Bikers and Sundays

Just what is it about people with motorbikes and Sundays??

I cycled from Bloxham to Chipping Norton and back yesterday. A distance of about 10 miles each way and all the time I was being passed at high speed by groups of bikers. Then it seemed that the same ones (?) turned around and went zooming back again. I swear I saw th same bunch at least three times. There were others too. I've noticed many times in the past that Sundays seems to be bikers day. They often park en masse in a town and walk up and down the line admiring each others' bikes, jump on them and ride off again. I'm sorry but I don't undersatnd.

I know there are bikers on the forum so please can someone explain what it's about?

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Comments

  • You wanna try North Wales in the Summer Ratbag ! I'll be slogging my guts out on my pushbike over the hills and these dudes come blatting over the hills at HUGE speeds. Then we all stop in the same cafes.
    I think they like the bends and the speed - sure can't be the scenery as that is just a blur. And it can't be the cafe in Ruthin or on the Horseshoe - they'd be better off in their local Starbucks !

    Quite often though, not all of these bikers make it back home again. :-(
    Why do these bikes need such huge top speeds ?



  • You should try Box Hill on a Sunday guys! And loads of people gather to watch, making the whole thing seriously dangerous. The police (any of you out there?) don't seem to do anything.
  • My husband is a bit of a bike enthusiast, he owns two and Sunday is generally our day to go out on them. We aren't the speeding types (one of the bikes is a Harley so speed isn't an option!) I can safely say that we are courteous road users (possibly because I run and he cycles at times? Whenever we stop and park up we get a bit of attention, either because of the chrome on the Harley or his MV Agusta which is a bit of a rarity on the roads
  • I've got to own up. This used to be me. I used to sacre the excrement out of myself every Sunday on my huge red V4.
    It's exhilerating, but potentially very bad for you. If you don't fall off, you get little exercise and tend to drink huge quantities of ale and sleep in tents.
    loved it at the time, but gave up the day Mrs Barkles told me she was expecting.

    Besides it's important that the kids at school know I'm a great role model.

    honest.

    Argue and I'll piss on your drive.
  • Yeah, but nobody can really explain the fact that they all park up and then wander up and down looking at each other's bikes. You don't get car drivers doing that. Is it some kind of sexual substitute?? Like who's got the biggest engine or something? And why only on a Subday, as it seems? What do these people do the rest of the week???

    Still don't understand it...
  • Well, Ratbag, you do get car drivers doing just that in country pub car parks! It just depends on what you drive. Anyway, it's all about boys and their toys, and maybe it's a substitute for something, who can be sure. I'm a biker myself, but I couldn't see myself doing the kind of thing you're describing. I enjoy riding a nice bendy road at legal speeds, and there are trackdays if I want to go flat out. My excuse for owning a bike is that I don't have a car and probably never will - they clog up the road, consume more petrol and make their owners into lazy bun-munching couch potatoes, because it's just so much easier to drive there than to walk, or take the bicycle or the bus...
    But riding up and down the same road and spending hours admiring each other's bikes? No thank you!
  • It’s a what you are thing: -

    You are a runner
    Your are a cyclist
    You are a biker

    What ever you are you go out and do it at a weekend (since you have to work all week)

    Will
  • Maybe us runners could all meet in car parks and admire each others trainers or our 'engines' :-) There's one on the A46 near Bath we're people seem to do this!!!!! Very scary
  • I was a biker until recently (when I had to sell my BMW R1100S). At heart, I still am, and I can't wait to get another one.
    It's like all hobby things - it's good to meet people with similar interests. Riding a bike is exhillarating - even at slower speeds.
    People also do customise their bikes - even sports bikes. When you meet someone for a ride, it's quite natural to look at what they're riding.
    And the police do do things about it. Believe me - become a biker and you'll soon feel victimised. How often do you get police stopping cars at car parks checking for tax, illegal number plates, loud exhausts etc? Not very often. You get a recognised bike event, and you can guarantee there will be the over zealous plod there.
    And cars do do this too. Have you not seen the boy racer GTI clubs, with their loud music, even louder exhausts, and often very irresponsible driving?
    Sure - bikes can be ridden poorly, but in my experience, car drivers are worse in towns where injuring pedestrians is more likely.

    There. Minor rant over.
  • There are irresponsible cyclists, bikers and car drivers, just like there are sensible ones from all of the above categories. And thanks Mr B, I'll avoid the A46 in future!
  • Just like you have favourite running routes, bikers have fave roads, so you ride them again and again. Anywhere around Devil's Bridge in Kirkby Lonsdale does fine for me. There's a car park with a sign that says 'Monday to Saturday any vehicle, Sundays Motorcycles only'. About the only positive discrimination for bikers I've ever come across.

    Sunday's the day you get to enjoy riding purely for the pleasure of it, rather than as a means of getting from A to B - and as for admiring each others bikes it's really just down to jealousy. Someone on this thread mentioned an MV Agusta, now that's making me really green....

    Agree with the comments about irresponsible speeds and behaviour though, but I've yet to come across any group of road users who are all completely responsible all the time...
  • At Vyrnwy the Sunday before last a few bikers were a nuisance round the course. There's no excuse for bikers weaving in and out of runners - which a few of them did. It's not as if the road goes anywhere either - just around the lake, so why they had to ride around it defeats me. It would be much better if the organisers applied to close the road to traffic and that would stop the cars too, although I didn't notice any cars weaving in and out.

    SY3
  • Slowboy - I showed my husband this thread (he's the lucky Agusta owner) and he laughed out loud at your comment. He gets an incredible amount of attention from other bikers when he's out on it. I am not sure that my description of it as 'a really pretty bike' goes down quite as well as it might though.
  • Slowboy, there's no need for that sign on Devil's Bridge since there's no hope of gettting a car parked there on a Sunday anyway!
    Anyway, isn't there some talk of banning them from there? (don't shoot the messenger)
  • Gnasher, I'm not suprised he gets attention, that's a bike that's not so much rare as legendary.

    Laura, there have been rumours of bikes being banned from Devil's Bridge rumbling on for years. Hopefully it'll come to nothing and we can all go on enjoying ourselves in our different ways.

    By the way, looking at your profile on the URWFRC website I see you finished the Paris Marathon just ahead of me - I came in in 4:14:20, so you almost certainly ran past me (i felt like I was going backwards by this point).
  • I was trying to resist posting in this thread as it is a conversation that I have regulary at work with non bikers.

    As for what we do when we 'inspect' other bikes; it usually a mixture of technical things like tyres and suspension settings (you can really feel the difference on a bike between a bad tyre and a good one) and just a good look at the latest bikes or indeed a look at some classic bikes.

    Will summed it up perfectly!
  • Runners do miss out on a lot of 'tecchie' things really. As a cyclist I will have a look at a fellow cyclists bike if its got some nice bits on it. But when I'm running I can't really go up to someone and admire the cut of their shorts.

    Advantage is that running is much cheaper though.
  • Tell me about it, I've just bought a bike for the triathlons: 625 £sterling, reduced from 1000, it's worth more than my car and this weekend the children will be travelling on the roof rack while the bike reclines on the back seat!
  • Attagirl Monique.
    I had the girls from the office round last week, and they insisted that my wife got the wedding album out.
    They were a bit surprised to find my bike in a few of the shots before we went to the church.
    (it was a very nice bike and only a few weeks old) And lived in the front room for a while too.
  • What kind is it, not that I'd know if it was any good or not, I took my friend and he told me which one to get, the choice was narrowed down considerably by the fact that I insist on purple and am very poor, well I am now anyway.
  • It was a Parkpre Pro825 Mountain Bike - very sexy - brushed steel finish with Purple Stickers funnily enough. Very rugged and lovely.

    I sold it though last year as I realised I hadn't ridden it for 18 months :-(

    I miss it now. I'm down to 3 and a half bikes. Sob sob sob.
  • This one is a fondueset-magaluf (From the package holiday series), no really it is a Fondriest megala or lampre at least that's what it says on the frame it's got a pink going into blue colour merge so there's purple in the middle bits and it has a non-shiny finish. it is living on my treadmill in the kitchen so I can ogle it while eating breakfast.
  • Oooh Fondriest - v nice, in Team Lampre colours. This means you can get all the team kit to match too !

    www.probikekit.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=5a83c42eb0ece63de7cf7347b41e1e59&qry=lampre

    Definitely sounds worthy of ogling. The finish on the Italian frames is very nice indeed. Trust you aren't gonna take it outside at any point - it's dirty out there !

  • Back on the forums, sorry about the delay, I have been working!!!! I will check out the kit, if there's one thing I can't atand it's being unco-ordinated. Trouble is I really am bankrupt and I have seen the perfect purple suede afghan coat that I can see the plastic taking some more hammer, plus I want a gel saddle and one of those bicycle pumps to get the pressure right in the tyres. And yes I have been outside on it but only in dry conditions!
  • Mmm purple suede Afghan coat ?
    Must be a girly thing.

    Saddles can be fun - never bothered with gel myself, but some mates swear by them.
    You can get saddles specifically for ladies - not necessarily gel ones.

    Track pumps are a good idea for keeping at home, and then a cheapo one to take with you on the bike.
  • Now if anyone wants to talk bikes - we have 5 in the shed and only 1.5 of them is mine. (I'm allowed a half share in the tandem). Him self has one for work, one for off roading and one for going out at weekends when i'm running......
  • Now if anyone wants to talk bikes - we have 5 in the shed and only 1.5 of them is mine. (I'm allowed a half share in the tandem). Him self has one for work, one for off roading and one for going out at weekends when i'm running......and shares the half with me when i have to tag along.

  • DS

    I have 4 bikes myself - a mountain bike I use in my turbo trainer, another mountain bike for, well mountain biking, a road/race bike for training and TRIs and an older race that is past its best – but I could not possibly part with it, cos it’s a hand built Alan :o)

    Will
  • Great - I can show my wife this, and maybe I can get some more for Xmas.

    I only have my Giant Lo-Pro, my custom built Road bike, and a fixed wheel kinda hack bike for the winter. I feel hard done to. ;-)

    Oh, and two frames hanging around that I should do something to, but it'll work out darn expensive.

    Running is so much cheaper !
  • Good grief, fixed wheel for winter, thought I was the only one left who did that .....
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