Rob's Blog

Just the other day I was talking about how I’d like to visit the Isle of Man. I want to see what a place with low taxes looks like, and I want to ride on roads with no speed limits.

Today I read in the August issue of Bike magazine that organisers of the 2009 TT race are introducing strict new rules on where spectators can stand — to the extent that there are hardly any good places left. Apparently, getting close to the action is one of the main attractions of the races. But in 2007, two spectators were killed. The first two in 100 years, mind. So now people aren’t to be trusted with looking after themselves and it’s all going to be spoiled.

Perhaps I’d better visit before someone does something about those speed limits…and those taxes.

Meanwhile, on page 16 is an interview with a motorcycle instructor who is complaining about the bike license test which includes a new “swerve test”. There were 25 crashes in the first five weeks of running the test. The instructor interviewed complained that manoeuvre must be done at 31mph even in the rain, which is just not safe. One of his pupils broke his arm crashing in the rain.

‘The Driving Standards Agency are saying that stopping distance is the same in the wet or dry because the tarmac at a test centre has had its top surface skimmed to make it like six-month-old tarmac, which is grippier than new. In the DSA’s own publication, the Highway Code, it says to adjust speed accordingly in the wet. It doesn’t say to adjust your speed according to when the tarmac was laid. They’ve disregarded the need to adjust speed according to the conditions. It’s totally wrong.

‘Motorcyclists aren’t going to do that manoeuvre in normal riding. If you react to a car pulling out by doing this manoeuvre then you’re going to swerve into oncoming traffic.

The BBC have a pretty good video report where you can see the manoeuvre. It doesn’t look that extreme to me — I think you could straighten it out by riding close to the cones — but without trying it I’m not sure.

I would say that it’s fine to in principle to test the rider’s ability to do any manoeuvre to demonstrate his ability to control the machine. But if you regulate the speed and the path, there’s not much room for, er, manoeuvre, so to speak, when you run out of grip. And 31mph is a stupid speed.

I managed to get a £60 fine for riding my bike in a bus lane. I’d recently seen posters about how wonderful it is that Motorcycles are now allowed in bus lanes for an 18 month trial.

But there is small print. And you have to read it while you’re riding your bike and trying to avoid pedestrians, other vehicles and slippery, wet drain covers. You have to check for the presence or absence of a tiny motorcycle symbol on tiny blue signs sporadically placed somewhere along the bus lane.

Here’s the comment I left on the motorcycles in bus lanes survey

The signs telling you whether it is allowed to ride a motorcycle in a bus lane are small and hard to see.

I was fined £60 for riding in a bus lane; this never happened before the trial.

Suggestion: allow motorcycling in all bus lanes. This will be safer because I will not have to strain to see the small signs and I will have to filter close to oncoming traffic less frequently.

I also learnt that they have people whose job it is to watch CCTV images looking for transgressions such as mine. You’d think real people like that would use a bit of judgement. I got my fine on the day of the tube strike after giving my wife a lift to the train station. Like many people I was making an unfamiliar journey – some leeway would be nice on such a day. In the photo I was sent of me in a bus lane, there is no bus in sight.

But to an official, the letter of the law is all that matters, never mind the spirit of it. Not getting in the way of a bus is no defence.

You may think you know how to ride a bicycle, but the chances are you don’t know how to turn a corner. Wilbur Wright (yes, that one) said:

I have asked dozens of bicycle riders how they turn to the left. I have never found a single person who stated all the facts correctly when first asked. They almost invariably said that to turn to the left, they turned the handlebar to the left and as a result made a turn to the left. But on further questioning them, some would agree that they first turned the handlebar a little to the right, and then as the machine inclined to the left, they turned the handlebar to the left and as a result made the circle, inclining inward.

He’s talking about countersteering. To turn left, you have to lean to the left, and to do this, the handlebars must first turn to the right. There is no other way to turn left. And yet most people I’ve told this simply don’t believe me.

Obviously you have to lean to the left to turn left, otherwise the bike will fall over. Most people just think about leaning the bike over and aren’t conscious of what they’re doing with their hands. No real force is required on the bars; just lean your body left and the steering will turn enough to the right on its own. But if you do consciously countersteer by pushing on the left handlebar, you discover that the bike is much more maneuverable than before.

On motorcycles this is an important safety technique. A common cause of accidents is riders not making it round a corner and crashing into something on the outside of the corner. Often the rider thinks he is going too fast and brakes. Braking makes the bike stand up straight, which makes it go in a straight line – crash! The correct thing to do when you find yourself going scarily fast round a left hand bend, is to give the left bar a good shove. The bike will lean over more and round you will go.

Because it is so counter-intuitive, I think it is important to consciously countersteer all the time, so as to program your brain with the correct action when there isn’t time to think about it.

The wikipedia page has a full explanation of what’s going on and this video has quite a good demonstration.