|  | Topic : Shagrat57 - No 1 - Bikesafe |  |
| | | shagrat57 | | Set |  | | Reg. Date | : | 14/12/2011 | | Posts | : | 393 | | Location | : | Totton, Hampshire, United Kingdom |
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| | Posted : 27 Mar 2012 - 10:40 Post title : Shagrat57 - No 1 - Bikesafe | | | I mentioned a couple of weeks ago in one of the threads here about my impending Bikesafe course. This one hour taster session was organised by my local Triumph dealer (Three Cross Motorcycles in Dorset). I was booked in for an 11:00 slot on Saturday, so I left my house on a beautiful sunny morning at about 10:20 so I could get there a bit early and have a coffee and browse all the shiny new bikes. Speaking of which, I went to the launch night of the new Explorer last week. It certainly looks better in the flesh than in the magazines, but it's still a functional rather than cool looking bike. Not my cup of tea, unless I lived in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by zombies and I needed to carry plenty of grub, guns & ammo. But I digress.........
Now I don't know how you guys learnt how to ride. Maybe some had professional training, some (like me) learnt at the school of hard knocks. I learnt to ride on a 1960 BSA C15 when I was 16. My dad bought it as a basket case for £20 when I was 15 years old. I cleaned it up and rebuilt it and learnt to ride it in the garden before taking it around the town. I was still a year underage at the time, but tall enough to look old enough. I've ridden all kinds of bikes over the last 39 years and we all 'think' we're good riders, but having had no formal training I thought it was about time I had my riding assessed by an expert. Back to the story..........
There were two coppers on bikes, and all due credit to them, they do this unpaid and in their own time. So when my turn came, I met up with the copper and he explained that it was a bit like an "MOT for the rider rather than the bike", which kind of makes sense, just to check whether you're a safe rider or not. He explained the route which was around 30 miles and included fast country roads, through a couple of villages and a town. So off we went with me leading and him behind (I don't know why, but I've always felt uneasy being followed by the fuzz). Before we left, he said he wasn't too worried about speed, but not to go silly. So leaving the dealers, I duly gave it a bit of a handful (as you do), short TORS growling in his face, snicking clutchless changes through the gears up to 70 (legal limit is 60). I actually rode as I would normally ride apart from watching the speed limits a little more carefully than usual through built-up areas. After about 20 minutes he flashed past me and flagged me into a lay-by for a "chat" (like coppers do, right?). I was fully expecting a ticket for speeding and maybe another one for noise. But he seemed quite complementary about my riding and especially the bike. "That's a pretty quick bike" he said. Obviously being a black T'bird it's going to be substantially faster than say a blue one, but we all know that already.
So off we go again for the second (return) leg through more of the beautiful Dorset countryside in glorious sunshine back to Three Cross. Then there was a 10 minute de-brief where he gave me a couple of pointers, but on the whole he was pretty complimentary saying my position and presence in the road was good, etc etc. I asked him a couple of questions about the laws on filtering and when it could be classed as undertaking. I also asked him if he thought my short TORS were too loud, to which he replied "not at all". I left there feeling good and rode down to Southampton to meet my girlfriend for lunch to celebrate.
But it seems I really need some louder pipes now. 
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| | | Bedouin | | Jupiter | |  | | Reg. Date | : | 18/10/2008 | | Posts | : | 1,066 | | Location | : | Athens, Greece |
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| | Posted : 27 Mar 2012 - 10:51 Post title : Re: Shagrat57 - No 1 - Bikesafe (Re: shagrat57) | | |
shagrat57 wrote:
But it seems I really need some louder pipes now. |
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So THAT was the moral of the story eh? 
| Blessed are those eyes that have seen more roads than any man! (Homer).
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| | | shagrat57 | | Set | | | Reg. Date | : | 14/12/2011 | | Posts | : | 393 | | Location | : | Totton, Hampshire, United Kingdom |
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| | Posted : 27 Mar 2012 - 10:56 Post title : Re: Shagrat57 - No 1 - Bikesafe (Re: Bedouin) | | | Moral? I don't have any morals
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| | | Tilinghetuna | | Set | |  | | Reg. Date | : | 21/05/2011 | | Posts | : | 196 | | Location | : | Nottingham, United Kingdom |
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| | Posted : 27 Mar 2012 - 12:32 Post title : Re: Shagrat57 - No 1 - Bikesafe (Re: shagrat57) | | | So fill us in on what the instructor told you re filtering it's a very grey area
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Tilinghetuna = Settlement of Tir's people
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| | | shagrat57 | | Set | | | Reg. Date | : | 14/12/2011 | | Posts | : | 393 | | Location | : | Totton, Hampshire, United Kingdom |
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| | Posted : 27 Mar 2012 - 13:03 Post title : Re: Shagrat57 - No 1 - Bikesafe (Re: Tilinghetuna) | | | Filtering is very subjective, but in this particular copper's opinion, going through the middle of traffic which is travelling at 30mph or less would be ok as long as your speed is only about 5 - 10mph faster. If say the traffic is doing 50 and you're running up the inside, you're likely to get nicked if Mr Plod eyeballs you.
I specifically asked him about riding up the inside lane if those tossers in cars are all lined up in the outside lane (which pisses me off intensely), and he said it's ok as long as you keep the speed diferrential as before (5 - 10mph) as any one of them could without warning decide to take to the LH lane and take you out.
Pete
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| | | zolti | | Thor | |  | | Reg. Date | : | 23/03/2010 | | Posts | : | 3,127 | | Location | : | newcastle , United Kingdom |
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| | Posted : 27 Mar 2012 - 15:40 Post title : Re: Shagrat57 - No 1 - Bikesafe (Re: shagrat57) | | | a copper applying some common sense, maybe thats why he rides bikes.
good to know about the pipes and the filtering
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| | | midge | | Set | |  | | Reg. Date | : | 06/03/2011 | | Posts | : | 345 | | Location | : | Beverley, East Yorkshire, United Kingdom |
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| | Posted : 27 Mar 2012 - 16:37 Post title : Re: Shagrat57 - No 1 - Bikesafe (Re: zolti) | | | wonder what he would think to mine?? 
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| | | Tilinghetuna | | Set | | | | Reg. Date | : | 21/05/2011 | | Posts | : | 196 | | Location | : | Nottingham, United Kingdom |
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| | Posted : 27 Mar 2012 - 18:20 Post title : Re: Shagrat57 - No 1 - Bikesafe (Re: midge) | | | Nice one, thanks for the feedback.
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Tilinghetuna = Settlement of Tir's people
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| | | zolti | | Thor | | | | Reg. Date | : | 23/03/2010 | | Posts | : | 3,127 | | Location | : | newcastle , United Kingdom |
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| | Posted : 27 Mar 2012 - 20:36 Post title : Re: Shagrat57 - No 1 - Bikesafe (Re: midge) | | |
midge wrote:
wonder what he would think to mine?? |
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youll have to speak up mate...... I CANT HEAR YOU
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