Why do people have to ride fast on roads

[Monsieur]

I'm not an IAM rider and wouldn't put myself into the 'excellent rider' group either. Some days I really enjoy a fast ride and have been known to exceed the limit by quite a fair bit. Most days, however I just like to ride at or close to the limit.
In towns I will always keep to a 30/40mph limit (too many hazards risks etc, and speed cameras) but on a good A or B road my main riding nowadays (95%) is about speed limit +10mph. Fast enough to enjoy the speed and also relatively easy to slow down if needed and good enough to overtake when needed.
When I was younger the very fact that there was a car or bike in front of me was enough to make me speed up and overtake. Now, with a fear of pain, death and speeding points my riding is much more relaxed and I don't now have that urge to overtake everything in sight.

[Wigan Chris]

When I was doing my AIM, during a debrief, I had a conversation something like this:

Observer: You missed an ovetake opportunity at blah blah.
Me: No I didn't.
Observer: Yes, you did.
Me: No. I didn't. I didn't want to overtake then.
Observer: Why?
Me: Because I didn't.
Observer: Yes but why?
Me: Because I was happy with the road, the ride, the bike, the scenary, I was enjoying the countryside, I was doing 57mph on a single road, so only 3 miles off the speed limit, and I couldn't be arsed to be thinking about planning a totally unnecessary and gratuitous overtake, when I could see there was going to be a dual carriageway half a mile away anyhows. OK.
Observer: No. Not really. I don't see the point of you doing this course if you want to ride like a pussy!!!!!!!!

a good point well mate alp

[steveR]

Don't know mate, and I probably never will.

There's plenty of stories of bods "keeping up with their mates" who get into trouble.

Stuff the lot of 'em and ride at your own pace.

Never a truer word....

I was a touch concerned before I went off on the Round france bimble with some of the Guys from here, happily we all rode at our own pace which was sensible, some Power Rangers would no doubt say, dog slow. Suited us and we had a whale of a time I also found myself watching and learning some useful techniques and bend "management" from a more experienced rider than me...!!

[Burntout]

I experienced this first on my CBT three years ago. On my first ever time on the road I was expected to ride through a housing estate on a Saturday afternoon at over 30mph while being told the mantra 'bikes make progress.' Even as a car driver with over 20 years experience I wouldn't have tried the winding 'blind' roads on that estate at much more than 20mph.

More recently for my full license the instructor regularly expected me to speed. Interestingly, however, my younger (but far more reckless) fellow student failed his test for 'excess caution' after failing to overtake a bus but I passed despite stalling etc.

Since passing I've occassionally touched 50mph - but only rarely - and was particularly fortunate not be speeding when a child ran out in front of me last Tuesday (chasing a ball, from inbetween parked cars, just like on TV). That child must be grateful too.

[StumpyFingers]

I went out the other week for a nice ride and came to a queue of cars sitting behind a tractor.
I decided to hang back a little to observe the situation. Along came a bike straight into the overtake, The car behind the tractor just pulled out and sideswiped the bike putting it onto the grass verge on the other side of the road. The cars wing mirror went flying but the car just sped away with no intention of stopping. Luckily the rider kept the bike upright and stopped safely but things could have been so different.

[Monsieur]

I went out the other week for a nice ride and came to a queue of cars sitting behind a tractor.
I decided to hang back a little to observe the situation. Along came a bike straight into the overtake, The car behind the tractor just pulled out and sideswiped the bike putting it onto the grass verge on the other side of the road. The cars wing mirror went flying but the car just sped away with no intention of stopping. Luckily the rider kept the bike upright and stopped safely but things could have been so different.

Isn't this a case of poor riding skills rather than bad driving on the car's part?
Living in Lincolnshire I come across many such situations. I know that the cars will be looking to overtake a tractor or other slowmoving vehicle so, having a little common sense, I hang back a bit and overtake cars up to about 2/3 back from the tractor. The cars in front WILL want to get past the tractor so let them do this and then overtake the tractor. Is this just a bit too obvious?

[pdsquire]

Why do they do it? Because they can. Because it is intoxicating. Because they are young and feel invulnerable. Or because they are old and stupid. And because they just don't think enough.

Not having taken my test long ago, I think there's a lot to be said for compulsory rider education. Bikers are not only vulnerable because they lack protection. Bikes are also inherently unstable: if you stop one, it falls over.

Moreover their lack of stability means that while they can stop quicker than cars, one needs more skill to cause that to happen unless braking in a straight line on a dry road while perfectly balanced.

In most emergency situations a biker not only has more to lose than a cager AND is more difficult to see BUT needs far more skill to survive.

None of this is explained.

So bikers ride fast into blind bends, overtake cars on left-handers because there looks to be enough room, don't slow down when there's grit or mud on the road, follow each other overtaking without checking independently that there is nothing coming, ride in bus-lanes without expecting cars to pull in on them without signalling, pass too close to cars, ride in lorries' and buses' blind-spots, ride too close to be able to assess situations, fail to anticipate obvious manouevres (the tractor above) and die in large numbers. Happily our road death figures in this country are so low on international comparisons that we still do better than countries where driving appears to be better, but there's always room for improvement.

A particular bug-bear of mine is that a lot of bikes go like Hell on straights and potter round corners showing a lamentable lack of skill. How you get them to improve their skills I once they have a licence, I have no idea but as I said above, I DO think bikers need more education before they are allowed to ride.

Ride safe

[Burntout]

More training? Have you heard about the new test? First the two parts of the written test then the CBT then the off-road test with 8 manouvres then the on road one. IF you pass all firt time it only takes a few months and a thousand pounds or so.

[pdsquire]

More training? Have you heard about the new test? First the two parts of the written test then the CBT then the off-road test with 8 manoeuvres then the on road one. If you pass all first time it only takes a few months and a thousand pounds or so.

Not testing: training. Actually being told what bikes are about and how different they are from cars. In case anyone says the differences are obvious, why else does the problem identified in this thread arise?

[StumpyFingers]

As you only get taught how to pass the test, there should be a course follow on that teaches the new rider how to ride a bike, including Motorway riding and survival.