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Doing an impromptu slalom maybe isn't the best idea, but you should be moving to the outside of your lane to both increase your visibility (which will also of course increase your rate of lateral speed compared to the car) and give you more escape room if needed until you're certain of the car driver's intentions and that they've seen you. Anyway I came here to talk to you about loving scooter riders. There seems to have been a sudden influx of them in London this summer, and they're all loving terrible. Half of them ride right in the gutter and wobble around at 25mph, and the rest think filtering is a competitive sport and will go out of their way to block other people off. gently caress them and their stupid little not-bikes, they're getting worse than cyclists.
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Sep 2, 2013 22:12
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hermand posted:I wish the uk would just drop CBTs altogether. I don't mind scooters in principle but untrained 16 and 17 year olds (and sometimes older, of course) are a menace. They're not as much of an issue because it's hard for them to get insurance, these are 30/40somethings who don't have to take a CBT to ride a moped and are using it to commute.
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Sep 2, 2013 23:43
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I'm going to have to keep saying this but Nokia Maps is loving amazing and is literally worth the ~£100 PAYG cost of the cheapest Lumia on its own, even if you use it only for on the bike (the touchscreen even works with summer gloves on). Not just good voice guidance but traffic avoidance and speed camera warnings.
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Sep 7, 2013 10:06
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Crossing double-yellow lines in an overtake is genuinely frowned on in the UK too. Well unless you're really going for it in one of those dumb shared-space zones.
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Sep 9, 2013 23:06
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KozmoNaut posted:No, they actually floor it when the light turns green, instead of just revving at me. The faster-looking the bike the crappier the car that tries to race you, in my experience. Like in 4 years on the Shiver pretty much the only things that try to race me are other bikes (especially Speed Triples for some reason). On the Mille it seemed to be an everyday thing, to the point where I perfected a nonchalant near-closed-throttle pull-away that made car drivers think that they might be able to keep up, before just cracking the throttle and loving off. We won't even talk about the kind of people who try to race you when you've got an L-plated RS125...
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Sep 10, 2013 21:47
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Snowdens Secret posted:I blow my horn all the time. This is largely a New England thing. The trick is to use it early enough. You should use all tools at your disposal (inluding your own maneuvering and brakes) to avoid dangerous situations. Which reminds me I've got to find an SD card reader to get the pics of my bitching new FIAMM dual-horn set out of their cheap digital camera prison and out onto the internet. These are the replacements for the cheap knockoff Stebel Nautilus copy that refused to work in the wet, which was great fun when it worked though. (There was actually a cheap no-brand dual-horn set in-between but less said about that the better) Mine mostly get used for shooing errant pedestrians out of the way rather than in a more defensive mode, but my first time using them for real was a textbook example of how you're *supposed* to use your horn and how almost nobody does - coming up on a side turning with a car pulling out to turn right from between two parked cars, I saw the driver check to her left (so away from me, in the the direction of travel) and start to roll forward, so I gave a little blast just to ensure she looked in my direction.
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Oct 8, 2013 17:29
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Motherfucker. 65 quid for a three-car-length filter. Who the gently caress puts a non-motorcycle-admitting, 24/7 bus lane on the wrong side of the road, anyway? Camden loving Council, that's who. I only ended up going that way because a bunch of pituitary freaks masquerading as a sport were blocking up Regent Street. Basically I blame the NFL, money-grabbing local authorities, Boris Johnson and every other loving Tory, and basically anyone who wasn't me.
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Oct 10, 2013 23:31
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Jim Silly-Balls posted:My bikes are named "the drz" "the f11" and "the rv90" Particularly as you actually own a Vespa, an Electra Glide, and a Ural outfit. Linedance posted:fact verified. I remember years ago in the middle of the night being in a weird little dance with an Audi that at every set of lights (and we both got caught at every light because this is London and gently caress you, that's why) would squeeze into the bike lane to get alongside me, then creep forward until in most cases he couldn't even see the lights any more, then get left behind as the lights changed. At one point I even deliberately hung back and the light was green for a good 3 or 4 seconds before he moved off. Also as a ped I once deliberately stood and blocked a crossing because a driver had already crept half way across it by the time I got there. He didn't even blow his horn or anything, just looked at me like he couldn't process this information. I only moved because another car came up behind him, otherwise we may both still have been there to this day. I should be legally entitled to drag these people out of their cars and waterboard them until they tell me what the gently caress is on their minds.
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Oct 15, 2013 18:07
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Sagebrush posted:Or just replace them all with roundabouts so that half the time you don't even need to slow down I like roundabouts with traffic lights on them. That doesn't seem like a massive loving waste of time at all.
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Oct 15, 2013 21:18
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clutchpuck posted:The ones with the traffic lights directly off of them blow my mind. Don't they have those around London? Not many, but there are plenty with zebra crossings hidden just around the corner from the exit. No, it's the ones with traffic lights in the middle of them that boil my piss. JUST MAKE IT A loving CROSSROADS.
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Oct 16, 2013 00:00
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A few weeks ago I was heading home and noticed a car with no lights on so as I overtook him I beeped and pointed at the front of his car and carried on my way. A minute or so later stopped at a light the car comes screeching up behind me and the driver and his mate jumped out shouting "WHAT? WHAT? WHAT?" and I just went "Your lights aint on mate". Would have been worth the price of a helmet cam to have caught the way their expressions went from "YOU HAVE BESMIRCHED MY HONOUR" to "Whoops". The driver said thanks and they both jumped back in laughing. (I should probably jazz that story up a bit with some wittier bon mots and possible a They Live-style brutal fight as I tried to get them to acknowledge their lights were at fault)
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Nov 10, 2013 00:32
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thylacine posted:The people who make me mad are the ones who just turn on their parking lights. Like "whoa I'm such a pro-driver that I'm only gonna turn the parking lights on because it's just a little dark out there. Hurrr... I'm a good decision maker" Actually speaking from my (albeit limited) four-wheeled experience at least some of those are going to be people who thought they'd turned the headlights on because the dash had lit up and the roads were brightly-lit enough for them not to notice.
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Nov 12, 2013 12:08
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That's literally the situation your bike has a horn for. Well that and terrifying pedestrians, obviously.
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Dec 4, 2013 08:37
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Drifter posted:A bike horn, unless it's some sort of modified air raid siren or train blaster sounds like a kitten sneezing. Who the hell uses a stock horn and expects anyone to hear it or pay attention to it? Which is why you install these: 
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Dec 4, 2013 09:21
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Sagebrush posted:I don't know about NZ specifically, but 25% of the countries in the world explicitly do not have a presumption of innocence, and of the three-quarters that nominally do, many don't follow it in practice. In Japan, for instance, which does have a presumption of innocence, the police simply don't pursue charges if they don't think you did it. But that means that if they do charge you, it's heavily implied by the system that you are guilty, and you have to fight to prove your innocence or you'll be convicted by default. I think France and Germany are the same way. France and Germany (along with most of mainland Europe) use the inquisitorial system, where the judiciary are much more on the side of (and heavily involved with) the prosecution, although there is still a (supposed) presumption of innocence at trial. NZ, like almost all of the rest of the Anglophone world, is on the common law system where the judiciary is (again supposedly) entirely independent of the prosecution. Both systems have their strengths and weaknesses and (as seen here) most common law countries completely throw the presumption of innocence out the window as soon as it's inconvenient to them - see also ASBOs in the UK and asset forfeiture in the US and just about anything to do with terrorism in either.
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Jan 11, 2014 09:44
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Snowdens Secret posted:No, no, it's good for curing athlete's foot. That's why you pee in your boots before setting off. Pissing in your boots is actually A Thing to prevent blisters. Empty them out before putting them on, though. Speaking of boots, wearing steel toecap workboots instead of proper bike boots has worked out two nights in a row for me. Last night, sitting in heavy traffic behind a car, because there's literally no space to filter past it (six inches between it and a bus on the right, probably less between it and the kerb on the right). Just past the car the road widens out to the left so I was just waiting for the car to move forward a bit so I could grab the space to the left or head around him if he moved left, and one of those dumb Piaggio three-wheeled scooters comes up to my right and sits behind me, then proceeds to creep forwards while the idiot riding it checks his phone (!), until he runs over my right foot. I think I shouted something witty like "You're on my loving foot" and he just looked at me funny then moved forward a bit more, knocking my mirror with his. The car in front moved and he shot forward into the non-gap between it and the bus, hitting both with his mirrors. I just rode off into the gap at the left. Twat. The night before as I pulled away from some lights I kicked what felt like a pretty hefty brick with my foot as I lifted it up, whatever it was it didn't move at all. No idea what it actually was - I certainly didn't see it as I pulled up.
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Jan 17, 2014 08:58
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Linedance posted:Welcome to commuting in London traffic. Pulling off with 20 other bikes 3-abreast with two dozen cyclists in front of you is always a drat good test of your spatial awareness.
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Jan 17, 2014 20:05
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Coydog posted:Reading that, all I could think is reaching over and giving them a good shove before riding off. Run over your foot and not care AND hit your bike with the mirrors? The mentality is worse than the actions. It was one of those MP3s, pushing him wouldn't have done any good, even if he wasn't effectively wedged upright between the vehicles ahead. Besides, there was a gap and chasing him would have lost me that. The gap is paramount in commuting. Nothing exists but the gap.
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Jan 18, 2014 14:28
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:Is Asphalt and Rubber like Iron and Resin or is it like Blood and Oil or Iron and Air or Seaweed and Gravel? Hey I've no idea if you can pull the video to put up on your site but Belstaff, formerly makers of very nice, if slightly pricey leathers, have gone full motherfucking hipster in the last few years: http://www.belstaff.co.uk/men/pure-motorcycle/ Now their "premium motorcycle wear" is made from loving waxed cotton and yet still manages to be pricier than Alpinestars stuff. e: Oh tell a lie you can get a jacket with a whole 1 millimetre-thick leather shell (most bike leathers are 6mm or more) for a mere £1050 goddamnedtwisto fucked around with this message at 16:14 on Jan 29, 2014 |
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Jan 29, 2014 16:10
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Z3n posted:The SkidMarx Skidmarx are actually a company that make quite nice plastics for bikes, my belly pan and hugger are from them. TBH I'd still have bought from them if it was poo poo because you can't ignore a name with both a double-entendre and a reference to leftist politics.
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Jan 29, 2014 23:03
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Snowdens Secret posted:I would reference you to the tagline for the website http://www.fuzeblocks.com/ drat, that's a pretty good idea. Pity they're so loving expensive for something I could knock up in 20 minutes with about £10 of components. Sagebrush posted:I think that "showers of flaming sparks" is their understanding of "MANLY DANGEROUS MAN doing MANLY DANGEROUS STUFF" and that's the extent of what they've picked up on. Like in action movies where people have fights in "factories" that seem to produce nothing but showers of sparks and jets of steam. Or in video games where you can repair anything by pointing a portable blowtorch at the part of it that makes sparks for a couple of minutes and it makes an electric arc buzzing noise for some reason and then presto the thing is done being fixed. Pretend I posted that YOSPOS quote about nerds desperately aping "grownup" behaviour with no real understanding of it here. TBH it extends to just about the entire hipster bike scene; why these type of people couldn't stick to Vespas like their ancestors I don't know.
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Jan 30, 2014 10:39
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I'm a manager, which means I get to pretend I know about things all day every day.
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Jan 31, 2014 08:31
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWXndP5zP58 I know it's not enough engine to be strictly on-topic but this driver uses "I saw you" as an excuse for pulling out in front of this cyclist...
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Feb 4, 2014 17:51
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Xovaan posted:What pads are you using that would have decreased performance in wet conditions? I use HH pads and have never had a problem. Funnily enough it's HH pads that people perceive to have the bigger problems in the wet. They've actually got exactly the same gripping force in the wet as in the dry but you lose the initial massive bite that sintered pads give you (because it takes a revolution or two of the wheel+disc to squeeqee the water off the disc), and a lot of people interpret that as a loss of overall power. Personally I like it because it gives you a fraction of a second to correct a panic grab of the lever, but others hate it because they end up doing the exact opposite - they grab the brake, think nothing's happening, and grab another handful. Organics generally have less power in the wet than the dry but the profile of their braking power stays the same, it just needs more pressure - there's certainly a case that that's a safer way for things to happen, but it's very much down to personal taste.
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Feb 9, 2014 10:45
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The_Raven posted:Speaking of emigration... I've starting to change my mind on moving the gently caress out of the frozen wasteland that is New England and going to California. I'm sick of seeing all the cool bikes that other countries get that we don't because there's no room on showroom floors with all the insectoid supersports, HURR LOOKIT MY HAWG cruisers and other assorted poo poo. Ireland doesn't get much snow, but their economy (and roads) are completely hosed. Britain has some nice roads but we hate all (non-rich) foreigners so good luck moving here. France has great biking roads, relatively low VAT rates (which are one of the main reasons bikes are so much more expensive this side of the pond), and a pretty good quality of life if you're white and relatively well-off, but is full of French people. Best compromise then - get a job in Cobh working for a British company, jump on the ferry to Brittany to buy and ride your bikes.
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Feb 13, 2014 22:07
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Spent ten minutes riding to perfect Roadcraft standard because there was a bike with Police written across the front behind me - then when we got to some lights he pulled up and it was one of these fuckers: (Click if you want the unnecessarily huge version) Then when he got in front of me I counted 5 test fails (Failure to indicate, two failures to shoulder check, unsafe speed and failure to stop at a stop line) in less than a minute. Normally I just find the plastic cops on their ickle three-wheelers adorable but this twat added two minutes to my ride home and himself rode worse than a loving pizza boy.
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Feb 24, 2014 20:35
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So which one of you dirty snitches told my Shiver I was seeing Triumphs behind it's back? Because it's developed an oil leak to try and emulate my bit on the side. Now instead of spending the second nice weekend of the year riding it I'll be crawling around trying to trace the source to make sure it's just "character" and not terminal. (I spent the *first* nice weekend of the year cleaning it, which may, I admit, be the real reason it developed an oil leak, to punish my hubris)
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Mar 13, 2014 21:39
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Slavvy posted:But...but...they're the Honda of Italy You just loving take that back.
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Mar 13, 2014 22:19
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Slavvy posted:I've heard it said before, as a way of articulating how apparently reliable they are nowadays You're missing the "of Italy" part of that phrase though, these things are relative. Aprilia are the 90s Kawasaki of Italy, IMO. Throw loads of mad stuff at the wall, occasionally come up with utter gems, get completely ignored in favour of the others. Snowdens Secret posted:Protip: hold your leather glove under the nozzle tip till it clears your dirty-rear end tank. Pro-er tip - as a man you surely have daily experience of something that retains a small amount of liquid after you've finished using it, and should know how to deal with it. Don't worry, more than three shakes won't actually make the Baby Jesus cry.
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Mar 13, 2014 23:15
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HenryJLittlefinger posted:So I'm supposed to whack my dick back and forth on the sides of the urinal for a couple seconds? You mean you can't? Goondolences.
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Mar 13, 2014 23:29
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Tanbo posted:Someone told me you shouldn't bang the nozzle because it can cause a spark, t/f? False. For what are hopefully fairly obvious reasons nothing in the fuel tank or filling system uses ferrous metals or anything that gives off sparks. (The tiny grain of truth is that you *can* get a static spark when the nozzle touches/get close to a metal part of the vehicle, which isn't a concern for motorbikes because they're earthed as soon as the stand touches the ground)
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Mar 14, 2014 22:25
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Sagebrush posted:unless your old bike has a gashole that's incompatible with the vapor recovery fitting, and you have to hold the fitting back manually so it thinks it's plugged in to get the pump to start. Snowdens Secret posted:These metaphors are getting confusing
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Mar 15, 2014 11:06
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Welp, the bar for dumb poo poo in cars has now been raised - saw someone using their phone in selfie mode to fix their hair while driving this evening.
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Apr 3, 2014 22:37
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>180 bhp from a brand new one litre v-twin would be a stretch, from a 15-year-old engine that was pushing the very ragged edge of what could be done at the time is impossible without turning the engine into a timebomb. Not that it really matters because that chassis and (particularly) rear suspension couldn't cope with the 130 it made stock and he doesn't mention any suspension work at all even though he had time to mention a spare windscreen.
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Apr 4, 2014 20:52
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Jim Silly-Balls posted:They're all pretty close these days. What you lose in possibly rusty fasteners on a Suzuki you gain by not having a Honda regulator that shits the bed, or Yamaha suspension and fueling that is laughable by 80's standards. Plus kawi and Suzuki do a ton of parts sharing these days (the last two decades), so their quality is similar by nature. TBH the quality of all bikes - even perennial punchlines like Italy (and Austria) has gone up an incredible amount in just the last two decades. I'm really struggling to think of a bike that's been an out-and-out dog (in the same way that, say, the Laverda Formula or first-gen Hinckley Triumphs of the 90s were) released this century.
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Apr 7, 2014 22:23
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Nidhg00670000 posted:That's strange. Most doctors I know (4 out of 5) ride. A lot of them also smoke like chimneys and drink like fish.
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Apr 9, 2014 17:15
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HotCanadianChick posted:Sounds like someone needs a Z1000. That thing has the widest tank I've ever sat on, it was like being on a fat horse. How anyone considers that to be a comfortable riding position I'll never know.
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Apr 12, 2014 11:04
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HotCanadianChick posted:Are you tall/do you have long legs? I'm roughly average height and my legs were below the wide part of the tank when I sat on one. Nope, if anything I have fairly short legs (30 inch inside leg). I know that I4s are wider than God's own cylinder configuration, but this was ridiculous, like being in stirrups.
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Apr 13, 2014 10:46
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Just get some muffs. Nobody gives a poo poo what your bike looks like when you're out in weather like that.
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Apr 15, 2014 21:17
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Deeters posted:Cycle World had a test recently where they gave a desert racer a KTM with ABS and ran some tests. He was stopping a good 5 feet shorter with ABS, and more consistently. Not that magazine tests are the pinnacle of science, but I figure if a pro racer is getting an advantage from ABS, then it's gotta be good. There's a reason it's banned from racing. Obviously a *bad* ABS won't be as good as a good rider, but I think like fuel injection most of the hatred for ABS come because the first versions weren't brilliant and that's damned them forever in peoples minds, like there has never been any progress in the field since then.
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Apr 19, 2014 21:17
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