Police urge motorcyclists to... blah blah blah

[Grahameeboy]

So you think I should be riding a suzuki then. They eat those whales theyr'e researchin you know. And how do they finance that research they build SV1000'S by the millions.enough said

Take some medicine Doc and things will be clear in the morning .........next please...

[BarBender]

Fuck off. Stick your hi-vis vest up your arse.

..., give it a farken twist and then stick up there!!!!.

[Grahameeboy]

..., give it a farken twist and then stick up there!!!!.

Yeah with 3 kids Jim never quite worked out the contraception thing and still doesn't realise that yellow vests don't stop you having an 'accident'......

[Big Dog]

Sorry Darwin is after you personally. You ride a hayabusa. Don't tell me "its for commuting" officer

have you read the instuction manual on litre bikes nowdays "engage clutch before depressing the gearlever"

Well, Darwin is in for a long wait.

Fast bikes are not dangerous, people who lack the self control, training and ability to ride safely and responsibly are.

These people will be just as dangerous on a gn250, gsx250, gsx600f, SV650,SV1000, GSXR600, GSX1100f GSX750R, GSXR1100, GSX1300R or any number of "Slow Suzukis". Riding a tractor will not make you any further from the reach of the reaper.


I have no aspirations toward being a fast rider, I do hope to be an old rider one day.

That is not to say I have never sped on that bike, just that the sorts of speeds I have had it up to I have also had an Yamaha xs250 up to and a GPX250 beyond in my youth (Older and wiser now).
When I decide I am a good enough rider to start to explore the other half of my speedo (either way you want to take that) I shall do so on the track where it is a reasonable assumption that there is no traffic coming the other way.

Road safety is about ownership and personal decisions not hardware.


Climbs down of favourite soap box after remarkably short speech, for me.

[Big Dog]

You ride a hayabusa. Don't tell me "its for commuting" officer[/SIZE]

Sorry had to reply to this one with a seperate soap box.

People ride for many different reasons.
Some ride because they want to impress the girls.
Some ride because it is practical - they never seem to stick around long.
Some ride because they like to go fast - their the ones under "manufacturer recall" in my previous post.
Some ride because.

I fall in to the latter.
There was very little logic that went in to it. Purchasing that bike was a crime of passion.

The logic other people used to try to get me to buy it that did not have any real input on my decision:
* its fucking fast.
* its got the biggest sport bike engine - not actually fact then or now.
* its the fastest production bike in the world - FIM standards = 2000 plus units per annum.
* its fucking insane.

Logic used buying it.
* smooth as silk around town.
* I feel like a god riding it.
* it behaves very nicely.
* handling at the speeds I ride at is not noticeably adversely affected by my weight.
* I can ride it to commute.
* I can keep up, if I want to, on the weekends.
* my hips are not wider than the bike - they are bigger than a GSX anything else.
* She is a thing of beauty, a work of art.
* She is capable of carrying me and a pillion - unlike many that I weigh more that the max laden weight.
* 1 headlight puts most car pairs to shame - important when it is your only transport.
* more grip than I have the ability to spend - Very helpful in the wet.
* not a lot of chrome - very important as a daily rider in all conditions.
* good mileage - between 7km/l on the Dyno and 19km/l gentle touring - My style of riding - I get further per litre than a GN250 would most weeks.
* even on stock pipes it sounds gorgeous.

EOD logic had nothing to do with it.
One look and I new I was going to buy it.

Yes I too would buy a Harley, or a Guzzi, or any other Marque if they had a bike fit for the use intended. My 'Bus ticks all the boxes and a few more.
Any other bike I can think of only ticks a few.

Don't be so quick to judge a rider by the bike he rides.
The Coro Loop we met on I assumed you would hold us up. You did not look fast and your sportster ( if memory serves correct) did not look like it could keep up through the twisty bits.

Truth is I learnt a lot about corner speed that day just sitting in your groove (until the 250 a few bikes ahead spat it's chain, cue roadside repairs, including tools from three different bikes).

[NighthawkNZ:Me]

People ride for many different reasons.

I ride cause I don't have a cage license

[Disco Dan]

I was going along a local street and was aproaching a parked car on my left. I saw there was a driver inside, then as I slowed to 50k she indicated right.. I slowed right down.. much to the anoyance of the car behind me to 30k. The woman shouted out her window as i was goin past "you a farking idiot or something mate?" ..i carried on. Safe in the knowledge that I avoided a t-bone. ....as luck would have it I pulled into the gas station only for this same woman to pull in too... "oh great here we go i thought". She approached me and asked me why I slowed down... I told her that as a motorcyclist I am very vulnerable, and I treat ever other vehicle as if they dont see me, and are idiots. That did not go down too well... further explaination and she understood what I was saying...

The point though, is there is not really any true way of knowing that you have been seen. And even then, idiots will still pull out in front of you. With all the education in the world, there only needs to be one idiot who thinks he/she can 'make the gap' and pulls out killing you.

Im not a 'risk taker' when it comes to the road. There is too many variables to make a 99% judgement... at the end of the day its a numbers game.

All we can do is hope. Hope that the time we brake suddenly that the car driver behind us is paying attention.. hope that the car driver looks twice before pulling out.. hope that the car drivers around us when we are on the roads are culturing sufficiant brain matter to not take us out. A risk indeed. And the price we pay... is all too real and for the 'unlucky' - also the ultimate price.

Take every 'reasonable' steps and you still get idiots.

[Shadows]

Looking like you will rip the steering wheel out and shove it down their throat works far better at having drivers notice you than any flouro vest.

If you want to wear a flouro vest go ahead - I have better solutions that I don't need to be legislated into abandoning.

I've heard that those flouro vests go all doughy when it rains.
They reckon that fluoro is a much better way to go.

[Big Dave]

I've heard that those flouro vests go all doughy when it rains.
They reckon that fluoro is a much better way to go.

Actually saw it was wrong and left it as a mark of respect.

[MaxB]

Not sure who it was did the "POLITE" thing on this thread, but I see someone who rides an old GT500 - painted white, with some flat-sided white panniers on it. And wears a yellow flouro jacket. And a white helmet with an orange flouro strip round it. And the bike has orange flouro strips along the side.

In the 80s I was in college in the UK (= extended biking OE) and there was a guy in Harrow, North London who rode around on a white XS1100 with a Rickman fairing and Craven panniers just like the cops. He even had aerials and coloured lamps on it. The word "Polite" was stuck all over this thing. Last I heard he was being busted for impersonating a police officer after a stranded woman motorist asked him for help and she got told where to go. I had to be back in Enzed before the case got to court so I never found out what happened.

I never once saw him lock the bike or have trouble parking.

[Big Dave]

I've had big, white test bikes - ST1100 that looked like a police bike - gave me the shits. Everyone slowed right down in front of it. Never.

[stelartia]

They used to just pull out in front of me; now they try and pull out, see me, hesitate, and most of the time let me through.

probly find that they subconciously appreciate that youv made an effort to be visible.


i rekon tho that the cagers who see us best are in fact of our own kind. biker stuck in cage.

car drivers still need to wake the fcuk up and look too.

i have never been so aware of my mortality than when im riding my bike.

[doc]

Don't be so quick to judge a rider by the bike he rides.
The Coro Loop we met on I assumed you would hold us up. You did not look fast and your sportster ( if memory serves correct) did not look like it could keep up through the twisty bits.
until the 250 a few bikes ahead spat it's chain, cue roadside repairs, including tools from three different bikes).

Yep them Harley's just gotta wait for an opening and your'e gone. It's called patience. Was that a 250 I told everyone it was Dover on his Gixer 1000.

[klingon]

ACC roads programme manager Phil Wright said its research showed many serious crashes happened when drivers were away from home.

That's the bit that bothers me. I was planning to have all my serious crashes while still at home, so I could go back to bed afterwards. Oh well, you live and learn...

[Grahameeboy]

That's the bit that bothers me. I was planning to have all my serious crashes while still at home, so I could go back to bed afterwards. Oh well, you live and learn...

Not too many hazards in your driveway eh.......