Must be getting old but respect where due

[Therenback]

A Big thank you to the Sargeant on marked ride of sussex police who did the business on maniac belgium hgv driver. in irght place to witness a white line number an saved me gbh charge. i owe him a pint

[Lonewolf]

Go on, tell us the full tale.  :o

[Therenback]

On way back from ride out to new forest, encountered trucker who likes a REAL wide attack to a junction or forgot which side o channel he was on, result was me an 2 other motorists almost going cross country to avoid him an my backside  going like a rabbits nose !! I was bricking it !! I turned round an went back down newhaven road in a red mist when a fjr passed me from nowhere an pulled truck over an did wot needed. He also pulled in behind me at nxt layby where I stopped for smoke an tea to see how I was an made ref to driver I wont type on here. A good egg & also v human. A

[Lonewolf]

That's the thing with a lot of foreign truck drivers, and I don't mean this in a disrespectful way as I know we have international members. You have to give them an extremely wide berth and always expect the worst from them. I think it's fair to say their standards aren't as high as ours when it comes to sticking to drivers hours and road discipline. If I remember I'll dig out a couple of photos of a well known haulier who got themselves in a bit of a pickle a couple of years ago.

[Kevin]

We live within a couple of miles or so of the port at Dover. When we went to Poland we were amazed they had roundabouts there as the antics of the Polish lorry drivers here led us to believe they must be something completely alien to them.

Kevin

[Therenback]

Those thoughts almost identical to chat in a layby !!!!! Shopping trolley also mentioned.

[Therenback]

Kevin,

not headed east on gtr yet but used go margate via hythe and dover an also witnessed wot u sayin, oh well all a learning curve !!

[fatharry]

In France earlier this year, down in the central massif...got caught behind a logging truck on a very windy section of road, with very few places to pass, this chap had some skills!....he was tearing along a good old pace......in fact many of the locals went along at a fair chat......after a few days you could Definatley spot tourist traffic ;D

[GTRTONY]

That's the thing with a lot of foreign truck drivers, and I don't mean this in a disrespectful way as I know we have international members. You have to give them an extremely wide berth and always expect the worst from them. I think it's fair to say their standards aren't as high as ours when it comes to sticking to drivers hours and road discipline. If I remember I'll dig out a couple of photos of a well known haulier who got themselves in a bit of a pickle a couple of years ago.

i think if we as bikers adopt this attitude and ride as if every other road user (including sadly, other bikers) are out there to kill us then we should hopefully live longer. RIDE DEFFENSIVELY

[patrick]

i think if we as bikers adopt this attitude and ride as if every other road user (including sadly, other bikers) are out there to kill us then we should hopefully live longer. RIDE DEFFENSIVELY

I totally agree with Tony and I see other road users as someone who may kill me.

I once spoke to a biker at a RoSPA promotional event who was recovering from serious injuries recieved in a collision with a Polish trucker. The rider's view was " stupid F*****g Pole! I asked what happened and was told:

Biker on main road approacihng side road on the near side
Truck starts to pull out on to main road turning left.
Biker moves to off side of road to over take the truck
Truck driver "forgets" where he is and moves across to drive on the right.
The bike hits the truck and the rider was seriously injured.

I asked what speed he was doing as he moved out to overtake and was told about 60.

So the rider blames the trucker and can see nothing that he did wrong.

I then suggested to him that when he saw the truck start to come out in front of him he could have reduced his speed, hung back, watied till the truck was on the main road and then used his performance to  safely over take.

His reply, as he stomped away was some thing on the lines of "...F*****g  advanced know-alls!.."

"Roadcraft's" first chapter talks about people not learning from their own mistakes and I some how think that this rider will repeat his accident.

In this case the trucker made an error  but who hasnt pulled onto the wrong side of the road (albeit briefly) when driving / riding abroad. I know I have!

Patrick

[Therenback]

defensive riding is spot on. the day any of us think we've learnt it all we r in trouble. my anger
with the trucker was adrenalin response to situation that barely gave time to react safely. those with more years than i would prob show additional caution to foriegn plates, an i've learnt another lesson from it. 

[GTRTONY]

Lets remember that biking is a life skill and none of us get it right all the time. but we have to be prepared to cope with whats happening when things start to go wrong. we have to learn to recognise when situations are developing (anticipate) that may cause us to alter from our normal ride and this can only be achieved by learning to observe properly and act upon what we see in good time. this takes practice and unfortunately as riders most of us get away with things for years and we are led to believe that what we are dong must be right. however practice does not always lead to perfection as what we are practising may in fact be controlled by "luck"! On a recent course i attended a wise man asked the question if we were able to freeze frame at any point of our riding could we honestly say that we were in the right position, at the right speed, in the right gear with the amount of correct throttle and looking where we need to look in order to cope with the next hazard. if we can not honestly say yes to that question then we may need to have our riding assessed.In my opinion we should all of us have our riding assessed every year or so! what would it matter and perhaps it would keep us living and enjoying our biking a little longer!

sorry for  ranting  ::)

tony

[Lonewolf]

Tony, totally agree with your comments. Re-education or further education can only be a positive thing.

[Therenback]

Visit www.bikesafe.co.uk u can have benefit of police biker from your local force assessing your riding for a day. Course is well worth £50 an gives you plenty to work on as you get written review and guidance at end of day

[Lonewolf]

Here's one of my short clips of what could have been a bad day, I was wearing high viz bib, lights of course were on, on the GTR. I was travelling under the National Speed Limit. I should have been visible to the HGV driver and I presume I was, but rather than wait until I'd passed, out they came leaving me with the questions, "Has he seen me?" "Where's he going?"

Near Miss Video

I moved out for vehicle one as it emerged from the first slip road, vehicle one then slowed for vehicle two emerging from a second slip road as I was still passing V1. As V1 braked I naturally passed it as I had no cause to reduce my speed, I also passed V2 and then saw up ahead the HGV emerging. As it happened the HGV didnt really encroach into the offside lane but its the 64 million dollar question, "What If?"

As it happened half a mile down the road the HGV did move out to the offside lane so whether that was their intention earlier I dont know. Anyway, its just an example...... ::)