The more I commute into London the more I get annoyed with L platers, I know we all have to start somewhere and I respect that.
What I HATE is when Im casually filtering through traffic (Or even riding an open road at the speed limit) and some little bugger with L plates decides he wants to cut me up and go slower than the old man with a Zimmer frame!
I get some may need practice, I get they want to get somewhere too, It just Pisses me off to high heaven when for example this morning; I was filtering through lime house and I caught up to another bike (No L plates) he moved over and nodded me on to pass, only for the little bugger come wobbling off the slip road into the traffic and attempt to filter.
I followed him for a while thinking he was just being overly cautious or something. Then I realised he either cant ride or doesn’t care about other road users.
ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH! :pinch:
Rant over.
P.s
In my opinion if ANYONE catches you up whilst filtering they are obviously going faster than you, so you should willingly pull over and let them pass.
If they caught you up I doubt they’ll slow you down…
Well while I was L I would never overtake, jump in front or do anything that would cause disrespect to a rider that is not on L’s.
Even now as I feel I’m not so experienced I will still move over, let the bigger bike go in front ect ect.
Also even if first at the lights I will always tell them to go before me as I’m slower.
I’ve had many thank you’s from other bikes by doing this.
But I had the same as you being cut up swerved in front of all sorts of strange things by L plates maybe the need to learn respect to the mentors (the wise ones!)
sometimes people are paying so much attention not clipping a mirror that looking in their own mirrors and moving over becomes difficult…
I get the frustration, honestly I do but in most cases it will add maybe 1-2mins overall to your journey. My advice is to try and relax a bit and you’ll enjoy your trip more. Just because you’re in a rush doesn’t mean everyone will move over for you…
Though I get that some people take slowness to a new level… I’ve seen people go so slow they actually are going backwards!
What time do you normally go through the limehouse tunnel in the morning mate? I find that the traffic disperses quite well in there. I think it may be because they can hear me coming as the sound carries like **** in that tunnel.
This is is in no way limited to L-platers…I often get riders on a big bikes, on my morning ride to work, doing 25 on an empty stretch of road…I always sit well back thinking that they are looking to turn but forgot to indicate and they never do…
I’m all up for having a leisurely cruise but not when you are holding back other road users trying to get to work
I passed a guy on a Y plate CG125 on L Plates this am. I passed him near the M25 junction on the A13 - so a fair way outside of London - but he was almost flat on the tank and to be fair was shifting (for a 125) he was doing at least 70mph - so I chuckled at him being flat on the tank, but then thought fair play and carried on my way. We’ve all started somewhere
Then later I was moving through flowing traffic at a pretty progressive rate when I noticed a bike coming up on my tail through traffic. The guy must be shift I thought so I prepared to make space and gave him the leg to pass. I noticed the L plates just before he went by and it was the guy on the CG125 - basically at full speed (but upright so probably only 65 or so). The road opened up so I could have gone past him again but decided to watch. This guy was riding like he nicked the bike. His speed was stuck at max for the bike and he seemed to have NO understanding that his bike doesn’t have the brakes/handling/acceleration/street presence of a bigger bike and fairly predictably he nearly got wiped out by a car changing lanes just before Canary Wharf. He was so determined to keep his speed up he was giving car drivers WAY too much credit.
I hope he slows down. If he rides like that all the time I predict he won’t make it to the winter.
I used to find that I rode faster than the guy in front because I was secure in that he’d made a gap already. When I was in front, I was slower because I had to factor in response time for cagers not seeing me
i find compaired to rideing my 125 and my 650 is i tent to go faster on my 125 then the 650.
its just how it is on my 50cc i was full open all the time that was 60 mph tops on the 125 i pin it most of the time allways overtakeing big bikes and scooters but on the 650 you know you have the power there you know theres no need to pin it as its not as **** as ragging the 125 around so you dont.
Yeah, I understand that Ross, but the point is that isn’t as safe on the 125 as it would be on a bigger bike. The bigger bike has the performance to cope with the higher speed and you aren’t tempted to try and keep the speed up because the 125 would need to be wound up to stop speed again. So on the bigger bike you can speed up or slow down as the conditions dictate rather than having the “thrash the balls off this thing” attitude on the 125.
By the way - I don’t care of a 125 overtakes me - good luck to them, but riders should take account of the bikes limits…
l am L- plater and l think most of the L-riders are absolute crap! to be very honest CBT that you do before going on bike doesn’t really teaches you anything except moving forward l know my limits and l always leave space for bigger ones to move forward. unwritten road code should be taught during CBT as well !
The trouble is that you cannot make it tougher to get on the road. People need experience and scooters/small bikes are meant to be cheap. Make it any more difficult and there will be even more people willing to dodge it and ride without any training whatsoever and/or insurance.
