What happens when a cyclist breaks the speed limit?

[nickyboy]

I've a mate who got told off by the police for 56 mph in a 30 limit (bottom of Leckhampton hill in Cheltenham).
A police car pulled alongside after he'd turned left, and he was told through the window "Do you know how fast you were going? Fifty beeping six; if you'd been in a car, I'd have nicked you".
The more serious telling off was from the tandem stoker (wife).

56 in a 30 zone on a bike is seriously bad form. No pedestrian is going to be anticipating a cyclist doing almost twice the speed limit and presumably the 30 zone is due to junctions etc etc. Stupid

I like a fast descent and there are a number of roads around my way I've done 50mph on. But to do that in a 30mph zone? No way, accident waiting to happen

 

[Ming the Merciless]

A man walking with a red flag needs to be reintroduced in front of all cars.

 

[matticus]

Tandems doing 50mph are quite a lot more dangerous than a 30mph solo, all other things being equal :-/

 

[matticus]

A man walking with a red flag needs to be reintroduced in front of all cars.

🤣
(Did a red flag help on the Giro last week??)

 

[Solocle]

56 in a 30 zone on a bike is seriously bad form. No pedestrian is going to be anticipating a cyclist doing almost twice the speed limit and presumably the 30 zone is due to junctions etc etc. Stupid

I like a fast descent and there are a number of roads around my way I've done 50mph on. But to do that in a 30mph zone? No way, accident waiting to happen

"Presumably" is doing a lot of lifting there. Now, Leckhampton Hill's 30 limit (a location was provided, so all you had to do was streetview the thing) doesn't look like the place I'd contemplate 50 mph. 40, perhaps.

This is the 30 limit where I hit 53 mph.

In fact, I did that hill a good number of times, and only once did I not break 50 mph - I had to wait to overtake a car, and only got up to 45.

And I was always careful to make my speed far more decent on reaching the corner with a junction just beyond it.

 

[Mr Celine]

A ridden or driven horse is highly unlikely to break a speed limit on a road. An 'average' horse trots at around 8-12mph and canters at around 10 - 15mph or a bit more. Some horses can trot, pace, or do a similar two-beat gait, significantly faster, at canter speed - but they can't, or find it difficult to, canter. It's a genetic thing. I once used to ride a horse who trotted in front and cantered behind; logic said that he should have cut his legs to pieces but he tracked so wide in front and so narrow behind that there was plenty of room for his iron shod feet without him hitting himself!
Full gallop can be anything above canter speed, up to around 30mph, depending on the horse. A specialist sprinter on perfect surface (turf) over a short distance will go significantly faster, 50mph or a bit more.
However, on a normal road surface it would be foolish and risky to deliberately ride or drive a horse above a trot except in an emergency and for a short distance - a few yards in a canter - as it is all too easy for a horse to slip and fall on such a surface, never mind the damage it will do to its joints.
Riding or driving 'furiously' is the crime, I believe.

I take it you've never watched a Border common riding.



These are the 'principals', who take it easy as dropping the flag will cause some unspeakable catastrophe to befall the town.

They are then followed by another 350 or so mounted supporters who don't hang back.

The only precautions are the removal of traffic islands and the cooncil gritter going up and down the street before hand to lay a bit of sand.
The crowd barriers are a fairly recent innovation!

 

[KnittyNorah]

I take it you've never watched a Border common riding.



These are the 'principals', who take it easy as dropping the flag will cause some unspeakable catastrophe to befall the town.

They are then followed by another 350 or so mounted supporters who don't hang back.

The only precautions are the removal of traffic islands and the cooncil gritter going up and down the street before hand to lay a bit of sand.
The crowd barriers are a fairly recent innovation!

I've not only seen them, I've been there staying with a friend who was participating.
Sure enough, it doesn't do the horse's legs any good at all. Two of us took turns in hosing down my pal's horses legs for a full 48 hours after the event to minimise swelling and inflammation. Then the horses went out onto soft pasture for a couple of weeks, with daily close examinations and ultrasounds of the tendons. BTW my friend is (was - he's retired) a vet. He was always busy busy busy answering call outs to lame horses for a full ten days or more after any commons riding. Lots of issues with horse's legs are incurable, require constant time consuming care and attention and cause the animal a great deal of stress. Leg problems often result in a horse being euthnased

Hammering round the roads certainly isn't the sort of thing you could do on a regular basis with any expectation that the horse would stay 'sound' in the long term - "'ammer 'ammer 'ammer on the 'ard 'igh road" has long been recognised, since the advent of hard high roads, as a contributor to, and often a direct cause of, damage to a horse's legs. Lengthy, time-consuming aftercare can reduce, but not eliminate, problems and of course sometimes the horse is just lucky. Sometimes it isn't.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I must say I find your horsey info fascinating @KnittyNorah

I don't know anything about hosses and have always been a bit nervous of them.

 

[mjr]

I don't know anything about hosses and have always been a bit nervous of them.

That's better than being too cavalier!

 

[mjr]

"Presumably" is doing a lot of lifting there.

Yes, many 30s are because it is the default for roads with street lighting and there hasn't been enough reason found to justify the expense of overriding it.

In rural areas, we have the opposite problem of unlit gravel/grass roads that have 60mph limits and the police won't act on unsafe inappropriate speed below that, unless there's injury. Holthouse Lane, Leziate is one I rode recently. Even the narrow tarmac bit of it is 40 limit, which is both too fast to be safe and a third lower than the limit on the gravel part!

I feel we should have a saner method for setting the default than presence of lighting. Probably based on road width, surface and presence of buildings.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

All rural non A and B roads outside villages should be dropped to 40 and villages dropped to 20.

 

[KnittyNorah]

I must say I find your horsey info fascinating @KnittyNorah

I don't know anything about hosses and have always been a bit nervous of them.

They sense the nervousness - and since they are so strongly attuned to their surroundings, being the ultimate prey animal, can start to 'worry' what there is to be nervous about and should they, therefore, be nervous, too?
Well, I'm anthropomorphising something shocking there, but I'm sure you get the gist.
I come from a long line of farriers and, if I had been a boy, or had been younger, would have likely apprenticed to my uncle. As it was, the Worshipful Company of Farriers was one of the very last to accept women as apprentices. My grandfather had 'a gift' with horses, and it seems I have it, too. It's not a gift; it's more of an awareness of their thought processes and an almost subconscious understanding of their body language, and how they see ours.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Priest beating roadies down a long hill.


View: https://youtu.be/RsWwgp8slmY

 

[Rusty Nails]

Priest beating roadies down a long hill.


View: https://youtu.be/RsWwgp8slmY

Nice video . That priest has got a twin sister, who's a nun, complete with beard who also beats roadies downhill.

 

[ClichéGuevara]

They sense the nervousness - and since they are so strongly attuned to their surroundings, being the ultimate prey animal, can start to 'worry' what there is to be nervous about and should they, therefore, be nervous, too?
Well, I'm anthropomorphising something shocking there, but I'm sure you get the gist.
I come from a long line of farriers and, if I had been a boy, or had been younger, would have likely apprenticed to my uncle. As it was, the Worshipful Company of Farriers was one of the very last to accept women as apprentices. My grandfather had 'a gift' with horses, and it seems I have it, too. It's not a gift; it's more of an awareness of their thought processes and an almost subconscious understanding of their body language, and how they see ours.

Horses are unreliable...well the ones I bet on are.

On that subject, as someone with an understanding of horses, what's your view of horse racing in general? I would say show jumping, but it seems to avoid the controversy.

I'm a fan, but I did see a talk that claimed the horse was in survival mode, as it's programmed to assume anything on it's back is trying to eat it, and the race is to avoid being the weaker one in the herd that the predator is trying to catch.