Gripe of the day - What is yours?

[Craig380]

Bit of a dark day yesterday on the roads near me. Three bikers were killed in a crash just outside of Buxton on the A53 Buxton to Leek road. A van and a car were also involved. I know that road very well, and it's very open with good sightlines, I've no idea how it could have happened.

Then two bikers killed in a crash on the A6 between Buxton and Dove holes, with a car involved. I know this road well too, and it is really nadgery with sharp blind corners and rock faces right by the road

[R1ffR4ff]

It's a sad fact that most of these M/C fatalities involve excessive speed. Even when out yesterday a bunch of riders on more powerful machines than mine, which I spotted coming up fast in my mirrors, overtook me doing at least 50% more than my speed and I was doing the legal limit plus a bit of tax out on a country road. As soon as a spotted them I indicated left and moved over. One of them acknowledged my move but at their speeds anything dodgy in the road ahead they would not have the reaction time to avoid it no matter how good they think they are :/

[admin]

Originally Posted by Craig380

Bit of a dark day yesterday on the roads near me. Three bikers were killed in a crash just outside of Buxton on the A53 Buxton to Leek road. A van and a car were also involved. I know that road very well, and it's very open with good sightlines, I've no idea how it could have happened.

Then two bikers killed in a crash on the A6 between Buxton and Dove holes, with a car involved. I know this road well too, and it is really nadgery with sharp blind corners and rock faces right by the road

I read about those deaths too and wondered the same.
I had a close call last week. Riding down the A458 towards bridgnorth. I started to overtake an artic who was being held up by one of those faster tractors, the artic then started to overtake the tractor without signalling or looking. He realised at the last minute and pulled back in, I'd already aborted my move. I thought it unlikely that the artic would try that overtake given his size, speed and the lack of space. Anyhow a bit further down the road and another overtake opportunity presented itself, I looked ahead but waited and sure enough the artic whipped out with no warning.

So I'm wondering if something similar happened in this case. Car overtakes van as bikes came past doing the same?




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[embee]

Of course any deaths are extremely sad and thoughts go to those left behind.

Unfortunately the corollary to these events is that it becomes far more likely that the rest of us will see further restrictions and regulations imposed on us in order to try to reduce these statistics.
As said by others there will always be the true "accident" where something unpredictable happens, but so often the primary factor is the deliberate actions of the rider, whether excessive speed, unwise overtakes, or simply running out of skill.
Sadly so many folk seem to have no sense of "what if ...".

My adage for riding bikes on public roads is "if in doubt, don't". It's kept me alive for a long time now.

[Sir Trev]

Originally Posted by embee

My adage for riding bikes on public roads is "if in doubt, don't." It's kept me alive for a long time now.

Very sensible. I've adapted the old pilot's mantra: there are old bikers and bold bikers, but no old bold bikers.

[admin]

Originally Posted by embee

Of course any deaths are extremely sad and thoughts go to those left behind.



Unfortunately the corollary to these events is that it becomes far more likely that the rest of us will see further restrictions and regulations imposed on us in order to try to reduce these statistics.

As said by others there will always be the true "accident" where something unpredictable happens, but so often the primary factor is the deliberate actions of the rider, whether excessive speed, unwise overtakes, or simply running out of skill.

Sadly so many folk seem to have no sense of "what if ...".



My adage for riding bikes on public roads is "if in doubt, don't". It's kept me alive for a long time now.

Very sensible and good advice. I wish car drivers had the same attitude. There seems to be a lack of risk awareness. For instance if I see a potential risk my reaction is to slow or brake. I often travel down single lane roads with blind bends, so naturally you slow down as I can't see around bends and you'll always encounter some idiot coming the other way belting along who looks so surprised that someone else is using that road. Do they slow down, nope, they just swerve and hope that you manage to avoid them.

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[Sir Trev]

Currys. I am absolutely steaming mad with them. Our ancient Freesat box died yesterday (hard drive corrupted), so I did a click and collect order this morning. Lady Poppy collected it at lunchtime as she was passing and I went to install it after work.

Oddly the security seal was broken, and the cables were stuffed in a rather scuffed inner box. Plugged it in anyway (might have been just an open box return after all) but no. It did not run the setup routine, it had a London postcode in the setup tab, and asked for a pin to change anything, probably a parental control that was not removed before the previous owner sent it back. Great. Charged full price for faulty used goods. Back to the store, waited in a queue for ten minutes getting more and more angry as several other staff just milled about ignoring the growing line, finally seen, bloke could not care less that they fobbed us off with used goods, took ten minutes to check the stock room only to come back with no replacement, not even a different model, could not find the transaction on his terminal, did not even look at the copy on my phone, and refused to give a refund, as the receipt was not showing up on his screen. I have to go back yet again for that but I have no way of knowing if their system will ever show it!!!

Sorry for the rant but I am utterly furious with them. If they were not the only place to get anything electrical without a long round trip I'd never use them again.

[redtrummy]

I have it in the back of my mind Currys have fallen foul of this before. Threaten them with reporting them to the relaventconsumer protection body. Don't like Currys

[SV650rules]

Originally Posted by redtrummy

I have it in the back of my mind Currys have fallen foul of this before. Threaten them with reporting them to the relaventconsumer protection body. Don't like Currys

Yeah Curry's did the dirty on me many years ago and have avoided them since, Halfraud's can also do strange things... I actually find Amazon are great when you have a problem with stuff...


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[R1ffR4ff]

If you still have the old box I've fixed my Freeview PVRs before by just sticking a spare old PC hard drive in them that I've kept from old defunct PCs