Filtering accident

Over on GBBikers "Bossdog" has posted up a letter that was used by another person when they were knocked off of their bike while filtering. The title link of this post will take you to it if you have the need for such a letter. It goes to great detail about how "Lynw" was in the right, the insurance was going for a 50/50 but ended up 100% in her favour. It is also a good read to refresh on our highway code relating to filtering and what our responsibilities are.

Motorist attacks camera van

Found a great little story on the MCN website:

"A crazed motorist is being hunted by Australian police after he attacked a speed camera van with an axe.

The unknown motorist smashed the window of the camera vehicle before fleeing the scene when the camera operator triggered an alarm.

Police in Melbourne hope to use the speed camera footage to trace the motorist, who they believe was upset at being photographed."
Original post

As much as I find camera vans annoying, maybe a little extreme?!

Helmet strap

I discovered today why it is important to keep your helmets chin strap done up tightly. But before I say why, let me go back a few months to when I was helping a mate look for a new helmet. (Skip to the 3rd paragraph to go straight to it!)

There we were shopping around sampling helmets when we found a few that fitted nice and snugly. The interesting thing was that it didn't have the "sealt belt" buckle similar to my helmet, it had the "Double-D" type. We're told that the double-d is actually safer then the newer buckle type. Asking why, it seems that many people don't check the tightness of the strap often and can be riding with a helmet that may not stay on in the event of a crash. The x2D strap means you have it tighten every time you use it, so you get maximum safety.

So anyway, I was riding to work when I was caught by a gust of wind that lifted my helmet enough that the chin bar obscured much of my lower vision! The moral of the story, ensure you check the tightness of the strap regularly.

SHARP - The Helmet Safety Scheme

The title link will take you to the new Government website called "SHARP" Safety Helmet Assessment Rating Program. They aim to test all the helmets on sale in the UK. An interesting thing to read is the motorcycle press saying that an expensive Arai scores less then a £50 Laser. However if you watch the video that is on the site, it explains that they measure the amount of energy that is absorbed by the lid and how much is then transferred to the brain.

I am not a specialist in impact testing so cannot comment on how accurate the simulations are compared to real life events, however it must be good that there is a standard test that shows how good or bad a lid is at absorbing impact energy, regardless of label or price band.

Why not had a look and see if your helmet is on yet, if it isn't it should be soon once they (SHARP) have got round to it. Interestingly my helmet manufacturer isn't even listed!

Worrying - Car driver observation

Just a quick one today! I was on my way to work today when I passed one of my colleagues (who was in a car), admittedly I didn't wave, flash or anything. Upon getting to work, he not only didn't see me but doesn't even remember a bike going past him!

Worrying as it could explain why so many car drivers pull out into other road users, they just don't see anything else on the road, if it isn't directly in front of them, it isn't there...

OK I am an idiot!

I have a little story to tell. I was going home from work, I had put on all my gear as I always do, swung my leg over the bike and then rode off into the sunset. Except I got a whole two feet before coming to a grinding halt then falling off of my bike.

What happened? The dozy idiot that I am, forgot to remove the disc lock off of the wheel before I rode off. I had put it at the top of the calliper which meant it had to go round over 3/4s of the revolution before hitting the other side of the calliper! Given the size of the wheel and tyre about 2 feet of travel. Luckily there was only two people around who saw it (didn't stop it spreading like wildfire the next day!) and one of them graciously helped me pick up the bike again.

Had a good laugh at myself, decided to now put the lock just under the calliper so I can only move less then an inch before stopping.

Lesson learned and a very nice member of GB Bikers has offered to send me one of those reminder cables (big thanks to Mr Mandy!).

Adjusted idle speed

Got home from work on Monday and the engine was idling at almost 1.8k, although not the same problem as the 3k+ idle issue I still have. This was just the bike being warm and running too fast. So tweaked the idle speed adjuster down to the more appropriate speed of 1.2k rpm. Only problem was that I forgot and as it now idles slower the bike stalled because it wasn't up to running temperature. Oops!

Blast around the backroads

As I am going to be going on a short holiday this week I took the opportunity to take the bike out for a little blast Saturday. Actually I used the route I have already posted about, although this time I went out on my own.

First time I had ridden in strong winds and boy, do you notice them! Having got used to a small lightweight car I thought I understood what it means when you get side swiped by a strong wind. How wrong was I. On at least two occasions I was pushed across the lane I was in, once almost into the oncoming traffic. It was a good ride out and I really enjoyed being on the bike for pleasure rather then getting to and from work!

I still don't understand why people (i.e. the motorbike press) continue to berate the little GS500. Yes it isn't the most powerful bike in the world, even less so as I have had to have it restricted in accordance to my driving license, but it is a hoot for someone of little biking experience under his belt (me). Now my confidence is building I am able to flick it from either side with no fuss or complaint from it and it handles both town riding and longer distance (200miles in a weekend or about 3-4 hours riding). And it is wonderfully economical too, returning 60mpg average thus far.

I also used the bullet camera to record the run. I will look at converting some bits of it and loading it up to view on here. The only problem is that the microphone is rubbish and picked up more of its own rattling then the sound of the bike. Will probably silence the audio as it is painful to listen too!

Idle over-reving

Not sure what the problem is, but on certain occasions the bike seems to like to over run while it is idling. If I have been going for a while then come to a stop sometimes, at the moment it is rarely, the engine will idle circa 3k rpm.

I am going to be changing the accelerator, decelerator and choke cables in case one of them is sticking or damaged. Cheap enough to do and I don't know when they were last done either so good for maintaining anyway.

Route in planning

View Larger Map

This is a route which I am planning to do at some point over the summer.

Starting just outside Winchester on the A272 heading down towards Petersfield. A short hop onto the A3 to miss going through Petersfield and then down B2146(Sussex Road) and then left onto the B2141. At the end of the B2141 joining A286 heading for Midhurst then on to Halsemere. Total trip approx 46miles and around 1:15-30 hours.