Totally OT - Biker jailed for doing 122mph

[The Maestro]

Delete if you want. Its vaguely on topic since its about the perception and possible unfair treatment of 2 wheel transport (weak I know).

A lot of people probably saw this:

BBC NEWS | UK | 122mph motorcyclist father jailed

To me it seems EXTREMELY harsh - 6 months in prison. The judge said that it was so serious because if he lost control the bike would become a 'missile'.

Whenever I've been on a motorway and some A-Roads there there is ALWAYS some car drivers doing 120+ mph - could easily go out now and see 10 or 15 people doing it. Now this guy has got 6 months for that - your wouldn't even get that for burglary and how many burglaries would I see committed if I went out? How many buglaries will even happen in my town tonight - a few but not that many.

The word 'missile' is worrying as if the judge thinks that because the bike is small its somehow going to do more damage when actually the reverse is true, a car will do much more damage to 3rd parties at any speed and bikes are much much less likely to kill or injure other people. Yeah his son was on the back but personally I think thats up to him - can't stand the government interfering in families.

Finally - in the video it doesn't look even vaguely dangerous and getting jailed because of some vague unproven risk when you haven't even harmed anyone is RIDICULOUS given the other crimes going on.

 

[flecc]

I agree Maestro, that was my reaction too. I used to regularly ride at up to 115/120 mph, durations variable according to road type etc.

I think having his teenage son on board was what did the most damage to his defence though, obviously influencing the judge and getting the media hyped up.

Without the son on board the media would have treated it as a routine case of little or no interest and he's probably have got a month instead of six.

Prison is UK routine for over 100 mph though, an established treatment now.
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[Barnowl]

Yes, surprised me at first glance. However his 14 year old son had no protective gear on at all

Also I've no idea what the road conditions were like at the time - A361 North Devon link road. The judge was sending a message out.

Most of us stick to well below 30 on our electric bikes. Though there are some exceptions.

 

[Brian-Lopes]

You need a licence to ride a motorbike, but not to have a child. I think it should be the other way round. What kind of idiot does that speed with his own kid and no protective kit on? Driving at those speeds is irresponsible. I don't care how good a rider he is, what if he gets a puncture? It's not just his own stupid neck on the line.

 

[The Maestro]

Prison is UK routine for over 100 mph though, an established treatment now.
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I really need to keep up-to-date on stuff like this or I'm going to come a cropper. I routinely used to do 120mph on quiet motorways in a car although never on my bikes (which were all much faster than my cars), maybe if they had better wind protection it would be a different story but personally I rarely see bikers doing much more than 80 and cars routinely 120mph like I said.

 

[The Maestro]

You need a licence to ride a motorbike, but not to have a child. I think it should be the other way round. What kind of idiot does that speed with his own kid and no protective kit on? Driving at those speeds is irresponsible. I don't care how good a rider he is, what if he gets a puncture? It's not just his own stupid neck on the line.

I agree. 300 fine i would have said if hes on average wage, if he earns 50K then 3K fine. Not prison. Priorities WAY out of line. And it was his kid, I don't agree with the license to have kids it would just become another law to oppress the little man.

 

[flecc]

I really need to keep up-to-date on stuff like this or I'm going to come a cropper. I routinely used to do 120mph on quiet motorways in a car although never on my bikes (which were all much faster than my cars), maybe if they had better wind protection it would be a different story but personally I rarely see bikers doing much more than 80 and cars routinely 120mph like I said.

My last bike I'd equipped with an effective flyshield which easily enabled me to cruise at those speeds, and in fact there was a degree of suction dragging me forward into the tank.

I believe it was Essex magistrates who first created the precedent rule of always a prison sentence for over 100 mph, and it seems to have spread and become a fairly general rule now. As you say though, much higher speeds are regularly seen, and on the northern stretches of the M3, the stockbroker belt types regularly cruise at 120 mph, often in mini convoys.
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[Barnowl]

Maestro: Speed must be something of a geographical issue or maybe it's at weekends when I'm at home in bed.

I rarely see cars doing much more than 75MPH nowadays. Actually come to think of it, it's rare they're doing much more than 60MPH!. I remember the M40and M42 when they were brand new and you could regularly see cars doing more than 120MPH with unmarked police in hot pursuit. Not anymore. Far too much traffic especially trucks & far too many speed cameras. Some of my days out in the car must take me past a couple of 100 speed cameras at least. Can't say I've noticed motorcyclists doing daft speeds but I know it happens. I don't think the cameras pick them up.

 

[Grumpy1]

Me too. I'd love to be "stuck" behind cars doing 120mph regularly. I always seem to be stuck behind idiots in the middle lane doing 65mph. Who can't look in their mirrors. And refuse to change lanes, even though the nearside lane is empty. And the stupid thing is if you undertake you get fined!

As for the M3....which bit exactly do you see people exceeding 100mph exactly? The bit that grinds to a standstill regularly where it meets the m25 ? Or is it the bit after the m25, that hits London and stops? Or possibly it's the surrey part, where again it is jammed packed most of the time? Oh wait a minute, it might be further down, where it turns into 2 lanes, and everyone stops because two lorries spend 2 miles overtaking each other.

 

[Barnowl]

: & :

You sum it all up so well Grumpy.

 

[The Maestro]

My experience of 120+ drivers is mainly on the motorways of the northwest M6 mainly, M65, M55, (whats the one to Leeds)? M60, 61 (basically Manchester way) too snarled up for those speeds.

I'm sticking to slow cars if the Prison above 100mph rule is true. My present car a Triumph GT6 I wouldn't even trust at 70 Going to get a wobbly motorbike to compliment it, maybe a Harley.

 

[flecc]

As for the M3....which bit exactly do you see people exceeding 100mph exactly? The bit that grinds to a standstill regularly where it meets the m25 ? Or is it the bit after the m25, that hits London and stops? Or possibly it's the surrey part, where again it is jammed packed most of the time? Oh wait a minute, it might be further down, where it turns into 2 lanes, and everyone stops because two lorries spend 2 miles overtaking each other.

It's not always like you describe, and certainly not most of the time. Like most of our motorways the conditions are very variable. Of course I've been on the M3 stretches you mention when it's been like that, especially the two lane section, but on the stretches north and south of the M25 those high speeds are very regularly done by small convoys in the fast lane.

Of course if you drive in the rush periods you won't see much of it, but there are times in the day when most people are at work and also in the early morning when very high speeds are easily cruised at. Try the M.25 between the A22 junction and the A3 junction at around 5.30 to 6am and you wouldn't think it was the same "car park" M25 with the way you get passed by loads of cars at well over 100 mph. In fact the last time I cruised that stretch westbound in the middle of the afternoon I wasn't alone at up to three figures for a number of stretches.

When I set off from home in South Croydon in my car at 5.30am to drive to my brothers in Dorset, a distance of 139 miles, I routinely do it in under 2 hours. With 37% of the distance not on motorways but on back roads and single carriageways packed with 30 and 40 mph limits, you can work out for yourself what speeds I must be doing on the M25 and M3.

The southern M1 is another motorway with a reputation for being jammed with traffic, but there's been many occasions when I've cruised the fast lane southbound from junction 10 Luton at 110 to 120 mph on my last motorcycle up to about four years ago.

So you must be picking the wrong times and/or days if you only ever see them locked up with traffic.
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[Fecn]

When I set off from home in South Croydon in my car at 5.30am to drive to my brothers in Dorset, a distance of 139 miles, I routinely do it in under 2 hours. With 37% of the distance not on motorways but on back roads and single carriageways packed with 30 and 40 mph limits, you can work out for yourself what speeds I must be doing on the M25 and M3.

37% of your 139 mile journey is 51.43 miles which at an average speed of 40 mph will take you 77 minutes. That leaves 42 minutes for the remaining 88 miles of motorway which would mean you need to average 125mph on the motorways.

As far as I'm concerned, there's no way that it's possible to drive a car at those speeds on the M25. The things which go at that kind of pace on the M25 are white Ford Transit vans

 

[tenderbehind]

This is how I do it

This is how I drive on motorways, I'm not saying it's the best way but it seems to work for me as I seldom if ever get any irritated horns or flashing lights at me.
I tend to travel where I can in the outside lane and try to keep to about 80mph, this speed seems not enough to raise eyebrows and slow enough to be able to slow down to the more legal 70 if the police appear in the mirror, or from 'nowhere at all'. If a faster car cames up close I immediately indicate, (so many people do not indicate these days) and move over to the middle lane to let them pass, if they don't follow too close I assume ther'e content to stay at that distance, and so I keep to the fast lane. I'll do at least 70 in this (middle) lane if possible, then, if there's no one in the outside lane coming up fast I'll move out to the fast lane once more and continue at approx 80mph.
I really don't think there's much harm done by travelling in the middle lane as long as your'e doing at least 65 to 70 thereby not getting in anyone elses way. After all, on a typical day on the M3, and I used it today to get up to Slough from the South Coast, the slow lane is just that, a slow assortment of vechiles and large comparetivly slow lorries, and the fast lane which carries cars a lot of whom travel at at least 90 to 100 mph, so the middle lane is a good compromise providing vechiles in it travel at least at 65 to 70 mph, and move over to the slow, (if they don't like and are aprehensive of the fast lane), lane where there is room, much slower than 65 to 70mph in the middle gives rise to them being called middle lane hoggers.

 

[flecc]

37% of your 139 mile journey is 51.43 miles which at an average speed of 40 mph will take you 77 minutes. That leaves 42 minutes for the remaining 88 miles of motorway which would mean you need to average 125mph on the motorways.

As far as I'm concerned, there's no way that it's possible to drive a car at those speeds on the M25. The things which go at that kind of pace on the M25 are white Ford Transit vans

I didn't say I observed those limits Fecn, as you say that would be impossible, even for white vans. I was just mentioning the limits to illustrate what sort of roads they are.

I'll be going on that trip again shortly, so you're welcome to try and keep up. . I pass very close to you since I use the A22 bypass going to the M25.

P.S. I've previously done it in that under two hours more than once driving a 1200cc 3 cylinder Skoda Fabia which can barely reach 100 mph. Telling you it only averaged 27 mpg will give an idea of how hard my foot was down.

 

[tenderbehind]

Me too. I'd love to be "stuck" behind cars doing 120mph regularly. I always seem to be stuck behind idiots in the middle lane doing 65mph. Who can't look in their mirrors. And refuse to change lanes, even though the nearside lane is empty. And the stupid thing is if you undertake you get fined!

As for the M3....which bit exactly do you see people exceeding 100mph exactly? The bit that grinds to a standstill regularly where it meets the m25 ? Or is it the bit after the m25, that hits London and stops? Or possibly it's the surrey part, where again it is jammed packed most of the time? Oh wait a minute, it might be further down, where it turns into 2 lanes, and everyone stops because two lorries spend 2 miles overtaking each other.

From where the M27 starts at Cadnam, near Romsey then onto the M3 to Fleet Services and some way beyond, it's very easy to do, if inclined, and to see cars regularly travelling at 100 mph plus.
I though it was ok to undertake on an inside lane providing you don't do so in a dangerous way? Not sure of my facts here though I do admit

 

[flecc]

I though it was ok to undertake on an inside lane providing you don't do so in a dangerous way? Not sure of my facts here though I do admit

I understand it is illegal to undertake unless there are solid streams of traffic moving at different lane speeds, e.g. fast lane slowing down below the speed of the other lanes.

It may even be technically illegal then, but that's ignored.
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[The Maestro]

Tsk southerners are so naughty.

 

[flecc]

Aren't we just.

Mind you, it's mostly not southerners on those M6 region motorways you mentioned above, though I have joined in the fun there in the past.
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[Fecn]

I'll be going on that trip again shortly, so you're welcome to try and keep up.
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It just so happens that one of my cars is a 3 litre turbocharged white van so watch your rear view mirror

In reality however, as my van is not a Ford Transit I chicken out at anything above 85mph. I generally aim for the speed limit + 10% + 2mph (79mph on the motorway, 46 in a 40 limit etc). I am led to believe that the +10%+2mph threshold is where the police are no longer allowed to use their discretion and are forced to give you a ticket, even if you have a nice smile and a plausible sounding excuse. You will probably be unsurprised to learn that I've never been flashed by a speed camera and have a full clean driving license.

Using my general average speeds, I'd take 67 mins for the non-motorway bit (average of 46mph) and 66 mins for the motorway bit making my driving time just 13 mins longer than yours overall... and that 13 mins is just enough time for you to have made me a cuppa by the time I'd catch you up in Dorset