Unbelievable today

Bobbinogs

Great footage. Just goes to show how useful it is as the chap must have thought he came up with a plausible story which, 999 times out of 1000, would have worked a treat...and then the footage shows the actual truth. It is disappointing how a significant minority of road users really do seem to dislike cyclists.

CiB

mamba80 wrote:

Well, i thought your group riding was poor, you were all over the place, 3, 4 abreast, full width of the road.
Absolutely no discipline at all, if a car driver overtakes you, as you ride like that (and they will) and meets an oncoming vehicle, he wont take a head on collision, he'll swerve back into your grp and when your dead being in the "right" wont help you at all.

The m/c could have caused a serious accident and should have ban thrown at him.

But but. They were doing around 30mph anyway; why would a driver have to overtake on a road that has limited opportunities to execute a safe overtake when they're going at a reasonable pace anyway? I know most drivers think there is, but there's no rule that says cyclists must be overtaken regardless of the situation at the time.

Pross

mamba80 wrote:

Well, i thought your group riding was poor, you were all over the place, 3, 4 abreast, full width of the road.
Absolutely no discipline at all, if a car driver overtakes you, as you ride like that (and they will) and meets an oncoming vehicle, he wont take a head on collision, he'll swerve back into your grp and when your dead being in the "right" wont help you at all.

The m/c could have caused a serious accident and should have ban thrown at him.

I didn't see anyone riding 3 abreast let alone 4 abreast. It's irrelevant how much road width they were using as it would have been unsafe for a car to pass them without using the opposite lane even in single file and your hypothetical car overtaking would still have done the same cut in with the same consequences (I'd say a car would have been more tempted to try if they were single file).

daviesee

Pross wrote:

It's irrelevant how much road width they were using as it would have been unsafe for a car to pass them without using the opposite lane even in single file and your hypothetical car overtaking would still have done the same cut in with the same consequences (I'd say a car would have been more tempted to try if they were single file).

THIS.
Happens too many times. Give a car a gap that the driver thinks he can squeeze through and he will go for it regardless.
Much safer to take away the oportunity. Pi$$es them off though.
A simple lack of patience, courtesy and common sense is the root of most road rage incidents. (Cyclists are guilty too).

sfichele

Great result that the police are taking it up! Totally agree with some of the above points, that if you are doing 30+ mph then there is no way a car should be trying to overtake at that point.

essjaydee

mamba80 wrote:

Well, i thought your group riding was poor, you were all over the place, 3, 4 abreast, full width of the road.
Absolutely no discipline at all, if a car driver overtakes you, as you ride like that (and they will) and meets an oncoming vehicle, he wont take a head on collision, he'll swerve back into your grp and when your dead being in the "right" wont help you at all.

The m/c could have caused a serious accident and should have ban thrown at him.

I said in an earlier post that there are lessons to be learnt from this, but I would say it is difficult to be over critical of my riding from a short piece of video footage. At no point where we 4 abreast and all over the road. I think I may have clipped the white line at one point briefly

The road was clear ahead and you could see around the corner and well ahead for a good 1/2 mile plus. We had just gone down a nice steep open stretch of road and I was following my mate by passing a few of the slower riders, and generally enjoying a nice fast bit of riding. Before following my mate I assessed the road as being clear, with good visibility and the road plenty wide enough for any vehicles to overtake, so I took the decision to follow him and then tuck in behind once past.
I'm sure we have all done similar things when out with a group at some time.
The club rides are always well organised and disciplined and we follow a general code which involves the use of hand signals to warn of poor road surface, potholes etc and verbal warnings of vehicles passing, as well as single file on busier roads, and no more than 2 abreast on more rural roads.

Kieran_Burns

essjaydee wrote:

Police have taken a statement from the motorcyclist and his version was;

swerving to avoid a pothole and may have accidentally 'brushed' past me

:!:

Police said that this doesn't tally with the video evidence, so have served summons to appear in court

"I was swerving to avoid a pothole and HAD to tell the cyclist next to me to avoid it. Lucky for him I managed to let him know in time!!"

It's a public service he was providing, you should be thankful you bloody ingrate.

MattC59

mamba80 wrote:

Well, i thought your group riding was poor, you were all over the place, 3, 4 abreast, full width of the road.
Absolutely no discipline at all, if a car driver overtakes you, as you ride like that (and they will) and meets an oncoming vehicle, he wont take a head on collision, he'll swerve back into your grp and when your dead being in the "right" wont help you at all.

The m/c could have caused a serious accident and should have ban thrown at him.

Were you watching the same video ?

essjaydee

Kieran_Burns wrote:

essjaydee wrote:

Police have taken a statement from the motorcyclist and his version was;

swerving to avoid a pothole and may have accidentally 'brushed' past me

:!:

Police said that this doesn't tally with the video evidence, so have served summons to appear in court

"I was swerving to avoid a pothole and HAD to tell the cyclist next to me to avoid it. Lucky for him I managed to let him know in time!!"

It's a public service he was providing, you should be thankful you bloody ingrate.

I'll be sure to mention that in court

essjaydee

Motorcyclist is apperaing in court mid June, charged with;

CJ88116-Section 39 - assualt by beating (battery)

GiantMike

essjaydee wrote:

Motorcyclist is apperaing in court mid June, charged with;

CJ88116-Section 39 - assualt by beating (battery)

Sheeez. He'll probably get a longer sentence than if he'd killed you.

That doesn't look like a motoring offence.

markyone

Nice one,lets hope he gets what he deserves,total w**nker.
The experiences i have had with motorcyclist is that they always speed,
and are always coming at you on the wrong side of the road,when do you ever see a motorcyclist
riding correctly,not often.

essjaydee

GiantMike wrote:

essjaydee wrote:

Motorcyclist is apperaing in court mid June, charged with;

CJ88116-Section 39 - assualt by beating (battery)

Sheeez. He'll probably get a longer sentence than if he'd killed you.

That doesn't look like a motoring offence.

That's because it isn't a motoring offence :!:
I was given the choice of dangerous driving or assault, so went for assault and the CPS obviously believe there is enough evidence to convict on the assault charge

slowsider

Keep us posted of the outcome.

cougie

Bump for it being mid June ...

essjaydee

I couldn't make it to court, so am awaiting an update from the Police

Will post on here when I hear something

essjaydee

Motorcyclist pleaded not guilty at initial hearing :roll:

I have just been served with a summons to give evidence at the court case, in early August.

Should be an interesting day out

Johnpsanderson

Crikey - just seen this - outrageous behaviour by the motorcyclist - and if he's seen the evidence fairly low of him to plead not guilty - hope he gets a suitable sentence.

Turnbull2000

Ok, the biker is a bit of a moron, but prosecution? Seriously? Looked like he hardly touched you.

mattshrops

Turnbull2000 wrote:

Ok, the biker is a bit of a moron, but prosecution? Seriously? Looked like he hardly touched you.

I'm willing to bet a car driver would not have to go to court.

jim453

mattshrops wrote:

Turnbull2000 wrote:

Ok, the biker is a bit of a moron, but prosecution? Seriously? Looked like he hardly touched you.

I'm willing to bet a car driver would not have to go to court.

Not an easy move to pull from the driver's seat of a car though is it?

daviesee

Turnbull2000 wrote:

Ok, the biker is a bit of a moron, but prosecution? Seriously? Looked like he hardly touched you.

It doesn't take much to cause you to go offline at 30mph+.
The scare and a wobble could do it on it's own.

mattshrops

jim453 wrote:

mattshrops wrote:

Turnbull2000 wrote:

Ok, the biker is a bit of a moron, but prosecution? Seriously? Looked like he hardly touched you.

I'm willing to bet a car driver would not have to go to court.

Not an easy move to pull from the driver's seat of a car though is it?

True but you get no points for being pedantic. I think you know what i meant.

essjaydee

Turnbull2000 wrote:

Ok, the biker is a bit of a moron, but prosecution? Seriously? Looked like he hardly touched you.

Me bad :roll:

Stanley222 wrote:

Well the Crown Prosecution Service must think they can prosecute or it wouldn't have got to court in the first place!

This ^^

essjaydee

Motorcyclist was found guilty of assault in court on Friday

Scrumple

Where's the video gone?!

I wanna look!

Gizmodo

I'm glad you follows it through and got the right result. Did you go to court, did he plea not guilty and if so what was his defence?

essjaydee

Whilst waiting to give evidence, got informed that they wanted to plead guilty to driving without due care & attention. Reason being that the motorcyclist is a social worker and if found guilty of assault, would lose his job. I was happy to go with a guilty plea on driving offence, as figured he would have learnt his lesson from it. Senior magistrate wasn't happy with this though, so trial went ahead on charge of assault.

He claimed there was a pot hole that he hit which caused his right foot to come off the peg, putting weight on the left peg and caused the bike to move into me. The pot hole also caused his left hand to come off the bars which brushed against me. It was cringe worthy and total rubbish, but don't blame him for trying to save his job. Magistrate pretty much said he was spouting rubbish and making it up. I found out after the verdict, when they were summarising, that he had stated he was sorry and shown remorse in his statement, but police never told me that. I would have dropped the charge, had I known that.

I actually feel sorry for the guy. He has no previous history, other than a minor driving offence over 10 years ago. I didn't want him to lose his job, hence was happy to go with a guilty plea to the driving offence. By the time it went to court, it was out of my hands though

I came away felling pretty sh*t about the whole thing

DF33

Think I would have felt the same. Lost his job and his career in the medium term until he can show re training etc has changed him.

On the other hand, as a social worker he is working with very vulnerable people or children. He was happy enough to physically assault a vulnerable cyclist when he thought he could get away with it on a faster machine (bullying) and possibly put your head into the road after a fall.

You have to ask yourself if that is the sort of guy you would want alone with your abused child or dementia suffering mum or dad? what else has he possibly been getting away with (and I'm not accusing him here, just asking the question)?

So, yes, I would feel bad too. But he brought it on himself and has the air of doubt on him as he assaulted you, lied in court re pothole (perjury) and needs a squeaky clean personality for his profession (clearly not).

So have a glass of wine, put your feet up and reflect on the seemingly dodgy person he is. Allegedly

Cleat Eastwood

Why feel sorry for the gobshite. He lied in court when he realised 'apologising' hadn't worked. Friend you had the balls to take action against a man who could have caused another rider far more serious injuries. A member of my family was hit by car last year - in a coma for 10 tens - will never ride again - the driver claimed he was rushing to importance business in his carpet business - turns out he 'used' to work in carpets - as a salesman in a carpet warehouse and was now a waiter in a pub. Don't feel sorry for them - be proud you've allowed teh law to take action against him.