The CBT course is divided into five elements. Element D is where we talk about the road. This includes such things as visibility, vulnerability, the weather conditions and road surface. Also, importantly, our attitude. I regularly advise new riders not to get into altercations with other road users. This is why.
This is the terrifying moment a motorcyclist was catapulted off a bridge landing in a nearby bush after he was violently rammed by a BMW driver in a fit of ‘road rage’.
Shocking footage released by police showed driver Nikesh Mistry recklessly forcing the motorcyclist onto the wrong side of the road in Milton Keynes following a ‘non-verbal’ exchange.
The 34-year-old driver, who was today jailed for almost five years for his ‘very serious assault’, squashed Jamie Burns between his silver BMW 320 and a metal bridge railing after the pair got into an argument.
The rider will aways come off worst, so it isn’t worth it, no matter how much someone has wound you up.
The advice I got early on to Protect But Not Defend my space has served me well so far.
Used to ride a bike, but haven’t been on a motorbike for years. Cycled thousands of miles from when I was a youngster to school and many places since.
To get to school had to pass the Cycling Proficiency Test and in those days they only passed you if they believed you were safe.
Only got a car when became eligible for one as a company car driver. I lived in London so tube and bus were viable options.
My company was foresighted enough to give us all driver training and I learnt a lot from these courses, particularly with regard to defensive driving and looking at the road conditions ahead. I thought that I knew these skills, but bloody hell they took it to another level. They also taught about how to avoid getting yourself in road-rage like situations.
There are arseholes on motorbikes, bicycles, cars, vans and lorries.
Yes I want to smash their heads in when they try do something stupid which might kill me or mine, but you’ve just got to be the adult and take sensible appropriate evasive action such as back off and stay back or whatever.
All that said people who try to run other road users off the road (especially more vulnerable ones) in such a dangerous manner not only deserve their ability to drive to be permanently removed but also deserve permanent incarceration.
Totally agree with your advice, law of gross tonnage definitely applies when you’re on a bike. In a conflict between bike and a car/van/lorry there’s only ever going to be one outcome.
Wondering if you have any idea why BMW’s seem to attract more than their fair share of the above type of idiot driver – thinking maybe the company initials stand for Bloody Minded Wanker
Fashions change – it used to be Volvo drivers, now it’s BMW drivers. What’s next – Tesla drivers?
No, Audi’s are the idiots vehicle of choice round my way.
Always Under De Influence maybe?
In the back of my mind all the time I was riding my moped, was that the only crumple zones I had were me and that it was going to hurt .Don’t take chances.
nikesh mistry tries to murder Jamie Burns.
A name can tell you a lot, and which name was which? Well just a caste of the dei I’m sure.
Cannot understand why this wasn’t prosecuted as attempt murder, for the motorcycle rider if not for the other car’s passenger.
At least the motorcyclist was a ‘player’ in the pre-crash altercation, we know not at what level, but whatever level doesn’t justify the reaction of the brain-dead car-driver.
However, unconditional sympathy must go to the entirely innocent occupant(s) of the third vehicle involved, being properly driven on the correct side of the road, which was clearly written off and which probably also involved injuries.
This being my point. Don’t get involved in an altercation. Shrug and let it go.
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. Everyone makes mistakes, if you have never made a single mistake while driving you might possibly feel justified in getting the hump when other people do, but I don’t know anyone who can claim that.
I also make this point. Am I the perfect rider/driver? Of course not. Maybe the other person is just having a bad day, so let it go. If you need a minute to compose yourself, pull over and stop for a bit.
Further to earlier discussions about which capacity bikes you could ride at what age, there is a really fun article in the latest Classic Bike magazine about the FS1E and other sports mopeds of those distant times. I never had a fizzy, being born in September I was almost seventeen when I left school and I rode to work on a pushbike for quite a while before getting a motorbike. I rode a Honda 50 for a bit but my first proper bike was a Yamaha RD125.