Deletedmemberjdcxxx
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- Feb 10, 2008
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I don't use my brake light for anything, it comes on automatically (I think,but of course can't be totally certain), when I brake i.e. need to slow down by use of either the front or rear brake, or in my case often both at once (linked brakes).
There should be no need to slow down once you have pulled in front of the vehicle you have just overtaken as you surely would either have accelerated up the road or matched the speed of the vehicles in the line of traffic you are now travelling in by judicious use of the correct gear and throttle control. If you need to brake you have got it wrong (not majorly, disastrously wrong, but it isn't neat and tidy). If you don't need to brake.....why dab the brake. Must annoy the hell out of the driver now directly behind you as he dives for his brake and sends ripples of braking along the traffic behind him.
As to not being able to remember the 'point'.........probably because there isn't one.
While we are at it...........if a tree falls down in the woods and there is no-one there to witness it, does it make a sound?
I think I'm going to regret mentioning the brake dab as everyone is calling it. The kind of overtakes I'm discussing don't need any braking so just for now forget the brake light issue. Imagine you're on an A road with a 40mph speed limit due to road works, the road works are on a new carriageway adjacent to the one you're on so the reduced speed is for construction traffic which will occasionally join / leave your carriageway. When you decide to overtake there is no construction traffic. Its 7.15am the road is dry and clear with visibility up to 1/2 mile ahead. You approach a car travelling at 35mph and notice that the driver is texting on his mobile phone and decide that in the interest of personal safety you should overtake and leave him / her behind. You accelerate to 45mph and execute the perfect overtake on an exceptionally straight section of road with some distant oncoming traffic that does not impact on your riding. On completing the overtake you reduce speed without braking to 39mph and continue your ride to work.Is it better to wait behind the car to avoid possibly using excessive speed, rip past it with a good horn blast to indicate your unhappiness about the mobile phone, try to overtake without exceeding 39mph to stick rigidly to legal requirements, or overtake using sufficient speed to complete the overtake quickly and safely without impacting on the car being overtaking, or any other road user, in this case distant oncoming traffic. At no point do you illuminate your brake light

I know what I would do, but its a secret. Using the "if a tree falls" analogy the only person with any control of this situation is the rider and ultimately he / she decides what is safe, regardless of the feedback on this site, or the absence of any type of law enforcement. In the instant that the overtake is completed, it never happened. Its a transitory event only witnessed by the rider, (the driver was too busy texting and shaving.)
You may not want to confirm that you occasionally exceed a legal limit to complete a safe manoeuvre, or feel that this is a contradiction in terms. but I would be interested to know your views. I am not advocating breaking the law, or even bending it and I recognise the potential outcome of this action, but if a tree falls etc. etc. A motorcyclist is faced with these choices constantly and having the ability to overtake / filter is a key factor of using a motorbike. When I first got back on two wheels I sat in traffic very much like a car driver, (which I had been for several years.) Getting used to a GSA through the winter months was a challenge and I have slowly and carefully explored its capabilities. Have I pushed it a bit too far when overtaking? I'll read your comments and give it some serious thought.



