Exhaust end can fell off at 70mph
Discussion
Riding home down the A2, just as the 50mph average cameras stop and the NSL sign appears, i accelerated to overtake a van and the bike started to make a funny noise - a little louder than usual. It is old and make funny noises so i thought nothing of it.
A mile down the road i thought about safety and stopped to have a look and found one end can was missing !
I rang the police to let them know it was in the outside lane and could they make sure it is not causing an issue, oh and if not flattened could I have it back ?
I drove the same stretch later that evening and saw it up against the central reservation looking a bit sorry for itself but not squashed, i will have it back
I ring 101, - speak to the Highways Agency.
I ring the Highways Agency - we think TFL control that stretch of road.
I ring TFL, not us we think it must be Kent Council.
I ring Kent Council, no it is no us Highways Agency manage that part......
Eventually Highways agency accept that it is their responsibility. I appreciate that it is no priority for them, but could they assist in getting it back ?
A couple of days later it is still there so i decide to do a daring midnight run across three lanes.
Sod me 70mph is fast when you are standing at the side of the road, a gap in traffic and adash there and back to retrieve it, all without being killed.
Exhaust a bit battered but slips staright back on and saved the £40 a second one would have cost !
I had something similar two weeks ago - somewhere along either the M26 or M20 sits a very nice leather pannier stuffed full of a weekends' worth of clothes!
Fortunately where it 100% certainly on a stretch of motorway where it came off the highways agency took the call as soon as I realised I had no clothes to wear! I did take a ride out to see if I could locate it, but I suspect it was somewhere after maidstone services so was almost certainly smashed to pieces by a dover bound lorry shortly after deciding it didn't want to be seen attached to a harley!
Well done on the getting the can back though can imagine it was a bit of the old 5p-50p sphincter moment dashing across that!
Fortunately where it 100% certainly on a stretch of motorway where it came off the highways agency took the call as soon as I realised I had no clothes to wear! I did take a ride out to see if I could locate it, but I suspect it was somewhere after maidstone services so was almost certainly smashed to pieces by a dover bound lorry shortly after deciding it didn't want to be seen attached to a harley!
Well done on the getting the can back though can imagine it was a bit of the old 5p-50p sphincter moment dashing across that!
CoolHands said:
I don’t understand why you’re ringing everybody. You heap is falling apart and you want everyone else to run around after you?
It's normally considered the decent thing to let the powers that be know if you have created a fairly significant hazard in a fast road, if not for common decency, at least to give it a chance to be cleared up before it could cause an accident.I say good play on OP for trying to get it cleared! far too many happy to let s
t stay in the road and cause a hazard.... here's looking to you 'Mr ladder dropped on the A40' and all the kind gentlemen of the 'leaving bricks and st everywhere' posse!On an old Series Land Rover, the bonnet hinges are such that if you tilt the bonnet up to a vertical position, it lifts out of the hinges, for ease of removal.
Unfortunately, if for any reason your bonnet catch becomes undone at motorway speeds, the bonnet will fly up and be lifted off the car by the wind. Apparently, it will then fly behind the car and land on the carriageway. If you're very lucky indeed, not only will it miss any following vehicles, but they will also miss it, although it may become slightly battered.
I suppose that what you would then have to do is to wait for a big enough gap in the daytime traffic to be able to run out and get the bonnet (it's aluminium so it's not too heavy) and retrieve it from the live carriageway before it causes a terrible accident.
If the Land Rover was a pickup, you'd be able to chuck it in the back and drive off with no bonnet.
Or so I imagine.
Subsequently, you'd probably fit some additional catches to the bonnet, those 1970s stretchy rubber things, if that ever happened to you. And I would think you'd probably have an absolute OCD obsession with making sure the bonnet was properly fastened on any other car you owned, even 15 years later, in fact probably for the rest of your life.
Unfortunately, if for any reason your bonnet catch becomes undone at motorway speeds, the bonnet will fly up and be lifted off the car by the wind. Apparently, it will then fly behind the car and land on the carriageway. If you're very lucky indeed, not only will it miss any following vehicles, but they will also miss it, although it may become slightly battered.
I suppose that what you would then have to do is to wait for a big enough gap in the daytime traffic to be able to run out and get the bonnet (it's aluminium so it's not too heavy) and retrieve it from the live carriageway before it causes a terrible accident.
If the Land Rover was a pickup, you'd be able to chuck it in the back and drive off with no bonnet.
Or so I imagine.
Subsequently, you'd probably fit some additional catches to the bonnet, those 1970s stretchy rubber things, if that ever happened to you. And I would think you'd probably have an absolute OCD obsession with making sure the bonnet was properly fastened on any other car you owned, even 15 years later, in fact probably for the rest of your life.
CoolHands said:
Well I would have rode back and got it
You are more manly than me !I was working on the basis that the police don't want you running around on 3 lane 70mph roads picking stuff up.
Getting the proper authorities to control traffic seemed a much better option, as opposed to "idiot killed by stopping on a motorway to pick up debris".
I had thought about all manner of options, hoping Dartford Tunnel was a mess so traffic was stop start, i could have jumped off picked it up and continued, but carrying it when i need two hands to pull away would be tricky
How would you have stopped the traffic in the outside lane long enough to pick it up, and refit it to your bike ? The exhaust and link pipe would be about 2ft long.
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