OzSTOC

General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Old Steve on March 23, 2015, 04:12:17 PM

Title: Saturday morning ride ...
Post by: Old Steve on March 23, 2015, 04:12:17 PM
I sold the ST1100 two weekends ago, chap came around late in the afternoon and took her away.

However, and isn't there always an 'however' ...

Saturday morning I took her for a hundred km ride out of Mackay and up the Bruce Highway.  North of Yalboroo I came around a left handed corner, saw a set of lights on the roof of an oncoming car, looked down at the speedo, uh huh, he picked me up for 114 km/hr  - that's a couple of hundred dollars and three demerit points, bringing my points total to 12..

I know I hadn't been watching the speedo because I'd just passed over a bridge with a lot of pot holes before it and bumps right before the bridge.  I was keeping a very careful eye on the road.  Also I was riding with a strongish wind behind me.  On the way home, with the wind coming face on, judging my speed by the helmet noise I found that I was riding at between 90 and 95 km/hr.

So what do you do when riding, look at the road or look at your speedo?  I figure it's at least 2 seconds to look down, refocus on the speedo, get a reading. look up and refocus on the road.  That'd be 50 metres you were riding with your eyes off the road at 100 km/hr, or if you're checking your speed every 30 seconds then that's nearly 7% of the time you aren't looking at the road (plus you should also be looking in your mirrors).

Looks as if I might conclude my driving history here in QLD on a good behaviour bond.
Title: Re: Saturday morning ride ...
Post by: Biggles on March 23, 2015, 04:45:29 PM
It's a perennial problem.  There's no acceptable excuse for "speeding"- i.e. riding faster than the posted limit.  Any reason you give short of imminent birth by pregnant pillion (or self) will be treated with scorn.
I don't depend on wind noise.  Just the rate of progress in the peripheral vision (confirmed by glances at the over-reading speedo).
Title: Re: Saturday morning ride ...
Post by: Kev Murphy on March 23, 2015, 07:10:47 PM
The sound of terrified wombats screaming, as they run from my rapid approach, is usually a pretty good indication that I might be "expeeding the posted seed limit" and attempting to add more "experience" points to my collection... :rofl
Title: Re: Saturday morning ride ...
Post by: Brian on March 23, 2015, 07:21:10 PM
That's jus bad luck ..... On the upside points you may have lost on your licence you made up in life's lessons