All depends on how many points you have on your licence......6 now for me. B.u.g.g.e.r! I do a lot of driving (35,000 miles per year average) on A and B roads here in Bonnie Scotland. Im starting to lose count of the number of times Ive come round bends and there is tractors, caravans, cars on wrong side of the road etc and thats in a Ford Escort van......christ knows what would have happened on the bike...id hate to think. Always keep it defensive.

I used to ride as tail end charlie but found I was taking more chances than the riders in front in an attempt to keep the pack in sight.

The thing which influenced me most was travelling home from a business trip in the car during the summertime along a country A road and coming across an accident which had just happened to a guy on a 748.

He was one of three riders who had gone into a fairly tight bend at I assume about 60mph only to be confronted by a woman driving a small hatchback out of a farm entrance. Riders 1 & 2 had made it past the car but the guy on the ducati hit her and knocked the car into the hedge with the force of the impact. His bike literally disintegrated into hundreds of pieces.

A few of us did our best to assist until the police & ambulance turned up but I
was later told that he had died. Apparently it was due to be his daughters christening the day after the accident....

I didn't touch the bike for months after and now ride either alone, or with one other rider and hardly ever go over 70 on an A road. I have had people skit at my riding ability as a result but as far as I am concerned my first responsibility is to my loved ones.

I'll get off me soapbox nowl :burn:

I'm kinda with Philthy on this one. I'm completely dog slow, only been riding for 5 years and I'm super safe. I take no risks - I ride at my own pace on my own most of the time. My tyres have chunky chicken strips and it doesn't bother me at all. I'm 30 years old, recently married, and I want to have a long and happy life before I die.

Just because I don't thrash the nuts off it everywhere, it doesn't mean I don't love riding my 749S :)

I used to ride (and drive) a lot faster, but the traffic in sussex has really gone up in the last 10 years, and the 30/40 speed limits have been creeping further everywhere.
Since starting racing, I dont find I need to get a fix so much, but, like TP says, sometimes you dont realise you are going the speed you are cos your abilities have improved.
I think I'm probably more dangerous going to work on my 1959 velocette 350 than on the 748sps, cos I _have_ to cut up traffic more to get past :D

I had a wake-up call of a strange kind last year - I was coming home from work after a weekend's racing, and was on my old 1982 900ss bevel at the time, and touched a silencer bracket down around a roundabout.
Now you have to see the ground clearence on them to believe it, and I had never touched it down before, and I didnt feel as if I was going fast.
I've gone off bikes that make going fast too easy since then :saint:

I've just thought of another reason why I don't ride as fast. It's because I work at home.

What's that got to do with it? Well....

Time was when I would get up at 5:30 every morning for a 1.5 - 2 hour journey to Bracknell and join the race down the motorway, or alternatively cane the ass off the car I had at the time - usually a GTI or V6 something or other - across the backroads. I used to do a bit of rallying and sometimes this was at special stage speeds. If you do that everyday, going megafast just seems normal to you.

Working at home, I don't drive very far these days - haven't needed to touch the car for two weeks now.

The effect is like a weird experience that I had after a very lazy canal boat holiday - after chugging about at 4 mph for 10 days, driving the car home at 60 seemed to be bordering on suicidal.

Think i'll join the canal boat sporting club next

:puzzled: well that will be because your observation is staring down at the tarmac in front of your front wheel.....!;)

In fact the majority of riding problems can be traced back to observation! you dont see so your going too slow or too fast. you dont read the road so your in the wrong position at the wrong time.etc etc etc....

too true Andy, everytime i do an advanced road course i am amazed at how much the trainers are taking in, i consider myself a quick'ish road rider with good observation but its only when you go out with radios in you really appreciate what others can do.

I spend most of my time sitting behind a screen (based at home) and therefore dont get many miles in (like Jools).

Problem is, I get enought stress from my job (usually stupid deadlines and the odd impossible ones too) and the pace on the bike is a way of me relaxing..:o

must agree with gizmo - best money spent is on advanced road riding...

raises your vision - also makes you realise how a lot of riders don't look ahead enough - not that any do it on here, just a general comment:)

les