On the way home from the coast along the A2 yesterday I winessed some very odd behaviour by a group of motorcyclists which ranged from 3 to about 10 riders. All were riding high powered bikes and dressed in 'racing type' gear.
It started quite positively as I came up on a group of 3 bikers riding in formation at about 55-60 on the inside lane of the motorway. Unusual I thought but fine. Anyway I overtook and went on my way. About 10 minutes later the same group roared past me and the proceeded to 'surround' a Land Rover doing about 60 in the inside lane again. They stayed in position for about 5 minutes before roaring off again. Later I came across the same group having a chat on the hard shoulder under a bridge and about 10 minutes after that the same group, swelled by a further 5-6 riders, again overtook at quite high speed. In the next few miles I witnessed some really stupid behaviour as the group started undertaking, rapidly accelerating/ braking, slowing down, weaving in/out etc. in what was heavy but relatively free moving traffic as we approached the M25. One of the bikers nearly caused an accident as he undertook a line of cars in the outisde lane and almost drove into the back of a car in the middle lane ! It really was a close shave for all concerned !
I remember an old post by Toad in which his contention was that it's impossible for a biker to intimidate a car driver. At the time I respectfully disagreed and would just say that the riding of these individuals yesterday was very intimidating and more than a little distracting.
Don't get me wrong bikers - I saw plenty of idiots in cars dangerously changing lanes, tailgating etc. etc. in the heavy traffic so I'm not implying that it's only bikers who cause problems. It's just that what I saw yesterday was the strangest behaviour I've ever witnessed by a group of bikers and I wonder what they were trying to achieve other than an early grave.
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sounds strange ... maybe it was a police training exercise?
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Not sure if you\'re joking there Ian. If not, I don\'t think it was police although the manoeuvre they performed around the Land Rover reminded me of that sort of situation. It was quite baffling - they just sat there \'surrounding\' the car and causing quite lot of disruption as the motorway was down to 2 lanes at that point. I can\'t believe waht followed afterwards was anything to do with the Police though. They say that men never grow up and in this case I think I might agree. All the men I saw appeared well over 30 yet they were behaving like kids playing with their toys. It\'s not unusual to see bikers roaring away on open, relatively empty roads but what was most strange is that these guys reserved their worst antics for the heaviest traffic.
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This is not on. A properly managed group motorcycle ride is a very disciplined affair with a designated leader and tail-gunners to check the rear. Bad road behavior in a group would have you on report to the Club President at best, with your privileges suspended for a while, and worst you could be expelled and be called upon to return your colors. And that is social death in the serious biker community.
The following is a UK article, not as good as the US ones which are more sophisticated and advanced (I can't put my hands on the URL at the moment), but this is a good start.
www.motorcycle-training.f2s.com/groupride.html
I would bet those guys were riding rice, you would never see that from any Harley or cruiser group I'v ever come across.
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Got one of the links I was looking for:
members.aol.com/parkblue/rules.html
A well managed group motorcycle ride should be an exercise in visible road user discipline way in excess of most cagers' performance, and a competent biker takes pride in being part of something which, if well orchestrated, gives a great feeling of satisfaction.
I get very annoyed when I see some hoodlum letting down what the rest of us work hard to sustain.
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Agree with you on that one Growler - coming home from a day out a year or two ago we came across a massive group of motorcyclists on the M25 anticlockwise at around jcn 12 IIRC. There were hundreds of bikes of all descriptions and whilst it was a bit distracting that was only because of the numbers involved which I had never witnessed before. Whilst there was quite a bit of manoeuvering going on within the group, there seemed to be a very clear understanding between all those involved and they certainly didn't behave dangerously.
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I've experienced similar. On one occasion going round a roundabout a group of bikes surrounded me on both sides, making exiting a scary process. Having intimidated me they then did wheelies and zoomed off. Odd thing is they had big expensive bikes and wore expensive new looking leathers. I've also often seen groups of bikers near a roundabout in Hayes. I think they race round the roundabout in groups for some reason.
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Couple of weeks ago a number of Dutch/German motor cyclists see in my fair town. Their support vehicle - a landrover?
DVD
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Driving over the Pennines yesterday there were a lot of motorcyclists behaving in a very dangerous manner with marginal overtaking opportunities even for their high powered machines. The sheer number of them making incredibly dangerous moves was astounding and really gives the lie to the old chestnut about safety features making people complacent. This was brought home when one coming the other way clipped the front wing of a car about ten cars ahead. I don't think that guy is going to be doing any more riding, or maybe anything of anything. A friend of mine goes riding in similar conditions and I have to say I can't imagine him exposing himself to such risk levels in his car as he does on the bike. Remove brain, put on leathers, ride, seems to be his MO and he's far from alone it seems.
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You sure they wern't supporting the Land Rover....
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I bet they had their full beams on - for safety reasons of course.
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Oh come on boys. We're all getting a little po faced aren't we?
Most riders ride sensibly most of the time (or they die) but sometimes you just want to let rip and when theres a big group of you, well like all males you've got to find out who has the biggest.
With bikes it is nearly always the case that the biker will get hurt but not the car driver so they are not that much of a risk to other road users, just themselves.
Whats life if you can't have a little fun?
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Well said, without any form of danger at all, life would be boring. That's what we have theme parks for, you never know if your ride is gonna be the one that breaks. :-)
Blue
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Blue said - "without any form of danger at all, life would be boring. That's what we have theme parks for, you never know if your ride is gonna be the one that breaks. :-)"
About 15 years ago, me & my mates were at a travelling carnival with loads of different rides designed to make you lose your lunch. There was one whose purpose was to fling the pod (for want of a better word) you were sitting in from one end of the arena to the other. This was done by having five arms, each holding a set of three pods, each with four people. The arms turned like a propeller and the groups of pods spun around their own axis. The overall effect was to produce some incredible g-forces on us, which of course was what we were paying for.
Anyway, we paid for our tokens, got into our seats, clicked our safety bar on, gave the tokens to the token collector and let out a big cheer when the alarm bell signalling the start of the ride went off. The arms started to move ....
... then a friend of the token collector came running into the enclosure, shouting "Stop! Stop!" at the booth. The whole thing stopped, and the guy ran over to OUR pod, took a spanner out of his back pocket, fiddled underneath us for a few moments, then shouted "OK!" at the booth. The ride started to move again, but for some reason we weren't cheering any more ...
PS I still think it was a practical joke they play on the punters every night.
andymc
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Most riders ride sensibly most of the time (or they die) but sometimes you just want to let rip
I agree, but quite a lot (definitely the majority) of these guys I saw on Sunday were putting other people's lives at risk as well as their own--there are safer and quieter roads to do this on than the A59 on a sunny Sunday. They were getting away with it a lot of the time because the car drivers around them were skilled/observant enough to give them room when they made a mistake or cut it a little too fine. But I'll bet that's not how they saw it in the pub afterwards. And yes, quite a few were on full beam "for safety reasons," a fact that made life more difficult for the cagers on whom their wellbeing depended.
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Nothing against a little fun, Thommo, but I suggest that a busy 3-lane road with fast traffic may not be the right place. As to your question "What's life .. ", possibly unexpectedly short. And more importantly, perhaps also that of other unintentionally involved parties.
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Maybe I am po-faced but the public roads are not the place for racing. If they want to race they can go to a race track and do it without threatening anyone else. Maybe the biker is more likely to suffer injury than me in my cumfy car, but I don't want a biker shaped dent in my car thanks very much! :)
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Not reported Nationally - but there was a 500 bike protest at North Wales Police HQ last Sunday - complaining about NWP's Operation Focus. 100 motorcyclists were allowed to make representations to the Force's Deputy Chief and certain assurances received. Friend sent me the article from the Daily Post (local daily paper)- seems that NWP were targetting motorcyclists that were riding without consideration along some of the best roads in the UK - high rates of fatal accidents this year. Seems that strong Policing can be good/bad thing depending on your point of view.
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Last year, the local plod (East Yorks/humberside etc) were stopping every bike and when about 10 were stopped, going over them with a fine tooth comb and then a 'safety' lecture by a smug, cigar smoking, baseball hatted traffic plod.
This was reported in the local paper in the form of 'police stop 300 bikers in clamp down' when in fact it was no such thing.
Out of curiosity, if bikers in this situation were to write to the chief constable and complain about victimisation, would these complaints then reflect badly when the boss produces his anual statistics?
Martin (stopped both ways, both to and from the shops)
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