Make my day

FrenchLeave · Post by **FrenchLeave** » 30 Mar 2005, 19:38

Had a good one yesterday. Driving in Boston, pulled over to the right hand side of the road to park in a marked bay, driver's door to kerb. No pedestrians within 50 yards. Stopped, applied parking brake and switched off, released seat belt, total time probably 10 seconds. Opened door and nearly collected a guy riding his bike on the pavement. And without thinking, I apologised!

Kowalski · Post by **Kowalski** » 30 Mar 2005, 20:09

My brother nearly collected a cyclist who was trying to undertake me as I stopped to drop him off, I had my left hand indicator on too. I could have understood it if I had overtaken him, but I hadn't...

dillosk8ter · Post by **dillosk8ter** » 31 Mar 2005, 00:29

Does anyone remember that road safety campaign featuring a car and motorcylist travelling through a city somewhere, the car driver kept checking his rear view mirror overdubed by irritating repetative voice over 'now you see him', puts on indicator to turn, checks mirror then turns and smash motorcylist in the side.......p*ssed me right off cause whatever way I considered it I reached same conclusion.....it was the motorbikes fault....shouldn't have been driving up side of car waiting to turn, passing on wrong side, if thats what he was doing, and turning way to close to car if thats what was happining also.

citroenzx · Post by **citroenzx** » 31 Mar 2005, 00:35

my cousin drove out of the gym carpark straight in front of a cyclist, put a bloogy great dent in the bonnet!

Stinkwheel · Post by **Stinkwheel** » 31 Mar 2005, 00:47

dillosk8ter I can see what you mean about the bike/car safety advert but have to ask couple of questions.
Have you ridden a bike? and Have you read the highway code guidelines about how and where a motorcyclist is within his/her rights to filter/overtake?
Yes sometimes the bike rider is wrong but on many more occasions the car driver really didnt see him (or even look properly) before starting a manouver. I've ridden bikes for 11 years and driven cars for 9. In my opinion where car drivers are involved in a motorcycle accident within a built up area its because the car driver has not looked or thinks he has the time to complete the manouver. On the other hand, most out of town motorcycle accidents are single vehicle and caused by rider error.
Thanks.

dillosk8ter · Post by **dillosk8ter** » 31 Mar 2005, 00:59

Sorry if I caused offence. Although around my area, bikes became a real problem, frequently traveling at what seemed like almost double the speed limit, overtaking when cars were coming in opposite direction...one time it was me and I was very suprised to be just exiting a 30mph zone to be faced with bike about 2/3m of my nose traveling about 60mph causing me to have to skid out of the way fast!!!

Stinkwheel · Post by **Stinkwheel** » 31 Mar 2005, 01:27

didnt mean to sound annoyed or sarcastic. I didnt intend to. and yes i agree most bike riders cannot ride or think to the ability they really should, just meant your comments seemed to geeralise somewhat.
I know we can and all do turn off brain before riding and driving

FrenchLeave · Post by **FrenchLeave** » 31 Mar 2005, 04:36

Whoops, I WAS talking about a pedal cyclist. I would never dream of criticising our motorcycle brethren. (I used to ride one - a Matchless jampot 500 twin c/w megaphone silencers)

Stinkwheel · Post by **Stinkwheel** » 31 Mar 2005, 04:39

Blimey,
Its been a long time since i heard anyone say jampot, soon words like amal monobloc or garden gate frame will start turning up

Kowalski · Post by **Kowalski** » 31 Mar 2005, 22:41

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Stinkwheel</i>

In my opinion where car drivers are involved in a motorcycle accident within a built up area its because the car driver has not looked or thinks he has the time to complete the manouver. On the other hand, most out of town motorcycle accidents are single vehicle and caused by rider error.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
I've only seen one motorbike accident, it happened when bike went too fast around a bend on the wrong side of the road and hit a Micra head on. The skid marks were there to prove who was where when they colided.
Not ever bike accident only involves the biker. I would hazard a guess at the majority of out of town biking accidents that involve more than one vehicle being the fault of the biker. Thats down to it being their pass-time and them seeking thrills rather than anything else.

Stinkwheel · Post by **Stinkwheel** » 01 Apr 2005, 01:43

true.
As i said not always but mostly. These days Most riders cannot deal with the capability of the machine they ride. (i used to be in the bike trade and had lots of experiance and training but still couldnt be trusted sometimes)
Sorry, i was generalising as much as the post i complained about.
Just pointing a few 'truths' out as i saw them.

dillosk8ter · Post by **dillosk8ter** » 01 Apr 2005, 01:58

Frenchleave, looks like a very nice XM.

FrenchLeave · Post by **FrenchLeave** » 03 Apr 2005, 05:42

Thank you Owen, it's my third and despite what everyone says about them I've always wanted a late model V6. Now I've retired I don't cover so many miles so the fuel consumption (24 -28 mpg) doesn't bother me. I did pay well over the odds for it at that place just south of Oxford but they're getting hard to find.

dillosk8ter · Post by **dillosk8ter** » 03 Apr 2005, 06:02

Did you get it from the XM Centre?
Always liked them, was a kid when they were launched, one Xmas Mum and Dad got me a 'special, limited edition' XM 1/18th scale model, think they were made to commemorate the launch. Was devastated when sister knocked it off table and it smashed!!! Sorry Im rambling.
Only had brief trip in XM (TD estate), loved the style, space, comfort and above all...the ride!!
I personally rate them highly.....prefering them to the CX (esp. visually).
The only thing that puts me off are the high running costs.

Mosser · Post by **Mosser** » 03 Apr 2005, 07:25

I bought my XM from Paul Johnston at the XM centre, i also paid slightly more than normal for it, but it was top of the range and in mint condition, plus he changed all belts before i collected it too