Letters
Your thoughts, opinions & adventures
ISA
Let's all get the bus! That way we can fit in with mark Thompson's views (pro ISA). Let's hand over responsibility for speed, direction, and reactions to road conditions! Why is Mark a member of MAG? We stand for freedom of choice. If MAG supported such a hair-brained idea as ISA it may as well shut up shop.
ISA should be fought against and defeated. How can someone in a control room decide what is and isn't the safest maximum speed at any given time? Just imagine going for the filtering move with the traffic restricted to 40mph when the car driver pulls out as you pass. Snap the throttle open to get out of his way - nothing - accident - injury carnage caused by ISA!
And to suggest that with ISA the police would be freed up to prosecute minor offences is nonsense, it didn't happen with that other messiah of road safety, the Gatso. What in fact happened is that the country lost patrolling officers and the offences Mark mentioned have increased. I know, I am a serving officer.
I have covered many miles on my motor cycle. I don't have a car so I, like Mark, commute to work on my bike and use it in all weathers. It appeared on the back page of the Pan European Owners Club magazine Pantasia, as the only motor cycle to make it to the gates of Ingliston on the day they cancelled the Scottish Motor Cycle Show because of snow! I don't see drivers as jealous, just ignorant or careless. And remember, more speeding tickets are issued to those jealous drivers than to motor cyclists.
Keep up the good work MAG, and fight ISA and other nanny state, freedom- restricting and dangerous 'safety features'.
Bungy
Gross inaccuracy
Reference the front page headline in The Road recently, 'Curry in my Carb', I must protest about the gross inaccuracy of this line on several fronts. Firstly, Curry is neither an Asian word nor dish.
Curry was invented in the UK for the benefit of the English restaurant trade. Secondly, Gold Wings haven't had carbs since Noah's dog was a pup. Maybe the headline could have read 'Dhansak in my Digital Fuel Injection'!
Yours in pedantry,
Alun Hughes,
proof reader in training.
Ed I think you'll find curry was actually invented by the British in India to help them cope with rotten meat. Ex officer of the British India Steam Navigation Company, so there!
Justice run
Just read your letter in MCN I see you are still calling for a demo run for justice. I don't think that is ever going to happen. I started a petition to gauge interest in a Freedom Ride. After two months I got 41 signatures and ripped it up. The bikers of old don't exist any more, they are all conformist today, they have been brainwashed to accept without question anything the government wants to put on them.
If it wasn't for the Brighton reunion how many people would have turned up for the Diesel Spills run? The modern biker is a joke. He's a gutless wimp. These people don't deserve motorbikes. I am 51 and I hope in the next 20 years all motorbikes are banned. You have to be a real human being to be a biker, that means willing to stand up and be counted. It's the last symbol of freedom in this nanny state. It's about being an individual, a person who believes in life and won't bend over to a corrupt society. Most riders today do not deserve to own such a symbol, let alone ride it.
The only way I can see you ever getting a massive demo off the ground is if MAG, the BMF MCN, and the manufacturers organise it together and that is never going to happen.
Gaz
Knee down with MCN
An MCN reader's letter reads as follows. I just wanted to say thanks for the knee-down video on your website. I have only had my licence since April and after watching the video I went out, and after the third try I heard that wonderful sound of knee slider on tarmac. So a big thanks for great advice.
Why do they constantly promote the notion that if you don't get your knee down, wheelie and power slide around corners, you are not experiencing motorcycling?.
I hold this type of journalism responsible for many biker deaths.
Dan Baxter, Dorset.
Editor's shame
I cannot believe that you ran the garbage from Imperial College that 4x4 drivers are more likely to use mobile phones on the move or drive without seatbelts.
Were the 'researchers' trained to know the difference between a 2-wheel drive Honda HRV & a 4x4 CRV?
Your high-handed editorial comment in condescending agreement with the findings, is quite astonishing, coming from an organisation that prides itself on standing up to prejudices against bikers.
Being a biker as well as a driver of both 2 & 4-wheel drive vehicles, I'm thoroughly fed up with all the biased articles about 'gas-guzzling Chelsea tractors.' I'm disappointed to see that MAG is now prepared to fill its publication with such rubbish. Small-minded zealots using road safety and the environment as smokescreens for their totally unfounded, selfish prejudices are perpetrating the current campaign against 4x4s. Don't fool yourself into thinking that if these modern-day Nazis succeed in their campaign, they won't mobilise against another group of road-users, maybe even bikers. Will you still feel so comfortable to peddle their propaganda then? You really should be ashamed.
J.P. McKinney
Gas guzzler rage
MAG has always been an organisation that gets the whole truth. It saddens me to read in ROAD 7 about the owners of 4x4s being considered as risk takers, happy to not wear seatbelts, and to use mobiles in motion.
It would seem that another chance to have a go at 4x4s has been taken. They only took a sample from West London between February and March 2004.
If this had been a report focussed on PTWs, what would have MAG's response been? I would have hoped that MAG would have questioned the relevance of such reporting and asked that further conclusive evidence be produced before such results could be used.
Hammersmith may have an unusually high number of 4x4 owners or risk takers, or it may not. It seems poor when certain groups within the 4x4 world are the types of people who are the types who go out repairing byways for walkers, horse riders and other vehicles, the types of people who work in voluntary organisations such as cave rescue etc the sort of people we shouldn't be alienating by the bastardised use of the term '4x4'.
I'd expect better from MAG reporting, and, to help me recover from such a shock, go on, I dare you to print a picture of my 1979 Land Rover and 1950 Vincent Comet.
Robert Vincent
Low revs less gas
Mike Baker says his TL100S does 35mpg which is about the same as my Trophy 1200 unless I go quicker, then it drops to around 30mpg. Most people I know get about 35mpg. I managed 50mpg once when I followed my daughter on her 125 from Torphichen to Oban. It's down to your right hand, Try keeping your bike to below 2000 rpm and then report your fuel economy. My 1200 gets around 53mpg at those revs, but riding around like an old fart kinda ruins the experience.
Dame Edna (122696)
Personal responsibility
I read with incredulity Trevor's Diary in issue 7 of The ROAD where a member of MAG's National Committee has been asked to look into why the Highway Code is not taught in CBT. As an instructor, I expect somebody who wants to learn to ride to have read the Code before they turn up. The guidelines state this is a six hour course and an awareness of the Highway Code is needed. If several of those are spent teaching the Highway Code,then that time is not spent riding the motorcycle.
I firmly believe that people should take responsibility for their own actions, one of the reasons I belong to MAG, and not blame everyone else if things go wrong/are difficult etc. I am more than happy to discuss areas that seem unclear or confusing, but there is a limit. If you can't be bothered why should I?
Nick
Euro lunacy
It costs us European taxpayers approximately about £135m pa to move the Parliament between Brussels/Belgium and Strasbourg/France. There is a campaign to try and get the Parliment permanently based in Brussels. See the petition online at: http://www.oneseat.eu/
Alan
Pacific trauma
We have just returned from a week on Rarotonga in the Cook Islands in the South Pacific, where we decided to hire a scooter.
At the hire shop, we learned that we would need a Cook Island drivers licence and we'd have to take a driving test, both available at the police station on the other side of town, about a five minute walk.
We said we would walk there and return with the licence. The guy then said not to bother walking, but to ride there on the scooter. So my girlfriend and I jumped on the scooter and rode to the police station. We were kept waiting for only two minutes. The paperwork was filled in and the £3.00 fee was paid for both licences. We were then told we didn't have to take the test, as the examiner was ill. We were given our licences and we rode back to the hire shop. The licence numbers were noted on the paperwork and only then were we free to ride the scooter. We then had a fantastic time exploring the island, scuba diving, snorkleing and sightseeing.
So remember, no matter how hard it is to get a licence here, just remember there is always somewhere else where it is harder. I mean, would you like to go through what we went through?
Ray Douglas
West London Harley Riders
Risk compensation
If the powers that be were to accept the reality of risk compensation, then it would make a mockery of virtually every piece of legislation ever passed to improve road safety. However, they simply will not saw through the branch they're sitting on.
I saw a programme on Dutch TV that irrefutably proved the reality of risk compensation. The experiment involved letting 10 people drive around a track with an obstacle hidden after a blind corner. They made the first run without seatbelts and the second run with seatbelts. Result? Without seatbelts, 9 out of 10 stopped in time, with seatbelts 9 out of 10 did not.
I think it was Lawrence of Arabia who was credited with suggesting that all cars should have a spike fitted to the steering wheel, the sharpened end of which should point at the driver's chest.
Dierk
Speed control
ISA technology is in place, all that requires to be done is to sell it to the general public. All the income from speed cameras would in effect cease overnight; no problem, road charging will be adjusted accordingly to compensate for the loss and reap the benefits of reducing traffic. You pay more, you go slow, or you don't go. Less tax income from less fuel? Easy, raise the tax level on fuel. Petrol companies lose revenue, raise the price per gallon.
This issue is looming large without the general knowledge of the public. Apart from the 'safety' angle, the release of manpower will be acclaimed to allow more 'proper policing' to be done. If government make noises that it is not being considered - do not believe them.
Bike control is all about balance, that includes throttle for stable cornering. If powered two wheelers are made unsafe because of ISA, then the thought will be to ban powered two wheelers capable of more than xxmph. The potentially most dangerous machine on the road is removed. Think outside the box. Ticket to Sturgis please - one way.
Derek Reynolds
Arrogant councils
Arrogance and income. I've just had a parking ticket for parking my motorcycle in a place in Leigh where I've been parking for 17 years. I wrote to the Fines Department arguing 'custom and practise' and received an arrogant reply stating that my ticket still stands. These people used to listen to residents, but now it's a case of 'We the council are the masters and you, the council tax payers, are our servants. When Derby council took over parking fines from the police, the revenue went up six fold!
Bob Berwick
Warrington
Editor loses plot
Have you lost the plot? Why would you use half a page to ask us to send money to an American senator? We are told he's pro-biker and he rode his Harley over 11,000 miles in 11 consecutive days. Why? Perhaps he was seriously lost!
This tells us he's got at least one good point but he's probably unhinged. Enough reason to send him money? Just what will he do with it? History tells us debauched living has been a frequent favourite with some politicians, but I'm sure he's a decent guy and will spend it well - he's a biker!
I was curious enough to put his name into Google and found that he's no stranger to controversy. He wants 'good citizens' to have the right to carry concealed loaded weapons to defend themselves, and there's more. Send the money to MAG instead!
John Andrew
London
Ed: I didn't really expect anyone to send money to a foreign politician. He has successfully campaigned against helmet compulsion though, for which I can forgive him almost anything. It is an overseas news item in the overseas section and reflects the relationship and overlap between legislators and bikers in the USA which I think justifies it as a news item. Anyway I need a gun to shoot litter louts.
More mpg please
Right on Stephen Kearney, I was always uncomfortable arguing that bikes were more environmentally friendly than other forms of transport.
Why are bikes behind cars when it comes to technology, on security as well as mpg?
Let's see a league table produced, showing mpg figures for all bikes.
Wake up MCIA, to some of us bikes are a way of life, not a fashion item. We have to show our green credentials. In the coming years of fuel shortage and climate change it is vital for our survival.
Mike Mason
Biker and tree hugger.
More care
A summary of a recent Death-by-Dangerous-Driving case in Croydon, as reported in my local paper, went as follows:
Two cars were travelling on a dual carriageway, one overtaking the other. Both were exceeding the speed limit. A car coming the other way, a Rover, turned right from the other carriageway, crossing their path.
One of these two cars hit the Rover as it turned right. The other managed to swerve and avoid it. The driver of the Rover was killed. Despite the fact that the Rover crossed the path of the other two cars and had contravened a no-right-turn sign, the driver of the car that hit it was jailed for three years, and the driver of the other car, which avoided it, was jailed for one year. I guess this is a sign of judges taking speed more into account than a momentary careless manoeuvre that would not have resulted in an accident if the other vehicles hadn't been exceeding the speed limit. Both drivers pleaded guilty to dangerous driving.
The crazy thing about this is that there are three speed cameras along this road, more evidence that speed cameras don't reduce accidents.
On the subject of daytime lights. In the north of Germany many roads have billboard signs encouraging drivers to switch lights on during the day. More worrying, is that these signs are in English as well as German.
All Arriva buses in S. London have had headlights on during the day for two years. I spoke to some drivers who seem to think it's a bit crazy. Anyone who can't see a bus is hardly likely to see those two little lights in broad daylight!" And MetroBus have also started using headlights in the daytime. Meanwhile, these are the signs that the Spanish have erected on roads around the GP race track at Jerez. I think these would be far more effective in slowing traffic down, and maybe give car drivers a laugh at the same time.
Ken Thomas
Public justice
Speeding laws don't allow competent people to think for themselves, they punish us for technicalities rather than mayhem, they distract us from good observation and judgement. This last point is the true basis of road safety, not numbers.
ISA will certainly hit the total nutters, but will also remove personal responsibility and so make the incompetent feel safer. Why not just drive on cruise control and switch the brain off? But not everyone is competent, so what are the authorities expected to do about it? Easy, get back to democracy and allow the reporting of the incompetent and the nutters by the public around them. If enough experienced drivers are saying the same thing, it must be true; and as long as the computer system behind it can check for all forms of abuse then it should work. Selective use of ISA could back this up but should not be used to support the secret agenda of behaviour control. Let the thinkers think.
Peter Calvert
ISA letter
OK, so ISA will end the carnage caused by speeding vehicles will it? I wonder if your correspondent has checked the stats recently? Speed - a contributory factor to, er, 5% of crashes and exceeding the speed limit is a way below that. ISA will do nothing to stop people driving at inappropriate speeds.
Speed limits are no more safe speeds at which to drive than I'm the Pope's sister. Road safety organisations have taken the most complex activity and dumbed it down to the point of ridicule. Stick to the limit and you'll be safe? If anyone believes this, get in touch, I've got a bagfull of magic beans I'd love to sell them.
Mark McArthur-Christie
ISA will kill
No-one can know how many sweeps of my car's wipers I will have to use to clear the screen years after the car was made. Now, if they cannot even know that, then how can they predict the ever-changing road conditions and at what speed I can safely travel? Why are they wanting to introduce Intelligent Speed Adaptation? The answer is control and money. British motorists now pay about five times more in various road-related taxes than is spent on maintenance and building.
I used to be sceptical about 'the throttle can be used to accelerate out of trouble' claim. Not any more, as several times I have accelerated away from a dangerously developing situation. I want control of my vehicle when I need it, not when some programmer or bureaucrat thinks it should be used. ISA control of throttles will kill bikers.
I suggest we buy several black ties and send them to the people wanting to introduce speed control. The ties should be sent with an accompanying message to the effect that if ISA is introduced they will need the ties to attend the funerals of the bikers that their system has killed.
Geoff Smith, life member Carlisle
Brainwashed
Re star letter from Mark Thomson (likes ISA). Accident statistics confirm that speed is only responsible for 4% of all accidents, biggest cause (32%) is failing to look properly. It's people like him that will destroy what little freedom we have left in this country. Mark, you have been brainwashed. I wish to be a free man and make my own decisions and mistakes. We don't need people like you in the biking community.
Gaz
Motorcyclists are stupid
Motorcyclists are stupid. I can understand the opposition of the motorcycling press to Intelligent Speed Adaption (ISA), but you're hypeing it up a bit aren't you? All the technical problems can be overcome and it will be safe to use. ISA and speed cameras are addressing the same issue: the enforcement of legal speeds. As a motorcyclist, which would you prefer, ISA or more cameras?
If ISA was introduced, speed cameras would be redundant. I oppose ISA, even though I normally respect all speed limits. I think it would have a negative impact on safety. Many lorries have a road-speed governor set at 56 mph, despite being legally allowed to do 60 mph on the motorway. Suppose that all other vehicles were required by law to have a road-speed governor set to 70mph, would we be safer? Wouldn't there be bunches of vehicles travelling nose to tail, each frustrated driver looking for the slightest overtaking chance? Small chance indeed, with lanes 1, 2 and 3 similarly occupied. The variability of speed is the very thing which allows traffic to become spaced out on the road. Sensible observance is better than rigid enforcement.
Basic human nature, particularly in the male, is selfish, aggressive, competitive, arrogant and stupid. In short, all the qualities you don't need to be a safe road user. I am sure that many car drivers in their mid-life crisis take up biking to give vent to the bad parts of their nature. The trouble is, they are soiling the nest for everyone else. They will cause biking to be ever more restricted, until no-one will find any pleasure in it at all. All responsible motorcyclists must seek a way to change the mind-set of the stupid faction.
By the way, if they had ISA or road-speed governors fitted, how many sports bikes would be sold?
Cameras are preferable to ISA, but in those big yellow boxes they spoil the look of the countryside. I would make them small and unobtrusive. They could be mounted on other road furniture so as to be unnoticeable. I think they would work better like that.
John Osborn, Bristol
Daytime lights
What a strange response from Alec Butler in suggesting that I have my facts totally wrong! The use of daylight running lights in Scandinavian countries, to help pick out moving vehicles against the glare of the low sun in spring and autumn, is reality. My SAAB 900 did have daylight running lights, but they weren't the headlights.
As to the tank being hidden from the enemy by the use of bright spotlights, this only applies when the tank is on the skyline as when down in the valley it would stand out like a searchlight! Also, the tank would have its spotlights directed at the enemy, whereas normal road vehicles would have lights on dipped beam or with the 21 watt side positioning lights, so as to not dazzle motorists coming the other way; does Alec ride on main beam? Putting your headlights on dipped beam when the sun is behind you would only make you invisible if you happened to be directly in line with the sun and on the skyline, which if it occurred at all would be only for a very short time and anyway, your vehicle is moving, unlike the sun and hopefully faster than a tank!
His suggestion that, if you turned your lights off you would be a black blob against a bright background is also not logical, as only the sides of objects lit by the sun will be bright and everything else down sun will be in shadow, hence you would be a "black blob" amongst all the other black shadows!
I must also agree with Rod Lawless regarding weaving about. It is the change in the position of an object that draws the observer's eye towards it, hence one of the reasons why motorists pulling out of side turnings don't identify motorcycles approaching them, as the rate of lateral change is very slight against the steady state of the scenery, until the last second. Swerve across the road and the rate of lateral change makes the vision sense trigger.
Interestingly, Alec thought my stupid suggestion that the EU may wish to use strobe lights on vehicles was a serious one! Come on, just remember that I am against the daft policy of not fitting an off-switch to vehicles' lighting circuits.
When they bring back the Red Flag Act, the only accidents will be when the holder of the flag gets run over. Lighten up Alec!
John L Broad
ISA
Ref. star letter issue 6, what a great idea this ISA looks to be. Then they could make our bikes go faster as we pass cameras, thus increasing revenue. We could also have cookers that only cook healthy food. On second thoughts, keep me out of it, I want full control, that way I've only got myself to blame.
Naz
Less people needed
We need more miles per gallon from our bikes, so, come on manufacturers. On the green issue, politicians etc are harping on about how we all have to use less fossil fuels, but no one has mentioned cutting the population. Less people, less pollution.
Ian Hodgson,
co. Durham.
Hardened criminal
Enjoyed your Editorial in the Nov-Dec issue of The Road. You are enjoying (?) a dialogue with a hardened criminal here. When SORN was set-up, I assumed that the DVLA would write to me, to inform me of the tax situation over the non-running bike I had been given, but they didn't. The next communication came from some agency in Glasgow that decided I should be fined for not notifying them that my non-running bike was, unsurprisingly, not taxed either. But I could have used it on the road, couldn't I? No, as it happened. Good job I paid up, otherwise I might be writing this from Van Diemen's Land.
Alan
Eco beard
Bikes are part of the solution to the world's environmental problems, as is so often promoted by MAG. But you can all help in another way. Get an eco-friendly face: grow a beard! No power for that electric shaver, no boiling water, no disposable razors or empty cans of shaving foam cluttering up land fill. And, if you do have to trim that lush growth on your chin, put it in the compost, every little helps.
Beardy bikers save the planet!
Andy Carrott,
Mid Lincs MAG
Big Brother state
I'm amazed that there are still people in the world who think that the state will protect us and our information. Ken Partington believes that his personal data will be safe on a government database. Ken, how do you think terrorists travel around the world? Do you think that they use their own name and their own passport, kindly issued by their forgiving governments? I suspect that they use other people's details. So why make things easier for them and stick all our details onto a system that is controlled, monitored and made secure by the same people who haven't got a clue how to keep it safe and secure?
The DVLA decided to upgrade its computer systems. During this process hundreds of thousands of records were either inadvertently deleted or lost. This is not uncommon during operations like this. It should be rare, but as with all things, it comes down to money and possibly the lowest bidder. So, Ken - how secure are all those details now ? Still got confidence in those who you would choose to have all your personal data ?
Donald
Life Member, Lifetime Biker
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