The (very) fine line between life and death

Have to agree with Vince. There are unfortunately people out there who have a serious mental incapacity to process risk. Either that or their sense of risk only extends as far as their own selfish survival - responsibility? Forget it. The video game analogy sadly seems to ring true - we see the dash cam footage and can't quite believe that level of stupidity is even possible.

Hope you can get some closure, Andy. Maybe take your bicycle out onto some quiet backroads and trails for a reset!
 
Give it some time and you`ll be ok Andy .......... Sometimes these negative incidents seem to multiply or compound upon themselves within a relatively short space of time .......... then things settle down again and all is back to normal .

Keep going out and riding ....... the more you do so the sooner you will realise these incidents are actually relatively far and few between , and before you know it you will be back to enjoying your riding again .

Tony
 
I see more and more hi performance cars in social media posts where having been stopped by police the drivers have no insurance and no license - it’s all too easy for people to buy these cars but not get insured - doesn’t seem to stop them - and of course they have no idea how to drive them 😳

Got to keep your wits about you on the road but sadly there’s no accounting for idiots !
 
Sir Sidney Ruffdiamond said:
I see more and more hi performance cars in social media posts where having been stopped by police the drivers have no insurance and no license - it’s all too easy for people to buy these cars but not get insured - doesn’t seem to stop them - and of course they have no idea how to drive them 😳

Got to keep your wits about you on the road but sadly there’s no accounting for idiots !
Click to expand...
Social media posts are a very deformed vision of reality.
Your next door neighbour, family man with a small cheap car and a regular qualified job, no insurance or driving license, rarely attracts attention.
Paul
 
piranha-bro2 said:
Have to agree with Vince. There are unfortunately people out there who have a serious mental incapacity to process risk. Either that or their sense of risk only extends as far as their own selfish survival - responsibility? Forget it. The video game analogy sadly seems to ring true - we see the dash cam footage and can't quite believe that level of stupidity is even possible.

Hope you can get some closure, Andy. Maybe take your bicycle out onto some quiet backroads and trails for a reset!
Click to expand...
You’re probably right Q, I really do need to get out and do a bit more cycling, for both both mental and physical fitness.
 
Several road crashes around the island at the w/e resulting in closed roads. Apparently the one on the mountain section of the TT course involved a ‘supercar’.
I did get out again yesterday on the ShouldabeenaJota for the VMCC road run. The ride to and during the road run, which started and ended in St John’s, went without incident. I took the TT course home and apart from a car pulling out from a side road in a fast derestricted section before Sulby, which I anticipated in plenty of time, I had a fairly calm ride back. A few more rides like that will be welcome.
 
Generally I avoided the TT course and the one way over the mountain during the TT (it was frequently closed anyway due to crashes or other issues) save for one very early morning lonely dash on the ShouldabeenaJota, which very much reminded me of early morning practice 40 years ago, especially when I encountered a bit of mist around Windy Corner and the 33rd, and later in the day another run, but this time on the BMW supascoot. I’m afraid to say the blast on the Beemer was probably more fun than the earlier ride as I made a guy on his big sports tourer give up trying to ‘race’ me. 😁
However, back to the real point of the post, I took the ShouldabeenaJota out yesterday evening for a ride over the mountain to Ramsey and back. Fairly clear run to Ramsey but on the way back I had yet further reasons to question the mentality of some Manx car drivers. As I was approaching the start of the mountain mile I came round a fairly fast left hand bend to discover an effing moron in a 4x4 had stopped, virtually blocking the whole carriage way and was chatting away on his phone! 🤬
Fortunately, I was sort of observing the don’t ride faster than you can safely stop, and there wasn’t anything coming towards me so other than me swearing and waving my fist at the driver there was no unhappy ending to my ride. However, it certainly undermines any enjoyment gained from such activities.
 
Last edited:
From where I'm sitting, Andy, it just doesn't sound like a very safe place to ride fast - or at least approach every blind bend as if there's a 4WD sitting in the middle of the road!
 
I have just been having a conversation with my sister about how, after my recent misadventure, my thinking about riding is changing. Even before then I was having thoughts like, ‘if there’s a tourist on the wrong side of the road round this bend I’m dead’. But on roads around here, if I ride so that I could avoid any such situation it would be so tedious as to be pointless in my view.
 
I really do despair. I used to reckon I'd only have a squeaky bum moment a couple of times a year, but it now seems like it's almost every time I ride a sport bike. The latest incident, early evening, involved a wanker tourist from the UK, in their M Sport BMW, crawling along at 30-35mph around a bend, this time after the mountain mile, presumably admiring the view. Fortunately I spotted a people carrier ahead of me slowing somewhat quicker than I would normally expect at that point on the road.
The driver of the BMW must have noticed the several other sports bikes that had passed him, before me, coming the other way 'at speed' to be sufficiently aware that ambling around bends at 30-35mph was not a sensible thing to be doing. If you want to admire the view, pull off the road at the various stopping points on the road!
I gave him the appropriate hand signal when I passed him but I doubt he really got the message. I think I may have to revert to early mornings again.
 
Andy J said:
The driver of the BMW must have noticed the several other sports bikes that had passed him, before me, coming the other way 'at speed' to be sufficiently aware that ambling around bends at 30-35mph was not a sensible thing to be doing. If you want to admire the view, pull off the road at the various stopping points on the road!
Click to expand...

Andy, the sad fact is that the average driver wouldn’t notice a sign, in 84 point type, stuck on their windshield.
My road has a succession of two car + length parking spaces.
If I had a penny for every time I‘ve seen some selfish twunt park in the centre of one, I’d be richer than Elon.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top