How slow is too slow for a bike?

[smoky]

Never mind all the purists on here who jump down every ones throat for riding too fast; what about those plonkers who ride embarrassingly slow and are either totally ignorant to the fact they are holding up traffic, or too completely arrogant to give a flying ***** about any one behind them.

I’ve just been up north on holiday; and twice I caught up with bikes, I was fully packed up in my diesel van most of the time with the trailer loaded to gunnels with push bikes, fishing gear, camping gear and the kayak – every seat in the van full with kids and mum & dad – and yet on a primo windy road up thru Waipu I catch up to about 5 or 6 big bikes – 1 ltr jobs and a 600 kwaka (ZX I think), even in the 35 or 50 k corners they were going so slow they were holding me up, then they would speed off down the straight – only to be holding me up again in the next lot of corners?
On the way home on Sunday we over took a BMW (750 I think) again he was farting along about 70Klm/hr on a primo winding road.

Is it because we’re seeing too many born again wanna-be oldies and chicks getting into riding, who think it’s a cool idea to ride a motorbike – but really have no idea how to ride?

Are they oblivious to traffic wanting to pass them, or do they think no one should have the right to get passed them?
I don’t really care what speed people travel at, as long as they pull over for others, especially when they can’t seem to keep to the speed limit or corner better than a fully loaded diesel van ?

[Zerker]

came across a GN250 the other day, the rider was doing about 65km/h down hill in an 80km/h zone, I had to slow down to avoid catching up to him (I ride a 50cc scooter). though it was good he was going slow, Indian guy wearing sandals, short sleeved shirt and a turban, no helmet.

when I can't do the speed limit, I pull to the left to let em go past. but I've also trained a bad habit or two. I came off last monday, breaking in the wet right on top of the white markings. the roundabout I was heading into is in a 60km/h zone so I was crossing to the right hand side when the car in front stopped about 1m short of the roundabout and I had to brake harder to avoid hitting him, hit the road instead.
lesson learnt, but if I hadn't been on the scoot I'd not have been anywhere near the lefthand side to begin with (I thought I'd allready learnt that lesson, but now it's deffinetly gotten through).


Zerker

[george formby]

You have my sympathies with this one, frustrates the hell out of me being blitzed in a straight line ( I'm fairly law abiding ) only to be baulked through a nice set of bends. What scares me more, is riders who speed up through the corners when I catch them & end up taking suicidal lines. Aaaargh!

[Pathos]

No such thing as going too slow but there is such a thing as being an ass and not letting faster road users pass.

When someone is quicker than me I always just pull over to the left and wave them through.

Holding others up doesn't achieve anything.

[GOONR]

No such thing as going too slow but there is such a thing as being an ass and not letting faster road users pass.

When someone is quicker than me I always just pull over to the left and wave them through.

Holding others up doesn't achieve anything.

I'm glad you said that, I must be one of the slowest people on two wheels... I've only been riding for just over six months and I don't get to ride outside of town that often so I'm very cautious (read slow) when I do. Having said that I keep an eye on the mirror and will get out of the way for anything quicker than me.

[FROSTY:Me]

Provided you have the pheripheral awarenes to actualllyknow they are there. Sok to take the italiann attitude if going abit fasterthan the traffic not so cool if going slower

Must say I was in the same sorta boat with sport car driving car drivers.-The ol van fully loaded needs a heada steam to get p some hills --hate those cars theat drive really slow on the aproach then zap away on the uphill bits

[george formby]

No such thing as going too slow but there is such a thing as being an ass and not letting faster road users pass.

When someone is quicker than me I always just pull over to the left and wave them through.

Holding others up doesn't achieve anything.

I have the same habit, it always makes my day when somebody show's awareness & helps to allow a nice, safe overtake. Brownie points!

[piston broke]

i guess you're lucky not to have been behind me
in my 5.0l holden
everytime i get to a passing lane or a straight bit of road i go as fast as the v8 will go
70kph everywhere else
i don't care so long as noone passes me

[Grumpy]

I sometimes wonder if all this "speed kills" shit that has been drilled into peoples minds has started to have an adverse effect. When the needle gets near 100kms/h peoples ring pieces fire off a warning shot and the foot comes off the pedal. The fact they don't worry about the line of traffic in the mirrors is the good old Kiwi aggressive logic ..."it's my road too so fuck ya!"

[YellowDog]

Trying to get past the frustrating slow tosser hogging the road is what kills!

[vifferman]

Heh ... a couple of years ago the vifferbabe and I were in Oz and deliberately took the windy road from the Blue Mountains to the Hunter Valley. There was from memory summat like 80 or 90 corners signposted as slower than about 45 km/h over the space of a 15 or 20 km. In this region we came up behind a guy on a RoadKing or similar, who was struggling a bit with the corners I guess. He was going too lsow for the road, so we passed him in the crappy rental Subaru Forester, and left him well behind. When we got to a long straight, he roared past at well over the speed limit. LOLzah....
I so wished I was on the bike - the road was fantastic, picturesque, and the road surface was generally a lot better than similar NZ roads - asphalt rather than the crappy chipseal we have.

[cheesemethod]

I've had this happen quite a lot on the GN250. I sit at 105 ish on a flat straight piece of road, which is far too slow for the average hero kiwi cager to be stuck behind. So they go roaring past me on a straight - mostly in my lane (bikes are small so they don't need space on the road apparently) so they can sit on 109. As soon as a twisty bit comes up, I find myself heavily on the brakes for corners that I wouldn't usually brake for, because Mr HSV hero can't lift his fat tattooed arms up enough to throw the thing into the corner at anything more than 50.

[imdying]

what about those plonkers who ride embarrassingly slow

thru Waipu I catch up to about 5 or 6 big bikes – 1 ltr jobs and a 600 kwaka (ZX I think), even in the 35 or 50 k corners they were going so slow they were holding me up, then they would speed off down the straight – only to be holding me up again in the next lot of corners?

The only person embarassed was you.

Learn some road craft and pace yourself so that you're not being continually held up, it's not a race.

[vifferman]

... it's not a race.

What?!?
WTF do you mean? Of COURSE it's a race - the Wacky Races!
Just take a look at the other contestants, and the way they drive, and the shit-heaps they pilot - it's kinda obvious.

[cheesemethod]

What?!?
WTF do you mean? Of COURSE it's a race - the Wacky Races!
Just take a look at the other contestants, and the way they drive, and the shit-heaps they pilot - it's kinda obvious.

Especially that race team that all drive Holdens. You know, the onese with the yellow and blue race stripes, sponsored by some company called 'Police'