Snap... M45 Quietest motorway in the UK... or it used to be...

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Nostradamus Ate My Hamster

When I lived down in Bristol I used to use the old Severn crossing - after they built the new one the old one's generally deserted.

You should both be ashamed of yourselves racing at 175 mph on a public road... It's not clever and clearly puts everyone else at enormous risk including it must be said other bikers! If you want to do that why not book in for a race day at one of the many excellent race tracks throughout the UK?

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Triumph Bonneville 800 (2004), Yamaha XT600E (1999), Honda XBR500 (1986).

Video 1 is of a 'ped rider drifting out of a junction and across the opposite side of the road before coming back across in front of a car heading in the same direction.

2 is of a car wrongly positioned at a cross roads and the biker failing to anticipate. Possible excess speed for the traffic conditions.

3 is too dark to comment

4 is failing to anticipate the truck not clearing the junction before the rider got there. In which case, possible excess speed for the rider's ability/experience and also maybe for the traffic conditions.

5 is the same video as 2

Lack of observation/planning is the main factor in all of these videos, not the speed in itself. Video 1 certainly has nothing to do with speed, just general incompetence.

Still not as bad as Chief Inspector whatever-his-name-is Brunstrom. Didn't he use photos of a decapitated biker for a road safety campaign without consulting his family?

Thanks for the reality check Neil, even if here isn't really the place for it.

Found it.

Brunstrom at “last chance saloon” - Motorcycle News - MCN

MCN Readers: “Sack Richard Brunstrom Now!” - Motorcycle News - MCN

Craig,

And to think the UK police forces (sorry service) is being managed by people of this calibre! He deserved everything he got which in the circumstances wasn't enough. It would have been fairer for all concerned if he had been instantly dismissed from the job too (not the court). But then again most coppers are human too... some of the time at least!

The point of posting this thread was to encourage lively discussion & debate on the subject of speed and it's relationship to road traffic collisions in general (and to inflate my website visitor figures). I concede that Speed isn't always the cause of accidents but there can be no doubt that a biker riding slower stands a much better chance of being able to react in time or in the case of collisions, stands a better chance of survival. Those clowns (above) traveling at 175 mph on a public road wouldn't have a chance in hell of surviving any kind of impact! I worry about the other road users that idiots like this take with them... and I've seen it many times.

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Triumph Bonneville 800 (2004), Yamaha XT600E (1999), Honda XBR500 (1986).

Endagering OTHER people is out of order
Endangering YOURSELF is what we do for shits and giggles

The bottom line is that tanning hell out of a bike is fantastic fun, and they are seriously quick these days so staying under 70 just isn't always a realistic ask. If you can't SEE the road you need/be very positive that it's emtpy, you are probably going too quick for the conditions. If you know its clear and you want to push the boat out and find that line between having traction and being in traction then that is your own personal choice and no-one should challenge that. Last time I was in hospital someone had a go at me for being responsible for my own injuries (climbing accident), they were having a foot amputated for being a fat lazy git!!

I for one will be getting a track bike as soon as possible, and I plan on crashing it repeatedly. On a track.

Surely there is enough danger merely by riding on badly worn & conjested UK roads at the national speed limit? I passed my M/C test in 1980 aged 17. The road conditions now are far far worse than those days. As you say, the best place to race (and crash) safely is at the race track NOT a public road. Most people exceed the speed limit every day by 10-30% but thankfully only a limited few would choose to exceed it by 100 mph +!

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Triumph Bonneville 800 (2004), Yamaha XT600E (1999), Honda XBR500 (1986).

Jeez, only a bunch of Brits could be bothered to chew over this tedious old warhorse in the small hours of the day!!

The first advert of the year on UK TV, that I have seen anyway, popped up last night on the box - the usual one, as shown last year around this time.
& the local councils newspapers (what? out of my taxes?) have headlines about the road safety aspects of riding bikes - Jeez (again) it must be Spring!!

I'm out of here.

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Dave

I remember you saying you were returning from biking after a long break so I'd just like to say that this is a lot more common than you think. Take a look around any bike shop these days and you'll see Suzuki GSXR750's/1000's, Yamaha R1's, Honda Fireblades, Kawasaki ZX10's, etc, etc, that will comfortably run up to this kind of speed. Even 600's these days will top 160mph. Bear in mind that it's only recently that a non-sportsbike, the BMW GS has made it into the top 5 best sellers in the UK.

Bottom line is that no-one buys a bike like this to ride at legal speeds and most forces are well aware of this. Best they can do is educate to make people improve their riding skills instead of a blanket "thou shalt not cane thy GSXR" approach.

Durham's BikeSafe events promote local IAM/RoSPA groups, local racing clubs and try to encourage people to attend trackdays. Having said that, their program cover for the 2007 event showed a bike cop, cornering while almost bolt upright with "commuter feet" and generally looking awkward on a new Fireblade, so maybe he could have done with a little track time and tuition himself. Northumbria's "Cornering Clinics" are also an acknowledgement that speed is not the sole factor in the cause of accidents. Incidentally, both forces have openly said that speed cameras don't work to reduce accidents and Durham have no fixed cameras at all.

ABD - Durham

See the quote at the bottom of that page.

"Exceeding the speed limit related to just 60 collisions per year out of a total of 1,900 collisions in the Durham area — that’s about 3%."
Paul Garvin, Chief Constable, Durham Constabulary, 2003
Sunday Times 2003-11-23

I started a thread similar to this on Adventrider a few weeks ago. I posted it because i had a really scary situation here in Mexico, i avoided getting run over by a truck by the skin of my teeth! Ironicly, i came across a video the same day depicting what might of happened to me, sadly though it happened to someone else in China. This video shows a graphic death and please, be warned, it is much more graphic than anything else you've seen. The point of me posting this video is only to show that it's not all "hair blowing in the wind" We all partake in a dangerous activity and i feel it helps to be reminded of our vulnerabilities. Please, all of you who choose to watch this video, please don't gudge me, i have my reasons for posting it.
!YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
...RIP Scooter-dude
Caution! Extremely Disturbing Video! - ADVrider

Enough snuff. Really. This has nothing do with overland travel, everything to do with grisly ghoulisness and sneering at spannered-up squids. We're all grown-ups. We all know motorcycles are potentially dangerous, inherently unstable - they accelerate like **** and fall over if you don't go fast. And we all choose to ignore that 'cause they're such a giddy hoot. Why not spend some time digging out cheeky inspiration rather than crash-burst porn?

Boo. Hiss.

Suerte, Dan

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Que el cielo exista, aunque mi lugar sea el infierno...

Just goes to show that lots of people are to stupid to ride a bike. After over 45 years of riding this I am sure of. Stupid is as stupid does.

Forest Gump

I think it's been posted before, but this link is an excellent read for any of us.
How To Survive on a Motorcycle.. from your friends at Pirates' Lair
Personally, I don't want to look at any of the above video links but I am happy to reread this every once in a while.
Ride safely.
Stephan

When I decided to take my test (coming up at start of April) I did some web searches for motorcycle crashes. Why? Because if I'm going to do this then I want to go in with my eyes open, literally and figuratively. There's some horrific crash videos on the web but I can't find a single one which couldn't have been avoided by the motorcyclist if they were aware of what was happening around them, were able to stop in the distance they can see to be clear ahead, rode defensively and weren't trying to do wheelies at 100mph in the nude.

Thankfully there are also some really good advanced tuition motorcycle resources on the web, like this:

YouTube - advancedbiker's Videos

Take care y'all.