Did anyone else see the piece in the DT on Saturday regading the North Wales Police Deputy Chief Constable's blog, and to think that this guy is a public employee!
www.north-wales.police.uk/nwp/public/en/blogs/view...2
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I quote: "Is it now time to banish motorcycles completely from our National Parks?", so if I lived in Exford or Keswick or Dolgellau or Whitby (yes Whitby!) I would not be allowed to ride a motorcycle - ridiculous! I suggest it should be questioned as to whether someone who makes such an ill thought out statement should be able to hold such a senior office.
To declare an interest - I have an aftermarket exhaust on my ZRX 1100, it is more efficient than the standard one and being made of titanium is much lighter than the steel original, that would probably have rusted through by now anyway, however it is road legal, if the powers at be have an issue with the noise emmitted from EC approved standard or road-legal aftermarket systems then surely they should campaign for a reduction in the allowable noise limit rather than suggest banning a whole category of transport.
Yes, many motorcyclists run illegal race cans that are rather noisy however to suggest banning motorcycles because of an inconsiderate few is like banning cars because because of the Saxo brigade's big bass booming or banning football because there is the odd punch up after a game.
Seems to me that Deputy Chief Constable Clive Wolfendale should get his boys out with noise meters tackoling the issue? No, of course not, they have not got time because they are too busy enforcing often inappropriate speed limits, penalising almost innocent motorists based on a 1/1000 sec snapshot in time that bears absolutely no relationship to the other 99.9999% of their journey and doing nothing to deter - yet alone catch - other road users who are drugged up or drunk, perhaps driving illegal, untaxed, uninsured, unsafe vehicles - or riding noisy motorbikes!
Regards.
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The man (and I use that term in it's loosest sense) is a PR-chasing waste of oxygen, drunk on self-importance.
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Can do nothing else but agree. There are many other areas of crimminal behaviour that need this fools attention before this. Noise, excess or type is a bit of a personal issue in any case, what suits me may not suit you. If its legal then its legal and should not be subjet to some idiots crusading.
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It was a blog, the man was musing. If you actually read the item its perfectly harmless and was merely posing a question. I dont see him mentioning gallows and hanging bikes!
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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It was a blog, the man was musing. If you actually read the item its perfectly harmless and was merely posing a question. I dont see him mentioning gallows and hanging bikes! ------------------------------ TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
I have actually read it RF hence my post!
It is not perfectly harmless, it is completely inappopraite for someone is such a position.
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Thats a gross over reaction and massive misrepresentation of the facts by being very selective about the content. Not to mention a misunderstanding of blog culture.
I may not like North wales police motoring policy, but you cant argue about the open nature of it.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Thats a gross over reaction and massive misrepresentation of the facts by being very selective about the content. Not to mention a misunderstanding of blog culture.
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No that is a gross over reaction.
and massive misrepresentation of the facts by being very selective about the content. >>
Not at all, I posted a link to the full piece.
>>Not to mention a misunderstanding of blog culture.>>
Actually I reckon it is NWP that misunderstands blog culture dressing up a positioning statement probably written or edited by the PR dept and posted within the force website as a blog.
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Actually I reckon it is NWP that misunderstands blog culture dressing up a positioning statement probably written or edited by the PR dept and posted within the force website as a blog.
As a question and not a dig, have you made your feelings known to Wolfbane or whatever his name is via the blog feedback thingy?
Perhaps we could invite him to contribute to the thread? Seems to have time on his hands (checks clock, back to work....)
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>> >> As a question and not a dig, have you made your feelings known to Wolfbane or whatever his name is via the blog feedback thingy?
Good point, I have now.
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This is nothing new. North Wales Police have taken a draconian attitude towards bikers for years. This is why when we go out on the bikes for longer treks, we give our hard-earned to to campsites, local shops, pubs, restaurants etc in anywhere but Wales. Sure, the roads are great, but when I go out for a day or weekend on the bike, I want to enjoy myself and feel welcome where I go. The North Wales Police seem to go out of their way to prevent both.
Let them have their peaceful country if it's that important to them. £2bn worth of annual contributions to the Welsh economy and 100,000 Welsh jobs depend on the tourism industry and I am proud to contribute nothing towards it. I would urge others to do the same.
Cheers
DP
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It would make my day to see motorbikes banned from Dartmoor, as 9 times out of 10 when I come across one it's being ridden dangerously. In particular, when I come around a blind corner I do not expect to have to leap on the brakes as hard as I can to avoid a biker who's overtaking.
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A blanket ban on a something because of the actions of a handful of idiots seems very draconian.
You're not a government minister are you?? ;-)
DP
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>>It would make my day to see motorbikes banned from Dartmoor, as 9 times out of 10 when I come across one it's being ridden dangerously. In particular, when I come around a blind corner I do not expect to have to leap on the brakes as hard as I can to avoid a biker who's overtaking.<<
That's ridiculous. That's like me saying everytime I've come across a gold coloured Xsara, it was being driven by someone driving ridiculously slow and not indicating.
The avoce is completely true. It's only happened twice but still true all the same.
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One thing the complainers about bikes never seem to notice: A bike with a legal exhaust is almost inaudible. The problem comes with the "not suitable for road use" silencers fitted by morons for whom a power to weigh ratio similar to an F1 car is not enough.
I heard a programme about zero tolerance policing in New York on R4 a few months ago. One chap used to sell illegal car exhausts. Every time the police stopped someone using an exhaust from him, they summonsed him. As he said, that meant a day off from work making no money. After enough of this, he simply stopped selling illegal exhausts.
As usual, what is needed is effective application of current laws rather than new ones. Why can't those who have the power see this? If the Police stopped every loud motorcycle (and car), fined and impounded (or whatever the sanction is) until fixed, the problem would go away. There would be no need for new laws.
V
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>>It would make my day to see motorbikes banned from Dartmoor, as 9 times out of 10 when I come across one it's being ridden dangerously. In particular, when I come around a blind corner I do not expect to have to leap on the brakes as hard as I can to avoid a biker who's overtaking.<<
"When I come around a blind corner"
Is it me or are you supposed to be able to stop in the distance in which you can see?
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Really a bit of an aside on this bike specific subject, but many, many years ago I worked for the Austin distributor for London - Car Mart - anyone remember them?
Anyway, at the end of production of the Mini Cooper S 1071 cc, staff were offered the chance to buy one with a DISCOUNT (shock horror in those days!).
I aleady had one, converted to 970 cc to compete in the under 1000 cc club racing class, but two of my colleagues took the offer and bought one each.
Remember these were bog-standard cars, unlike mine.
One fine day plod stopped one and gave NOIP for excessive noise.
"But it's a perfectly standard car, no more than 6 months old!" said my colleague.
"If you hadn't accelerated so hard, would you have made less noise?" said plod.
"Well, yes I suppose so"
"Right then, you're nicked!"
Moral - excessive noise, unless measured by a noise mete), is subjective and plod can do pretty much as he/she likes!
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Roger. (Costa del Sol, España)
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Living in North Wales I can say that I'm not overly pleased with some of the North Wales police motoring policies.
However after regularly driving around North Wales, Snowdonia etc I can certainly see the reason for the Blog. The A5 seems to turn into a bikers playground when the sun shines & speed limits have pretty much no meaning, I'm not talking about 5/10miles per hour above either. If the North Wales force is to implement an evenhanded "speeding" policy then it certainly should take as close a look at the behaviour of motorbikes as it currently does at cars. From my experience the levels at which bikers exceed speed limits far exceed those of cars.
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I think mountainkat you will find that North Wales police have been targeting bikers for years: they bought a helicopter specially for this purpose.
I have had a few biking holidays in North Wales, but not any more. We clear off down to the South of France now (and Germany for the Nurburgring), with the added bonus of not getting rained on every day!
--
\"Nothing less than 8 cylinders will do\"
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