Saturday, February 26, 2005

Ice.

On the way home on my motorbike it was quite a difficult ride.
It had snowed quite heavily about two hours before I left and continued to snow on route back. Traffic was heavy and slow and the roads were starting to ice over the now compact snow.

I dropped the bike as I came to a stop near a light controlled pedestrian crossing, cursing my bad luck I gave my beloved bike a swift kick more out of relief of not getting hurt or have it fall on me. I spent the next ten minutes in the cold refitting the chain as it had come of the rear cam. I knew it would be a difficult ride home and was glad to get home safely to a nice warm house and a bowl of soup and warm crusty bread.

What I did note on the way home was the number of motor vehicles on the road that had one or more rear break light not functioning or direction indicators, I know stuff fails, breaks and needs repair but clearly there is a current level of I cannot really be arsed to fix it yet attitude of people on the road. The “yea I was meaning to fix that officer” is a common reply to been shown a non functioning item on a motor vehicle.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

It would be nice if there was a national road safety day, where garages give a discount to fix things like lights, tyres and other consumables for motor vehicles and be tied up with general road safety advice and emissions testing. Just a though.

[Today’s study -The Police Act 1996]

* Update - It seems there is a whole week ! - http://www.roadsafetyweek.org.uk/

9 comments:

Bystander said...

Let us give thanks for the VDRS. Before that we might see fifteen separate vehicle offences.

thinblueline said...

Oh yes, I will be posting soon about the vdrs system

simple57uk said...

It's hard to say whether people are checking their lights as much, I think it's more likely that the bulbs last a lot less time nowadays...

thinblueline said...

I remember when I went to france for a weekend that there was a legal requirement to carry spare bulbs for your car. If you did not you were liable to an on the spot fine.

Anonymous said...

I remember a couple of years ago I was riding my bike the day before I was going to sell it... just to say goodbye. I went up a really steep hill and stopped just short of the top with my front wheel on the flat surface and my rear still on the slope... BANG. I was under the bike and trapped. So glad no-one saw me.. That little indiscression cost me £200 for a replacement engine casing...god dammit..

Anonymous said...

Do you possibly mean the rear sprocket and not the rear cam? the cam would need the top of the engine stripping but the drive chain could be done in 10 minutes. Doesn't driving with an unadjusted drive chain that is lose enough to come off the sprockets justify a VDRS? It wouldn't come off if adjusted properly.

thinblueline said...

The bike was dropped due to the ice and the rear CAM lost a tooth !

it cost me a few quid to get it fixed.

Anonymous said...

a chain drive motorcycle has a front and rear SPROCKET! the only place you would find a cam is in the top of the engine

thinblueline said...

Anon your thinking of a cam shaft.

Investigations - 183 | Crimes Solved- 85 | No Crime - 47
% Detection rate - 46.4 % (Counting year April 08 )


Investigations - 129 | Crimes Solved- 53 | No Crime - 36
% Detection rate - 49.3 % (Counting year April 07 )