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PostPosted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 12:29 
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SafeSpeed wrote:
120mph is about the general max for good (best?) car mainbeams - but many of the better car headlight systems have four lights illuminated to achieve this. Most motorbikes have just one headlight - that's a difference for you...

Makes you wonder how PC Milton managed his 159mph run at night then :)
He must have been using the force!

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 13:17 
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Most sports and touring bikes now have twin headlamps. making them equal to most cars. the distance the beam is effective is just the same as any other twin headlamp car. the single light on my bike is so bright the reflective road signs are too bright and I have switch to dipped beam. If you're doing 120mph on an unlit rural A road using any vehicle, lights wont help you avoid becoming a KSI statistic.
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Makes you wonder how PC Milton managed his 159mph run at night then
He must have been using the force!

He was also using all 3 lanes on an empty motorway


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PostPosted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 13:25 
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covmike wrote:
If you're doing 120mph on an unlit rural A road using any vehicle, lights wont help you avoid becoming a KSI statistic.


Eh? What's that supposed to mean?

120mph is automatically deadly? Better tell the folk who train our Police.

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 14:10 
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blademansw wrote:
Sixy_the_red wrote:
Yeah, I know, but the rest of it's 40. I dunno which bit he was nicked on.


Funnily enough, the whole thing was a NSL DC from Barnfield not that long ago. Then the speed limit mysteriously changed and the scams were down there coining it in.


Yeah, I remember that - I was living in Rodbourne at the time. I'm very surprised there hasn't been a scamera pop up there - the only place I see the van along GWW is at the top of the Hawksworth sliproad.

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 14:15 
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There were scams there regularly when they changed the speed limit and put up 4 signs with no repeaters. Ching Ching. Could have been folly bottom all over again if someone knew how to fight them

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 14:27 
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Were there?! I guess travelling on it at 7:30am I didn't see them....

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 14:34 
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Sixy_the_red wrote:
Were there?! I guess travelling on it at 7:30am I didn't see them....

Come on, behave. They don't get out of bed that early

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 14:50 
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blademansw wrote:
Sixy_the_red wrote:
Were there?! I guess travelling on it at 7:30am I didn't see them....

Come on, behave. They don't get out of bed that early


Quite! That's why I didn't see them! :P

Besides, they don't need to get out of bed early - their hourly rate must be through the roof!

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PostPosted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 15:09 
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blademansw wrote:
Sixy_the_red wrote:
Were there?! I guess travelling on it at 7:30am I didn't see them....

Come on, behave. They don't get out of bed that early


Spotted WARKS SCP(Transit smiley van) half hidden in tree branches close to a now fixed site at approx 7.15 on a SUNDAY morning - perhaps this was to get some NULL results.( Close to a school and a LA Sports Centre)


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PostPosted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 17:13 
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SafeSpeed wrote:
covmike wrote:
If you're doing 120mph on an unlit rural A road using any vehicle, lights wont help you avoid becoming a KSI statistic.


Eh? What's that supposed to mean?

120mph is automatically deadly? Better tell the folk who train our Police.


I'd like to see anyone do 120 along the fosseway (for instance) or even parts of the old A5 (Llangollen or Anglesey). Dual carriageways and motorways are a doddle, dead straight single carriageways too but twisty sections? Like you say yourself, if you go everywhere in urban areas at the speed limit you will wind up a statistic, there are occasions you must slow down. I can do 120 car or bike on A, B, DC's or MW's but there are times you must slow down or become part of the scenery but that's more to do with the radius of the bend not whether it is light or dark. Night time has many safety advantages when approaching bends, one is you can the head lights of oncoming vehicles, not possible in daylight.


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PostPosted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 17:17 
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covmike wrote:
Night time has many safety advantages when approaching bends, one is you can the head lights of oncoming vehicles, not possible in daylight.

True, but unless you know the road, you cannot always see the camber, any damp spots or even sometimes the vanishing point can be difficult to ascertain.
Night riding is fun tho :D

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PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 21:43 
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I really don't agree that what you can see on a bike at night and what you can see in a car are the same. (maybe I've got good cars and crappy bikes)...but

1 - typically its cooler at night and you are far more likely to have to deal with a misty visor. Even if you have an insert the clarity you get through a windscreen is probably 30% better than a visor. take the avg 1 year old perspex visor and insert and it may be a lot less.

2 - A car's headlights are seperated much wider apart, so the coverage is much better between the two lights, plus you often sit behind the light source rather than on top of it.

3 - When you bank over to ride round a bend your lights are pointing away.

4 - a lot of cars don't have two 55/60w bulbs - my slk has two seperate bulbs on each side as does my wife's x-trail. even though I had my Sprint modified it still only has two 55/60w bulbs - only one is supposed to work on dip (but I couldn't live with that). Not to mention the front driving lamps that are also useful on cars with them fitted. The lights on the Pan are better but not by much.

5 - very few bikes have self leveling or even electronic adjustable headlights

6 - then there is the vibration, short wheel base and suspension which will all cause the light beam to bounce around.

maybe as an experement I'll park the bike and merc side by side in the dark and see which one lights the road better


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PostPosted: Tue Oct 31, 2006 21:47 
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blademansw wrote:
True, but unless you know the road, you cannot always see the camber, any damp spots or even sometimes the vanishing point can be difficult to ascertain.
Night riding is fun tho :D


Yep - avoiding oil manhole covers is much harder, I even find that shadows confuse too.


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