Safe Speed Forums

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The world runs on oil, period. No other substance can compete when it comes to energy density, flexibility, ease of handling, ease of transportation. If oil didn’t exist we would have to invent it.”

56 years after it was decided it was needed, the Bedford Bypass is nearing completion. The last single carriageway length of it.We have the most photogenic mayor though, always being photographed doing nothing

Daily Finance - hereWell the 3.5L V8 can be found here and another here !
I wonder what the largest volume of car owned is and those stats by comparison ?

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Safe Speed for Intelligent Road Safety through proper research, experience & guidance.

I've owned three. Bikers tend to get them and they make good drivers because of their experience on two wheels. Well, the ones who survived two wheels do.

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

Can you still drive them on a bike licence? ISTR that my Uncle - he of the motorbike sidecar outfit - moved onto a Regal. But had to block reverse gear to make it legally a motor tricycle.
Whereas another Uncle had a Bond Minicar and had to fit an electric motor for reverse motion so that it could be driven on a car licence.

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

If you hold a B1 licence (pre 1997) you can drive a three or four wheeled vehicle if the weight is less than 550kg, irrespective of fitment of reverse gear.
However, this may no longer be the case as EU law now takes precedent......things changed about 2000....all I know now is that i may be allowed to drive a vehicle of some sort but only if it may move, forwards or backwards, at a speed of some sort and with a roof [maybe].
Further, the law relating to trikes (motorcycles with three wheels...no joke...a m/cycle with a car axle sort of thing) seems to feature things like whether the engine is m/c of car....and there was a move to award people who passed their m/c test a provisional B1 licence....which would mean no light car or three wheeler.

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The world runs on oil, period. No other substance can compete when it comes to energy density, flexibility, ease of handling, ease of transportation. If oil didn’t exist we would have to invent it.”

56 years after it was decided it was needed, the Bedford Bypass is nearing completion. The last single carriageway length of it.We have the most photogenic mayor though, always being photographed doing nothing

Jom's got it methinks; it depends when you past the test. When I past my Motorbike test in 76 I was able to drive my newly aquired Supervan when the patter of tiny feet came along in 83, and Regal later, and they both had reverse. Shame they didn't have syncromesh. Nuff said.


Looking at my licence I think I can drive almost anything on and off road except HGV's. Without looking into it, I think I can drive up to 7.5 ton things which I was told the weight was reduced in later tests: -

A
B
BE
B1
C1
C1E
D1
D1E
fklnp

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

I've had a shot of two trikes, one m/cycle engine based and one car engine based.

The m/c based one used the whole bike frame and engine with a Reliant axle stuck on the back, the bike was a Yamaha XJ900 with shaft drive. Very pleasant actually, it was well engineered and drove nicely, cornered and stopped well, I enjoyed driving it. No real advantage over a bike as it still only seated two, but didn't fall over if you didn't put a foot down when stopped ..... yes I have done that .... kickstarter up trouser leg syndrome .... who invented flares anyway!!

The car engined one used the back end of a VW Beetle, with fabricated chassis, and seriously loooooong modified bike forks at the front. It wasn't well engineered and I didn't like driving it at all. The steering geomety was all wrong and it didn't have any self centering effect on the steering .... let the bars go and it would instanly go full lock one way, so needed constant steering input. Also the front wheel would lock very early under braking, not sure why, could have been a weight distribution thing. One quick shot was enough for me thanks!!

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You only need two tools - WD40 and duct tape. If it doesn't move and it should, use WD40. If it moves and it shouldn't, use duct tape. :0)

That's what I like! Good, well-researched journalism! For a start, they don't "melt" - they're polyester and it isn't a thremo-plastic! They do, however, burn - though I believe Reliant used fire-retardant gelcoat. Also, whilst I freely admit we'd not be talking "5 Euro NCAP stars" here, when it comes to crashworthiness, I don't think they were THAT bad! They had a fairly substantial chassis under them. In a head-on between one of those and one of these current "quadricycle" city cars like an Aixam or Ligier, my money would be on the 3-legger any day!

Its also a myth about them being slow. They tended (particularly towards the end of production) to be driven very slowly by old people, but they're actually surprisingly nippy! Again, comparing like-with-like, I reckon the last of the 850cc Robins or Rialtos would blow an Aixam from the same period into the weeds (in a straight line)! I admit they did have a tendency to fall over going round corners, but you just adapt your driving style accordingly. It's a bit like a rear-engined car - there are some things you just wouldn't attempt! They were also much more refined (having a 4 cylinder petrol engine instead of a 2 cylinder diesel generator engine).

As far as I'm aware, they were classed as motorcycles purely on weight, but the regs were messy because for driver licensing purposes, it was one weight, and for technical requirements and regulations relating to the car itself, it was another! Don't think having a reverse gear came into it!

I had a Bond Bug for a while, and don't mind admitting it was the most fun I've ever had in a car (with my trousers on)! It was surprisingly quick (I put the 850cc "donkey" in mine) and could manage the (indicated) "ton" - mind you, Tone will be pleased to hear that I wouldn't have dared taking a call on a hand-held mobile at that speed - even if they had been invented then! You would think twice about even scratching an itch! At lower speeds, it was remarkably stable on corners. In fact, the biggest problem is that it wouldn't slide, there was no body roll to speak of, and no tyre squeal. The first warning you got that you were nearing the limit was when it lifted an (the!) inside wheel!

Because to make a claim would put their insurance up by more than the car is worth, and repairing it is pretty easy.

I had my first insurance claim driving a Reliant Regal Supervan III, the nearside rear wheel came off, broke through the fibreglass bodyshell and overtook me, hitting a Pug 206 coming the other way. The other driver was not impressed.

Also, if you don't have some kind of agreed value policy almost any damage whatsoever will result in it being wtitten off, and you will be offered book value (minus a bit) for it .... e.g. practically nothing. So I'd recon a lot of owners would rather just keep quiet about any moderate claimable damage and deal with repairs themselves.

I've seen a couple of "classic" cars go that way, written off for very minor damage with tiny payouts to the owners

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You only need two tools - WD40 and duct tape. If it doesn't move and it should, use WD40. If it moves and it shouldn't, use duct tape. :0)

From that point of view, and taking into account NCDs, there is no point in having comprehensive insurance on a car with a book value much below £1K. Except that comprehensive insurance, for me at least, is - for some incomprehensibly reason - slightly cheaper than TPFT and usually includes windscreen damage.
I found that the cheapest solution was to take out FC with an excess of several thousand pounds. Though, again, it is curious that companies offer an excess greater than the value of the vehicle. But, as my broker friend used to tell me, men have gone mad trying to understand the workings of actuarial minds.

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

I have long subscribed to a theory that if you don't understand something which is an obvious or common sense issue you can bet, with some exceptions, it is about money or power - or both.

If I were to say, for example, there is no such thing as royalty and that if you go back in time they were all nothing more than a bunch of rapists and pillagers, you can bet there would be an overwhelming religious-like counter attack in support of their heritage and incredibly wealthy position.

But if there were a ‘video of the past’ where you could show in graphic detail exactly just how they attained these positions, peoples reactions would be so very different on them and so many others! But instead it just makes for an entertaining documentary these days.

Funny how time and an errant sperm or two makes people fall in love with a privileged few who are no different to us but for accident of birth and continue to benefit to this day due to their forefathers vile and despicable actions.

My dad should have been part of the great train robbery. He'd be the bad guy and I'd be sitting pretty.

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

Blimey Tone! Have you developed a taste for "e-confrontation" now!

I almost feel obliged to do my outraged and indignat royalist impersionation just for the hell of it so we can get into a good scrap!

Have you ever tried going to a stately home, finding the owner and having the following conversation?:

"Nice house sir, how did you come by it"?

"It's been handed down through the generations. We Trumpinton-Smythes have lived here for 400 years, you know. My father handed it down to me, and his father to him, and his grandfather to his father...and so on".

"Oh, how did your great great great... (as far as is necessary) grandfather acquire the estate"?

"He fought for it, and defeated the Earl of blah blah..etc".

"Ok then, well, I really like it. Can I fight you for it now"?

Mind you, jokes aside, I think there was probably a BIT more to it than that. Humans are naturally pack animals and someone needs to be in charge. I don't think true anarchy can ever really exist because someone always ends up "in charge". We still end up slaving away and being exploited by someone these days, it's just that we vote for them!

Soz Mole, I meant to put a devil at the end.

Many a truth spoke in jest mind.

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

The real problem with a constitutional Monarchy like ours is, to my mind, that we have a Head of State who haws no power. In a European type Presidential system - as opposed to the US system where the presidential is, in effect, an elected and tile-limited old-fashioned monarch - the President has ultimate control over the executive. If that executive attempts to exceed its authority or oppose the clear will of the "people" without justification, the President can veto the legislation. This was illustrated recently when Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson of Iceland vetoed the legislation which would have had them repaying the debts incurred when there banking system collapsed.

Our Constitutional Monarch lacks such ultimate safe-guards because the Monarch, lacking the authority of election, merely rubber stamps legislation. That is why the executive is able to get involved in expensive and damaging wars on the flimsiest contrived evidence. Why we waste billions of pounds on strategic nuclear weapon systems which are of no use.

And I am always amused when people complain of the cost of the Monarchy. This year's civil list and Royal Household expenditure is about £25M Compare that with the cost to the American people of bringing President Obama to this country for a few days.

And the honours system is a wonderful way of saving money. My old friend Ted worked for years in the cause of Mountain Rescue. Many lives were saved as a result of his voluntary work. And his reward when he retired. Not the large cash bonus or decent pension, which he deserved. No just three letters after his name and an invitation to a garden party. What an economical way of rewarding people.

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

Reliant Robins to the pros and cons of constitutional monarchy in 15 posts. A record for topic drift?

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

Royalty have been known to drive Reliants .... just not the type with three wheels! Seem to remember a spate of Scimitar GTE's at some point?

Coincidentaly I came across three stripped Scimitar GTE's two weekends ago lying outside, not much more than bodyshells really and contributing (though not the biggest contribution) to making what could be a very beautiful spot seriously untidy!

Topic drift ... who .. me? ....

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You only need two tools - WD40 and duct tape. If it doesn't move and it should, use WD40. If it moves and it shouldn't, use duct tape. :0)

There's a road I drive up regularly, that has two chocolate brown R reg Triumph Toledos, parked on it , how unusual is that? (topic drift.... )

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

Yes, Princess Anne was well into her Scimitars at one point. She's not the only Royal to have a "plastic pig" though. The Duke of Edinburgh is rumoured to be the proud owner of a Metrocab taxi (Reliant bought them out) to that he can travel anonymously...

Anyway, drifting back to the original topic drift, I think one very good thing about our monarchy is that, being unelected, they can afford to follow their consciences rather than worrying about collecting enough votes every so often to stay in the job. (Assuming they don't upset everyone so much that there's a revolution and they get dropped altogether). I have to say that I'm not an "ardent" royalist, but I'm certainly NOT a republican at all. For my taxes, getting rid of the monarchy would be a very long way down the list of savings! President Cameron? No thanks!

I did take a couple of pics of said Scimitars and I know now y'all know that y'all will be fair burstin to see them .... is that called "topic drift back again" ...

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You only need two tools - WD40 and duct tape. If it doesn't move and it should, use WD40. If it moves and it shouldn't, use duct tape. :0)