Bike Talk

[Zenrider]

Am excited received a message saying the rack has shipped! Will be nice to have a proper rack to attach things to. It has a long way to travel, but here's hoping it makes it by the end of the week.

[sc]

Exciting stuff Zenrider, new "proper" rack always good, mine is pretty rubbish, because it is specifically designed for the top box. If you take the top box fitting off, you are just left with a small shelf!

Still on the positive, I have a lovely new green badge attached now  

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[Zenrider]

This rack seems pretty well made. cycleracks.com/ProductDetail/tabid/87/ProductID/13/Default.aspx.
Let's just hope I never have to put it to test.
Seems they only make them for the smaller enduros.

[Zenrider]

Oh, another good reason to wear a helmet riding a motorcycle. Especially, one without a windscreen.

[Zenrider]

So, what do you think of my rack?

[Zenrider]

another angle

[sc]

Impressively wide

[Zenrider]

Well, Fun and I have been properly christened... no pictures too dark, but phone didn't get wet...

[Zenrider]

Hey SC, do you know the guy who saved his own life by laying his bike down on the M20? Crazy!

[sc]

Was some good thinking that! I don't know if I know him yet, he was about the right age, and certainly my area of the country. He could be a member of my club, but our region of the club (really not cool to call it our Chapter) has about 400 members, not heard anything through the grapevine. So I know no details at all yet, I suspect from the pictures that he may well have panicked and thrown himself off, which might not have been so smart but ended well. The reason I wonder that is from the pictures where the bike is laying, just the wrong side of the bridge and a bike slides a lot further on it's side than upright undergoing a emergency stop, but it's easy to sit in an arm chair and analyise it afterwards!

Not impressed at all that the bridge came down because it was hit by a lorry carrying a dumper truck!

Also a bit worried that they say the motorway will reopen in an hour or so and they are leaving the half that didn't collapse hanging there. They "THINK" it'll be safe!

I'm on my first night of being "on call" for blood running tonight and that is likely to be on of the roads I'll be on.......... Gulp.........

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-37207487

Show a nice clip for a helicopter showing the position of the bike.

[Zenrider]

Laying the bike down, rather than smacking into a bridge was a good idea. Though still a risk of being run over by a car. Yikes!

Was the bridge height marked? Trucker should have known the full height of his cargo.
Over here trucks with oversized loads often have other vehicles with poles adjusted slightly higher, and /or wider than the cargo driving ahead of the truck, to ensure the load will clear the bridges. Can't always trust the posted height. I know someone who hit a 14 foot bridge with a 13 foot 6 inch trailer...something about recent roadwork had altered the clearance.
That said, that truck driver (lorry driver) knew his load may have been too tall since he was driving at a reduced speed on the shoulder, but why he didn't stop, get out and look is beyond me. Backing a rig down a busy road would not be fun, would require some assistance. Sure would have been better than possibly killing someone.

[sc]

It's all very odd, the hard shoulder is only for breakdowns and Emergency vehicles, so he shouldn't have been there, I would assume the bridge height is lower at the edges, so what he was doing there I do not know. You are not allowed to reverse on motorways unless guided by the Police and the Motorway would be closed to do that.

I guess all the facts will come out at some point.

The point I was making was that the bike came to rest, just the other side of the bridge, it's a foot bridge so probably only about 5 or 6 feet wide, so the bike travelled maybe 10 or 12 feet from the potential impact point. Highly polished paint and chrome, does not generally have the same traction and therefore stopping ability as a tyre has when rubbed on a road surface, if it did, we would be making tytes out of polished chrome and we don't do that. I think there are two potential things that happened. 1) he did a controlled emergency brake, had almost stopped, when he realised that the bike was going to go under the bridge, but he wasn't so he got off before being hit by the bridge. So he got off and broke some ribs because of that, and maybe that was the right decision or 2) He was some way from the bridge, he saw it collapse and decided to lay the bike down rather than brake. If that was the case then it was not a good decision because rubber brakes better that paint and chrome and he would have probably stopped before reaching the bridge. But as I said before it's very easy to sit back and annalise it afterwards, in that nano second that we have to decide what to do, we do, what we do! and then deal with it.

[Zenrider]

Hard to say. Bike might not have been sliding neatly and smacked/bounced into the bridge. Stopping sooner than if it had been sliding smoothly.
Of course, something like a concrete bridge falling down in front of you, the bike might just have gotten away from him slamming on the brakes!

Backing down a major road/highway/motorway isn't legal here either, but anything beats taking out a bridge.

[Zenrider]

Since he ended up just the other side of the bridge not far from his bike, I'm going to say he laid it down (whether on purpose, trying to turn it while skidding and falling....), it spun around under the bridge and he he let go and slid out just the other side. Yikes!

Wrong video, darn BBC auto play.

Good thing that bridge didn't break into pieces, he might have ended up under a bunch of rubble. On the other hand sliding out the other side, he didn't have to worry so much about a car running him over. Broken ribs suck, but they will heal.

I hope they have the other half propped up and aren't just hoping it won't fall.

[sc]

Aug 29, 2016 18:09:05 GMT Zenrider said:

I hope they have the other half propped up and aren't just hoping it won't fall.

I rode under it last night on my first Blood Run, it was about 3am and forgot to look out for the bridge So can't report on it  But I do know they have NOT propped it up!  But instead put motion sensors on it hmmmmmm that's ok if the motion is small and over time, rather than large and in a short time!!!

I understand that they needed to open the road quickly, but personally I would have thought a couple of sticks of dynamite would have bought it down quickly and then just clear the mess up.       

I may pop out tomorrow and post a little clip on it