Reasons to be careful

I am not one for staying inside. We all know it is now legal to ride. Some will, some won’t. No wahalla.

But if you do, a few reasons to take it easy on your first rideout.

  1. You havent been out for a while, so will be out of practice.
  2. Many vehicles have got used to seeing no one at junctions, they wont have seen bikes for a while, they are out of practice.
  3. Those bits on the middle of the road we like to use to make progress, they are full of shit as nothing has been on them for weeks.
  4. There may be plenty of other over excited bikers out there.
  5. The old bill will be looking for you, more than ever.
  6. Ambulance responses are slower than normal (I think?)
  7. You dont want to end up in hospital when the NHS is stretched.
  8. Your bike might be rusty. Check yer lights, pressures, brakes!

Here endeth the lecture, seriously guys, I am going out once the sun is out but be careful if you’re out for the first time in 7 weeks.

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Some excellent points there and all top drawer advice especially for our fair weather cousins who haven’t ridden for up to 8 months.

I’ve only done 700 miles since MOT in November and that was mostly done in one weekend for the Dragon Rally in February. The 250 is almost ready for a road test after an extended (Lockdown) service including a complete overall of the rear end (rear wheel and swing arm bearings). Just needing the drive chain tension to be set and its back on the bike for all those essential trips for food shopping, medication, DIY supplies and the posting of our ebay sales.

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Shame on MCN - In the name of safe motorbiking Mr Rapid depicted choosing some well dodgy lines, too close to the centre on the right hander and too close to verge for the upcoming left hander

shakes head

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Have to say I have been riding during the lockdown. This is the opposite of anything I have experienced. I have seen so many vehicles at junctions running through red lights. Never seen anything like it. Last time I was out (for work) in the space of 1 hour I saw 2 cars go through red lights (not turning red or amber, totally red) and cyclists even worse than normal.

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But in what context are those photos taken and poorly matched to the article
The centre line picture could be on the Broads where there are no hedges to obstruct view so positioning left is irrelevant if there is nothing that will compromise your safety

The left verge hugger could be its a narrow Carriageway and view is obstructed so rather than position right for the view over safety ,you sacrifice view and reduce speed just in case an oncoming vehicle appears maintaining your safety .

Lots of drivers are taking the empty roads as an opportunity to drive at ridiculous speeds. I’ve had people passing me at probably 60 or 70mph in a 30 limit.
There was quite a crackdown last week on my commute (especially on the A3/putney hill) but still plenty of heavy footed robbers about.

Plus pedestrians (especially joggers) have got in the habit of just stepping out into the road.

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@TimR A fair point well made but taken on the face of what is presented in the photographs and that the artical was most likely aimed at lesser experienced riders I’m not swayed and stand by my first call, some well dodgy lines!

This is the one to be really careful of in London, folks trying to keep the 2m gap.
I’ve seen a few close calls recently of people almost getting splatted.

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A message to you all from Ian Biederman, Chief Instructor at BMW Rider Training:

The largescale lockdown has been eased and now we are able to use our lovingly polished motorcycles to travel to a place of relaxation and to meet a friend or relative whilst maintaining social distancing rules.

This is great news and the opportunity to ride is brilliant!

However…. Be aware that your mind and body are not completely ‘ride ready’ yet.
You have the opportunity of many months’ wonderful riding ahead of you… or you can spend even more time locked in with a broken bike and a broken you! The choice is yours!

Don’t go out and just enjoy the ride! Don’t try to ride like you did when you put the bike away (or how you’ve been driving your car since). You will feel excited and free again, the desire to head to the hills will be hard to resist.

My strong advice to you all is to start gently, go for a short ride initially and ride steadily, at the very least 10% off pace from what you feel capable of. You should aim for roads you’re familiar with, resisting the urge to ride at a pace. Get comfortable, feel fluid and decisive in your actions and just take your time.

Take regular rests, stop and enjoy the world around you and revel in the freedom.
Please take care out there, build up your physical and mental riding stamina and you will have a whole summer of riding pleasure to experience.

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On the contrary, for the first time in decades ambulances are waiting for calls not calls waiting for ambulances, we’re are now over staffed due to having volunteer drivers, all clinical trained staff frontline, extra vehicles bought in from outer county services under major incident protocol and the fact generally people aren’t calling for their minor illnesses just if they are genuinely unwell/dying

This will all change within the next few weeks I imagine though

More concerning is that I wouldn’t want to end up on a ward/in ITU at the moment as it’s almost impossible to keep Covid at bay and if you’re suffering from some form of major trauma your body will not cope too well with a novel infection

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Curtis

Is that the reason I keep seeing “Non standard” (my phrase) ambulances out and about? Or am I imagining it?

Indeed that is one of the reasons, plus the Nightingale teams, myself included were using “non standard” ambulances to keep the frontline ones in place

There must be a good reason but why don’t they put all those with covid 19 in the nightingale hospitals so there is less chance of others catching it in regular hospitals ?

it’s long and complicated but the short story is staffing levels

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Excellent advice, but surely you are supposed to do number six every time you ride? I always do before leaving home, only takes a few seconds.

Spot on with this one, ive been commuting throughout lockdown and seen a number of cops out with their radar guns, in 20 zones of all places

The officer in charge of road safety for the Met has been regularly tweeting the maximum speeds recorded in the different speed limits.

This was from Tuesday:

186 speeding offences enforced by Traffic Police yesterday in #London. Each of these 186 drivers were prepared to risk their life; other road users life & now face consequences to their licence. Zone highs:-
:heavy_minus_sign:20/47
:heavy_minus_sign:30/71
:heavy_minus_sign:40/87
:heavy_minus_sign:50/99
:heavy_minus_sign:70/120
**no speeding detected in 60mph

https://twitter.com/SuptAndyCox

Obviously it gives no idea what the average excess speeds are, but something around that is the high in a 20 whenever I have seen the list. Though once it was a speed in the 70s, so I can understand them heavily policing those zones.

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Don’t think there are many 60 limits left with the Met police area

Interesting that the higher the limit the more offenders