Welcome to Commuter Motorcycle Club
Good afternoon,
Welcome to the Commuter Motorcycle Club Mid-Winter/Spring/Summer Portal
Well... It's difficult to say what the time of year is if you look at the weather. Hail/rain/sleet/high winds are things we seem to get within 5 minutes now.
But looking out the window today it's clear blue skies, warm and pretty much nice riding weather. Remember, when humidity is high we get a bit more poke per squirt of fuel :)
A little bit of politics
Westminster Council are in the news yet again. Socio-political groups are rounding on the council from hell over their attitude to parking again as the Guardian reported just before Christmas here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/dec/11/galleries-theatres-condemn-westminster-parking and when Boris Johnson is berating his own party colleagues, it doesn't look good. The latest wheeze is to remove single yellow lines and replace them with doubles, all to aid the disabled and help the flow of traffic. Nutsville has, yet again, done a great job in reporting this issue here: http://nutsville.com/?p=3699 so we won't cover it here, suffice it to say that the spin put out by Westminster is looking very dodgy given that they were so concerned about this way back in 2009.
One of the subject Nutsville and colleagues pressed Westminster Council on was their illegal use of CCTV to give motorists fines, the BBC report on the issue here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-15755954 back in November 2011. More fuel, if it were needed, that Westminster Council just aren't playing by the rules of decency or morality.
The update here is that Westminster have dropped the evening charges for now but have still reduced the amount of free kerb space, which was seriously underestimated by the council's Martin Low who obviously hasn't read the instructions that came with his calculator. Not only does he have trouble with his calculator but also with the Highway Code as you're not supposed to park within 10M of a junction but it seems Low and his parking stasi think it's ok to have a parking bay within 10m. One rule for us and another for them.
Appeal
This is a general appeal to our two wheeled brothers and sisters of the cycling fraternity about road safety. Without generalising too much and with the appreciation that many cyclists are road savvy and know what's going on around them. If only all cyclists were like that (and all motorcyclists were like the Mets finest!) it would be great but cyclists need to be aware that popping out of a traffic queue to the central line without looking is dangerous. This is where we motorcyclists like to creep along to get to the lights, it's also where the slippy white lines are and where our brakes don't work very well. We know cyclists don't like like motorbikes in their sanctuary of the ASL and Bus Lanes and sometimes it's an uneasy truce but popping out without looking is going to hurt, please lets all look out for each other, two wheels is best.
We also know that motorcycles are (since 23rd January 2012) allowed in red route bus lanes and as motorcyclists the majority of people on this forum would support that. However, some road users don't but we are allowed and so need to get on. If we just appreciated each others predicament I'm sure we'd find cyclists and motorcyclists had far more in common than we might first think.
Top ten things to look forward to this time of year
1. Cleaning a mopnths worth of last years carbon from the barbecue
2. The days are getting longer.
3. The Olympics are coming!
4. Great clear night skies to look up to the heavens.
5. Summer is next
6. Lots of bike meets
7. Power Rangers
8. Akin to Number 7, Lots of nice shiny bikes to look at
9. Ale tastes much better, warm and fulfilling.
10. Comfort food! This obviously includes cake.
Coming up!
The MRO series is under way... Why not get along to your local circuit and support the up and coming riders? http://www.bemsee.net/
Don't forget to pop up on the forum and say hello, join in with the banter or just peek over from behind the pit wall.
Catch up with us on Twitter: @gocmc and Facebook
Cheers, enjoy and have fun.
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Reply #4 on : Thu January 05, 2012, 10:46:29
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Reply #1 on : Sat November 26, 2011, 13:54:31