Expensive lesson...
Discussion
Argh! woman stops on roundabout, for zero reason. I see the brake lights, and the back end looming up real quick. Anchor up, raise rear wheel. Fall off bike.
Grrrr! result, one scuffed panel, and a very tender shoulder & arm. Bike fell on me, so I cushioned its fall.
Ok, I should have been thinking "it may stop for no reason". But I wasn't. Just like countless other roundabouts I pulled onto it, expecting to go round with no problem. Stupid me, and that's £200 or so to make the bike look new again.
What can you do about this sort of thing? I'm annoyed at myself for allowing it to happen - however I have learnt something from it. But I am enraged that the dumb woman just stopped. No responsibility whatsoever, but she did pull over and ask if we were ok, then cleared off really fast when my other half said yes.
rgds, Carl
PS, bike still runs, 'cos I rode it home. Speed of falling off was less than 30mph, so all this "speed kills" is nonsense.
Grrrr! result, one scuffed panel, and a very tender shoulder & arm. Bike fell on me, so I cushioned its fall.
Ok, I should have been thinking "it may stop for no reason". But I wasn't. Just like countless other roundabouts I pulled onto it, expecting to go round with no problem. Stupid me, and that's £200 or so to make the bike look new again.
What can you do about this sort of thing? I'm annoyed at myself for allowing it to happen - however I have learnt something from it. But I am enraged that the dumb woman just stopped. No responsibility whatsoever, but she did pull over and ask if we were ok, then cleared off really fast when my other half said yes.
rgds, Carl
PS, bike still runs, 'cos I rode it home. Speed of falling off was less than 30mph, so all this "speed kills" is nonsense.
It's annoying that people don't use roundabouts correctly, I discovered this to my cost about 6 months ago.
I stopped to give way to someone on a roundabout who was not indicating, but I needn't have cos they turned off. As I am cursing this I got hit from behind by some stupid clueless bitch. I reckon she hit me @ 30mph. Ouch, still feeling the pain now.
Nik
>> Edited by NikB on Wednesday 30th October 09:29
I stopped to give way to someone on a roundabout who was not indicating, but I needn't have cos they turned off. As I am cursing this I got hit from behind by some stupid clueless bitch. I reckon she hit me @ 30mph. Ouch, still feeling the pain now.
Nik
>> Edited by NikB on Wednesday 30th October 09:29
A couple of weeks ago, on the M3-J7 roundabout, two cars stopped with two lanes of traffic behind them because they were in the outside lane and needed to get off the exit they were right beside... going round the thing again was clearly out of the question 
Feckin lunatics.. and the car directly behind one of them was a Police T5 Jam Butty!!!! Talk about head in the feckin clouds...
What I want to know though, is why the copper didn't go an d have a little word.. the exit they took only leads down to Dummer, which is a tiny village.. he'd have been round the roundabout and caught up with them in less than a minute.
If they don't get told they'll never learn..
Roads full of retards in this country...
Edited to remove the letters o, r and y.
ps Comiserations Carl at least you're okay - moral of the story is never forget what a moron every road user can be!!
>> Edited by CarZee on Wednesday 30th October 09:54
Feckin lunatics.. and the car directly behind one of them was a Police T5 Jam Butty!!!! Talk about head in the feckin clouds...
What I want to know though, is why the copper didn't go an d have a little word.. the exit they took only leads down to Dummer, which is a tiny village.. he'd have been round the roundabout and caught up with them in less than a minute.
If they don't get told they'll never learn..
Roads full of retards in this country...
Edited to remove the letters o, r and y.
ps Comiserations Carl at least you're okay - moral of the story is never forget what a moron every road user can be!!
>> Edited by CarZee on Wednesday 30th October 09:54
Glad to hear that you are OK. Is it possible to drive anywhere for more than 2 minutes without seeing some prat who obviously shouldn't be driving without an instructor?
A couple of weeks ago I was coming off a roundabout on a dual carriageway. Two cars in front of me pull out into outside lane to pass slow-moving numptie, I follow. Front car in our trio then decides to stop, yes, just stop in the outside lane so he can turn off into the petrol station. Tyres smoking, horns blowing behind him seems not to enter his conciousness. Ferkin Jaysus, what can you do?
A couple of weeks ago I was coming off a roundabout on a dual carriageway. Two cars in front of me pull out into outside lane to pass slow-moving numptie, I follow. Front car in our trio then decides to stop, yes, just stop in the outside lane so he can turn off into the petrol station. Tyres smoking, horns blowing behind him seems not to enter his conciousness. Ferkin Jaysus, what can you do?
An another thing I saw this morning.. BMW twat on M3, middle lane, 80mph, mobile wedged between shoulder and ear, taking down notes leaning on the centre of his steering wheel...
If tere weren'ty so many cars around I'd have been very tempted to career towards him to see what he'd do..
The gene pool still needs some tidying up.. and we're trying to reduce road deaths??? why????
If tere weren'ty so many cars around I'd have been very tempted to career towards him to see what he'd do..
The gene pool still needs some tidying up.. and we're trying to reduce road deaths??? why????
And to think I had to duck out of BTaP to save some money this month.. really doesn't seem fair!
Hey though, I'm walking, so's the Mrs, and the bike got me home at 130mph (I was smouldering by the time I got back).
Cheers for the thoughts peeps.
But seriously, if we all left enough of a gap to compensate for this sort of thing, we'd never get anywhere. Doh.
C
Hey though, I'm walking, so's the Mrs, and the bike got me home at 130mph (I was smouldering by the time I got back).
Cheers for the thoughts peeps.
But seriously, if we all left enough of a gap to compensate for this sort of thing, we'd never get anywhere. Doh.
C
But seriously, if we all left enough of a gap to compensate for this sort of thing, we'd never get anywhere. Doh.
So true, I drive the M25 a30 / M4 / M40 route on a regular basis, often at peak traffic. Even when things are moving at a good rate (ie above 30mph) people still keep to the single car length gap. Trying to keep an effective stopping zone in front of you on roads like this is effectively poitless. As soon as the space is large enough for a car, it gets filled.
I think it's time to start embedding the crystals in everyones palms, make some space around here...
Glad to hear you are Ok Hertsbiker, I saw how vulnerable bikers are when one decided to park on my bonnet a while ago. Nice sunny july day and had a group of 20 odd coming the other way. All a bit close and one went wide into my lane on a tight bend. I slammed on the anchors, so did he, and somehow he got back into his lane.
Just as I'm going 'sh*t, that was a close one' another guy 2 bikes back tries to avoid the first guy and BANG hits my bonnet and bounces into the hedge. Luckily I was only doing about 5/10 mph as I had braked for the first bike, and I don't think the biker was going too fast at this point, but it ripped his nice Ducati's fuel tank open and the guy was very quiet for a couple of minutes while he was lying there. He was up and about in the end though, nothing broken, but all his mates said he was going to be 'in a world of pain' the next day. Pretty shocking really, thought the guy might be dead when I got out. I'm going to try and get a bit of first aid training now.
And I had a similar accident on a roundabout in my car a while ago, when someone braked for no apparent reason. Only minor damage luckily and all sorted out with a bit of cash on the spot, but when I came to a halt I saw the reason for the guy braking - a
duck and it's 8 little ducklings, walking across the roundabout!!! Went looking for them afterwards but they'd waddled off, the cheeky duckers 
Just as I'm going 'sh*t, that was a close one' another guy 2 bikes back tries to avoid the first guy and BANG hits my bonnet and bounces into the hedge. Luckily I was only doing about 5/10 mph as I had braked for the first bike, and I don't think the biker was going too fast at this point, but it ripped his nice Ducati's fuel tank open and the guy was very quiet for a couple of minutes while he was lying there. He was up and about in the end though, nothing broken, but all his mates said he was going to be 'in a world of pain' the next day. Pretty shocking really, thought the guy might be dead when I got out. I'm going to try and get a bit of first aid training now.
And I had a similar accident on a roundabout in my car a while ago, when someone braked for no apparent reason. Only minor damage luckily and all sorted out with a bit of cash on the spot, but when I came to a halt I saw the reason for the guy braking - a
duck and it's 8 little ducklings, walking across the roundabout!!! Went looking for them afterwards but they'd waddled off, the cheeky duckers 
I saw a similar thing once. I was approaching an island. I could either go straight on, Right, or all the way round and back the way I came.
Some woman in a 106 came from the right, went onto the island, Stopped. Indicated left, Then indicated right (whilst still stopped), and then drove back the way she came???
Some woman in a 106 came from the right, went onto the island, Stopped. Indicated left, Then indicated right (whilst still stopped), and then drove back the way she came???
Argh! woman stops on roundabout, for zero reason. I see the brake lights, and the back end looming up real quick. Anchor up, raise rear wheel. Fall off bike.
Firstly Carl
I comiserate on your unfortunate incident and I am very glad that you and your partner were not seriously hurt or your machine damaged too badly.
Several things though that you have posted which I have to point out.
Anchor up and raise the back wheel?
Sounds to me as though you may not have been paying enough attention
She stopped for zero reason
The reason was not zero. There was a reason for her, it is just that you could not perceive why she stopped. If there was no reason for her to have stopped, then she would not have done so.
Ok, I should have been thinking "it may stop for no reason". But I wasn't. Just like countless other roundabouts I pulled onto it, expecting to go round with no problem. Stupid me, and that's £200 or so to make the bike look new again.
I agree, if you had have been thinking and watching, you would not have been rolling on the floor.
Countless other roundabouts? They are all the same then?
That may be the case, but each situation is completely different from the last. No situation is exactly the same as one previously dealt with.
What can you do about this sort of thing? I'm annoyed at myself for allowing it to happen - however I have learnt something from it.
You can learn from it as you stated you have done. It was not in anyway the fault of the driver that stopped in front of you.
But I am enraged that the dumb woman just stopped. No responsibility whatsoever, but she did pull over and ask if we were ok, then cleared off really fast when my other half said yes.
Have you considered that she may well be telling the 'coffee morning' about the dumb motorcyclist that nearly chuffed her?
She had to stop as she had obligations to you under the road traffic act.
'Owing to the presence of a motor vehicle on a road, an accident occurred......'
She was driving a motor vehicle on a road. As long as she complied with the law which I assume being informed that everyone else was OK, she had complied with it and had no further reason to stay. If only your machine was damaged and nothing else and only you were injured and not your partner, then she did not even have to give her details to anyone who may have reasonably required them, as is the law.
PS, bike still runs, 'cos I rode it home. Speed of falling off was less than 30mph, so all this "speed kills" is nonsense.
Please take note Carl. You were lucky that you were not hit by something from the other direction, or yourself hit a staionary object. You may have had enough skill to considerably reduce the speed of your incident before you hit the deck.
If you had been travelling at upwards of 40mph when you had this incident, and stopped immediately due to hitting a stationary object, or fallen into the path of a vehicle travelling at 30 mph the other way, the resulting impact from the velocity involved would have been enough to kill you or your partner.
The continuing quotes of 'speed does not kill' are quite wrong. High speed and mistakes do kill. A mistake at low speed increases your stastics of surviving considerably.
Speed alone does not. Fortunately you were not a victim of both at the same time.
Thank god you are still here to post your topical ideas and please continue to take me to task. You may be an excellent rider, but remember even the very very best of us come unstuck from time to time because we are human.
That is why there has to be a sensible restriction on the potential velocities that are involved when a mistake is made.
mr_tony said:
But seriously, if we all left enough of a gap to compensate for this sort of thing, we'd never get anywhere. Doh.
So true, I drive the M25 a30 / M4 / M40 route on a regular basis, often at peak traffic. Even when things are moving at a good rate (ie above 30mph) people still keep to the single car length gap. Trying to keep an effective stopping zone in front of you on roads like this is effectively poitless. As soon as the space is large enough for a car, it gets filled.
I think it's time to start embedding the crystals in everyones palms, make some space around here...
I agree entirely. When I leave my "2 seconds" gap, someone fills it.....
And then, when they pull in, they brake to give themselves enough of a gap, causing me to lift off the pedal
casuing the car behind to brake, which leaves a gap between me and the car behind so another car pulls into the gap and....
Try putting your Fog Lights on. They'll want to get away from you then and might open up a gap.
Oh Arse...Sorry to hear about your prang Carl. Glad to hear you're OK and the bike is in one piece.
If it makes you doubly aware that sh*t happens on the road and the only person who will be dealing with it is you..then that's one small good thing to come out of a nasty incident.
By the way madcop - I understand than the rule is if you run into the back of someone then it is your fault. Black and White. ...BUT...are there any circumstance in which that isn't true.
For instance - if I was in the outside lane of the M4 heading for Bristol and from (ahem) precisely 70mph slammed on the anchors and reduced my speed to 15mph would the guy behind be at fault if he ran into me? Seems to me that there must be some point at which a bit of common sense has to prevail. After all the System of Car Control dictates that before braking a mirror check should be made to determine if it safe to do so......????
>> Edited by Don on Wednesday 30th October 15:14
Oh Arse...Sorry to hear about your prang Carl. Glad to hear you're OK and the bike is in one piece.
If it makes you doubly aware that sh*t happens on the road and the only person who will be dealing with it is you..then that's one small good thing to come out of a nasty incident.
By the way madcop - I understand than the rule is if you run into the back of someone then it is your fault. Black and White. ...BUT...are there any circumstance in which that isn't true.
For instance - if I was in the outside lane of the M4 heading for Bristol and from (ahem) precisely 70mph slammed on the anchors and reduced my speed to 15mph would the guy behind be at fault if he ran into me? Seems to me that there must be some point at which a bit of common sense has to prevail. After all the System of Car Control dictates that before braking a mirror check should be made to determine if it safe to do so......????
>> Edited by Don on Wednesday 30th October 15:14
Anchor up and raise the back wheel?
Sounds to me as though you may not have been paying enough attention
Raising the back wheel is merely a product of having fantastic stopping power with the front brake, that the weight transfer makes the bike do an inverted wheelie! - it doesn't mean I wasn't paying attention. Had I not braked that hard I would have ended up in the back window of her car !!!!
It was still a bit of a win really - falling off was still better than an impact, and it has only been an inconvenience rather than a hospital stay. And I don't have some mad woman claiming on my insurance.
One point though, I can't see how people can say that it *always* the fault of the following vehicle. Seems crazy to generalise.
Cheers for posting chaps.
The exeption is when it's a police car up your chuff trying to goad you into speeding so they can nick you.. as per www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=20661&f=10&h=0
Don said: By the way madcop - I understand than the rule is if you run into the back of someone then it is your fault. Black and White. ...BUT...are there any circumstance in which that isn't true.
You can bet that if you anchored on, he'd have you for DWDC&T
>> Edited by CarZee on Wednesday 30th October 16:09
The point about always being the fault of the vehicle behind is the point.
You may not understand why someone driving a vehicle in front of you stops for some unexplicable reason. However the reason to that person may well be a very good reason.
To hit anything that is stationary on the road is unavoidably driving without due care (unless the circumstances are at night and the vehicle has been left in such a position without lights that it cannot be seen readily). If you are following at a reasonable distance, observing the road correctly and concentrating on what you are doing, you should always be able to stop in the distance you can see to be clear.
As I stated before, in the above post. We are all human and subject of mistakes. Even the very best of us. It is better to make a mistake at low speed rather than high speed for obvious reasons.
Carl.
That last post has made me smile. The bit about the bike standing up on its front wheel due to the fantastic braking system you have
Thank god you had it
You may not understand why someone driving a vehicle in front of you stops for some unexplicable reason. However the reason to that person may well be a very good reason.
To hit anything that is stationary on the road is unavoidably driving without due care (unless the circumstances are at night and the vehicle has been left in such a position without lights that it cannot be seen readily). If you are following at a reasonable distance, observing the road correctly and concentrating on what you are doing, you should always be able to stop in the distance you can see to be clear.
As I stated before, in the above post. We are all human and subject of mistakes. Even the very best of us. It is better to make a mistake at low speed rather than high speed for obvious reasons.
Carl.
That last post has made me smile. The bit about the bike standing up on its front wheel due to the fantastic braking system you have
Thank god you had it
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