Re: Down again(of my own free will)
 

he's right you know!

Re: Down again(of my own free will)
 

In defence of Plowsie, having actually ridden with him (as opposed to merely reading about his riding), he seemed a pretty cautious rider to me.

Perhaps it wasn't his usual riding style because he was with someone else, but I kept waiting for him to catch up, and I was putting that down to 33bhp & nothing more.

Granted when I was filtering past traffic I didn't have a great view of him, but it was a safe (IMO) ride where we were both making progress happily. That ride comprised a mix of single track road over the tops, through to single/dual carriageway filtering & roundabouts.

Re: Down again(of my own free will)
 

Admittidley Baph when i ride on my own roads that i know, I am a bit stupid but when learning new bits and with others i don't ride like a tit. Yesterday and today I started doing this even on my own roads. I think i am just trying to make up for my lag on speed like you have said, and there isn't a need alone tbh.

Re: Down again(of my own free will)
 

Ah. In that case, my advice would be to listen to the famous words that get echo'd on here (and at meets) regularly.

If you can't ride slowly, you don't have a hope of riding fast.

For a while (call it a week long trial period), concentrate more on being smooth rather than being fast. For example, go for a ride & try not to use your brakes. Sit wider into corners, etc etc etc. After a week of doing that, see how you feel, were you bored to death by it, or was the challenge a welcome change?

Do that, and you'll be faster (and more confident) by the very nature of riding. And you'll still be on 33bhp, but you'll be faster.

All strictly IMO, obviously.

Re: Down again(of my own free will)
 

No i do understand what you are saying mate and i have for the past two days. I did it this morning and felt a lot better, kept it low in the revs more controlled corner speed instead of closing the throttle and opening it out. And its better for the achillies at the momento.

Re: Down again(of my own free will)
 

If it's better for the foot then even better.

I do agree though, there's a certain feeling about riding fast. There's a certain (but unique) feeling about doing everything smoothly - one which I've rarely had, but it's generally been when filtering.

I'm still searching for the two to combine.

Re: Down again(of my own free will)
 

Plowsie, glad you're ok ... now I'm hardly one to talk (having had 2 offs in 9 months of riding), but I gotta say ... "familiarity breeds contempt" ... you may well know your local roads very well indeed, but that's not to say that everyone else driving/riding around there does too. People who don't know the roads are deadly because they tend to change direction without warning, and they also tend to do things at the last minute (i.e. like when they get halfway past their turn, see the name of the road and then just turn because they can't be bothered going past it and doing a U-turn to get back to it!). These people aren't going to be checking their mirrors because they are too focused on identifying where the hell they are going.

Likewise with people that ALSO know the roads (cos they're local roads to them too) ... what happens when that driver coming the other way thinks "there's never anything over the brow of that hill, or round that bend, so today, I'll just overtake ... yikes! A bike!!" as you come the opposite way at break-neck speed? Doesn't bear thinking about :smt087

And as others have said ... get yourself some protection plz ;)

Glad you lived to tell the tale though!

Pete