Anyone riding in the Cotswolds please be aware that 2
motorcyclists have been killed and 2 seriously injured
in the last 5 days.
The reasons for the accident’s is unknown.
The Cotswold roads are excellent for touring at the same time dangerous due to hidden dips on road and bends sharper than you think.
Ride safe.
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Also, lot’s of speed-traps setup there with super long lenses.
Lots of places they can lurk on seemingly quiet roads that are attractive to a biker, remember the Cotswold roads are not to be treated as a playground they can be dangerous even to an experienced motorcyclist.
Well given that loose sheep and horse shit on the road is a pretty regular thing, it pays to be careful.
@icarus There is no such thing as a dangerous road.
It is the people who ride and drive those roads in a dangerous manner that make them dangerous.
If anyone knows the A4074 in my part of the world between Reading and Oxford, there is a section of road called the 13 bends of death.
I personaly dealt with over 20 fatalities on this road (car and bike) and over the past few years there has probably been in excess of 50 fatals over a 10 year period.
Everyone keeps banging on about how dangerous the road is… Annoys the hell out of me.
It is one of the most fun roads to ride or drive providing you ride/drive it properly and show respect for the conditions.
They put a blanket 30 limit in don from a national and the crashes still keep happening because everyone ignores the new limits.
That is not the fault of the road it is the fault of the road user.
The same applies to the likes of the Cotwolds, one of my favourite roads between Harrogate and Pately Bridge in North Yorkshire, ride or drive them sensibly and they can still be fun.
Read the road and ride according to the conditions and they are fine…
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TC.My point exactly, any road could be nominated as dangerous if not driven/ ridden with due awareness, especially in an area that is not known to the rider.
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I wanna ride the 13 bends of death!!!
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They are not the same anymore since they put a blanket 30 limit and about 5 speed cameras on the road.
Not sure when you last travelled it as they may have revised the limits since as its predominantly( south bound) nsl from ‘oxford’ to Exlade street ( with a few village 30’s and short 40/50 sections, camera in benson) ) then drops to 50mph until just before cane end then becomes 40 with a camera by what used to be the pub and increases to 50 straight after cane end to 50mph all the way through the bends until Mapledurham/caversham border back to 30 with a camera lower down in that section) Lots of double whites but if a clear road still a fun stretch .It’s my main commute road …
having just googled the name i know which section you mean now …
Never knew it had a name
@TimR It has been know as the 13 bends of death at least since I moved to the area in 1970.
Come out of Caversham Heights past Mapledurham (where the film The Eagle has Landed with Michael Cane was filmed) and you are into the first section of the 13 bends.
It used to be a single broken white line so you could overtake with impunity coupled with a natonal speed limit for years.
I dealt with a double fatality when two old class mates of mine from school (Chiltern Edge which is nearby) were killed instantly, and the local council decided to impose the new measure, but it did not stop the fatalities occuring
The 13 bends officially finish at the Pub at Cane End where the camera is situated at the turn off to Kidmore End and just before George Cole’s (the now deceased actor’s) old house on Gallowstree Common Road.
See the pub @ Cane End is no more and has been knocked down and being developed into flats…
Still amazes me at how many mainly adventure bike riders will happily ignore the solids through that section .
Its the only place i have ever been rear ended ( oi mind out of smut ) by another biker as well after going round probably bend 3 from cane end to be confronted by Bambi happily ambling along and the BMW rider who thought riding two foot of the arse of my gtr1000 was safe and suitable because they ‘quote’ were an Advanced Rider ( turns out they had had one assessment ride ) didn’t react to my speed reduction in time .
@TimR Shows how long since I was last up that way, I did not realise that the Fox had been demolished, Used to do really good food there once upon a time.
I was talking to an old colleague earlier today who had just joined Traffic and I took to his first ever fatal on that road many years ago involving a lad on a brand new GPz900 Kawasaki (which shows how long ago it was). Same scenario, he went for an overtake on the double whites.
Anyway, by coincidence, he has been doing some research for a study project he is doing in respect of the A4074, and it is estimated that there have been something like 700+ accidents on that one section of road over the past 35 years, the majority of which have been fatal, serious injury or catastrophic.
In every crash, it was not the road that was to blame but poor driving/riding and decision making, but yet everyone still bangs on about how dangerous the road is.