Any Motörbike riders here?

thebreeze

Mine has Mitchelins but honestly I’ve no idea what’s good or not and have nothing to compare it to.  I chose them on the wisdom of the internet!   I’ve only ever ridden the bike I have now and really know nothing about them.

So I’m curious @Haych when you say things like, “I'm not a speed demon by any definition of the phrase, but I'm trying to push myself a bit more in the turns and it's becoming much more rewarding.”  Do you mean it’s more fun and do you mean you’re trying to go round corners faster and lower?

@cruxiform have a great trip - I can relate to the year being a mare place and I sometimes think that riding the bike has been the only thing that’s got me through.

TheBigDipper

It's hard to buy bad tyres if the tyre maker is a name you've heard of. If you like what you've already got fitted to the machine you're riding, there's little extra benefit in changing to something else. Little extra risk, either, mind. 

Dominic

thebreeze said:

Mine has Mitchelins but honestly I’ve no idea what’s good or not and have nothing to compare it to.  I chose them on the wisdom of the internet!   I’ve only ever ridden the bike I have now and really know nothing about them.

So I’m curious @Haych when you say things like, “I'm not a speed demon by any definition of the phrase, but I'm trying to push myself a bit more in the turns and it's becoming much more rewarding.”  Do you mean it’s more fun and do you mean you’re trying to go round corners faster and lower?

The turns ?.....not necessarily the speed and incline angle ;I think a lot of the reward is being able to position and set up your line to be superbly smooth and planted .....never grabbing a bit of brake ,never changing the line half way through ,not needing to brake going in.....just anticipating ,reading ahead and relying on engine braking but being on exactly the right revs to pull smoothly out the other side........starts to feel lovely when you've got a succession of sweepies .....
 I have to laugh at the knee-slider Power Rangers practising on big roundabouts ....with a bike not far from upright and a body climbed so far off the bike to get the 'knee-down ' to counter the highside that's never going to happen at 30mph !

thebreeze

Thanks @Dominic that's all good to know.

Haych

@thebreeze, I suppose a bit of background detail is in order. 

I came to motorcycling quite late and didn’t start until my mid 40s really. If I’d started in my late teens or early 20s I would probably have been much more confident on a bike. 

But, by the time you get to 40-odd you realise you’re not invincible and, at least for me, a high sense of self preservation kicks in. 

The last tour I went on early last year, I was the slowest rider in the group by some margin, not that I feel the need to compete. But it made me realise I could do a lot more to trust my tyres and lose the fear that the bike is going to slide out from under me in the bends. 

The embarrassing fact is, for any given stretch of road I’d be much faster in a car, any car, than on the bike. 

One thing I decided to do from the get go when I started to ride was be more concerned with doing everything smoothly rather than quickly. That is starting to pay off and as @Dominic stated, it’s more now about setting everything up properly to allow a naturally more rapid progress to be made. 

So I’m just pushing a little bit harder and raising my confidence in the tyres, the bike and my own abilities. It’s probably only small margins and I’m never going to be the fastest rider in any group. That self preservation thing is always going to win. 

sinbaadi

Thinking about beginning the journey back to motorcycles with the Triumph Scrambler 400 x.  Anyone had a look at these yet?

Devil#20

Haych said:

@thebreeze, I suppose a bit of background detail is in order. 

I came to motorcycling quite late and didn’t start until my mid 40s really. If I’d started in my late teens or early 20s I would probably have been much more confident on a bike. 

But, by the time you get to 40-odd you realise you’re not invincible and, at least for me, a high sense of self preservation kicks in. 

The last tour I went on early last year, I was the slowest rider in the group by some margin, not that I feel the need to compete. But it made me realise I could do a lot more to trust my tyres and lose the fear that the bike is going to slide out from under me in the bends. 

The embarrassing fact is, for any given stretch of road I’d be much faster in a car, any car, than on the bike. 

One thing I decided to do from the get go when I started to ride was be more concerned with doing everything smoothly rather than quickly. That is starting to pay off and as @Dominic stated, it’s more now about setting everything up properly to allow a naturally more rapid progress to be made. 

So I’m just pushing a little bit harder and raising my confidence in the tyres, the bike and my own abilities. It’s probably only small margins and I’m never going to be the fastest rider in any group. That self preservation thing is always going to win. 

That's the right approach nowadays considering the state of the roads. It seems particularly bad around Lancashire. They don't appear to have taken any opportunity during 2 years of lockdown, with little traffic on the roads, to do major repairs to potholes and sunken repairs. Highways was one of the few occupations that was allowed to work unhindered at that time. Never going to get sorted now. 

thebreeze

That’s like me @Haych and I entirely agree @Devil#20 - the roads in Herefordshire are appalling, lots of mud and detritus from farmers too.

Dominic

I think that's true of all counties and the London suburbs are like something out of Mogadishu.
There are many roads around my area that are not just uncomfortable but downright abjectly dangerous for cars let alone bikes

Haych

Something you all might be interested in - government consultation survey on whether motorcycles should be permitted to use bus lanes in all local authority areas by default.

Takes about 10 minutes to complete even if you add wordy reasoning.

Dominic

In thought bikes could always use Bus Lanes........I always have 

Kittyfrisk

Dominic said:

In thought bikes could always use Bus Lanes........I always have 

Don't bus lane camera's always record the front of vehicles, so bikes are hard to identify?
If so, carry on, as you were, result   

Haych

It depends on the local authority, and even then within the same local authority area it can still change. 

In Cardiff, for example, some bus lanes you can use on a motorbike, others you cannot. 

I wouldn’t like to say how the cameras work, nor would I wish to test them. 

TheBigDipper

If there's a picture of a motorcycle on the blue bus lane sign, then you can use it. If there isn't, you can't. You can use bus lanes in Central London, but every one (IIRC) has a picture of a bike. Just read the sign.

 And, never forget that many bus lanes have restricted hours of operation - also on the sign. If it's outside those hours, it's not a bus lane and you can use it. 

 https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qxa4c93a62n59btzdr2ld/buslane_start_sign.jpg?rlkey=k7q6egtoh5mqygqdv1zmwh1zf&raw=1

TheBigDipper

Kittyfrisk said:

Dominic said:

In thought bikes could always use Bus Lanes........I always have 

Don't bus lane camera's always record the front of vehicles, so bikes are hard to identify?
If so, carry on, as you were, result   

And traffic camera operators can watch you ride away from the camera and read your rear number plate as you depart. Or, in the case of London, as you stop on a red route to drop something off. It's all watched/recorded by a human and the ticket arrives in the post a few days later... :-(  Buses can also carry front-facing cameras. 

My training school once got a ticket for one of our bikes being parked on a red route. It worried me, because it was at a time when all our bikes should have been tucked up in bed (9pm or so). I asked for the photo and was relieved to see it wasn't our machine. The camera operator had mis-read one letter on the number plate. I

Dominic

It's all a bit too much for me .........I'm an intelligent person but very slow processing . Whether it's bus-lane,LTN, junction I find I simply cannot take in the ridiculous barrage of instructions, warnings,prohibitions,time-limitations, vehicle selective restrictions etc .......if one isn't reasonably familiar with the route or junction it's just a head-fuck conundrum that you're supposed to process and enact at the same time as trying to be safe, observant of pedestrians and other vehicles,potholes and suicidal delivery scooters,bicycles up and down off pavements etc ......and self-preserving.
 I was a pedestrian on-foot stood at a junction with a forest of signage and barrage of restrictions the other day .....I paused for over a minute as a matter of interest to see if I could dis-entangle the web without time pressure or vehicle responsibility
.....minutes later I was little better aware .How the avaerage Joe is supposed to do this in 5 seconds approaching an unfamiliar junction is absurd .
I think it is purposeful confusion marketing designed to be a revenue trap .
Maybe my brain isn't as quick as it was 40 years ago and I've always been mathematically challenged but I still wouldn't have been able to decipher the barrage in the available time .
These things need to be much clearer ,more streamlined and more advanced notification on larger signs with bigger writing especially the micro-sized bit on the bottom that says relevant times etc 

Haych

Dominic said:

It's all a bit too much for me .........I'm an intelligent person but very slow processing . Whether it's bus-lane,LTN, junction I find I simply cannot take in the ridiculous barrage of instructions, warnings,prohibitions,time-limitations, vehicle selective restrictions etc .......if one isn't reasonably familiar with the route or junction it's just a head-fuck conundrum that you're supposed to process and enact at the same time as trying to be safe, observant of pedestrians and other vehicles,potholes and suicidal delivery scooters,bicycles up and down off pavements etc ......and self-preserving.
 I was a pedestrian on-foot stood at a junction with a forest of signage and barrage of restrictions the other day .....I paused for over a minute as a matter of interest to see if I could dis-entangle the web without time pressure or vehicle responsibility
.....minutes later I was little better aware .How the avaerage Joe is supposed to do this in 5 seconds approaching an unfamiliar junction is absurd .
I think it is purposeful confusion marketing designed to be a revenue trap .
Maybe my brain isn't as quick as it was 40 years ago and I've always been mathematically challenged but I still wouldn't have been able to decipher the barrage in the available time .
These things need to be much clearer ,more streamlined and more advanced notification on larger signs with bigger writing especially the micro-sized bit on the bottom that says relevant times etc 

This is kind of what the consultation is about. If MCs were allowed to used bus lanes by default in all LA areas then it would remove much of that confusion and distraction. That’s a strong argument for everyone having their say in the consultation. 

Devil#20

Dominic said:

It's all a bit too much for me .........I'm an intelligent person but very slow processing . Whether it's bus-lane,LTN, junction I find I simply cannot take in the ridiculous barrage of instructions, warnings,prohibitions,time-limitations, vehicle selective restrictions etc .......if one isn't reasonably familiar with the route or junction it's just a head-fuck conundrum that you're supposed to process and enact at the same time as trying to be safe, observant of pedestrians and other vehicles,potholes and suicidal delivery scooters,bicycles up and down off pavements etc ......and self-preserving.
 I was a pedestrian on-foot stood at a junction with a forest of signage and barrage of restrictions the other day .....I paused for over a minute as a matter of interest to see if I could dis-entangle the web without time pressure or vehicle responsibility
.....minutes later I was little better aware .How the avaerage Joe is supposed to do this in 5 seconds approaching an unfamiliar junction is absurd .
I think it is purposeful confusion marketing designed to be a revenue trap .
Maybe my brain isn't as quick as it was 40 years ago and I've always been mathematically challenged but I still wouldn't have been able to decipher the barrage in the available time .
These things need to be much clearer ,more streamlined and more advanced notification on larger signs with bigger writing especially the micro-sized bit on the bottom that says relevant times etc 

I'm glad it's not just me then. I absolutely concur with this. This is me all over. The road markings are that bad that the road signs become even more confusing as they cram more and more information on to them. It's a general issue and one of my main problems comes at large roundabouts. I don't always know where I'm going on unfamiliar roundabouts and where I should be positioned in a car, never mind on a bike. Even on familiar roundabouts I'm super careful to have an escape route because you get a 6th sense on a bike when you can tell somebody in a car is new to the area and their road positioning isn't quite right and they are making late and regular small adjustments to their steering. I find using a satnav in an unfamiliar town centre is just too much information whilst also trying to decipher road signs and the cues are too late to navigate by it at complex junctions and roundabouts in any case. I really hate navigating round an unfamiliar town centre on a bike. I just can't process the bombardment of information coming at me. Personally, I'd like to see an end to bus lanes because it caused too much congestion on the remaining road surface

There's some terrible road layouts near me and you can guarantee they'll be some sort of incident there a few times a week. People in the wrong lanes and late changed leads to many minor collisions and worse. I know these roads well but I'm always super careful that not everybody is local and even locals complain it's confusing.  

Dominic

Not to mention oversized box junctions that really do make a right hand turn physically impossible unless you enter them.
Fortunately,this has now been recognised as an issue ( newspaper campaign ) and is being rectified.
 The campaign for plain English needs re-inventing for clear road signage/marking but no doubr council tax will have to go up to cover the revenue shortfall.

thefez

New bike bought - Tracer 9 GT+. Still in the early stages but it's defo a step above my Versys 650 in nearly every area (screen excepted). Haven't really been able to open it up due to the breaking in period but it can certainly move. Great fun