Be Excellent To Each Other

Everyone that I personally know that rides motorbikes has been involved in at least one serious accident. One guy lost his wife who was riding behind him and was convicted of some reduced form of manslaughter due to his blood alcohol level. He even did about a year of jail time.

Another guy went face first into a fence post on the Whitby road. He was wearing one of those helmets with the full face flip ups. That broke away and basically every bone in his face was smashed.

Both of these guys still ride

Tempting fate, but I've never crashed a bike at all.

The locations on that quiz are the kind of obscure and eccentric buildings, plaques, and monuments in strange places that I like. Disappointed they rejected our suggestion of the Shrine to Ianto in Cardiff, but it's not accessible by motorbike.

I low sided a 125 on ice in front of a gaggle of schoolgirls 30 yards from my front door. I ended up on more ice so had trouble getting up. It was a bit embarrassing. I also walked away from the Erfive once, having neglected to put the stand down. That's when I found out a crash bar had rusted through.

This is something I'd really fancy at some point also. Too late this year, but maybe we could organise Team BikerBeex entry for next year?

Just need to get your two wheels in order guys, me and Dr Z are already sorted. Reckon I could convince Grim... of the man-maths involved for his entry over the BBQ and/or Cottage over 10 beers.

Smashed bike (and myself to a degree) on many occasion, mainly in my youth, although I did manage to spectacularly embarrassingly crash the Bonneville into the M6 Toll Booth at 2mph whilst being watched by about 300 people in their cars, including me throwing a strop at myself leaping up and down having a fit of rage, then picking up the 900 off the deck as if it were a 125 (I could never do this normally).

Another time I slid down a gravel road with the bike on top of me at 60mph; ground through my jeans ("genie-ing" a box of Swan Vestas matches hard against my leg - I still bear the battle scar - good job the massively dented petrol tank did not rupture otherwise it would've been human torch time), and most of my lid, too.

High-sided my GSX-550 with my new gf pillion (which was nice; I was *so* "on a promise" as well, and en route to a 'quiet country location' for this very purpose, she nagged me for ages to take her on the back. Gutted!) Some old gimmer up to his eyeballs in anti-arthritis pills or somesuch just pulled out... you see it in slow motion when you're the rider.


I dunno, bikes are SO dangerous but once they're in the blood there's almost no shaking them off. Driving cars is just such a pale, 2-dimensional experience even compared to a 125, let alone the big stuff. I just can't wait for my 1800; she's coming in a couple of weeks or so. Here's hoping for a good summer.

I've never fallen off on the road (although I came fucking close once after hitting a rabbit with both wheels on a corner - fuck knows how that stayed upright).

I came quite close when a doddery old codger clipped me on a roundabout but got away with a speedway style slide.

Sorry mate, but I laughed really hard at this.

I don't dare think about trying to ride bikes, I've had enough close calls in cars.

Everyone I know with a bike seems to brag about how they enjoy riding like a total cunt at times and when they're not doing that they're moaning about how bad car drivers are. LOL.

Meh! No worries bud, glad it give you a laff, my mate was laughing so hard when we did pull up at the service station he had to dissappear to the bogs, I think he literally pissed himself for real. I've never felt such a complete bellend in my entire life.

I really don't see how those two things are mutually exclusive; it's perfectly possible to drive/ride badly in one respect AND for others to drive/ride badly in another, and it's still perfectly valid to discuss and complain about the latter. (Otherwise it's the "you can't say nowt unless you're perfect" fallacy we discussed a few months back)

The fact is, many car drivers DO have a shit awareness of bikes, probably because they're distracted by the myriad of shit that we all do in cars these days besides actually driving (i.e. phone calls, pissing about with menus/screens/infotainment/NAV) but most importantly, most of them have never ridden a motorbike so don't know quite how terrifying it is to see some Volvo or 4x4 'mumbus' driver pulling away from a junction whilst yelling at kids in the back, talking animatedly to their passenger and/or pushing buttons and not having even looked left properly (or even at all) before doing so. Trust me, it ain't pleasant.

"SMIDSY".

"because I hadn't checked my mirrors during the 0.5 second interval between when you pulled out from the lorry behind and got alongside me, you stupid cunt"

I should say that only ever happened to me once, and I nearly wiped out a biker because I moved right to make room for a cyclist. Most bikers I find to be really good, just some of the more casual ones enjoy being seen as risk takers but they're actually a bit shit and nervous and they turn into road safety campaigners as soon as their inappropriate use of speed nearly goes wrong for them.

Non-indicated lane changes
Swerving to avoid stuff
Pulling out when flashed by another road user
Changing lanes on a roundabout
Closing gaps to stop filtering
Mirrors mirrors mirrors
Changing radio stations
Motion camouflage
Misjudged speed
Not being on the correct side of the road around a bend
Being a dick and thinking a car can out drag a bike (if your car is slower than a WRX Impreza, you can't).

Swing them around by the chinguard. That'll learn them

Speeding
Overtaking when you shouldn't
Never, ever indicating

Bikers are sinners too, guy

The o ly places you shouldn't overtake are on zif zag lines, if there's a no overtaking sign, or if you cross a solid white line. Bike indicators ate shit.

Um, you should be checking your mirrors if you're pulling to the right.

Right, so you maneuvered without checking your mirrors, then? See now, that's exactly what I'm talking about. 0.5 seconds or no, it's YOU who has made the manoeuvre so regardless of how inconvenient and/or superfluous you might think these peskily frequent mirror checks are in your metal cage, for us it's literally a matter of life or death. (I'm not especially singling you out btw; there are millions just like you out there right now, who positively regard motorcyclists as an inconvenience and impediment to their god-given right of progress and especially resent the fact we can filter through queues and slow moving traffic especially).



I hate this more than ANYTHING: the car driver who thinks he's being so considerate to cyclists and lurches right out into the middle of the fucking road (or whatever) without checking their mirrors RIGHT THERE AND THEN and doing a full set of observations also before said manoeuvre (see above). (And then, more often than not, look at the biker who is glowering right into their drivers' side window at this point, heart pounding and very much wanting to kick their door in, as if THEY are in the wrong for having the temerity to even be there).



"Most bikers" just want car drivers to use their mirrors and make their observations before manoeuvres, whether "casual" or no. Which doesn't seem like too much to ask.

I'm going to assume that was "are shit"

Doesn't mean you shouldn't use them.

Also, bikers (and fast car drivers) seem to think that because they're moving faster, they have some God Given Right to the road. That gets right on my nerves.

Unless someone's doing 55 on a motorway. They can get fucked.

How about, instead of flashing past cars, you followed in place at the speed limit? Revolutionary.

Nice try but I had checked my mirrors and was already moving to the right when cunty bollocks kept his throttle pinned, I'm not sure he even saw that there was a cyclist but just tore past waving his fist probably cursing me for weaving about for no reason at all.

On a motorbike you have to get where you are going right quickly lest you run out of fuel. That's why they have to go so fast everywhere. That, and physics of it all means if a motorbike is moving less than 60 mph it falls over.

Yeah, yeah.
Someone needs to brush up on their Highway Code; I hope I never come across you in your Honda Jazz or whatever it is you're driving these days.

And you can fucking fuck off with this bollocks. I always make room for bikes and let them get on their way. The point is that they all think they're really good and lots of them are but some of them are fucking shit and should realise that it's not for them.

I know this is an emotive subject, but let's try to keep it civil.

You cunts

Fuck me...

I'm crying

Bugger off you... you.... /scratches head ..... you hot hatch hooligan!!111



(Seriously though, some people just cannot be bloody told anything mate, they're always bloody right according to them, which, given I've very nearly been wiped out by this very syndrome, you'll understand if it's a bit close to home. )

I know the feeling, but from the side of being a cyclist. However, there are good and bad cyclists, motorists and motorcyclists. It's emotive because it's literally life and death. I've been involved in a collision with a motorcyclist, so I know first-hand how awful it is (he lived, which was good).

Battery for Erfive ordered.

I give up with you. No two ways about it you're just a fucking massive prick.

Very true.
IMO there's close symmetry between the risks of being a cyclist and motorcyclist, especially in tight urban situations.

@ Mali: Yay! 'Get yer motor running' mate, it's almost April!

Thanks for your contribution to this thread, now kindly fuck off, you *shit* driver. Be told, and learn to use your mirrors, you stupid old twat.

Oh well done, you two. Well done.

Not arsed, sorry. Some people just can't be told, and they can't be civil either, so they or anyone else really shouldn't get all surprised when they get told to stuff off.
This thread is about motorbikes and the enjoyment of them. I don't come blundering into the PC or game threads belming complete shit and then get all uppity when multiple people who know far more about it than I do try to patiently explain the situation, nor do I call them massive pricks or whatever as a result.

So, let's talk about motorbikes. That would be good.

My wife's cousin's abomination. He doesn't look comfy when riding it. And it sounds like a fucking Messerschmidt.

Wow, that is very unusual, fair play!!

Is it running a Suzook 600 motor do you know DavPaz?

Be told what? I do use my mirrors all the fucking time, I don;t believe I have ever pulled out on anyone, ever. But I'm not going to "be told" about a situation I encountered that you didn't, you ridiculous overbearing old twat. You weren't there and I was and there was really no opportunity to do anything that wasn't highly erratic except make as much room as possible for both the motorbike and the cyclist and the oncoming cars. He was absolutely pinning it, giving no fucks at all like he was raging and as I watched him go off down the road he was still weaving between tiny gaps like a full on maniac.

I have no idea. He built it from parts. Trained plumbers can build deformed bikes, it seems

It's a very cool paint job and I like the naked frame, it just looks like it needs to be longer though!
If it's a bespoke fabricated, gas-flowed and decatted pipe, it's gonna be l-o-u-d.

Oh God, that's ugly. Still, kudos to him for building it himself.

A brief look on bike trader suggests I could sell if for £800 to £1,000 with an MOT. I have suggested I do this to MrsA and omitted the second part.

I missed this before in all the, ahem, excitement, but that's very true also Mali.
People just don't realise how fast bikes are; even my Harley VRod will do 0-60 in 3.7 seconds and that's before tuning. A GSX-R will do it in around 2.5 secs.

Even the old air-cooled CVO will do it in around 4.2 secs I think, and that's an out and out lazy cruiser!

So what you doin'

Idly looking at bike trader. It's pretty amazing what you can get for £1,200 when you think about it (zx6, gsxr6, sv650). There's a non running HD 1350 soft tail up for £1k, too. I am fairly sure anything other than a straight swap moneywise would be frowned upon.

Any of you been to the bike shed venue in Shoreditch?

(Only asking because they're a client, I know sod all about motorbikes...)

I'm oop north Jem, not London based. What's there, is it a meet, shop etc.?