Late starter

fatty pang

antiskeptic wrote: »

I predict slower than usual progress

One of the fundamentals of 'advanced' riding I would have thought....

antiskeptic

jimgoose wrote: »

If you can't stop upright in a stop-or-die scenario, drop it down. You have armour, right? It's no worse than most people in cars taking most bends at 50mph.

Drop it down, slide across the road into the oncoming lane and if avoiding cars/trucks/whatever you're having, into the trees lining the outside of the bend. Using the word "armour" kind of overeggs the pudding to my mind.

I can't say I've ever much believed in stories of folk "laying it down" when faced with impending, a-second-or-two-to-impact scenarios. If you tend to ride around with your foot hovering over the back brake ever ready then perhaps. But not in the normal course of riding. It seemed to me that if you've enough time to assess all the variables so as to decide laying it down the best course of action, then get around to having your foot carry out your command, then you could as easily carry out a controlled stop.

Not in your dreams is stopping a car in a hurry on a bend on a par with stopping a bike. You don't stop a bike in a bend fast: you brake, it stands up and you head across the wrong side of the road.

antiskeptic

fatty pang wrote: »

One of the fundamentals of 'advanced' riding I would have thought....

One of the fundamentals of advanced riding is to the take what helps you for the riding you do and leave the rest. Do you think Garda escort riders always ride in such a way as to be able to stop in the distance they can see around a bend?

SeamusG97

freddie1970 wrote: »

Anybody get into bikes at a later stage of their life..I'm in my mid forties and have a real urge to learn how to drive a bike and tour America and Europe...this is something that has been simmering inside me now for years ..I have tried golf but it's not cutting it .
am I crazy or just going through a mid life crisis ....

Ted Simon learned to ride a bike in his early forties in order to ride around the world in a four year journey that made him a legend. That was 1973 and he's still alive. He did it again in the early nineties.
Mid life crisis is something to be embraced and enjoyed. Go for it.

jimgoose

antiskeptic wrote: »

Drop it down, slide across the road into the oncoming lane and if avoiding cars/trucks/whatever you're having, into the trees lining the outside of the bend. Using the word "armour" kind of overeggs the pudding to my mind.

I can't say I've ever much believed in stories of folk "laying it down" when faced with impending, a-second-or-two-to-impact scenarios. If you tend to ride around with your foot hovering over the back brake ever ready then perhaps. But not in the normal course of riding. It seemed to me that if you've enough time to assess all the variables so as to decide laying it down the best course of action, then get around to having your foot carry out your command, then you could as easily carry out a controlled stop.

Not in your dreams is stopping a car in a hurry on a bend on a par with stopping a bike. You don't stop a bike in a bend fast: you brake, it stands up and you head across the wrong side of the road.

I never mentioned the back brake. You're as well off away from motorbikes. And you'd be amazed by my dreams.

arybvtcw0eolkf

antiskeptic wrote: »

Drop it down, slide across the road into the oncoming lane and if avoiding cars/trucks/whatever you're having, into the trees lining the outside of the bend. Using the word "armour" kind of overeggs the pudding to my mind.

I can't say I've ever much believed in stories of folk "laying it down" when faced with impending, a-second-or-two-to-impact scenarios.

Agreed.. They're bullsh*t stories.

jimgoose

Tyler Salmon Sea wrote: »

Agreed.. They're bullsh*t stories.

Really? Tell that to my scarred arse!

antiskeptic

the dark ken night wrote: »

You could say that about anything ffs!!

It's in the comparative context of riding a motorcycle vs. driving a car and taking a bus I was speaking about. The reality is that a motorcyclist, most especially a learner one, is going face any number of near misses, each of which can unpack to be something horrendous. Much more so than near misses (of which there will be appreciably less, all things being equal) will unpack unfavorably for a motorist or busist.

Someone considering whether to embark on a riding career ought to be aware of the much-increased risk, especially given they can't avoid having to navigate through the learner (read: years) period.

This man has a fcuked up view of biking that he thinks everyone should share. Please don't listen to him.

You might begin to dismantle what I say. It's a realistic view of bikings risks. I don't see any reason that they should be suppressed simply so that a rose-tinted view of biking be maintained. The objective reality is that biking is a risky business, especially so for someone starting out.

Fwiw - I had numerous spills in my 16 yrs of biking. Not one of them made me regret biking.

I had numerous spills in my 25 years of biking and any number of sphincter-puckering near misses. It was only when there wasn't so much to be given up in exchange for the benefits (I'd have more certainty when it came to sustaining a career as a father) that I decided to quit. The spills didn't make me regret biking - especially since I got away comparatively lightly on the injury front each time.

In deciding to quit, I did consider the regret I would have if I continued on and did myself some serious damage. Partially to do with the costs to me but mostly to do with the costs that would have to be borne by my wife and son.

Regret is something felt only after sufficiently severe penalties have been incurred.

antiskeptic

jimgoose wrote: »

Really? Tell that to my scarred arse!

It's certainly possible to overdo the back brake in an emergency and inadvertently (and maybe even fortuitously) lay the bike down. I'd doubt intentional, considered picking of that option under those circumstances however.

antiskeptic

jimgoose wrote: »

I never mentioned the back brake. You're as well off away from motorbikes. And you'd be amazed by my dreams.

That's where such laying down events occur. Or in a retrospective re-modelling of an event where the bike went down, slid across the road and that turned out to have been the best outcome.

I'd accept there are fighter-pilot like types out there with super-attenuated instincts capable of making such split second evaluations and able to pull a bike down so as to consciously take the possibly lesser evil of avoiding hitting a stopped caravan.

I was talking about your typical biker however.