Geordie Oldie Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 As a result of the internet being aware I have rekindled my interest in motorcycles, I am seeing a lot of near miss/ accident motorcycle videos on my you tube feed. I am not defending others ( mainly cars) poor driving, but in so many of these videos you can see what is coming way before it happens and it often appears some riders are looking for a reason to be angry and a possible confrontation. Defensive driving/riding seems an unknown concept to some. If you can see a car nosing out of a junction or changing lanes without indicating and apparently unaware you are there and generally behaving like an ignorant ar*ehole, assume that is what they are and approach accordingly, don't just ride blithely on because you are in the right. Being in the right doesn't matter, getting home safe does. You can't re educate the ar*eholes with righteous anger. Don't even bother getting angry, just pity them. Prepared to be flamed for this. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Davey Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 Me too, I'm with you 100%. Defensive riding, always look for what could happen. We might be able to prevent it from happening, but slowing down at the right time can make a massive difference to the outcome. If we have to slam on the anchors, or swerve, just mutter and carry on. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manxie49 Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 Riding defensively has saved me from a fair few accidents over the years. I've been riding bikes for a good few years now, both for fun and work, I rarely get angry or confront anyone now, I just swear inside my helmet and move on. I know we all like to blether on about bad car drivers, and yes, there are plenty out there, the driving standards are definitely taking a nose dive. However, I've seen some pretty horrendous riding standards on this rock, especially during TT, and have nearly been taken out on several occasions that spring to mind, by other motorcyclist riding like complete and utter t----t's. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
husoi Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 One of the most satisfying moments is when you can call some idiot a phoking moron even if it's just in your head and keep going happy that you were clever enough to prevent the interruption of a nice ride because some waste of space and oxygen have no idea what is riding a motorbike. As above. Safer can be quicker although taking my time to enjoy the trip instead of concentrating on the black stuff and spend the time changing underwear is much more fun. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RideWithStyles Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 (edited) self Edited May 14 by RideWithStyles 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mississippi Bullfrog Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 A lot of those youtube videos are either riders who are idiots and then get angry because they did something stupid and failed to spot a problem - or increasingly I suspect riders who are out for content so deliberately engineer a confrontation. If you ride with anticipation most potential issues become non-events. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt Sisko Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 (edited) On 01/05/2024 at 09:12, Geordie Oldie said: Prepared to be flamed for this. Absolutely not. In so many cases, yes you usually see some numpty in a car doing something wrong, but you also so often see the biker failing to look up the road, take in what's going on and react accordingly. Then as MB says there is the aftermath (assuming they didn't hit the them). It's quite often gesticulation at a minimum to chasing down the miscreant and abusing them, BUT they never accept they continued to ride into a developing situation without taking any action. I accept that's not always going give you a get out of jail card for every situation, but opening your eyes & knocking of 10mph could be the difference between a short stay in hospital or a long stay on the slab. Edited May 6 by Capt Sisko 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 There's no point in being DEAD right! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angela Collen Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 Definitely practice defensive driving, not sure if it's just a Suffolk affliction, but drivers pulling out of side roads only look in the opposite direction while still moving forward, don't see you coming as they haven't even looked , so knowing the roads definitely helps and so I always slow down when approaching side roads, I have no desire to be side swiped but be in the right, it may take me longer to get to my destination, but I'm not in a hurry, just want to enjoy riding 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob m Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 It’s all about the clicks. They put up an attention grabbing thumbnail and *bingo*. Attention seeking at its worst. Lots of folk love to be outraged. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curlylegend Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 10 hours ago, Mississippi Bullfrog said: If you ride with anticipation most potential issues become non-events. A number of years ago I went to visit a friend in hospital in rather a bad way. I was surprised to hear about his predicament as he was a cop motorcyclist and IAM certificated and he was always banging on about " There's no such thing as an accident, only lack of anticipation ! " He was admittedly a bit OCDC/ AFTK...shit, I forget what the correct term is, but you know what I mean. He was a pedantic obsessive bugger ! So while I'm peeling grapes, I ask him exactly what happened ? " I was proceeding along Sinclair Drive in a southerly direction at 10.36 on the morning of Tuesday the 12th of March at exactly 26mph in 3rd gear. I was correctly positioned on the road to allow me to scan parked cars for occupants in the drivers seat and also checking licence plates in case of a foreign vehicle with probably left hand steering. I was also checking cars parked in household drives in case there was a possibility they might proceed onto the roadway without checking for oncoming trafic, in that case me on a white Strathclyde Police BMW motorcycle. I noticed a car in a drive facing away from the street with an elderly female at the wheel. I was then aware of the fact that she had started the engine due to vapour from the exhaust. I assumed the was about to enter the open garage which the car was facing as the wooden gates for the driveway were closed. So I proceeded on my way until I was first struck by a white wooden gate then by the rear of a 1989 Nissan Micra. The driver had inadvertently selected reverse in the auto box and applied the throttle, shot backwards and removed the gate from the posts and me from my motorcycle ! " " I'm going to have to surrender my IAM badge and certificate, and I don't know why you're laughing !" 1 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S-Westerly Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 Yep, you can't spot them all. You don't live for ever either. Definitely not worth getting into a rage over although in your head you can always imagine pulling out your handy pocket sized death ray and blowing the offending bast*rd to dust bunnies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiddlesticks Posted May 2 Share Posted May 2 8 hours ago, curlylegend said: 26mph in 3rd gear There's your problem! 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RideWithStyles Posted May 2 Share Posted May 2 (edited) On 01/05/2024 at 22:30, curlylegend said: I assumed that Edited May 15 by RideWithStyles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RideWithStyles Posted May 2 Share Posted May 2 (edited) On 01/05/2024 at 22:30, curlylegend said: at exactly 26mph in 3rd gear. Sorry Edited May 15 by RideWithStyles 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curlylegend Posted May 2 Share Posted May 2 23 hours ago, curlylegend said: A number of years ago Over forty actually ! So while the gist of the account is correct, some of the details might have been imagined ?? The cop in question did eventually end up being second in command of the entire Strathclyde cop car and bike organisation. He retired earlier than expected and gave his reason as violently disagreeing with the Chief Constable's insisting that Strathclyde Police needed a helicopter....because Manchester had just got one ! I would say that the disasters with the helicopter crashes into a block of retirement flats in the south side of Glasgow and more recently onto the Clutha Pub in the city centre kind of proved him right. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tinkicker Posted May 3 Share Posted May 3 On 01/05/2024 at 11:29, Mississippi Bullfrog said: A lot of those youtube videos are either riders who are idiots and then get angry because they did something stupid and failed to spot a problem - or increasingly I suspect riders who are out for content so deliberately engineer a confrontation. If you ride with anticipation most potential issues become non-events. Absolutely. These type videos are full of testosterone fuelled idiots who should be able to see a situation evolving, but take no action or even deliberately take an action that makes a mild situation into a serious one "to prove a point" and show the car driver a thing or two. Congratulations. You are laid on a mortuary slab and the car driver is facing a driving without due care and attention rap. You certainly proved your point. More oxygen to go around for the rest of us. I stopped group riding because of such behaviour. Nothing worse than mixing pack mentality with motorcycles. To the OP. Why were you expecting to be flamed? For good or for bad, most motorcyclists these days are the teenager " bikers" of the early 1980s. They have seen friends die, have had body parts in plaster, and have learned from the experience. Few are the number of todays motorcyclists that will defend idiotic behaviour. I know one thing, if motorcycling ever got a grip on todays youth like it did in the 70 and 80s, the accident rate would quadruple and motorcycles would very soon be banned from the road. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geordie Oldie Posted May 3 Author Share Posted May 3 2 hours ago, Tinkicker said: To the OP. Why were you expecting to be flamed? I am new to the forum. I can recall pre internet days the furore in MCN over a letter lambasting people for not riding like lunatics away from race meetings, went on for months. I hadn't realised how few young riders there are out there now, so few young uns coming through, what will it be like in 20 years time? off topic, but I well remember a Mark Williams running out of road article in BIKE magazine, " Don't wave me down" about not acknowledging other riders, that caused a storm too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S-Westerly Posted May 3 Share Posted May 3 5 hours ago, Tinkicker said: Absolutely. These type videos are full of testosterone fuelled idiots who should be able to see a situation evolving, but take no action or even deliberately take an action that makes a mild situation into a serious one "to prove a point" and show the car driver a thing or two. Congratulations. You are laid on a mortuary slab and the car driver is facing a driving without due care and attention rap. You certainly proved your point. More oxygen to go around for the rest of us. I stopped group riding because of such behaviour. Nothing worse than mixing pack mentality with motorcycles. To the OP. Why were you expecting to be flamed? For good or for bad, most motorcyclists these days are the teenager " bikers" of the early 1980s. They have seen friends die, have had body parts in plaster, and have learned from the experience. Few are the number of todays motorcyclists that will defend idiotic behaviour. I know one thing, if motorcycling ever got a grip on todays youth like it did in the 70 and 80s, the accident rate would quadruple and motorcycles would very soon be banned from the road. Don't know about the youth of today quadrupling accidents. A lot of them are so cosseted anything faster than 50 mph would probably send them into conniptions. Manufacturers would start making nothing bigger than a 450 and it would have to be green too. There's the odd youthful scallywag around but not enough. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiddlesticks Posted May 3 Share Posted May 3 8 hours ago, S-Westerly said: conniptions Thank you, I have learned a new word 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curlylegend Posted May 3 Share Posted May 3 16 hours ago, Tinkicker said: I stopped group riding because of such behaviour. Nothing worse than mixing pack mentality with motorcycles. Me too, years ago when I still lived in Scottistan. A dozen or so of us would set off from south side of Glasgow heading for Loch Lomond. Mostly it would just be two or three of us getting home together. The reasons were breakdowns, running out of fuel, getting lost and getting stopped by the polis. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curlylegend Posted May 3 Share Posted May 3 14 hours ago, Geordie Oldie said: I hadn't realised how few young riders there are out there now, so few young uns coming through, what will it be like in 20 years time? Motorcycling in UK is mostly a retirement activity as far as I can see. There are very few young people involved, not hip enough ? Different over here though. There are lots of teenagers celebrating the descent of their testicles by tearing around ( 45 kph ? not really tearing, is it ? ) on "customised " 50cc bikes. The girls favour 50cc scooters. Out in the sticks here kids need transport and bikes are still regarded as being cool. But even the real motorcyclists, i.e. the ones you acknowledge with a wave, are of all ages. The older ones tend to ride in club outings in a very disciplined manner. Two abreast where appropriate and strictly observing speed limits. Albeit in a French fashion, that is no more than 5kph above the limit. But no overtaking and no racing. Yes, Geordie, in twenty years time in the UK, motorcycling will be as common as horse riding or riding a penny farthing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RideWithStyles Posted May 4 Share Posted May 4 (edited) to Edited May 15 by RideWithStyles 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S-Westerly Posted May 4 Share Posted May 4 I reckon you're right there or at least its a major part of it. To go through the ridiculous rigmarole that seems the case today you really must have a burning desire to ride a bike. Not sure many do. That said both my son and son in law did and that wasn't due to me having a bike as I didn't then. In fact it was partly them getting bikes that reawakened my desire for one again. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackholesun Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 On 04/05/2024 at 15:00, RideWithStyles said: to be honest the license saga is pretty much killing biking. Shame they dont do the same for cars, lets see how much that changes applications. Is it though as a car licence is theory , 20 odd lessons and test prob takes 6 months Bike is theory, couple of days learning than mod 1 then 2 probably takes a month But having a 17 year old and being around kids that age none of them would ever contemplate having an old banger for a car let alone riding a bike it's just not a thing in the UK imo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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