Ducati Sporting Club UK > General > Idle Chat > Road Riding

[TP]

Caution - Long and Windy post.

Had a nice trip out on the 996 on Saturday and met up with some DSC folks for a greasy breakie and a looky over Nick's DD bike. On the way home the roads around my house were heavily congested with cars and buses all coming in for the rugby at Twickenham Stadium - the PowerGen Cup Final.

Tailbacks down the M3 and because I live very close to the stadium my street was actually blocked off to traffic by the police, as always happens, and I had to plead for them to let me in. Anyway, I was filtering up the traffic, generally taking it easy when I came up behind a guy on an SV650 who had slowed down. He let me through and he joined the other SV650 (with a girl riding) that was filtering behind me.

There is a point after this story, hold on.

I filtered to the head of the traffic to a set of lights just before the stadium and then the guy starts being a bit erratic in the traffic, like he's trying to keep up with me or something. Bearing in mind I wasn't going quickly at all, I was mindful of the conditions because there wasn't just a lot of traffic around there were pedestrians everywhere - anyone who has been to Twickenham on a big rugby day will understand. So we leave the first set of lights and he tries to race up to beat me into the traffic. I sort of sit up to let him have it but then he dives back around the outside of the traffic to go up beside the bus that was there and the curbing. We filter up to the next set of lights. This is the roundabout that every rugby fan has walked through from the stadium back to the train station. The police wave us through after a short wait and I get out in front and catch up with the traffic in front. I don't know where either Sv is. There is a LWB Sprinter van in front of me that starts slowing very suddenly and then puts his left indicator on (we are in the right hand lane still heading up the A316 towards Richmond) I slow down to wait and see what is going on and there is a stationary Pug 306 with it's RHS indicator on wanting to turn into the church carpark across the road and all the traffic banked up. Just as I'm deciding which way to go around the Pug the bloke on the SV ploughs into the back corner of the 306 around 2 metres from where I am. He would have to have been doing 30-35mph.

I picked this bloke up (I'm trying not to call him a kid - he was around 20 I reckon but came across as very immature). He was trying to go around the Sprinter (he was going way too fast for the conditions) and didn't notice that the Pug was stationary. He hit it so that the fork leg on the right was bent back around 60 degree's and the fork had split just below the bottom yoke spilling fork oil all over the road. The forks were twisted down around to the right but the left hand fork leg appeared to be straight. The headlight assembly was completely ripped out of the front of the bike, along with all the fairings smashed and the headlight assembly was dangling by it's connection into the loom.

The bloke himself had gone over the bars and slid up the side of the car landing on his head and taking off the left hand side mirror on the Pug. He was laying on the ground when I got to him.

So, this had a bit of an affect on me and made me have a think about why I ride bikes. After the police had came I helped get his mess of a bike off the road and helped him once he was up. His right hand was split open in a nasty gash and the ambulance was going to stitch him up. This combined with all the other major accidents that seem to be happening lately, people getting seriously injured and destroying their bikes has made me reconsider whether I should continue riding on the road.

I did my first track day last year at Rocky with the DSC - TA3. Since then I've fallen in love with track days and as you know, entered the Desmo Due series. Since doing time on the track my road riding has slowed down. I don't think I was reckless before but now I'm bordering on being an old man! I've always considered myself to be a good rider on the road (don't we all) and I'm careful enough to have survived an extended stint commuting through London every day in all weathers on the 996, something I don't need to do at the moment. I think my observation skills are very good and I tailor my riding accordingly to the conditions and what I see around me. Should I stop riding on the road? Some people who know my family circumstances might say yes - I am 29 years old, I am an IT Contractor, we are a single income family, I have four children aged between four and eleven. I also have a lot of very expensive insurance

I don't know - should I stop? I don't think I should - but I'm certainly reviewing how I ride and thinking about what I get out of riding on the public roads. I didn't get all that much enjoyment out of riding the 996 on Saturday but I know that this is dependant on all sorts of different things so I'm not too concerned about that. But I certainly didn't get anywhere near the level of enjoyment I get out of caning the monster around the track! Or the 996 for that matter. Is it worth it when the other option is there? Hrmm .. I don't know, I guess I'll keep debating with myself and talk to my wife about it.

What about you? How many of you have sworn off the road? How many of you have sworn off the track? How many of you have wrestled with this decision yourself - and maybe changed your decision later? And why?

Take the poll - tell me your opinion. If you're still reading after getting this far and not too glazed over.