We’ve all had a few SMIDSY’s (Sorry Mate I Didn’t See You), but you don’t expect two in less than a minute. Only in Dagenham. Thankfully, with the dry roads and sensible speed I didn’t come a cropper in these two instances. Assume no one has seen you, regardless of lights, hi-vis etc
It seems every biker wants to be a video blogger these days, strapping a camera to their helmet/bike and recording their rides for all and sundry to watch on YouTube. And why not, decent HD camera are now very affordable and the evidence they gather can be invaluable if some idiot pulls out on you. Which, as we all know, happens far too often these days.
So back last autumn, I spotted this Roadhawk Ride
camera on special offer in Halfords and decided to join the vblogging band wagon. With the insurance claim from my incident in September turning sour as the third party falsified a witness, I only wish I had purchased a camera sooner. You will probably have seen some of the footage from this camera on my YouTube channel already, but after a few months of use, here is my proper write up. The Roadhawk RIDE is a dinky little cylindrical camera, just 80mm long and 25mm in diameter, that comes with a plethora of brackets for mounting it pretty much anywhere you like. The rear of the camera unscrews to reveal the memory card and USB socket.
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Ride to Work Preperation
With these chilly, wet and dark mornings, getting motivated to get out of bed and get on the bike and head into work is far from easy. Each morning I’m layering up (the Lidl thermals from last year still holding up well) and downing my muesli, but by far the most important item each morning is a nice coffee.
Cue the Rancilio Silvia espresso machine. With a perfect espresso, I’m ready to hit the road and deal with all the shit drivers out there. Highly recommended!
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Sixth Sense Skills – Tip 6
In today’s video you can see me attempted to filter carefully between some traffic that has just pulled up to a halt. However can you guess what little surprise lies in wait?
The more eagle eyed bikers out there would have noticed the island in the middle of the road to my right and thus anticipate what can happen at these points in the road. In this instance it’s quite obscured, but as you gain familiarity with your daily route you soon learn these features of the road and know exactly what to look out for. It is precisely for this reason it is not a good idea to filter like crazy on unfamiliar roads, it’s so easy to get caught out by stuff you miss or is hidden by the traffic.
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New Year Update
Not really had a great deal to update on the site lately. With the Xmas break, it was time to park up and relax with family. The weather has been pretty naff, wet, windy and not particularly enticing for a ride out.
I have enjoyed the quieter roads on my commute into work in the days prior to Xmas and last week. However I suspect tomorrow they will be back to their usual busy and congested state tomorrow. The end of December was also tax time, however the Fazer wasn’t too bad at just £58 for 12 months. Interestingly, this will be my last paper tax disc, as the Government plans to rely just on their electronic database from August this year.
In other news, I have tickets booked for the MCN Show down at Excel in February. Happened to coincide with a teacher training day at my kids school, so we’ll be making a family day out of it on the 14th. What better way to spend Valentines? 🙂
I’ve also blagged myself a place on a Biker Down course. Run by fire crew in Marlow (and down in Kent), they give training and advice on how to handle a downed biker incident, covering basic first aid and incident management. Definitely looking forward to this, have heard many good things about it and should be very useful stuff to know.
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Sixth Sense Skills – Tip 5
Another instalment in my series of biker videos aimed at training you in the art of anticipating the unexpected. Here I am filtering (again), but decide to hold back from the little black Beemer, but why?
Watch the video and and see how things could have turned rather different if I had continued filtering.
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Sixth Sense Skills – Tip 4
Riding round the back streets of South London, negotiating the one way system on my journey to work, the streets are narrow and busy with surprises around every corner. As a good biker you need to be able to spot hazards far ahead, predict those that are about to happen and adjust your speed as needed to react whatever you face. See if you can guess what is about to happen in this short clip.
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Sixth Sense Skills – Tip 3
Here we have another instalment in my Sixth Sense Skills series of videos to help highlight the unexpected hazards that crop up on the road that all good bikers need to be able to predict well in advance. In this video I am filtering (again) with a view to turn right, whilst there’s a gap in the oncoming traffic thanks to the pedestrian crossing on red. What could possibly happen next?
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In print in MCM
Recently Motorcycle Monthly asked readers to give tips on staying safe and visible on the roads in the winter. I posted off my contribution and they chose it for print in this December’s edition and here it is.
Excuse the cheesy mugshot! Nonetheless, the kids are proud to see me in print. 🙂
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Sixth Sense Skills – Tip 2
Continuing my series of Sixth Sense Skills, here comes tip 2:-
Highlighted is a very common scenario when filtering through slow moving traffic and a gap opens up. Think to yourself ‘who might want to fill that gap?’ Also notice the position of truck, close to the edge of the lane, the driver is likely gauging the progress of the traffic up ahead and contemplating a lane swap.