Its dangerous out there on the roads

[Brian Thompson]

Peg Leg (my old school nick name...kids can be so cruel...!)

Thanks for all the kind words lads, but it is Mr Dickie that deserves all the credit.

I like to think that we helped others later on (with me as the willing guinea pig), as that was pretty pioneering stuff back then. Of course, these days limb re-attachment is much more commonplace, but it was Mr Dickie, one of the finest orthopedic consultants ever to grace the profession, that is the true hero. He will always be mine, anyway.

You know, I was his last case before retirement, so I got all that knowledge and experience. Talk about right place right time.....He was quite a reserved man, a little stern even, but the day I took my first step (and I didn't want to, but he MADE me do it...), I looked up and saw a little tear rolling down his cheek, swiftly brushed away.

I will never be able to thank him enough for what he did for me.

Hey Will.......you've given me an idea for a new thread! Not so much comparing limps....how about...'Chicks Dig Scars!' with a few pics etc......or will it but people off their dinner......????!!!!

Any takers.....?

Brian.

[Guest]

Chicks

Thanks for all the kind words lads, but it is Mr Dickie that deserves all the credit.

I like to think that we helped others later on (with me as the willing guinea pig), as that was pretty pioneering stuff back then. Of course, these days limb re-attachment is much more commonplace, but it was Mr Dickie, one of the finest orthopedic consultants ever to grace the profession, that is the true hero. He will always be mine, anyway.

You know, I was his last case before retirement, so I got all that knowledge and experience. Talk about right place right time.....He was quite a reserved man, a little stern even, but the day I took my first step (and I didn't want to, but he MADE me do it...), I looked up and saw a little tear rolling down his cheek, swiftly brushed away.

I will never be able to thank him enough for what he did for me.

Hey Will.......you've given me an idea for a new thread! Not so much comparing limps....how about...'Chicks Dig Scars!' with a few pics etc......or will it but people off their dinner......????!!!!

Any takers.....?

Brian.

A great man. Someone who really made a difference.

When I were in Bristol my luvver I did lern that Chicks Digs Cars. Specially wiv my girt big Vauxhall Crestal.
Luvly days. Lol

[Guest]

Chcks Digs Cars

My other Greeves is a Wyvern ...

[dave higgins]

Whats he talking about?

Hi keith, i`m bristolian, but i can`t understand your dialect.... is it asian?

[Guest]

Hi keith, i`m bristolian, but i can`t understand your dialect.... is it asian?

Tis krek waiters peak Bristle my luvver!!

32 years in Keynsham gave me a fair bit of practise. Did we meet at the first ever Cheltenham "committee" meeting at a nice pub?

Keith

[46T Sprocket]

Thing is Keith its more about the idiots who 'dont see a bike' & turn across in front of you or pull out from a side turning. Having been victim of a car driver who decided to do a U turn out of a queue of stationary traffic whilst I was filtering passed there is not much you can do to avoid that sort of bad driving. OK the majority of the clips in the U Tube video are taken in foreign countries where the standard of driving is appalling, but it does happen on our roads. Its amazing how many riders got up & walked away after apparently serious incidents.

Not half!
My best motorcycle walk away from it incident didn't actually happen to me on a bike I was sitting in my Morris 1100 at the time.

I had been fishing in Loch Long and packing up to head home just as it got dark. It was a lovely still evening and I could hear the howl of a motor bike engine miles away further up the loch. You could hear the chap giving it big welly, engine howling as he changed up and down the gears as he rounded every corner on the winding road that runs parallel to the loch.

I get in the car and pulled out of the layby I was parked in when this chap comes round the bend on my side of the road and buries the bike right into the grill of my motor and disappears over the roof. I remember thinking "that chap is dead!" When I tried to get out of the car I couldn’t because the doors where jammed shut. The whole of the front bodywork had been shifted back by an inch or so. I managed eventually to get out the back door. Heart in my mouth i went to look for the guy. He had gone right over the bushes further down the road and on down the bank and into the loch. I saw him sitting there in the gloom at the waters edge. He was a bit dazed but okay.

Turns out that he was a sailor from the Faslane submarine base, he was well drunk and reeking of booze.

That was one very lucky laddie! What happened after that is too long a story to tell on here......

[aa will]

brian thats ok for you intelligent folk who know how these new fangled computer things work but i am a simple old bike engineer, with a very old computer so me posting photos stands no chance, but it reminded me that when i was let out of hospital and with don smiths help i built my first trials outfit , a greeves of course with all of the foot controls on the r/hand side and a rack in the chair to hold my damaged leg out of the way,great times , will.

[John Wakefield]

Rural Roads most dangerous

According to a report out yesterday (on the BBC news) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29550811 there is an 11 times higher risk of having on accident on rural roads than on motorways. This (according to the report) is due to the fact that there are more hazzards on rural roads ie vehicles pulling out of side turnings, slow moving tractors, horse riders & cyclists, and the road surface particularly in winter can be muddy where tractors have left a field, or have wet leaves or ice.
Of course the main reason for accidents is that motorists do not drive according to conditions & think that they can still do the same speeds as they do on the motorways where traffic is all going in one direction.

[merlin]

I agree John having come round a corner to find three horse riders line abreast across the lane luckily I was only going slowly so was able to take to the grass verge.

[Brian Thompson]

I wouldn't have realised......

This (according to the report) is due to the fact that there are more hazzards on rural roads ie vehicles pulling out of side turnings, slow moving tractors, horse riders & cyclists, and the road surface particularly in winter can be muddy where tractors have left a field, or have wet leaves or ice.

....err, John, you left out horse droppings, diesel, artics, pot holes, blind bends, low sun this time of year, floods, hail storms, 60 + mph crosswinds, crazy gradients, adverse cambers, FOG, pheasants, badgers, buzzards (yes, really...one fetched off a customer of mine last year...), deer...and (sad to say), in some instances other motorcyclists with poor roadcraft/attitude problems, mental overtakers on the wrong side of the road, car drivers trying to t-bone you on roundabouts, people with eyesight problems, people on mobile phones, people TYPING ON A LAPTOP, women doing their hair and make up, people who only clear a slot (6"x2"!) in front of their eyes while the rest of the car is covered in snow in winter (we call 'em tank drivers), ....ALL of which make up my daily commute in various combinations....

But thanks for letting me know...I feel much better about the ride home tonight....in three weeks or so I won't have the advantage of sunlight anymore either....and it's only going to get colder.....

Reading all this and finally realising the dangers I face every day is making me think of giving up motorcycling.....I didn't know it was so dangerous!

Brian.

[Colin Sparrow]

When you really think about it, driving anything on the roads today is intrinsically dangerous. If you objectively risk-assessed it you'd probably decide to stay indoors.

Which I think is where you came in, John.

[John Wakefield]

....err, John, you left out horse droppings, diesel, artics, blind bends, low sun this time of year, floods, hail storms, 60 + mph crosswinds, crazy gradients, adverse cambers, FOG, pheasants, badgers, deer...and (sad to say), in some instances other motorcyclists with poor roadcraft/attitude problems, mental overtakers on the wrong side of the road, car drivers trying to t-bone you on roundabouts, people with eyesight problems, people on mobile phones, people TYPING ON A LAPTOP, women doing their hair and make up, people who only clear a slot (6"x2"!) in front of their eyes while the rest of the car is covered in snow in winter (we call 'em tank drivers), ....ALL of which make up my daily commute in various combinations....

But thanks for letting me know...I feel much better about the ride home tonight....in three weeks or so I won't have the advantage of sunlight anymore either....and it's only going to get colder.....

Reading all this and finally realising the dangers I face every day is making me think of giving up motorcycling.....I didn't know it was so dangerous!

Brian.

Just to ad a bit more doom & gloom Brian many wrinkly runs take place on county roads in the assumption that they are quite backwaters ideal for old bikes & old codgers. Not so it seems. With few drivers starting on bikes these days they dont get the experience of motorcycling to appreciate the hazards. Driving in their modern tin box fully crash tested & belted in they feel immune to the outside world until they spin off & hit a tree.
One other more recent hazard is the MAMIL (middle aged men in lycra) who have bought a racing push bike & are trying to emulate the likes of Bradley Wiggins & Mark Cavendish by racing around the country lanes in a peloton with scant disregards for other road users. The Tour de France coming to British shores has a lot to answer for this latest craze.

[Brian Thompson]

When you really think about it, driving anything on the roads today is intrinsically dangerous. If you objectively risk-assessed it you'd probably decide to stay indoors.

Which I think is where you came in, John.

Eureka! Indoor motorcycling....!! Now there's a novel idea. The NEC bike show is coming up soon isn't it....?

Mind you, there's lots of hazards in the home these days too, like vacume cleaners with too much suction, and hairdryers that get too hot....Haven't they been banned recently...or something?

Brian.

[Dick F]

its dangerous on those roads

Hi keith, as you mention you lived in Keynsham between Bristol and Bath, i allways remember listining to Radio luxemburg in the evenings in the 60s and hearing that annoying advertisement for the Horace Batchelor infadraw football method of how to make your fortune, life was full of cons even in those days

[dave higgins]

With the nec looming soon brian, can you get your new indoor motorcycling board game out in time?
Great idea! you could call it ...Against all odds..shake the dice, move along the board, pick up an injury card? its all there.....but of course, none of this can be done without the correct training & safety equipment used at all times.........those dice can be dangerous.... & due to the age limit of players, a toilet break can be built into the games duration..... should it last more than 30 mins.
Or you could just get out & ride your bikes!...... if you can`t hack it you shouldn`t be out there....