[Closed] motorbike riders not making progress

You didn't "have to" over take. 💡

Were the other bikers just riding with the flow of traffic and enjoying the weather? Echoing what Edukator says you don't have to overtake just because you can.

Is true, but I didn't want to sit at 45 in a 60 road particularly. Just weird overtaking motorcycles really, never had to do it before I don't think

Not normally an issue, is it? But as long as they're happy - we hired a scooter in Italy a couple of years ago and I'm damn sure the bikes that passed us would have said we weren't making progress! Traffic was nose to tail and we were filtering, but way off local pace. 🙂

I was always told that 60mph was a maximum not a minimum speed!
If a rider wants to go at 45, then whats the problem?

should've known... 🙄

There isn't a problem...

I don't think I've ever had to overtake motorcycles in my car before, because mostly they rarely sit behind people doing 40-45 on roads that are OK to overtake on...

It was odd, that's all. Not wrong, just weird. and I wondered if the advice had changed.

They were making progress on the roads in Ayrshire today thought one of the clowns was going into the front of a van.

I overtook one on my bicycle yesterday... *swoon*
(it was an older chap with a classic bike of sorts and was just twoddling along enjoying the weather)

They were probably waiting their turn in the queue.

I don't think he rides motorbikes does he?

I got overtaken by a tesnsit when out on my motorbike the other week!

Did they flash you once you were past?

I'm with you here Nickc. Never understood this myself. Why ride a motorbike unless you are going to take advantage of the filtering possibilities

Did you wave your leg out of the window to say "thanks"? 8)

Saw a few mincing along through Dunsop Bridge today. Can't say as I blame 'em to be honest, it was painfully picturesque.

Edukator - Reformed Troll

Did you wave your leg out of the window to say "thanks"?

😆

My hobby- giving motorbikes The Nod or The Wave while on the pushbike and getting them to respond. But not the Inexplicable Foot Waggle.

OP agreed a bit strange, 45 on an open road with a 60 limit. Possibly just a bunch of "dude riders" deciding no ovetaking today nothing to do with advice imo

I had to over take a couple of groups sat behind slow moving traffic today.

You are sure you didn't overtake a funeral procession for an old biker?

You see this heading North into Matlock on a busy weekend - the traffic backs up at Cromford crossroads, there's loads of room to get to the front, yet you see loads of bikes sat there amongst the cars.

Rubber, no they weren't

It was 6-7 sports/sports tourers a couple with pillions, you know regular bunch of motorcyclists. Either lost, enjoying the view or waiting for some-one to catch up I guess. They didn't come past me, (I only did 50-55 after I overtook them all)

as I said, was a weird experience overtaking bikes 😆

I'd find it strange too OP.

I mean normally they're brrrrapppping, bap, bap, bap brarrrraping and riding 100mph along the A32 in Hampshire, like today.

Arshatz.

Come the revolution.. 😈

I rode over to meet my goddaughter at Bewilderwood today and then back via the coast on the S1000XR. Very much a "sports" tourer bike but found myself happily sometimes just ablimg along with the traffic, it doesn't *always* have to be at full throttle, you know...

(But when it is, omg that bike is good)

Rachel

My only negative on my test was apparently a failure to wring the bike's neck as I slipped onto the dual carriageway 🙂

I will sometimes ease off and enjoy the view when on the motorbike, but to the extent of being overtaken by a car???? The shame is only comparable to attaching stick on bunny ears or a Mohawk to your helmet.

+1
Bikers seems to be a shameful bunch of dawdling knobbers these days. I always rode like the end of a bell, back in the day. Yes I am (or was) awesome.

Depends what you want, I rode up side of Loch Lomond this morning and had to slow down (on the empty road) to take in how beautiful it was, no rush. Way home, traffic was 8 mile queue so 'made progress' by riding 8 miles on other carriageway and cutting in occasionally. Ride how you want / conditions dictate. Motorbikes are awesome!

I mean normally they're brrrrapppping, bap, bap, bap brarrrraping and riding 100mph along the A32 in Hampshire, like today.

Yesterday seemed especially bad. We were riding the Meon Valley trail as a family and the noise was surprisingly intrusive. Leaving aside some of the highly questionable riding on the a32 is it really not possible to engineer/leave fitted an exhaust that doesn't cause quite so much interruption to other peoples enjoyment of the countryside?

As for the OP I agree unusal but not unheard of.

Sunday riders?

I use to ride all-year round and use to find it quite scary when out with 'Sunday' riders, as they seemed to ride a bike like they were driving a car. And their levels of observation were shockingly bad.

Leaving aside some of the highly questionable riding on the a32 is it really not possible to engineer/leave fitted an exhaust that doesn't cause quite so much interruption to other peoples enjoyment of the countryside?

Of course it is possible, 90% of standard exhausts are pretty quiet, however a large majority of riders swap them for a race can because their 190bhp BMW S1000RR needs another 9bhp to use on the UK roads 🙂

I can be all holier than though with this as I run standard exhausts on both my motorbikes.

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How dare you overtake, don't you no one on STW overtakes as the speed limit isn't a compulsory minimum.

[i]I can be all holier than though with this as I run standard exhausts on both my motorbikes.[/i]

+1

Never saw the point of changing them, except when I was 17 y/o and had a set of race exhausts on my RD250E - but then I realised that I was more likely to get stopped than someone with standard exhausts, so didn't waste my money again.

The op is right motorcyclists aren't what they used to be

Apart from being content to follow other traffic some of them even wait in queues 🙄

I've been known to not make progress on my 125, either due to lack of sufficient go, or if I'm filtering and don't like the look of something ahead. Sometimes other bikes will scoot through but when you see them stopped having run out of room in a blind spot between two trucks you realise sometimes it's better to wait!

Not travelling above 60 does confuse some drivers though, as I have a full license, so no L plates and the bike is largish for a 125 so they don't twig that there is just no more power available.

Way home, traffic was 8 mile queue so 'made progress' by riding 8 miles on other carriageway

only a dotted line separates them. Nothing too dodgy!

If it was a group who were all together sometimes it's just a pain trying to keep up as Barry bloody Sheene at the front has to overtake everything and so other riders sometimes do dodgy overtakes to keep up. It`s just a bit harder getting a group to make progress tidily than a single or pair of riders 😀

Pottering is nice. Much more fun than giving it welly.

Pottering is nice. Much more fun than giving it welly.

hence me buying the XR - get it out of my system. Not sure it’s working, mind…

Rachel

It's seems a bit weird to me

Sometimes I am happy to pootle along but not with a row of cars in front of me obscuring the view! I'll blat past then pootle. Clear road is safer too

Clear road is safer too

Have they stopped teaching motorcyclists to Make Progress? I had to over take a couple of groups sat behind slow moving traffic today.

IIRC it's in a grey area between being taught and the test.

The instructors can't tell/allow you to filter, but you can get a minor on the test if you don't overtake when it's safe and reasonable. So no, you're not taught to do it.

My (second, actually failed the first test for not overtaking) examiner was in a car so I gave it the beans and left him for dead. Don't think he can have seen much of me after the first mile!

I pottered a bit yesterday on the Tiger. Sometimes pottering is nice, sometimes not. I like to potter on a clear road, though, so that probably means passing a few cars. Some bikers view it as a duty to overtake every vehicle they come across. Actually, more than 'some', I guess.

Have they stopped teaching motorcyclists to Make Progress?

I did direct access a couple of years ago and this never came up, either in training or in the test. In fact filtering didn't even get a mention, rather surprising considering this was Enfield with its horrendous greater London traffic. Statistically the hardest place to get a pass apparently (which I did... just!)

"Making Progress" isn't covered in the DSA test, as I guess it's a pretty ambiguous statement. It is covered in the IAM test as an integral part of IPSGA and roadcraft. IAM well worth doing if you're a motorcyclist.

I was always told that 60mph was a maximum not a minimum speed!
If a rider wants to go at 45, then whats the problem?

garage-dweller - Member

is it really not possible to engineer/leave fitted an exhaust that doesn't cause quite so much interruption to other peoples enjoyment of the countryside?

That's not an exhaust thing, it's a "too many cylinders" thing, no idea why people put such loud exhausts on bikes that sound like a wasp trapped under a tin bath

Conversely, you would be failed on your bike test if conditions we acceptable for travelling at 60...

That, and the car test equivalent (I've heard stories of fails for driving at a moderate pace but not right up to the speed limit) are crazy IMO. I can understand that the examiner might want you to demonstrate that you can overtake safely on a bike, or keep up with traffic, but a default approach that assumes you're a bad driver if you're not going 55 in a 60 can't be sensible.

Northwind - Member

That's not an exhaust thing, it's a "too many cylinders" thing, no idea why people put such loud exhausts on bikes that sound like a wasp trapped under a tin bath

The noisiest bikes around here tend to be v twins - Harleys ridden by blokes living out their Sons of Accountancy mid-life crisis

a default approach that assumes you're a bad driver if you're not going 55 in a 60 can't be sensible.

It's not that you're a [i]bad[/i] driver per sé, rather that if you're not travelling at or around the speed limit without good reason it could be indicative of a nervous / hesitant driver.

Part of the test has to include a section above 30mph precisely to demonstrate aptitude at higher speeds; if you could mince around the entire test at 20mph it'd render that part of the test pretty pointless.

I doubt you'd fail for doing "55 in a 60" as a one-off, but you'd almost certainly fail for consistently doing it. And rightly so, you're demonstrably not ready to be out on the roads unrestricted.

but a default approach that assumes you're a bad driver if you're not going 55 in a 60 can't be sensible.

A friend of mine failed his first bike test for stopping and putting his foot down at a roundabout when he should have simply given way (even though the car coming from his right wasn't indicating and actually turned off at the exit before).

I overtook a motorbike this morning. In my Passat.

I often ride at the speed of traffic I'm in if I've been giving it some stick a little earlier on in the ride.

You can't ride like a loon everywhere and expect to get away with it all of the time.

The op is right motorcyclists aren't what they used to be

My dad's motorcycle test consisted of riding round the block while a bloke stood at the side of the road with a clipboard. He then began his riding career on roads that were much quieter than they are today, in a time before every car had an interior comfier than the average living room and a touchscreen infotainment menu-fest glowing away in the middle of the dash, and before every driver had a mobile phone permanently welded to the side of their face.

Motorcyclists coming up through the ranks today are trained in far more depth than ever before, jumped through more hoops than ever before, have spent a hell of a lot more time and money getting there than ever before, and the environment in which they begin their riding careers is more inhospitable than it's ever been.

No, riders aren't what they used to be.

Motorcyclists coming up through the ranks today are trained in far more depth than ever before, jumped through more hoops than ever before, have spent a hell of a lot more time and money getting there than ever before, and the environment in which they begin their riding careers is more inhospitable than it's ever been.

Wish they'd do that with car drivers 🙁

Wish they'd do that with car drivers

Make them take a bike test? So do I.

some kind of two-wheeled experience (pedal and motor powered, separately, not one of those Belgian bikes...) would be good for drivers. But just as the motorbike test has got more expensive and more stringent, so has the car test.

I think there'd be a much bigger safety benefit from making drivers take an annual theory resit and a proper retest every 5 or 10 years than from making the one off test harder than it is now.

My old neighbour was given a driving licence in the army. He was told to drive a truck somewhere, told them he couldn't drive, so they took out a paper licence, wrote his name on it and told him again to drive the truck. And that was it. He had another 70 years of driving and that was the total of his tuition/testing!

Absolutely - drivers should have a regular MOT, just like their vehicles.

Rachel

I'd find it strange too OP.

I mean normally they're brrrrapppping, bap, bap, bap brarrrraping and riding 100mph along the A32 in Hampshire, like today.

Arshatz.

Come the revolution..

bikebuoy - I encountered an approx 40-strong midweek ride-out on that very road, they'd obviously just had their brekkie in the cafe at the x-roads and all pulled out in front of busy, moving traffic. They proceeded to drive in the most dangerous manner, overtaking then slamming on brakes cos they all needed a group hug. 😐 I was terrified, reported the incident to the Police and insisted on a crime number. Utter meatheads.

Motorbikes are awsumz 😀

It's a bit of a shame making progress down a good road sometimes, as that good road usually is quite picturesque, but it's such good fun

I'm afraid I like changing the exhaust on my bikes, I prefer the way they look and the way they sound, mine don't really have any performance benefit at all

bikebouy - Member
I'd find it strange too OP.

I mean normally they're brrrrapppping, bap, bap, bap brarrrraping and riding 100mph along the A32 in Hampshire, like today.

Arshatz.

Come the revolution..

Wondered when you'd pop up and have your regular whinge as always.
Don't like it - there's plenty of other places for you to ride 🙄

[i]No, riders aren't what they used to be. [/i]

Yes, but we also usually started on 50's (the best of which did 50mph), then 250's on which we passed our tests and then it depended on how rich you were. Most stayed on 250's for a few years, or like myself went to 350LC's and others went 4-stroke - but rare for anything bigger than a 500.

Now, it seems that folk think the 'need' at least a 600, if not a 1000 - better IMO to work your way up the power range.

Do people cycle along the A32? 😯

No hammy doesn't like me riding in the Hampshire Hills, where I live.

Typical Troll.

🙄

And boring as hell.

Do people cycle along the A32?

I encounter a few cyclists along there but also do short stretches of it occasionally between off road bits myself as well as driving it pretty regularly. It's one of those roads where a disproportionate number of people seem to take leave of their senses. I hate riding on it.

Troll?
No bikebouy- just sick of the same shite you spout every time someone mentions motorbikes.
You trot the same thing out every single time.

Braemar last week, everyone winding it up the second they passed the limit signs at the edge of the village as if they were going to set a lap record at the TT. Lovely.