motorcyclists whats the crack???

Gav888

Poucher wrote:

There's a time and a place for everything, my mates and I operate on a "Stealth" policy and try not to draw attention to ourselves, which means no speeding in built up areas and no blatantly loud exhausts, once we are out into the countryside we let them rip.

+1 im the same on my bike, and its a GSXR and im no chav

poucher

Campagone wrote

Why do motorcyclists ride mainly in the middle or as damn near to the middle of the road whenever they can? It's no wonder so many ot them end up having fatal head on collision's with oncoming vehicles. I know I tend to ride in the gutter and I would imagine I'd be pretty much the same on a motorcycle.

That statement confirms that you don't ride a motorcycle Campagone especially the bit about riding in the gutter, riding a motorbike well is all about two things and i think they are equal in priority and they are :-
A/ Your positioning on the road
B/ Observation and being aware of your surroundings.

As far as actually "working" the bike, brakes, clutch, gears etc, that should be like second nature to you and as easy as breathing.

Your positioning on the road controls lots of things, generally on rh bends you need to be as far over to the lhs of the road as is safe, this lets you see further through, the corner to judge your entry speed, apex and exit points, and the opposite goes for lh bends, you need to be as far over to the rhs of the road as possible, even to the extent where its safe and an open sighted corner ( no hedges, walls etc ) over the other side of the white line, on the opposite side of the road.

If you muck the entry up to into one corner, this puts you out of position for the next one. and while all this is going on, you have to be very good at reading the "vanishing point" of the bend to judge if the corner is tightening up, staying a constant radius, or opening out, that's some basic points to consider when riding a motorbike "well"

The observation bit keeps you alive, and you develop a skill for reading the road and other road users and what stupid things they are going to do, basically you treat every other road user as though they are out to kill you.

I ride with some very fast guys, but you can trust that they aren't going to do anything stupid, there is definitely an art to riding a motorbike really well, your average biker has more skill and talent in his little finger than most car drivers :shock:

Gav888, Fireblade rider here, with over 30 years experience under my belt, I've owned some of the most iconic bikes over the last 25 years, 1000 exup, Ducati 851, 3 Fireblades, RSV 1000 Aprilia to name but a few, also rode competition enduro for 7 years, that was great fun!

Sermon over :roll:

Poucher

guinea

campagone wrote:

Why do motorcyclists ride mainly in the middle or as damn near to the middle of the road whenever they can?

Triangle of death.

http://www.datacraftsystems.co.uk/techn ... iangle.htm

rolf_f

philthy3 wrote:

You should always be able to stop within the distance you can see in the eyes of traffic law.

That doesn't apply if someone is coming towards you on the wrong side of the road. It would be almost impossible to get above 30 mph on any cross country road if you assumed some muppet on a bike was going to come round the corner on your side of the road at 60mph plus.

Anyway, motorbikes are to bicycles what invalid carriages are to pedestrians. They are just bicycles for the weak thighed

Edit - never had any problems with them myself on the road.

cougie

Never had any problems in North Wales or Cheshire either.

Occasionally we do get the odd one who doesnt make it round a bend - and then the Police have to close the road to pick up the pieces. They usually let cyclists past though - so we get basically closed roads thanks to the tragedy.

*AL*

campagone wrote:

Why do motorcyclists ride mainly in the middle or as damn near to the middle of the road whenever they can?

It's called self preservation

StillGoing

Rolf F wrote:

philthy3 wrote:

You should always be able to stop within the distance you can see in the eyes of traffic law.

That doesn't apply if someone is coming towards you on the wrong side of the road. It would be almost impossible to get above 30 mph on any cross country road if you assumed some muppet on a bike was going to come round the corner on your side of the road at 60mph plus..

Sorry it does apply. You go tanking around that corner at 50mph unable to see what is lying in the road on the apex and can't stop. It's your fault.