If you are riding in a big group the 'tail enders' usually have to ride faster anyway to keep up, its known as the elastic band effect.

I'm the original poster of this topic. Apologies for not replying sooner.

If you get pulled for excessive speed then fair enough, you can't really complain but thats not the point being discussed here. Think about it, most bikes can accellerate from stand still up to any permitted speed limit without even trying. Nothing wrong with that, it's called making progress. Does that mean you're responsible for the actions of some daft Kevin in his Halfords Special, thinking you were looking for a race?

For your information, the content and link in the original post was sent to me and a few hundred others by a recently retired motorcycle traffic cop with the backing of his previous employer.

Why???

Because it's daft, plain and simple. If you let the likes of Brunstrom get there way, motorcycles will be banned and there's more than a few Chief Constables and more worryingly, politicians that listen to and even share his crackpot ideas.

I already knew about this, but I wouldn't be surprised to hear there were many who didn't. We know ignorance of the law is no defence, but does that also apply to the laws of physics? If rider A is riding at or about the limit, blissfully ignorant that rider B is having to ride over the limit and rider C is thrashing it to death to keep up, is it right that A should suffer the same penalty as C? Surely C (and B) should simply drop back and catch up when A notices and slows down for them?

When do we become a group? What happens if I am riding at the limit and a friend sees and recognises me, and exceeds the limit in order to catch me? Should I then suffer the same penalty as the guy trying to catch me even if I wasn't aware he was doing so (or even that he was there if he was a way behind)? What about me riding along on my lonesome ownsome and a complete stranger tags along for company without me realising he is riding "with me"?

Sorry Mick. It is one thing to justify speed limits and to point out that penalties may be avoided by obeying the law, but this case is a long way beyond that. This is making people suffer harsher penalties than they might otherwise have done because of what someone else has done. This case is wrong and I think you have picked the wrong fight.

Having held a licence over 30 years I have been caught speeding four times. That is a hell of a lot of undetected crime, but what was detected was my crime. If I were to be fined for someone else's offence (even though one could argue it was karma for what I've got away with over the years) I would be seriously dischuffed.

It seems clear that some posters to this thread think it's as simple case of someone trying to get out of a speeding fine. If you'd read the OP article, you'll see it's not. Here's the original article on MCN.

Summary: Front rider in a group gets done doing 85mph (sees it as a fair cop) in a 60 zone gets screwed because one rider in the back was doing 103mph for whatever reason. The court hit the front rider with the 103mph fine, claiming it was his fault that the chap at the back was speeding.

If you think that's a fair call by the courts, I want some of the powerful drugs you're on.

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-Matt