After a weekend of carnage ...

[Herb]

Speeding is only wrong when other people do it!

[milleplod]

If I was a copper, I would feel very hypocritical nicking someone for doing something I'd be quite happy to do myself.
I've ridden with a few of them off duty, and I've seen far more extreme than the overtake in question.
If we all believe that speeding is wrong, then perhaps we would also argue that motorcycle speeds should be electronically governed to 80mph.
After all, who needs to go faster

I never felt like a hypocrite, it never bothered me. I took exactly the same risk when I chose to press on as the next person did...the risk of getting caught. Golden rule though - no speeding in my own county...so no fear of a pull by someone I knew. 2 of my colleagues were caught and picked up points. Asking to be let off because you're 'in the job' was always a no-no, despite what some people might assume. No doubt there'll be someone who knows someone who knows a bobby who got let off though!

Pete

[fontana]

I never felt like a hypocrite, it never bothered me. I took exactly the same risk when I chose to press on as the next person did...the risk of getting caught.

Getting caught and taking your punishment is one thing, but when you tug someone, and start lecturing them on the dangers of doing something that you might consider perfectly OK for you to do off duty, that doesn't stick in your throat just a little ?

[milleplod]

I never felt like a hypocrite, it never bothered me. I took exactly the same risk when I chose to press on as the next person did...the risk of getting caught.

Getting caught and taking your punishment is one thing, but when you tug someone, and start lecturing them on the dangers of doing something that you might consider perfectly OK for you to do off duty, that doesn't stick in your throat just a little ?

Nope. I never lectured anyone if they were simply speeding. Had they been riding like a knob and speeding, they'd have had the benefit of listening to me drone on. And I never rode, or ride for that matter, like a knob.

Pete

[fontana]

Back in the mid 90's, I had one of the very early BMW flip front lids.
I was riding down Park Lane and got tugged by a motorcycle cop.
I was riding with the flip front up, which was illegal with that model.
As he was lecturing me about it, I spotted two other bike cops coming towards us, both with the same lid as mine, and both with the flip fronts open.
He was busy looking over my bike and didn't see them, and I so wanted to point them out to him and ask him if he was going to lecture them about it.
I didn't though.
This guy was as hard nosed as they come, and I thought he might make life very difficult for me if I tried to be clever.
Point I'm trying to make is that the guy in the video wasn't riding like a knob.
He executed a perfectly legitimate overtake, then slowed back down once he'd done it.
It was text book.
Nothing that any of us haven't done.
Unless of course anyone wants to put their hands up and say they have never done 90mph on a UK road.

There's a world of difference between someone riding like a cock at the speed limit, and someone riding fast and safe.

[milleplod]

.......

Point I'm trying to make is that the guy in the video wasn't riding like a knob.
He executed a perfectly legitimate overtake, then slowed back down once he'd done it.
It was text book.
Nothing that any of us haven't done.
Unless of course anyone wants to put their hands up and say they have never done 90mph on a UK road.

There's a world of difference between someone riding like a cock at the speed limit, and someone riding fast and safe.

True, he wasn't necessarily riding like a knob....but he exceeded the limit by 30mph. It was 'text book', but illegal, 'serious speeding' as CPS call it. No one's saying they've never done it, me included, but the point is that its how that action is viewed by the person who matters most - the bobby. The one in the video advised him. A different one might have got him banned. Both are justifiable courses of action - and I know that there are more who would've knocked him off than would've cautioned him.

These days I can say, hand on heart, that I never even hit 25 over a given limit....because that's the magic point where nasty things start to happen if you drop on the wrong bobby. You can always justify it to yourself, and your mates, that's never a problem.....but its that bench of magistrates who matter! I'll take a ticket and points any day of the week, but I refuse to offer myself up for a ban, or worse.

pete

[Herb]

You know what, I used to have a lot of respect for the Police, based on my own experience of my fair share of run in's with them.
This is why I have a problem believing you.

I used to have a lot of respect for the police, (I still do with the individuals, excluding my sister, working on the ground), but I must admit to a degree of frustration being subject to various 'initiatives' over the years.

The worst was approx. 12 years ago, living in Essex. I was riding into work in rush hour and the traffic was far far worse than normal (Wickford to Rettendon turnpike if anyone knows it, which is bad at the best of times.)

When I got towards the front, I found one lane of the dual carriageway leading to the roundabout was closed, and Police were pulling cars and bikes over, cars seemingly at random, but the officer told me they had been told to pull all motorbikes over, whereupon I was questioned about my destination, had my bike inspected, had my riding gear inspected and was delayed for perhaps 15 minutes and was subsequently late for work. I was so close to losing my temper. What right had they to delay me from going about my business, not to mention the hundreds of other people stuck in traffic, despite the fact I had committed no other crime but riding a bike that day.

I imagine someone up high thought it a great idea and gave themselves a big pat on the back. The daily mail reader in me did feel like asking 'don't you have criminals to catch?'

[dave the german]

If I was a copper, I would feel very hypocritical nicking someone for doing something I'd be quite happy to do myself.
I've ridden with a few of them off duty, and I've seen far more extreme than the overtake in question.
If we all believe that speeding is wrong, then perhaps we would also argue that motorcycle speeds should be electronically governed to 80mph.
After all, who needs to go faster

Don't go there!!! Oliver Carsten* of Leeds Uni sort of campaigned for something like this where a bike's speed was automatically reduced going into built up areas- didn't take into account whether the bike was cranked over or not. Wouldn't take much for this Big Brother to be adapted. If you're going to speed just accept what may be the consequences

* His wife was one of my Russian lecturers at Bradford Uni

[fontana]

Don't go there!!! Oliver Carsten* of Leeds Uni sort of campaigned for something like this where a bike's speed was automatically reduced going into built up areas- didn't take into account whether the bike was cranked over or not. Wouldn't take much for this Big Brother to be adapted. If you're going to speed just accept what may be the consequences

* His wife was one of my Russian lecturers at Bradford Uni

What about speed limiters, which are already fitted to some commercial vehicles.
There is a huge problem with that though,
No speeding, means no fines which would be to much of a financial hit for the local authorities, who do very well out of the extra income.
I must admit, what I did ponder while I was watching the programme, was just how many of this regions motorcycle crashes, and indeed the whole nations are the riders fault, and how many are as a result of driver error.