A Baldwin and a bike
I am used to writing for work, but the material is rarely personal and presented in the first person. A blog post I wrote that bucks that trend has just been published on my employer’s website. The article was in connection with the Brake’s 2018 Road Safety Week Campaign. My contribution was about motorcycle riding and you can read about it here - Road Safety Week 2018 – Part 1
There isn’t much point in reproducing the content verbatim here because it would just confuse the search engines and mess with my company’s rankings, but please have a read and see what you think.
Despite its distinctly conversational, rather than corporate tone, my post survived largely without censorship. If you’re interested though, the last bullet point on my top ten tips was toned down a little – it originally read “Finally, if you spit, throw your cigarette, or any other rubbish for that matter, out of the window when you have a motorcyclist behind you … you are an inconsiderate arse.”
Since I acquired my Yamaha YBR 125 Custom at the end of August (previous article available), I have ridden it over 1600 miles and am getting more experienced/adept; I have even had to alter my insurance to increase my mileage allowance (and I am already getting close to the increased number).
Though the YBR is/has been brilliant, next year I will have the acquisition of my full motorcycle licence high up on my list of priorities. It’s not because I am bothered by my “L” plates, in fact I think of those as being my friend – other road users make allowances for me because of them. The main reason is that I already want a bike that is faster and safer than the 125 I am entitled to ride with my provisional.
You might be wondering how I can combine faster and safer in the same sentence, I’ll admit it sounds counter intuitive, but bear with me and I’ll explain it.
If you have read the Road Safe piece, you’ll have noted that I mention in the "advice for other motorists" bullet point list, that the bike will lose speed when going up hills, a twenty MPH drop is not unusual. That lost speed takes a while to put back on too.
To be safer, I think that the ability to stay with the car traffic at all times would reduce the likelihood of frustrating other drivers and prompting risky overtaking manoeuvres.
I’ll admit that I am not ready for a bike that does 180 mph or gets to 60 in 2-3 seconds, but a bike that will cruise without missing a beat (or being thrashed too hard) at 70mph and get there in 6-7 seconds would, I genuinely believe, be a safer proposition on the road.
The reality is that most people driving cars will never have ridden a motorbike and the expectation that they have about a bike’s performance may not be aligned with the truth. When cars have been following me more closely than I’d like, and when I am losing speed without braking (and the brake light glowing), the chances of being driven into are not insignificant.
But the provisional licence doesn’t allow for a bike to be bigger than 125cc, so taking the full test is the only way to get to ride something a little more powerful. From a parochial perspective, I’d like the rules to be loosened to allow 250cc on a provisional, but I am not negatively disposed towards the motorcycle licencing process at all. I think that getting a provisional, getting on the road and getting some proper riding experience before having to go through a more rigorous test on a big bike is a much better approach than that imposed for car driving.
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There isn’t much point in reproducing the content verbatim here because it would just confuse the search engines and mess with my company’s rankings, but please have a read and see what you think.
Despite its distinctly conversational, rather than corporate tone, my post survived largely without censorship. If you’re interested though, the last bullet point on my top ten tips was toned down a little – it originally read “Finally, if you spit, throw your cigarette, or any other rubbish for that matter, out of the window when you have a motorcyclist behind you … you are an inconsiderate arse.”
Since I acquired my Yamaha YBR 125 Custom at the end of August (previous article available), I have ridden it over 1600 miles and am getting more experienced/adept; I have even had to alter my insurance to increase my mileage allowance (and I am already getting close to the increased number).
Though the YBR is/has been brilliant, next year I will have the acquisition of my full motorcycle licence high up on my list of priorities. It’s not because I am bothered by my “L” plates, in fact I think of those as being my friend – other road users make allowances for me because of them. The main reason is that I already want a bike that is faster and safer than the 125 I am entitled to ride with my provisional.
You might be wondering how I can combine faster and safer in the same sentence, I’ll admit it sounds counter intuitive, but bear with me and I’ll explain it.
If you have read the Road Safe piece, you’ll have noted that I mention in the "advice for other motorists" bullet point list, that the bike will lose speed when going up hills, a twenty MPH drop is not unusual. That lost speed takes a while to put back on too.
To be safer, I think that the ability to stay with the car traffic at all times would reduce the likelihood of frustrating other drivers and prompting risky overtaking manoeuvres.
I’ll admit that I am not ready for a bike that does 180 mph or gets to 60 in 2-3 seconds, but a bike that will cruise without missing a beat (or being thrashed too hard) at 70mph and get there in 6-7 seconds would, I genuinely believe, be a safer proposition on the road.
The reality is that most people driving cars will never have ridden a motorbike and the expectation that they have about a bike’s performance may not be aligned with the truth. When cars have been following me more closely than I’d like, and when I am losing speed without braking (and the brake light glowing), the chances of being driven into are not insignificant.
But the provisional licence doesn’t allow for a bike to be bigger than 125cc, so taking the full test is the only way to get to ride something a little more powerful. From a parochial perspective, I’d like the rules to be loosened to allow 250cc on a provisional, but I am not negatively disposed towards the motorcycle licencing process at all. I think that getting a provisional, getting on the road and getting some proper riding experience before having to go through a more rigorous test on a big bike is a much better approach than that imposed for car driving.
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