Hey BMW - You lost another sale...

[Apex]

This Video shows us a motorcycle that rides at a very moderat pace.
Some people may claim that the rider does not have much riding skills. While that might be true, I find it silly to assume that every rider at any time rides to the limits of his/hers ability.

But the video also displays the bicycle riders total disregard for the rules of behaviour in traffic. He's all over the road, and passing the bike on the inside in a RH turn. I will not say that the MC rider chose the perfect line in that turn, but if he had chosen to do so, there would have been an accident.

I have not ridden a quality racing bicycle, but given the law of physics, it's low weight compared to a MC dictates it's potential to maintain a higher speed in curves. But once the curve is complete, a heavier MC will be able to keep higher speed when the curve is not limiting factor, and the MC superior brakes will be able to keep the speed up closer to the next curve.

All in all, these bicycles that plays with other traffic down hill scares me. A loaded GSA with alucases would knock a bicycle off the road without even noticing it. So when a bicycle drives 'all over the road', its behaviour is highly unpredictable for any other traffic, playing with vehicles that will flip the bicycle over easily.

To me, these bicycle riders are not brave or skilled. They are just good old-fashioned stupid.

I'm afraid I agree with most of what you said. My experience, sadly, is that cyclists are often the most agressive and grumpy road users tou're likely to meet. Well they'll be really grumpy when a motorcycle or car driver knocks them off as they undertake at speed. See it all the time. It is truly stupid.

I watched a Youtube recently where two cyclists get knocked off in Paris as they speed past a car on a city street. The driver unexpectedly turns right, they couldn't stop because they a). Were going too fast and b). They failed to see the possible danger. The car driver? He was fine no doubt, but he simply made a mistake in not seeing them. Thats the point for me. When we ride our bikes we have to do it in a way that accepts drivers might not see us. No use complaining about a driver when we're in hospital, or worse, if we could've anticipated a possible danger and helped to avoid it. What possible comfort does it give to a grieving relative when a driver gets prosecuted for due care and attention, rather than getting to work or finishing your Strava route 2 minutes slower?

So if cyclists continue to ride aggressively, overtaking cars or undertaking campers, lorries, whatever, that might be a good story down the pub with your riding mates but when the holes in the Swiss cheese line up one day, get ready to fall through


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[Apex]

Nah .... I'm with the cyclist here!

The biker (I can only guess he's brand new) can barely turn his bike! He looks so tight on it - he needs to go back to a car park and learn how to steer and to relax the handlebars.
At the end of the video, he himself goes up the inside of the cyclist (who's just trying to get on with it) then can't turn his bike and runs so wide he takes himself and the cyclist onto the other carriage way!

He shouldn't be on the road ....

I agree with this too.

A new rider well and truly out of his comfort zone. The fact that his pride is hurt because his mate has witnessed him being overtaken by a cyclist and he then goes on to chase the cyclist to get back past him was pretty stupid. Says it all actually. However the cyclist shouldn't have just gone past on the inside even if it looked safe. One day when he gets knocked off he'll no doubt blame the other party.


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[knutk]

Nah .... I'm with the cyclist here!

The biker (I can only guess he's brand new) can barely turn his bike! He looks so tight on it - he needs to go back to a car park and learn how to steer and to relax the handlebars.
At the end of the video, he himself goes up the inside of the cyclist (who's just trying to get on with it) then can't turn his bike and runs so wide he takes himself and the cyclist onto the other carriage way!

He shouldn't be on the road ....

I do agree that the MC rider does not show an impressive riding style.
That however does not excuse the bicycle at all.

In most of the civilized world, there are certain ways to behave in traffic, there are doo's and donts. One of the sacred rules are to NEVER overtake on the inside, i.e rh side for rh traffic and lh side for lh traffic. This makes us dedicate most of the attention to the 'proper' side. For a long time, several types of MC actually where sold with one mirror only.

If a bicycle overtake on the not-expected side, the chances for him to be noted by the one he overtakes is quite random. The bicycle is small, it makes no engine noise or has any light that may flash in the mirrors of the overtaken traffic. Further, overtaking a MC in a turn, the chances are that the MC rider looks ahead of the turn and pays no attention to potential traffic from behind at all.

So I uphold my conclusion. The bicycle acted like a moran, and if he keeps up his behavior he is an accident waiting to happen.
The fact that the MC rider acts like not being very experienced is no excuse for acting like a complete idiot.

 

[Neil W]

When I first went to the Alps on the bike in the early 80's, I was given some sage advice by an older Swiss biker who was also a retired professional racing cyclist :


'Don't try to keep up with cyclists downhill on hairpin bends as they can and will get round the bends faster than you and never try to keep up with locals on sportsbikes in the mountains because they will be quicker than you '

 

[tanneman]

Nothing wrong with the cyclist, don't see him weaving, he keeps a line that would allow him to keep up his speed and provide vision through the bends. Once he was in front he had the line and was faster that the following motorcyclist. Some may protest the undertake but every cyclist undertake slower moving traffic, a well judged manoeuvre and if it was a a straight downhill section from there on he would have stuck to the near side as can be seen later on. It was the motorcyclist who was a hazard and performed a dangerous overtake ending up on the opposite side of the road and slowing down in front of the cyclist, causing the cyclist to brake and because he realised he would have been in the way he moved to the nearside to allow traffic past. The motorcyclist shows poor judgement, poor positioning and poor motor control skills. Instead of letting the cyclist go he decided that it was a race and had to overtake the cyclist.

 

[Mr Derek]

Just imagine if that cycle had had 17" wheels. How fast would it have been? Fast as fuck, that's how fast.

 

[Giles]

Just imagine if that cycle had had 17" wheels. How fast would it have been? Fast as fuck, that's how fast.

Thats a ridiculous thing to say. Cycles don't have centre stands so they must be utterly shit!!

Although, to be fair .... you could put some panniers on your carbon Specialised road bike, so its not all bad ...

 

[leadfarmer]

Thats a ridiculous thing to say. Cycles don't have centre stands so they must be utterly shit!!

Although, to be fair .... you could put some panniers on your carbon Specialised road bike, so its not all bad ...

You can’t go round corners with a center stand fitted, no ground clearance you see, if you is fast !

 

[Rushy]

Nah .... I'm with the cyclist here!

The biker (I can only guess he's brand new) can barely turn his bike! He looks so tight on it - he needs to go back to a car park and learn how to steer and to relax the handlebars.
At the end of the video, he himself goes up the inside of the cyclist (who's just trying to get on with it) then can't turn his bike and runs so wide he takes himself and the cyclist onto the other carriage way!

He shouldn't be on the road ....

Exactly this , the cyclist could see what a shit rider the biker was and tried to tell his mate at the end . The biker should’ve left the cyclist alone .

 

[darthwhite]

Just imagine if that cycle had had 17" wheels. How fast would it have been? Fast as fuck, that's how fast.

Look up (and try to ride) the bicycle’s designed by Dr Alex Moulton... 15/16/17” wheels and full suspension on road bicycles with very high pressure tyres. Super quick, comfy and can turn on a pinhead. Very niche bikes but brilliantly engineered; I commuted in London on a TSR30 for years & wish I hadn’t sold it.

On the topic of cyclists - and I was a Lycra clad road racer and commuter for years - there is definitely a victim mentality and aggressive defensiveness that creeps into the road cyclist mentality. For me it was usually around the 10th 4x4 that day zooming passed with inches to spare at (what feels like) silly overtaking speed that would have me wound up It’s one of the reasons I moved to motorbikes for my 2 wheel fix; I couldn’t deal with the underlying stress of being the slowest and most vulnerable thing on the road anymore.

 

[Boxerlust]

The thing about bicycles is due to low weight and super narrow tires they need no lean-angle...On tight downhill roads hp won't save you when you are at peg scraping angles and the hairy legs in front of you get further away because the turns are so tight... 170 hp and 17" wheels won't help you in this situation A new experience for sure when a guy on a bicycle got the better of me on a R1100S on a super tight and steep downhill road...My manhood was seriously impaired for a while... I guess that is why a lot of road racers pick up bicycling...For me I must say it is probably a good sport for health reasons but without a motor too slow and boring compared to motorcycling...Downhill Mountain biking is probably just as exiting but much more dangerous as in injury prone...

 

[Boxerlust]

What happened to Arsey ? I thought him & Giles would ride the Baja with me... Of course on motorbikes , not bicycles as I prefer Leather to Lycra...

 

[yofi]

Doesn't seem to have made much of a dent in the Dec m/c registrations, released last week, with the GS/A being at the top of the charts again in the adv sports and >1000cc categories.

The KTM 300 sold very well though....