Known as a tank-slapper here.
Ugh.
Oops, Mercenary Garage already posted that.
Known as a tank-slapper here.
Ugh.
Oops, Mercenary Garage already posted that.
Only last week, in a spell of warm weather, I saw a guy on a Ducati cruise through town and around a pretty dodgy roundabout wearing only shorts, T-shirt etc. At least he had a bash-hat on.
Not that I gave a monkey’s about him, but his teenage daughter was riding pillion in similar garb.
Yeah, the women are often in even less clothing-halter tops and short shorts and flip-flops and they have no control at all.
Here is a really good explanation of tank slappers from FortNine. Also, a YouTube channel I really enjoy–Ryan is kind of like the J Kenji Lopez-Alt of motorcycle stuff (informative and hilarious)
But then abrasions are way cooler and more manly than mamby-pamby tattoos or piercings.
Scars are tattoos for the brave.
Also, what if his bike goes on its own way like here, and hits someone?
It’s not just the rash that’s going to hurt, it’s when he gets scrubbed down with a stiff brush to clean the raw flesh that’ll sting!
Many years ago, a friend of my then g/f picked up his g/f to give her a ride home. It was a warm sunny day, she was wearing shorts and a tee shirt on the back of his bike, when he lost control and dropped the bike! It took three people to hold him down at the hospital A&E, because he could hear her screaming as she was scrubbed clean…
Just to add to this, on my way out to visit a friend one dark winter night, I was in a line of cars slowing up behind one that was about to turn right, when a bike overtook the line at approximately 60-70mph, in a 50 limit, just as the car started it’s turn! I got a huge adrenaline rush, and thought “fucking hell! Suicidal idiot!” About a mile further on the road makes a sudden dip below a railway line which runs at an angle with an obliquely angled short tunnel/bridge; to complicate things, there’s a narrow lane that joins right at the bridge, as the lane runs alongside the railway embankment. As I got to the bridge, there were a couple of cars stopped, hazard lights on. I stopped, hazards on, and went to see what had happened.
It wasn’t good, a couple of pensioners were sat in their car, in the dip, waiting to turn right, across the flow of oncoming traffic. The biker had impacted the front of their car, at possibly 70-80mph, leaving the bike embedded in the front of the car. I walked through the tunnel, the rider was lying the other side, I would guess fifty feet from his bike and the car he’d flown over.
I tried for a pulse in the side of his neck, I think everyone can imagine the result…
Here’s a link to the point where he overtook me:
Google Earth Link
Here’s the approach to the bridge;
Google Earth Link
It’s not a stretch of road to drive like a fuckwit, although development on a former RAF airfield has meant a large roundabout has been built, which does slow things a bit.
Yeah, I’ve seen 42mph downhill on a mountain bike, and managed to overtake a car at 32mph at the bottom of my road, a slight downhill with a following wind, and as I was wearing shorts and tee shirt on both occasions, (and there were a number of other occasions as well), there was a little voice in the back of my head screaming ’slow the fuck down!
I never actually came off, except for once on my way into town I turned onto a shared cycle path at walking speed, and both wheels went out from underneath me, dumping me onto rough tarmac. My left knee took the main impact, also my elbow, shoulder, the side of my face was badly grazed, fortunately I had a crash hat on, which took most of the impact.
That stupid, slow-speed off has left me with a permanent disability with osteoarthritis in my knee at the impact point.
That was at less than 3mph, and things like this video always make me think back to the sort of speeds I used to do unprotected, and I get a really queasy feeling inside! 🫣
I’ve layed a bike down twice. Once, my car was in the shop and I had to get to work… in November in Michigan. On the way home some unpredicted slush covered the road but I had to get home. Went down at about 35mph but because I had on a snow suit and the slush I just slid. One guy was kind enough to roll down his window and laugh at me. I did have it coming. I was 18.
The other time, I pulled up to a friend’s house drunk and got off the bike but forgot about the kick stand.
Reason 428 why I quit drinking decades ago.
The thing about those speeds on bicycles - you’re kinda “protected” [1] by the fact that a bicycle can’t do that very much. A motorbike will cruise comfortable at 40 mph all day - on a bicycle it’s an unusual event. So your chance of crashing at 40 mph - even if you can do it - is lower simply because you won’t do it much.
And yeah, it’s astonishing how much low-speed tumbles can hurt.
[1] in a risk analysis / statistical sense.
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