certain well-known rescue organisation attending a car breakdown a few hours earlier and thoughtfully NOT bothering to clear up the transmission fluid that had leaked all over the road (bastards). I'm not covered fully comp so am praying the Fazer can be mended, and already have a legal team pursuing a claim.

Still. All good fun eh?

Tuesday - is the new Monday?

RogerRoger — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 10:24:28 GMT

I'd read this before but not quite believed it until started commuting again recently. The traffic on a Monday morning doesn't seem so bad - whereas Tuesdays are AWFUL - and then Wednesdays quieter still!

This does seem a strange phenomenon - does it mean more people are working at home on a Monday?

Bus Lanes...

Mazz — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 14:15:58 GMT

Can we use them?

Drivers on the 'phone....

RogerRoger — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 12:51:13 GMT

Now I'm commuting on the Fazer again I am reminded of how many car drivers, if not catching up on their sleep, are catching up on their phone calls.

Has the threat of 3 points on one licence deterred these idiots? We shall see - but I doubt it. Let's face it, it's easy to see a police car and very easy to lower the phone out of site when they do.

These people make me sick as it puts me at direct risk. What can we do ? I filtered past a chap this morning in slow traffic - he wasn't watching the road as was either texting or looking up a number. As I drew along side I politely beeped the horn and pleasantly gesticulated that he should perhaps be paying more attention to the road but will it prevent him again? No.

In days of old when commuting in London in the summer when car windows are open I'd quite enjoy very load revving next the the offending vehicle but that's a waste of petrol and only make us, not them, look like yobs...

WHAT CAN WE DO?

Ignorant drivers

roadhoover — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 09:56:20 GMT

Do I live in France? Am I riding on the wrong side of the road unwittingly and am just fortunate not to have been nicked yet?

No I'm bloody not. Why do the majority of the tin box pilots on the road drive on the right whilst travelling on dual carraigeways when the left hand lane is completely empty? The other day I had to undertake just under a mile of traffic because they just would not get out the way. I realise it's illegal and am not boasting about it but the drivers in front of me knew I was there because I saw them checking their mirrors. But would they move, would they bollox!

I drive a car and Im always checking my rear view mirror for approaching traffic especially fast moving bikes and I get out of their way. Is it just a symptom of the crowded South East or does it happen where you are?