Discussion
R1 Loon said:
(Atoms) have all the impracticalities of a bike with none of the advantages.
Otolith said:
They don't require leathers, you can't fall off them, at least 31 million more people in the UK are licensed to drive one?
R1 Loon said:
Bikes don't require leathers.
I am not a motorcyclist - perhaps I'm using the wrong term for the protective clothing my friends who are motorcyclists wear. In any case, you wouldn't get me on one without it.R1 Loon said:
If you're working on the basis that a bike can just fall over randomly when on the move, what's to stop an Atom just flipping randomly?
No, I'm extrapolating from the number of times I've fallen off a bicycle versus the number of times I've fallen off a car. That might not be a fair comparison, I admit, but I definitely remember hearing of other people coming off motorcycles and I'm pretty sure I've never heard of anyone coming off a car.
R1 Loon said:
I'm not 31million people and a bit unsure why that's relevant
It's relevant to the (at least) 31 million people who can't ride a bike but who can drive an Atom. A bike would be useless to me. Can't ride it, not really interested in learning to. That's quite a big disadvantage to it from my perspective, though I suppose it would make a reasonable clothes horse if all the oily bits were cleaned up.otolith said:
I am not a motorcyclist - perhaps I'm using the wrong term for the protective clothing my friends who are motorcyclists wear. In any case, you wouldn't get me on one without it.
They are leathers and yes I do wear them, I also wear textiles, or just some scrappy camo gear when offroad. There is no compulsion though, other than a helemt, which takes as long as a seatbelt to put on.otolith said:
No, I'm extrapolating from the number of times I've fallen off a bicycle versus the number of times I've fallen off a car.
That might not be a fair comparison, I admit, but I definitely remember hearing of other people coming off motorcycles and I'm pretty sure I've never heard of anyone coming off a car.
People do come off motorbikes, but they rarley just fall off them. It's exactly the same as the 10% of the 31million car drivers who crash every year. Does it mean that cars are prone to crashing as well, or is down to the drivr / rider in most cases?That might not be a fair comparison, I admit, but I definitely remember hearing of other people coming off motorcycles and I'm pretty sure I've never heard of anyone coming off a car.
otolith said:
It's relevant to the (at least) 31 million people who can't ride a bike but who can drive an Atom. A bike would be useless to me. Can't ride it, not really interested in learning to. That's quite a big disadvantage to it from my perspective, though I suppose it would make a reasonable clothes horse if all the oily bits were cleaned up.
What you mean is that 31million people are able to get into an Atom legally, whether they could drive it is another matter altogether.Nice stereotype btw, have you seen modern bikes?
Edited by R1 Loon on Wednesday 23 March 19:45
yonex said:
RobM77 said:
Can you provide any evidence that the physical training done by top bike riders needs to be any more arduous than that performed by F1 drivers? I was under the impression it was the other way round actually; F1 drivers are known to be amongst the fittest athletes in the world.
I can tell you that certain riders in GP have extremely high fitness levels. Running in heat chambers, altitude training, cycling, motoX, weights etc, etc. With cars you need stronger control over your head for continuous G but on a bike you have tremendous braking and acceleration forces to deal with without the benefit of a seat/harness. Also the physical effort of turning something that doesn't want to with your body is not easy, even though GP races are far shorter with bikes. Heat, noise and vibration is also not alien to bike racing I can assure you.It seems like most of the bikers here have no idea either how fast a purpose built racing car is or how much fitness is required to drive one, despite figures being posted which show it quite clearly. It's akin to car drivers arguing that their ST220 would outdrag a GSXR-1000 in a straight line
The figures are there for such things, and most car drivers understand and believe them - no blinkers involved!Man some of the s
te in this thread is unreal - bikers have higher fitness? Where the fk does that come from? A couple of weekends a year in a leather romper suit doesn't suddenly make you any fitter than a bloke doing an afternoons gardening. Most of the bikers I know are about the most "average Joe" blokes you could imagine. I think some people think that getting on a bike suddenly makes them some kind of endurance super-athlete.
te in this thread is unreal - bikers have higher fitness? Where the fk does that come from? A couple of weekends a year in a leather romper suit doesn't suddenly make you any fitter than a bloke doing an afternoons gardening. Most of the bikers I know are about the most "average Joe" blokes you could imagine. I think some people think that getting on a bike suddenly makes them some kind of endurance super-athlete.Mastodon2 said:
Man some of the ste in this thread is unreal - bikers have higher fitness? Where the fk does that come from? A couple of weekends a year in a leather romper suit doesn't suddenly make you any fitter than a bloke doing an afternoons gardening. Most of the bikers I know are about the most "average Joe" blokes you could imagine. I think some people think that getting on a bike suddenly makes them some kind of endurance super-athlete.
Nobody has been commenting on 'your average biker'. Craig first mentioned fitness when commenting on TT riders, and if you think that you can get your 'average' green fingered friend to complete one, let alone multiple laps of the TT course at ~120mph without feeling a touch wheezy, I'd be impressed te in this thread is unreal - bikers have higher fitness? Where the fk does that come from? A couple of weekends a year in a leather romper suit doesn't suddenly make you any fitter than a bloke doing an afternoons gardening. Most of the bikers I know are about the most "average Joe" blokes you could imagine. I think some people think that getting on a bike suddenly makes them some kind of endurance super-athlete.
srob said:
Nobody has been commenting on 'your average biker'. Craig first mentioned fitness when commenting on TT riders, and if you think that you can get your 'average' green fingered friend to complete one, let alone multiple laps of the TT course at ~120mph without feeling a touch wheezy, I'd be impressed
I just thought I'd step in before some biker lunged in about how fit he is from his weekend biking regime and therefore can travel at higher speeds more comfortably and safely than a car driver 
Mastodon2 said:
Man some of the ste in this thread is unreal - bikers have higher fitness? Where the fk does that come from? A couple of weekends a year in a leather romper suit doesn't suddenly make you any fitter than a bloke doing an afternoons gardening. Most of the bikers I know are about the most "average Joe" blokes you could imagine. I think some people think that getting on a bike suddenly makes them some kind of endurance super-athlete.
I think the comment was comparing bike racers with car racers. The comment was indeed utter bte in this thread is unreal - bikers have higher fitness? Where the fk does that come from? A couple of weekends a year in a leather romper suit doesn't suddenly make you any fitter than a bloke doing an afternoons gardening. Most of the bikers I know are about the most "average Joe" blokes you could imagine. I think some people think that getting on a bike suddenly makes them some kind of endurance super-athlete.ks though RobM77 said:
Mastodon2 said:
Man some of the ste in this thread is unreal - bikers have higher fitness? Where the fk does that come from? A couple of weekends a year in a leather romper suit doesn't suddenly make you any fitter than a bloke doing an afternoons gardening. Most of the bikers I know are about the most "average Joe" blokes you could imagine. I think some people think that getting on a bike suddenly makes them some kind of endurance super-athlete.
I think the comment was comparing bike racers with car racers. The comment was indeed utter bte in this thread is unreal - bikers have higher fitness? Where the fk does that come from? A couple of weekends a year in a leather romper suit doesn't suddenly make you any fitter than a bloke doing an afternoons gardening. Most of the bikers I know are about the most "average Joe" blokes you could imagine. I think some people think that getting on a bike suddenly makes them some kind of endurance super-athlete.ks though i will let you in to a little secret, the bike racers were a lot fitter. oh, and james toseland holds several v02 max test records around the uk and is generally aknowledged as one of the fittest non-athletics sports personalitys around.
hairykrishna said:
Biker's Nemesis said:
Fact.
What? I'm not disupting that a sidecar is slower than a bike...under current regulations. What engines do the sidecars run? A quick google suggest the outright record is a 600cc Honda. What does that have to do with, say a hillclimb car running north of 600bhp?hairykrishna said:
I've not driven the course, but I've got eyes and can see the suspension setup on the sidecar rigs that lap it happily. Something like a Gould hillclimb car with a bigger fuel tank would be fine around there and would rape the bike times.
I assumed that you were trying to say that the sidecar would be slower than the equivalent engined sized bike.Please forgive me for not understanding what you were trying to say!
Edited by Biker's Nemesis on Wednesday 23 March 19:30
RemyMartin said:
Ive read through a couple of pages and basically lost the will to live. Some people, On both sides of the arguments need to grow the fk up.
Arguing about conjecture is ridiculous.
I quite agree but there's a couple of smug bastids (one in particular) who get right on my tits.k up. Arguing about conjecture is ridiculous.
So anyway, you know what its about so how about you just bugger off and don't read the thread anymore!
liner33 said:
An excellent , accomplished one at that but lets be honest he is no athlete and he is a truck mechanic at the end of the day.
you would be surprised, for someone that doesnt train at all (until this year), he is VERY fit, in fact he is fit enough to finish top ten in one of europes top MTB events.liner33 said:
Biker's Nemesis said:
Bear with me. It's going to take some time to get through this lot.
Have a look on BBC1, Guy Martin is on, he's a TT racer.
An excellent , accomplished one at that but lets be honest he is no athlete and he is a truck mechanic at the end of the day. Have a look on BBC1, Guy Martin is on, he's a TT racer.
Biker's Nemesis said:
I quite agree but there's a couple of smug bastids (one in particular) who get right on my tits.
So anyway, you know what its about so how about you just bugger off and don't read the thread anymore!
I'm enjoying seeing angry car drivers. Anyone would think they were upset because bikes are clearly faster.....So anyway, you know what its about so how about you just bugger off and don't read the thread anymore!
RemyMartin said:
Biker's Nemesis said:
I quite agree but there's a couple of smug bastids (one in particular) who get right on my tits.
So anyway, you know what its about so how about you just bugger off and don't read the thread anymore!
I'm enjoying seeing angry car drivers. Anyone would think they were upset because bikes are clearly faster.....So anyway, you know what its about so how about you just bugger off and don't read the thread anymore!
Presumably, in the real world everyone agrees that bikes are the only way?
On a bike there are no queues, you get to the front of the traffic lights every time, other drivers move over to aid your progress, other drivers are much more courteous to you, you don't get bored, they're a great stress reliever, they're fast and fun.
And best of all, I save *at least* 30 minutes per day commuting by bike (which I do all year round in most weathers) That's 2.5 hours per week or 10 hours per month or several days per year. I also save £20 a week in petrol.
You'd have to be a bit mental to believe cars a faster or better in the real world after I've just written all that. I pass 100's of cars per day...they sit there with boredom written all over their faces, and I wonder - why?
Get a bike license - discover the better (only IMO) way.
On a bike there are no queues, you get to the front of the traffic lights every time, other drivers move over to aid your progress, other drivers are much more courteous to you, you don't get bored, they're a great stress reliever, they're fast and fun.
And best of all, I save *at least* 30 minutes per day commuting by bike (which I do all year round in most weathers) That's 2.5 hours per week or 10 hours per month or several days per year. I also save £20 a week in petrol.
You'd have to be a bit mental to believe cars a faster or better in the real world after I've just written all that. I pass 100's of cars per day...they sit there with boredom written all over their faces, and I wonder - why?
Get a bike license - discover the better (only IMO) way.
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