Precisely. As far as I'm concerned if you're enjoying the ride and not launching yourself into the scenery, you must be doing it right.
Agreed, johnv. I have just bought the latest version, revised last year. Much of the content reinforces what I was taught on my refresher courses, and a lot of it is common sense, but we don't always apply common sense. Sometimes, the obvious is easy to ignore. Even though I have only done 750 miles since my return to two wheels, I can recall occasions where I took unnecessary risks. I thought I would read it while winter interrupts by bike riding, but I have found that I have also started to apply the principles to my car driving. Maybe everyone who wants to pass their car test should pass the basic bike test first. It would certainly improve their roadcraft.
I see whether IAM and Roadcraft (the book) are any good as two separate questions figaro. I have stated here before that IAM are just too earnest for me but I rate Roadcraft (the book) very highly and like Stressed Hippo I also apply the principles whilst driving a car. There is a car specific version of Roadcraft but the roadcraft elements are almost identical.
I think that both Arquebus and Figaro have totally valid points (Fnar, Fnar). Many bike riders are extremely capable and safe even at high speeds. Unfortunately, many are not, mostly the under 25s, so anything that helps reduce the risk is not a bad idea in my opinion. Much of the info in Roadcraft is based on good practice that helps avoid accidents, versus the bad practice that causes them (or causes the rider to be involved in them). When I started my apprenticeship with a very large company in the 1970's, at our induction, the training officer said that in his experience, with our new found wealth (I.e. wages vs paper round money), quite a few of us would buy mopeds / FS1Es etc. He also said in his experience, that many of us would not get proper training, and that at least one of us would be dead within a year. He was right. Two of my mates died. I have practiced defensive riding ever since (albeit with a 20 year break since my first 12 years on two wheels). I suspect that many of the members on this site are very experienced riders. I just wish we could find a way of improving the chances of younger folks becoming as experienced as we are.
When you are young and dumb you think good riding / driving is about bike / car control. As you gain experience your realise it isn't. I read somewhere that the human brain doesn't finish developing until the mid twenties and one of the ways it continues to change during that period is our perception of risk. So young people out there take note - it's not your fault, it's evolution that made you the way you are - young and dumb :wink:
It also proves the saying, You are as young as you feel. I think I might be six years old, based upon the life choices I make.
Maybe if we could capture the optimism and enthusiasm of the young, plus the caution and experience of the old, we would level the playing field. We would then be in danger of making life less fun and more sterile, because we would not make mistakes we could learn from. We need to strike the right balance.
Nice stereotype. You see that Prius behind the fast motorbikes? It's electronically limited on it's top speed, they all are and whilst they might be driven slowly by some, ask any of the guys who went to WDW2010 if the Prius was holding them up including the twisties and you'll find otherwise. That Speedo is in MPH. Why do I have one? It's free to drive in London where I am most weeks and there's zero road tax, oh and it will truly do 70+mpg, just not at 121mph!
'Youth is wasted on the young' - George Bernard Shaw 'You know you're over the hill when your mind makes a promise that your body can't fill' - Little Feat and 'The secret of happieness is low expectation' - Homer Simpson
I'll dig out that Roadcraft book one day, I'm sure. But as far as I can tell you only need one piece of advice to stay safe, and that's to teach yourself to see more. Look further down the road, use your peripheral vision, look where you want to go, that kind of thing. The mechanics of riding are different for everyone; I'll never be a smooth rider as long as I live, and trying to ride smoothly made me a worse rider, but better vision benefits all road users.
Absolutely figaro. The question then becomes what do you do with the information that you gathered. One area that we as motorcyclists can significantly improve our chances is by studying the section on road junctions in Roadcraft and understanding all of the ways it is possible to die at them, beginning with the simple don't overtake whilst approaching / passing a junction because by the time you see the car that nipped out and turned right in front of the lorry in front of you it is already too late to do anything about it.
And meanwhile in Ireland A council in Ireland has been criticised for voting to allow people living in rural areas to legally drink and drive. Road safety chiefs and alcohol charities attacked Kerry councillors' "unthinkable" backing for special permits to excuse rural dwellers from national drink-driving limits. Kerry County Council passed a motion that would allow people living in the remote countryside to drive home from their nearest pub "after having two or three drinks on little-used roads, driving at very low speeds." The council will now ask Irish Justice Minister Alan Shatter to issue special licenses. Councillor Danny Healy-Rae, a publican who proposed the motion, claimed the move would "greatly benefit" and even prevent suicide and depression among those who were isolated because of current legislation. The Irish Department of Transport signalled they would oppose the plans. A spokesman said: "Rural areas are among the most dangerous roads in Ireland. [...] We need to be looking at how to make our roads safer, particularly in rural areas, instead of trying to reverse existing measures which are clearly working."
If this proposal was backed up with evidence then I don't see the problem. It is not suggesting a removal of limits but a relaxing of limits. The drink drive argument is a bit like the speed kills argument when we know that it is not speed but inappropriate speed that kills. I do not think that driving home after a few beers on quiet rural roads presents a greater risk than the average teenager in a Citroen Saxo.
Talking of police, and Britain grinding to a halt, brings me to my no.1 pet hate - motorway 'traffic officers' The principle is laudible enough; on-site crews ready to intercept traffic problems and ease the traffic flow as quickly as possible. I like that idea. By why dress them up to look suspiciously like cop cars? Then they drive down the motorways at 50mph - and the myopic motorists are too scared to overtake them - so they cause more delays than they set out to relieve 'Ah, but they are not police', say the police, 'and their vehicles will never carry speed cameras'. Then the police dress up cars to look like 'traffic officers' and put speed cameras in them...
Give it a couple of years, it won't then.... There is an 06 plate prius I see around bletchley quite a lot. It's batteries are completely dead, because even reversing out of a car park space on level ground the petrol engine is running. What he actually has is a very heavy uneconomical car with a big box of poison in it. The cost of replacing the batteries will take back every penny he has saved in fuel and road tax ten times over.
