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Originally posted by Gixlol radar get yer arse out then, spread the word? I am beyond that! a total gixerjunkie lol
Sadly i cannot spread the word of Yamaha this weekend as I need to home to tend the flock by 2pm. You will just have to carry on sinning for now. Somehow i think you will be able to manage that…[
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]Part 11.
I wasn’t going to add another part to this saga, due to a stupid mistake that I made and caused an accident when on a ride out with Gix and DaveRS. That morning, I had ridden up to Gix’s place where I also met up with DaveRS. Then we were off up to the Cat and Fiddle pub in the Peak District to meet up with some other guys off the GixxerJunkies forum. Gix led the way, I was in the middle and DaveRS was bringing up the rear. I was hoping that DaveRS would go before me, that way I if had to stop I wouldn’t hold anybody up. Luckily for him I wasn’t behind him as things turned out. We didn’t even get out of the city where Gix lived as I had a B2BM moment and ruined the rideout. A new record for me. We came to a roundabout where we waiting for it to clear and were waiting to turn left. I looked right to see if I could move off, thinking Gix had already done so. The car I was waiting for had turned left not bothering to indicate. I then moved off, but I hadn’t noticed that Gix was still waiting. She had obviously noticed something I had missed. I rode into the back of her mint condition bike which toppled over, causing her to roll off and ending up wedged under a crash barrier at the side of the road. After we got her bike upright, Gix was helped up and we assessed the damage. Her bike was completely B2BMed. Gix was very good about it considering, as the fact that I’m still breathing to this day has proved. She said later that she was very impressed with my vocal self-admonitions though, nearly all of it unprintable. Some Traffic Police stopped to question as about the events and to check that everyone was uninjured. One of the guys raised Gix’s ire slightly by suggesting that her bike was too big for her slender frame. It was all it good humour though and the police officer was allowed to live out the rest of his natural life.
A while later we got back to her home to inspect the damage more thoroughly. The damage to my bike was negligible but Gix’s repair costs were quite a bit more. After a while I slunk off home to miserably don sackcloth and ashes in penitence for my undying and everlasting shame. My insurance handled things, though rather ineptly (bit of an understatement that!) when it came round to getting her bike repaired. The catalogue of their stupidity was almost endless. They collected her bike and whisked it away down south to be inspected, forgot they collected it and they sent the engineer to Gix’s home to inspect it. It was actually sitting alone and forlorn in some aeroplane hanger near somewhere Reading. Then they took ages to do the inspection, lost the engineers report when it had been inspected and had to do another. Then they nearly lost that second report when they attached it to an entirely different claim. It was only the fact that while I was chasing them for the progress of the repairs to her bike that they noticed this and corrected it. As well as all that, some of the required repairs were not authorised. The issue of her helmet is still outstanding. I have different insurers now incidentally. They had lent her a Yamaha FZ1000 as a temporary replacement for her beloved Gixxer 1000 to make matters worse. I think Gix has forgiven me though; I still have my kneecaps intact anyway. I think she has a new found respect for Yamahas now… although, maybe not.
The repairs to my bike were done soon enough though. The insurers would only cough up for a stock indicator to replaced the arrow one I had on the left side, which left the bike coming back looking rather odd. The repairers though, Walmsley Bike Care, did give an old stock right though, if I wanted to put that one on the right. They even dug out a horn to replace the one that stopped working and put it on for free. I can highly recommend them. They had remembered me from the last time I had to have the bike repaired. “See ya soon, then”, I said in parting to the guy who delivered the bike back home.
I think an old habit may have cropped up where I keep screwing up my left eye when concentrating on something. So it would not have been surprising that I did not see that Gix was still there. It is not the first time it has happened too. There was the two times before on a bike, one of those times on my DAS course, and once in the car. Even more worrying, I nearly went into the back of Gix’s bike a little earlier when she slowed to pull into a garage. I have come to the decision that I will not be riding in a group again. It’s far too deadly for everybody else. If invited on a ride out again, I’ll just meet the guys there… or give them a couple of days head start.
A nice write up again and very brave of you to admit making a mistake Mike. Lots of people aren’t that humble. No need to suggest any words to the Oxford English Dictionary yet though (“Her bike was completely B2BMed…”)[
][]One thing you’ve certainly got is persistence so you must feel you’re not making the same mistakes. We all learn from experience. I remember being knocked off my bike when I was 17 by a car that had pulled to the left side of the road. I overtook while he was stationary and he suddenly pulled out to turn across me into a driveway. Technically it was his fault and I got paid out but I would never make that mistake now as I don’t trust cars that stop without indicating. I’ll always blast the horn now to show them I’m there and drop my speed to a crawl.
Part 12.
I have come to despair of bike riding ability sometimes. A few months ago, while doing the usual checks before going to overtake a lorry I came to do the final lifesaver and I was shocked to find another rider sitting broad on my starboard quarter. I never realised he was there and have been plagued with ‘what ifs… ‘, ever since. This and other numerous incidences in the past prompted me to attend a Bike Safe course with the West Midlands Police. Two of my mates from the bikers-café forum were on the same course as well. They were Champs and Gone2Mars. G2M was not strictly there by choice but it did save him a fine and 3 points.
I turned up on the morning of the course attired in my usual Suzuki GSXR Shoei helmet, tattered textile jacket worn over blue and white one piece leathers, worn sliders on my knees and worn bike boots sporting toe sliders. As I walked into the cafeteria where we all were to await the start of the course, I felt my assembled peers thinking, “Looks like we got a right one here, and thinks he’s a Rossi!” I was beginning to feel about as welcome as the one of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse at the second coming of Christ. My leathers are worn because I’ve come off a few times; they weren’t new when I bought them anyway. I bought them from my DAS instructor. My bike boots are old ones off eBay and Gix who thought my leathers didn’t quite look the part without them donated the worn sliders to me. Gix being Gix had worn them down quite a bit. I always look on them and the sliders on my boots as additional sets of crash bobbins anyway. My Shoei helmet is my one indulgence. It’s not because of the colour, though that’s nice too, but because it fits well and is very light in weight. Something my neck with the not fully recovered whiplash from my first accident two years ago is grateful for.
After I met up with champs and G2M, we spent the morning in the classroom learning a lot. After some lectures, we were shown an interactive DVD, in which there was shown an identical accident to mine that happened two weeks after I passed my CBT coincidently, and we then had a lecture on First Aid from a paramedic motorcyclist, Flipper. Then it was lunch.
For the assessed riding in the afternoon, we went out on the road two of us to each police motorcycle rider. I and another more elderly fellow were assigned to a police motorcyclist called Marcus. He was an inspiration as well as a font of knowledge and good advice. The type of person you would like to distil into a book so that you could take it out and read from time to time. This was the fellow who collared G2M coincidentally. I was amused at the thought that G2M and I should swap, and jokingly suggested such but G2M was reluctant for some strange reason. I can’t imagine why.
As we had no bike-to-bike communications the plan was for Marcus to ride behind the one in front and when he wanted us to take a particular direction, he would use his indicators to direct us that way. This called for us to be very observant behind and I made sure when a junction was coming in the distance to religiously look behind to see if a direction change was required.
There was a brief inspection of our bikes before we set off and Marcus suggested that I replace the tyres pretty soon. The rain was coming down in torrents by now and it was lucky that I had my textile jacket over my leathers. We started off from the West Midlands Police Training College in Birmingham and proceeded down Pershore Road, A414. The other fellow was leading at first and after a few wrong turnings from the failure to notice Marcus’s signals; we manage to get onto Alcester Road South, the A435, and proceeded south. The weather made visibility very hard when riding, my visor misted up and got too wet for my by then sodden gloves to clear it. When I rode with the visor open, the same thing happened with my glasses. I being me started to get left behind at first and I had to do naughty miles per hour to catch up. We turned onto the A4189 westwards and had a bit of a pit stop to shelter from the worsening rain. Marcus was very amused as I wrung out my gloves, resulting in a deluge of collected rainwater. When it eased off a bit, we continued east along the A4189 towards Henley in Arden. Before we continued though, Marcus took some time out to give the other fellow that we were with, some coaching on slow riding. He had just bought a new R1 and I think had not completely mastered the changes from his previous bike to a sports bike.
After a while we were back on the road with me leading and heading east.. I had a word with Marcus beforehand to tell him that I would be going slowly. I’ll bet he didn’t realise how slowly I meant. I made a mistake right away by not stopping and putting my foot down at a white line before joining the carriageway. I half suspected I’d be getting some points at the end of the day for that infraction The A4189 is a nice easy road for the inexperienced rider. Some nice bends but none that is too severe. I use it now for my ‘scenic route’ ride home from work. After a while on the A4189, we turned off onto some narrow country lanes. Marcus was a bit nervous about my positioning on bends on these roads. Rather than keep to the inside where I had limited vision or keep the outside where I would have the most vision but not leave myself time to get out of the way of any car that should come flying around the corner, I ended up riding in the middle where all the detritus was. He said to me later that he kept saying to himself, “Get off it! Get off it!” He said I was very gentle on the controls though, which helped a lot. Marcus also said my rear observation was good as we didn’t take a wrong turning once, except when I true to form miscounted and took the wrong exit at a roundabout. Marcus came up beside me, circled his finger and then put three fingers up meaning he wanted me to take the third exit at the next roundabout. I took the wrong one of course and had to turn around to catch up with them after they had taken the right exit. I blame the fact that my counting is impaired because long age I lost some of my little finger on the right hand and now I can only count up to nine and a half.
My concentration was going at the end of the afternoon when I unnecessarily braked as a bus pulled up a distance ahead. The thing was that it was before a raised zebra crossing and the forks bottomed out as I hit it. I got away with it though much to Marcus’s expressed surprise later on. I mentioned to him my concentration was going, as I was slightly concerned, and all he said was he was not surprised, as we have been riding all afternoon. In other words, stop whinging and get on with it. Fatigue robbed me of the memory of the return route, I’m afraid.
Then it came to the assessment at the end of the afternoon. We were assessed on eleven points. Only four of mine, Observation, Low speed control, Acceleration and Cornering were satisfactory. The other seven, Moving off, Stopping, Gears, Braking, Signals, Positioning and Overtaking, were rated as good which I thought was not too bad all things considered. Marcus said I was very cautious, but was impressed that I would not be pushed into riding faster than I felt safe and that I was at the level he would expect for someone with only a year of riding experience. The main advice he gave me was to get more miles under my belt and then go for some advanced training. As Marcus is the Institute of Advanced Motorists coordinator for the West Midlands area I’m thinking of the IAM for the next step in learning after I have gotten more experience.
The course was excellent and run very well. It was great value for only fifty pounds. The instructors were excellent and our assessor Marcus was a pleasure to meet. I would highly recommend the Bike Safe course to anyone wanting to further his or her training.
…And G2M, the lucky git, won the raffle.
Even more good stuff B2BM. I have pondered over the merits of Bikesafe, seems worthwhile from your experience
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