Around England

[Midge]

Any one been to england riding?? Im shooting over there in a month and want to go for a cruize any suggestions or things ill need to know?

[surfer]

Any one been to england riding?? Im shooting over there in a month and want to go for a cruize any suggestions or things ill need to know?

There is no ACC. You need to have insurance. If you cause a crash you can get sued, or if someone crashes you you get to sue them.

A good way to see the country is by castles or historic landmarks like Hadrian's Wall, Leeds castle, Lands End or John O'Groats. Check out some of the bike rallies as well; the really big ones attract thousands of bikers.

You might want to contact one of the groups over there like MAG for advice.

Country roads are really good fun to blast down, the A roads are amazing (have A roads which are ok and fast a bit like state highways here in NZ, then B roads which are less used and not so good quality but can provide some real nice twisties, plus the motorway system).

Be prepared to be amazed at the amount of traffic. It is much heavier than anything you would have experienced in or around Christchurch; try five lanes of traffic on the motorway all doing 90 mph (M25 around London). Great fun but I never enjoyed London traffic much, too fast and too many people doing stupid things as no one knows where they are going.

Enjoy

[boomer]

go up tut North mate, peak district, lake district and the moors; some beautiful scenery ( almost like here ) and roads, whilst your up there see if any of the big runs are on, North West 200 is on in May over the ditch in Paddy land..can't remember what time of year they are unfortunately.. plus theres many a track to get yaself on either in the UK or over the water


I'm not sure what this sueing business is, but its against the law to not have insurance. if your south, maybe head out Bedford/Buckinghamshire/Wiltshire way for some nice back roads, but be careful, the back roads aren't wide and many have shwubbary covering the edges so its hard to see whats around the corner. ( Bob the farmer or Ethel the Cow )

HAVE FUN and sunny side up mate.

[boomer]

ps.. if ya want some where to stay up north(Sheffield) my old fella will put you up, i owe him a favour after he sent some fucker over here to stay for a month whilst watching the world cup, who i'd never met before.

[surfer]

I'm not sure what this sueing business is, but its against the law to not have insurance.
HAVE FUN and sunny side up mate.

Yes, it is against the law and you get a fine for not having insurance if they catch you. Same with not having the WOF equivalent.

As for the sueing business, the insurance company will claim all sorts of compensation off the driver's insurance company that is in the wrong. I know as I made some nice moolah from some dick head's incompetence behind a steering wheel for whiplash injuries, head-aches, taxi rides, time off work and everything imagineable that the insurance medical expert could work. Served the driver right as he was a moron, I even offered a reasonable out of court deal to cover damage to my vehicle only but he gave me a hard time instead and got his.

My take on the UK is that in some legal aspects it is becoming like the USA. I am no lawyer but I understand in the UK that you can be pursued through the courts for compensation if you do not have insurance, of course I may be wrong. It would be great to hear other's informed experiences on this. I was resident in the UK for 37 years.

Anyway, the roads are great and there are lots of them. Enjoy.

[Midge]

Cheers guys guess itll be in my best intrest to sty outa court!

[jonbuoy]

Like has been said good roads up north or west would be my pick - Wales, Cornwall, Dorset, Devon all have some great twisty back roads. MOT is the WOF equivelant every 12 months. I guess you would be getting bike hire so you probably get insurance with it?

[Maelstrom]

Watch out for the myriad speed cameras, both fixed and mobile versions, its oh-so-easy to get nicked here now although chances are you might be out of the country when the fine turns up at the hire centre :innocent:

If you want some more info then PM me some dates and locations and i'll see what I can do :)

[metric]

howdy... some good advice here, I've just moved over to London with my fiancee. Questions regarding licences, I've heard that if you've already got your full NZ bike licence (which I have) you can take it in somewhere and have it swapped for a UK licence?

[Smoggie]

Go in the post office mate and get details for the DVLC (licencing centre). I just changed mine when I oved to NZ, so would assume it works the other way also.

[Smoggie]

Go into your local newsagents, and you can get the magazine BIKE from the UK. Excellent magazine, with lots of relevant information. Once in the UK, there is a weekly newspaper publication called MCN (motorcycle news).
Check out www.bikemagazine.co.uk and www.motorcyclenews.com

Enjoy yourself mate.

[emaN]

you can take it in somewhere and have it swapped for a UK licence?
yep.
hand it over, fill in the form for a UK one.
when you get back to NZ, pop into the AA, fill in another form ticking "licence lost" and you've got your licence back.

apparently.:innocent:

A roads are/can be superb. check out www.streetmap.co.uk for some good 'uns. Traffic will take getting used to; survived 2yrs of London riding w/o a scratch (riding two days/week to reduce the odds though).

where are you going?

HP aren't as pathetically anal as NZ ones. traffic will travel at 70mph minimum on A roads and 80-90mph on motorways, so there's alot of room for fun.

in a few weeks time we'll be back on the IOM for the centennary!!!:Punk: can't wait!

[toxteth_ogrady]

Stay away from London and south east, there are some fantastic roads there but you really do have to know where they are. Whats more they are few and far between, gridlocks, speed cameras etc.
The compulsory insurence was a fair bit of wedge also, I was paying about 1/4 to 1/5 value of the bike per year.
Heres all the bullshit and hoops you need to jump through to get a UK licence.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/DriverLicensing/DrivingInGbOnAForeignLicence/DG_4022562

Have fun.

[moko]

howdy... some good advice here, I've just moved over to London with my fiancee. Questions regarding licences, I've heard that if you've already got your full NZ bike licence (which I have) you can take it in somewhere and have it swapped for a UK licence?

Metric,you can use your N.Z. licence here for a year without doing anything.After a year you can swap it for a Brit provisional,basically that means you'll have to pass your test to get a full licence.You might have problems getting insurance as well,not because you can't but because most of the insurance companies employ idiots in their call centres who will give you duff info,i.e. they can't insure you with a foreign licence.I've been through all this stuff helping wari out when he first came over,he got insured via Carole Nash,other brokers gave wrong info or were just totally confused because the info wasn't on their computer.They're about the best anyway,i use them every year when I could save a few quid at renewal time but rather know if something goes wrong I can contact someone who knows what they're talking about.Any other queries just drop me a pm or something and i'll do what I can.
Same advice as other people by the way,if you want some good riding head west.Plenty of places have "bike nights" in Summer,Paignton and Poole down this way and they attract literally thousands of bikes.Plymouth Mega-ride in June as well,massive charity run that usually attracts 8000+ bikes,police shut both lanes of the main road in and out of city until the run finishes and there's a solid stream of bikes heading in both direction,awesome sight.

[Fat Tony]

Midge if you're in the Leeds area and fancy a pint or showing round the biking roads on our doorstep drop me a PM mate

[JimO]

Watch out for the myriad speed cameras, both fixed and mobile versions, its oh-so-easy to get nicked here now although chances are you might be out of the country when the fine turns up at the hire centre :innocent:

If you want some more info then PM me some dates and locations and i'll see what I can do :)

they will still have your credit card number though

[idb]

The Isle of Man TT starts in a month!!!

[moko]

Watch out for the myriad speed cameras, both fixed and mobile versions

And if that's not enough there are new "average speed" cameras being rolled out across the country now,un-marked camera cars and even un-marked camera bikes in places.It's almost enough to turn a bloke into a law-abiding citizen.To be honest I prefer country roads and "the scenic route" these days,if i do speed on the main roads I just get paranoid as those bloody mobile cameras turn up in all kinds of places.Sneakiest ones I ever saw though were in N.Z. got the usual flashes and slowed down,sure enough Holden Sation Wagon just down the road,got past that and just around the next corner was another one.

[Dave Lobster]

Speed cameras aren't that much of a problem. Just mount your numberplate on velcro. When going for a fast blast, just remove it. Police cars generally have diesel engines, so wont catch you.

[Sanx]

Police cars generally have diesel engines, so wont catch you.

Garbage. Most highway patrol cars are reasonably quick, especially the mufti ones. And anyway, very few bikes can outrun a helicopter.


And if that's not enough there are new "average speed" cameras being rolled out across the country now,un-marked camera cars and even un-marked camera bikes in places.It's almost enough to turn a bloke into a law-abiding citizen.

As far as I'm aware, most speed averaging cameras are front facing, so bikes are pretty much immune. Get used to watching for the painted graduations on the roads that indicate fixed rear-facing cameras.

As for areas, stay away from North Wales. The Chief Cunstable nicknamed his own force the "Traffic Taleban". I'm sure he'd like to go round executing people for speeding, but he can just settle for watching his areas fatality rates go up every single year as a result of his speed-and-nothing-else obsession.

The Lake District's fantastic for biking, as are Cornwall and Devon. However, head up into Jockland. If it's not raining (apparently, dry days do happen once or twice a year) then some of the roads round the highlands are fantastic; my all-time favourite was the road from the M9 motorway due west that skirts round the north of Lock Lomond towards Oban. Twisty all the way for 100km, no intersections, no villages and fantastic scenery.

As has been said, insurance is compulsory and expensive. You won't be able to hire a bike without it, and you really don't want to get caught without it. If you're there for a while and are going to be buying your own bike, it's worth doing an Institute of Advanced Motorists riding course. Not only do have the strange experience of hearing a police riding instructor shouting "Throttle, throttle, throttle - get a fucking move on you pussy" over your ear-piece when you're already 20mph over the limit, but it's worth up to 20% off your insurance premium. It's also good fun, and can teach you a lot.

Most of all - enjoy!

[Smoggie]

Visit York, beautiful place, and full of history. From there, travel North East, and ride around the North Yorkshire Moors; beautiful winding roads. Head for Whitby, where Capt Cook sailed from, and they serve the best fish and chips in the world.

[Sanx]

Visit York, beautiful place, and full of history. From there, travel North East, and ride around the North Yorkshire Moors; beautiful winding roads. Head for Whitby, where Capt Cook sailed from, and they serve the best fish and chips in the world.

Yes, York. Very good place. 365 pubs within the city walls.