Any - To those who helped a biker yesterday near Beeston | Motoring discussion | Back Room Forum

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Sun 17 Feb 2019 10:01

Any - To those who helped a biker yesterday near Beeston - craig-pd130

I wrote off my bike yesterday morning near the junction of the A49 and A534, close to Beeston in Cheshire, due to a patch of spilled diesel. My riding gear did its job, just a broken little finger and scuffed/chafed knees to show for a 35mph-ish get-off. The bike unfortunately stopped sliding by hitting the kerb, damaging the frame and fuel tank beyond repair.

But while waiting for the recovery truck, I was humbled by the number of people who stopped and offered to help. My thanks especially to Luke, in a white Peugeot van, who gave me some wipes and plasters from his first aid kit; and to Steve in a silver Focus who first checked if I was OK, then 20 minutes later came back with a bottle of water and chocolate bar, completely unbidden. What a kind thing to do.

My heartfelt thanks to everyone who stopped to help, and to Luke and Steve.

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Sun 17 Feb 2019 14:40

Any - To those who helped a biker yesterday near Beeston - SteveLee

Bad luck with the spill, good to hear you're in one piece and there's some humanity out there.

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Sun 17 Feb 2019 15:40

Any - To those who helped a biker yesterday near Beeston - Manatee

Pleased you're OK of course. And good to hear that there are some people who don't pass by on the other side.

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Sun 17 Feb 2019 19:30

Any - To those who helped a biker yesterday near Beeston - dan86

I remember a few years ago at work we were on our way back to the depot when we see an elderly lady trip over. We pulled over and offered her our assistance and bandaged up her hand and dressed the cut on her head using the contents of our first aid kit.

We phoned up our supervisor to inform him we would be late getting back as we were waiting with the lady for the ambulance to arrive. He told us that if we didn't leave her we would face disciplinary action.

We ignored him and waited around 10 minutes with the lady. When we arrived back we were informed we would be investigated for disciplinary action.

When the HR lady came in to the investigation she was appalled with his lack of humanity and we were commended for our actions.

I think most people will stop and help if they think they can and it's good to hear that people did, it just goes to show their is still some humanity and compassion in this world

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Sun 17 Feb 2019 19:57

Any - To those who helped a biker yesterday near Beeston - lucklesspedestrian

Slightly different story here as there was no injury but back in 1987 the wife and I were heading back home to Scotland from Manchester in our Datsun 140Y (God I loved that car!) when we suffered a puncture at about 9.30pm on a Sunday, on the hard shoulder of the M90. Being young and incredibly stupid we didn't have a jack to put the spare on (it was probably flat anyway) and were just about to leg it across the carrigeway into Kelty (?) when an AA van turned up out of the misty gloom, changed our wheel, no charge and just suggested we join up when we got the chance before saluting cheerfully (okay, I probably imagined that bit) and driving off into the evening. If you're out there pal, thank you!

To further demonstrate just how incredibly stupid I was back then, the 140Y didn't die of tin worm, oh no!, the big end went after I had run it dry of oil, learning, after the fact, that I had in fact been checking the gearbox oil, not the engine oil for the past 18 months and marveling at how it never used a drop of oil and that the oil remained a healthy golden pink colour.

There's another thread there isn't there i.e. what's the dumbest motoring related thing you've done in your car owning history? I suspect I would win!

Edited by lucklesspedestrian on 17/02/2019 at 20:01

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Sun 17 Feb 2019 20:07

Any - To those who helped a biker yesterday near Beeston - gordonbennet

Whilst i wouldn't wish that spill on you or anyone, i'm pleased that you got out of it in reasonably fine fettle, could have been a lot worse.

Yes there are some decent people still about, and some half wits as the supervisor who threatened discplinary action for helping an older lady after a spill proves beyond any doubt, what a numpty...where i work you're more likely to end up sitting in front of the top man if you didn't stop and help a fair lady in distress.

This spilled Diesel lark is starting to rear it's ugly head again, as i often start really early and in a lorry myself so travelling a similar line to other lorries, i can almost track the offending vehicle's progress from the spillage point on each and every roundabout he's negotiated, it's scary enough when the steering goes light in an artic if you haven't spotted the spill in the dark, awful for bikers.

Mend well and soon Craig-pd130.

Edited by gordonbennet on 17/02/2019 at 20:07

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Sun 17 Feb 2019 23:45

Any - To those who helped a biker yesterday near Beeston - Bilboman

When I had company cars - five in all, and all diesels - I made sure the filler-upper at a non self-service filling station (there are quite a few of these in Spain, surprisingly enough!) did NOT put any more diesel in after the first click of the nozzle, often to the employee's annoyance. My pointing out that spilt diesel - often, I suspect, from overfilling - causes all manner of accidents, especially to those on two wheels, went in one ear and out of the other. (I saved the "customer's always right" argument for another time.)

Edited by Bilboman on 17/02/2019 at 23:46

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Mon 18 Feb 2019 22:58

Any - To those who helped a biker yesterday near Beeston - SteveLee

Being a biker I've always been totally anti-diesel. It should be for commercial vehicles and that's it. The number of spills one witnesses day to day is truly frightening. I remember one particular time I hit a bad patch of diesel at about 70mph on my R1 coming off a roundabout- the bike two-wheel drifted onto the (thankfully) empty on-coming lane - purely luck rather than skill. Oddly I also think the momentum from my highish speed helped. Had I been going slower I'm sure It would have just tucked.

I called the police and waited until they turned up to deal with the really bad spill - they were there in 15 mins.. Good job.

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Tue 19 Feb 2019 06:28

Any - To those who helped a biker yesterday near Beeston - craig-pd130

Being a biker I've always been totally anti-diesel. It should be for commercial vehicles and that's it. The number of spills one witnesses day to day is truly frightening. I remember one particular time I hit a bad patch of diesel at about 70mph on my R1 coming off a roundabout- the bike two-wheel drifted onto the (thankfully) empty on-coming lane - purely luck rather than skill. Oddly I also think the momentum from my highish speed helped. Had I been going slower I'm sure It would have just tucked.

I called the police and waited until they turned up to deal with the really bad spill - they were there in 15 mins.. Good job.

Yes, unfortunately I was braking to stop for the junction, probably down to about 35mph and still slowing when my front wheel hit the diesel. The bike slammed down instantly, no twitch through the bars or any sort of warning.

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Tue 19 Feb 2019 09:42

Any - To those who helped a biker yesterday near Beeston - Galaxy

Frightening! The diesel on the road must be just like a sheet of black ice.

Thank goodness you're more-or-less OK. Bikes can be replaced!

Edited by Galaxy on 19/02/2019 at 09:43

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Tue 19 Feb 2019 13:05

Any - To those who helped a biker yesterday near Beeston - RT

Being a biker I've always been totally anti-diesel. It should be for commercial vehicles and that's it. The number of spills one witnesses day to day is truly frightening. I remember one particular time I hit a bad patch of diesel at about 70mph on my R1 coming off a roundabout- the bike two-wheel drifted onto the (thankfully) empty on-coming lane - purely luck rather than skill. Oddly I also think the momentum from my highish speed helped. Had I been going slower I'm sure It would have just tucked.

I called the police and waited until they turned up to deal with the really bad spill - they were there in 15 mins.. Good job.

Restricting diesel to commercials would achieve nothing - when they're in an accident a huge amount of diesel is spilt - just like the A14 west was closed all day yesterday to do the major clean-up after two HGVs collided - caused major traffic disruption across a large area.

I'm glad Craig escaped with only minor injuries and hopefully the insurance will take car of the bike.

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Tue 19 Feb 2019 14:13

Any - To those who helped a biker yesterday near Beeston - Andrew-T

<< Restricting diesel to commercials would achieve nothing - when they're in an accident a huge amount of diesel is spilt >>

Nonsense - it would obviously achieve something, but the problem clearly would not be fully solved. As the driver of a diesel car, I buy either 20 or 30 litres of fuel at a time, so the tank is never more than 2/3rds full. That may be a more effective prevention of spills.

I do that largely to make calculation of consumption easier. I prefer dividing by round numbers.

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Tue 19 Feb 2019 15:08

Any - To those who helped a biker yesterday near Beeston - gordonbennet

Very seldom have i seen fuel leaking onto the road, or evidence of in the form of fuel spray on the vehicle sides, from cars.

Almost always it is from lorries or decrepit vans or buses, where the driver either has left the fuel cap off completely, or fitted it badly (often) due to weak wrists, or the fuel cap has become unfit for purpose, plus by design the fuel is at cap level on commercial tanks, with cars there is usually several feet of twisting and turning filler pipe leading down to the tank so surge spillage isn't anywhere near the same problem even if the cap was missing.

Invariably the lines taken by the vehicles responsible for the majority of spills are typically the roundabout approach lines that larger vehicles would use, ie either one single spill on the left hand side of the road in the middle of the roundabout, or a splosh on the offside of the road just as you enter the roundabout and another a few yards past the exit, the differences being between left and right hand side fuel tanks...the offside spills especially are the ones likely to catch bikers out due to the line they normally take corners.

Edited by gordonbennet on 19/02/2019 at 15:11

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Tue 19 Feb 2019 22:30

Any - To those who helped a biker yesterday near Beeston - craig-pd130

Yes, I'm fairly sure I hit an offside spill from a vehicle approaching the junction, as it was just after the start of a gentle left-curve before reaching the junction, and about a foot inside the centre line.

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Wed 20 Feb 2019 19:17

Any - To those who helped a biker yesterday near Beeston - Bilboman

There's a lot of information here (points already discussed in this posting!) motorcycleminds.org/2017/10/17/diesel-spills-do-ki.../

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