Near Miss of the Day 432: Cyclist at Sandbanks nearly taken out (+ video of traffic carnage in Dorset resort last week as day-trippers flocked to seaside)

Since when did 'indicating' mean you can just pull out or change lanes?

You can only pull away if it safe to do so or change lanes if it safe to do so.

I don't go from 30-0 simply because someone parked is indicating.

David9694 wrote:

I almost want to learn to ride a motorbike - helping yourself to miles of queues, pausing only to look at a custom(?) yellow car. 

captions for non-local cars "are we having fun yet?", "whose idea was this?"

if we reached the Sandanks ferry terminal, I missed it, for it is here that the Council have had the nerve/vision to close part of a 29 space 1hr car park to enable a safe socially distanced ped ferry queue. 

glad the ferry has stopped with the "cars only" nonsense.

 

If you're an experienced cyclist and car driver, then riding a motorbike won't be such a big step. I much prefer being on two wheels, whether with an engine or without. I passed my motorbike test a couple of years after a getting my car licence and I quickly realised that the bike test taught me a lot more about safe driving techniques. Commuting on two wheels, with or without an engine, I'm used to overtaking rows of stalled cars in congestion. I have never understood why people are willing to wait in a tin box in a queue.

motorbikes are brilliant. And they arent dangerous, not like most people think they are. I've been riding 16 years.  The are only as dangerous as the people riding them, combined with the idiots driving nearby who don't look. If you're able to ride a bicycle, a motorbike is piss easy. Just get used to the clutch, gears and you're off. If you can drive a car, its exactly the same as releasing the clutch to move off. The best thing about motorbikes, is you can get uphills easily without having to work hard, you don't get stuck in traffic, you don't get shouted at by car drivers or forced to use stupid bike lanes, you can overtake cyclists with a 1.5 metre gap without leaving the same lane, you can carry shopping, most of them can get above 50 mpg, theyre super cheap to tax, and you dont need a space to park them if youhavent got a garage. I've got a sv650[ 2019 model], a 1998 kawasaki er5 i built myself from parts, and a husqvarna two stroke 125 enduro. All of them live in the house or on the path by our porch. Everyone else here has a driveway but then has other cars they stick on the road which is annoying. To get on a motorbike, if you're older than 24, do the DAS test. Mine was 600 quid all in, for that i got a weeks worth of training over 2 weeks- my mod one test and mod two, AND petrol and the use of a suzuki sv650 to learn on. Although i'd been riding 125's since i was 17 so i knew how to ride anyway and had passed my 125 test, the power of the 650 was amazing. I got back on my 125 after that and thought it was broken, it had no power at all. The 650 just has grunt everywhere. Thats the reason i bought mine.  6 grand, BRAND NEW, you get a japanese machine, with a 3year warranty, fuel injection, a v twin burble and the looks, ah god, the looks of it. It will also go from 0 to 60 in just over 3 seconds. Thats the stupid thing. Some car drivers think oh look the chap on the bicycle is too poor to afford a car, he is so slow. When actually, i bought the sv outright and it's as fast to 60 as a lamborghini. Funny really. Ive got a delkevic end can on mine.

I've got an SV650 as well. I got mine secondhand but it's great; economical, reliable, good for long distances and faster off the line than most hypercars. I do miss my old Ducati for its noise and handling, but not for its servicing costs. I've also got an old Suzuki two stroke that'll have its 40th birthday next year and then be tax and MOT (and here in London ULEZ) exempt. 

I've got four bicycles, my youngest has three and my eldest and my wife have one each, plus we've a spare and another in bits.

Two wheels good.

We have a family car, but it's just for shopping or long family journeys.

yep- the sv's are iconic. something about a v engine, in a car or bike, makes me go ooooooo. it just sounds, sort of like a heartbeat. I love v8's from the 60's, like muscle cars, low idle, so much torque. The two stroke suzuki, is it a TS? presumably its air cooled and runs premix? my husky had an oil pump originally but i did away with it, now run it 40 to 1. Pita at the garage trying to calculate it though. 

My little old Suzuki is an X5, the 200 twin. I'd have preferred an X7 to be honest, but the X5 was a really good deal as it had a few small issues that were very easily sorted. It's a giggle to ride; not much power, not very economical (same mpg as the SV for about 1/3rd of the power) and not very good brakes, but so light and easy to start. It does have a seperate oil tank, so no need for premix and it even has an electric start, not that you need it. 

The SV has been in production for over 20 years now. Ok, so the engine's been updated, replacing carbs with fuel injection and several other mods. But that's a pretty good run by any measure in these times, when motorcycles are updated yearly. The front suspension is a bit cheapo, but otherwise it remains a solid bike that's excellent VFM.

Yes, definitely learn to ride a motorbike.  I passed my test in 1976 and have had over 20 motorbikes. It's what got me into cycling in fact - breaking a femur isn't conducive to kick-starting a 500cc single... So I had 30 years of cycling - doing pretty much everything - and then 6 yeats ago my wife said "I'd like to learn how to ride a motorbike". Well, I had to get a small pot-pot bike to accompany her didn't I! A couple of tours in the Pyrenees/Picos and 2 weeks on the gravel roads in Namibia and I'm looking forward to more adventures. I am however riding bicycles a lot mre again now so good to keep those legs strong and lower the danger aspect. 

what bikes have you had? i had three 50cc's, a 125cc sachs madass, a cagiva w8 2 stroke, an aprilia rs 125 that liked to kill pistons with powervalve smashing, a yamaha xt 125, a husqvarna wre 125 that i still have, and a lexmoto adrenaline 125 supermoto. Then i bought a scrap worthy kawasaki er5, stripped that right down , put all new parts and paint on it, sorted out the fuel system, have that on the road now with 53000 miles on it. My other bike is the sv650 but i find myself going for the er5 more times than not. If it blows up due to how i ride it, i have a spare engine   

Apart from the current SV and the X5, I've had a Ducati 750SS (brilliant bike, but costly to maintain), Morini 350 (economical and cool), Moto Guzzi Monza 500 (noisy and crude but fun), Honda CD200 (boring), Suzuki TS125 (cheap and cheerful), Triumph 500 (great, when it went), Harley 125 (lookd great but poorly made and unreliable), Kawasaki KH250 (it seemed fast at the time), Triumph Tigercub (a wreck).

I did come close to buying an early Suzuki GSXR1000 from a colleague at one point. The insurance was costly, which was what put me off in the end. I still wonder if I should've just gone for it. I did have a quick spin round the block on it and it was a rocketship.

i didnt actually think of that until you posted it, but yes, it may well have been only because of me slowing they didnt continue. 

It's normal for down here. Most roads too

It beggars belief - but none of them want to change. Get out of the car, and onto two wheels, whether leg powered or motor powered.