Police blast speed cameras.

[Biggles08]

The point I was trying to make was that EVERYBODY thinks the speed they drive/ride at is safe because they're a good driver

Wrong....some people who are in charge of vehicles don't think at all!...let alone self analyzing whether there speed is safe or not. People have been dumbed down so much in this country that nobody expects them to have to think anymore...thats the whole problem.

[SixPackBack]

The point I was trying to make was that EVERYBODY thinks the speed they drive/ride at is safe because they're a good driver, when have you ever heard anybody say "yeah, I was riding at about 125kph on a good road and was shitting myself 'cos I'm not really such a shit-hot rider"?

Some people would be out of their depth in a pedal-car/trike in a supermarket carpark.

So true and yet we still give them licences, send 'em out to terrify the masses.

Trouble is scumdog 'some' people are capable of relatively high speed travel while others should be taking the bus, and yet all drivers are treated the same. It raises lots of interesting points and discussions [as we can see!].......the most salient issue is the simplistic view the government projects in the form of 'speed as a major killer. As you have testified this is clearly not the case, at any speed some of our community members should be [as you so eloquently put it] 'in a pedal car'.

[98tls]

I have neither crashed nor died, so EVERY person with a 1000cc bike most certainly does not either have a high self-opinion or feel the same.

Given the right conditions, time and place, high speed on a motorcycle is no problem whatsoever.
If high speeds are so unsafe, why then do the Police engage in high-speed pursuits (esp thru surburban areas)?

Gotcha!

Fair call,i always check with the cockys living along my chosen route to see that there fences are in order and whilst at it i have a word with every other road user before we meet just to make sure there not going to fuck up or be on a road i dont think they should be,i to love to ride quickly down roads i find appropriate and enjoyable but after 30 odd years of doing so i find the "i havent crashed etc" comments amusing.Maybe all your riding is on a track, i have no idea,if so in some ways there more amusing.

[Ixion]

The point I was trying to make was that EVERYBODY thinks the speed they drive/ride at is safe because they're a good driver, when have you ever heard anybody say "yeah, I was riding at about 125kph on a good road and was shitting myself 'cos I'm not really such a shit-hot rider"?

Some people would be out of their depth in a pedal-car/trike in a supermarket carpark.

Well, I certainly make no claims to being a shit hot rider (or driver). Indeed, I recognised many years ago that I really knew bugger all about fast riding, and certainly lacked any aptitude for it. Which is the reason I ride slower than your Nana's Nana. (Mind you, there was time, many years ago, when I knew everything there was to know about riding. Some bastard must have added stuff to the list when I wasn't watching)

But even I find there are occasions when the 100kph limit is unnecessarily restrictive.

[scumdog]

Wrong....some people who are in charge of vehicles don't think at all!...let alone self analyzing whether there speed is safe or not. People have been dumbed down so much in this country that nobody expects them to have to think anymore...thats the whole problem.

Sure, they don't analyze themselves UNTIL you aks them.

the thing is they don't drive/ride at a speed THEY think is unsafe (even if it is uncosciously).

Dumbed down? They don't need to be dumbed down - they already. (from thinking what burger they're going to buy, what DVD they're going to rent, what they're about to txt - anything they're about to do other than the task at hand - drive/ride.

[swbarnett]

I actually think that most of us are incapable of truly understanding until we have had to pick up some tattered and bloody pieces.

Actually, I have a theory that the act of "picking up some tattered and bloody pieces" colours the mind in such a way that one looses perspective.

Risk is a necessary part of life. With risk comes the occasional injury and death.

In NZ last year there was one death for every 92million km travelled*. In my book we should pat ourselves on the back.


(*2,786,389 registered vehicles averaging 14,000km/year - at a rough estimate given on a government web site, 421 deaths in 2007 = 1 death per 92,659,016km travelled)

[swbarnett]

Unfortunately EVERY person with a 1000cc bike (and everybody with any car too I vouch) fels the same

But despite their high self-opinion they're proven wrong with thier incessant crashing and dying.

Apart from the vast majority that are still alive and well.

[Ixion]

This is getting quite like the old days , but it is *so* incomplete without WINJA.

Obviously it will be in PD tomorrow

[scumdog]

Apart from the vast majority that are still alive and well.

Yeah, those in their graves don't say too much eh??

[BIGBOSSMAN]

Fair call,i always check with the cockys living along my chosen route to see that there fences are in order and whilst at it i have a word with every other road user before we meet just to make sure there not going to fuck up or be on a road i dont think they should be,i to love to ride quickly down roads i find appropriate and enjoyable but after 30 odd years of doing so i find the "i havent crashed etc" comments amusing.Maybe all your riding is on a track, i have no idea,if so in some ways there more amusing.

It make me glad to have amused you so, but if you'd care to climb down from your false ivory tower you'd find that you also ride a 1000cc bike, and that you also exceed the speed limit - otherwise you'd be riding a Lifan or Hyosung 250.
I've had a major bike accident mate, but these days I'm exceptionally selective as to where I stretch the lags of the ZX10R - a quite rare occurrence.
I'm just honest about it...

[Biggles08]

Sure, they don't analyze themselves UNTIL you aks them.

the thing is they don't drive/ride at a speed THEY think is unsafe (even if it is uncosciously).

Dumbed down? They don't need to be dumbed down - they already. (from thinking what burger they're going to buy, what DVD they're going to rent, what they're about to txt - anything they're about to do other than the task at hand - drive/ride.

Exactly the problem...driving a vehicle is something that the government expects everyone can do...they can't. I know for a fact that if I'm going faster than the set speed limit, my conscious mind is completely on the job at hand (looking for cops...lol) which in turn makes me a safer rider than the average punter thinking about burgers etc. So this would lend suggestion that if we increased the speed we would have more aware drivers/riders
As a side issue, this is why I believe statistically- people with radar detectors are safer drivers than those without...it has nothing to do with the detectors but more to do with the attitude of the purchaser - they are enthusiasts who care about driving/riding.

[98tls]

It make me glad to have amused you so, but if you'd care to climb down from your false ivory tower you'd find that you also ride a 1000cc bike, and that you also exceed the speed limit - otherwise you'd be riding a Lifan or Hyosung 250.
I've had a major bike accident mate, but these days I'm exceptionally selective as to where I stretch the lags of the ZX10R - a quite rare occurrence.
I'm just honest about it...

ok have to admit,the ivory thingits false.

[swbarnett]

Yeah, those in their graves don't say too much eh??

Too true.

I was just trying to point out that only a small percentage of those who say they're riding within their limits when riding faster than the speed limit actually get proven wrong.

[AllanB]

What I do not understand is this:

You get a speed camera ticket for speeding - fine 'you' were breaking the law and you were caught, accepted and a cheque is in the mail.

But

If you were so naughty that it required that fine, why do you not get demerit points?


That's where the whole revenue earner comes to play in the entire speed camera argument with me.

[BIGBOSSMAN]

people with radar detectors are safer drivers than those without...it has nothing to do with the detectors but more to do with the attitude of the purchaser - they are enthusiasts who care about driving/riding.

Ha ha ha you're a funny mutherfucker - oops you're my friend (shut up BBM)