Clarkson's hatred of motorcycles

scooters are generally seen as "not fast enough to cause serious injury" i dont know why, they can still do some decent speed and if you crash its gonna hurt.

but scooters will sip fuel and they make perfect sense for small trips and city riding

Well, mine does 80km/h, and that doesn't have anywhere near 15 hp. If i'm lucky i've got half that :p
Crashing with 80 km/h.. Is not something i'd want to experience. That's easily quick enough to kill you.. :/
Mind you, it is rather illegal.. Scooters are only allowed to 30km/h here in Denmark, at least when you're 16-17.. When you're 18 you can get one with a white numberplate and go 45.. ;P
30km/h is very slow.. You get tired of that speed, very quickly.
Only problem with it being faster is that it's now only doing something like 10-15 km/L.. :)


Personally im not really not into bikes that much.. Never driven a "proper" motorcycle of course, but driving a car is just a lot more appealing to me. I like not having to worry about falling over, and not having to worry about bad weather as much as you do with a scooter or a bike.. Is seriously cold driving to school on my scooter at the moment! Can't wait till i get my license.. :)
 
Well, mine does 80km/h, and that doesn't have anywhere near 15 hp. If i'm lucky i've got half that :p
Crashing with 80 km/h.. Is not something i'd want to experience. That's easily quick enough to kill you.. ://
The Honda I'm looking at will crack 70mph which is about 112kph so I think that's quick enough. It's also the national speed limit so I don't really need anything faster.
 
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Not all of us. I wore black OSHA boots, thick denim pants, and a gray denim jacket reinforced with black leather at the shoulders, elbows, cuffs, waist, and collar. My helmet is silver with either a clear or reflective visor.

I don't have the bike anymore but I wear the same pants, jacket, and boots because they are so comfortable. No one even notices that it doubles as bike gear.
 
last week i was coming back from lunch (yes i'm american and yes it was a BURGER) as im about to pull out onto a street i notice something to my right so i stop. now mind you, i'm not in the street at all and its like a 40mph at most street. this biker proceeds to lay down his bike so that it skids about 50 feet to where i would have been if i pulled out and just stopped in the middle of the street.

i felt bad but he's the one that chose to lay down his bike instead of using the usual braking technique (ya know, with the little levers on the handle bars).

my insurance company is gonna laugh at him when he tries to get money from em.
 
last week i was coming back from lunch (yes i'm american and yes it was a BURGER) as im about to pull out onto a street i notice something to my right so i stop. now mind you, i'm not in the street at all and its like a 40mph at most street. this biker proceeds to lay down his bike so that it skids about 50 feet to where i would have been if i pulled out and just stopped in the middle of the street.

i felt bad but he's the one that chose to lay down his bike instead of using the usual braking technique (ya know, with the little levers on the handle bars).

my insurance company is gonna laugh at him when he tries to get money from em.

What probably happened there is that the rider panicked and locked up the rear brake with the foot pedal, which is a very common mistake bikers make, especially those who spend most of their time driving cars.

It's hard to repress the instinct of pushing the brake with your foot, since that is what you do in cars all the time, but the problem is the rear brake gives very little stopping power, and it is so easy to lock it up because of how hard you can hit it with your foot. Also, as the bike's weight shifts forward as it slows down, there is less weight on the rear tire, which reduces it's traction. Once it locks up, it will try to swap ends with you.

The best way of avoiding that panic response is to not cover the rear brake with your foot, so it takes a conscious effort to use it.

Hopefully that rider will not make that mistake again.
 
Bikers that have no audiovisual image of the traffic around them is ridiculusly dangerous. The helmets already reduce some of your side vision

you have absolutly NO idea what your talking about!

on a bike you can hear, see and even smell stuff you will never notice or see or hear in a car!!
have you ever ridden a bike??? if everyone rode a bike, just for a day, the road toll would be much lower..
 
This thread again??? :bangin: :lol:

Who cares if Clarkson hates bikes. He's obviously too scared to give one an honest ride, so it doesn't mean anything.
 
The Honda I'm looking at will crack 70mph which is about 112kph so I think that's quick enough. It's also the national speed limit so I don't really need anything faster.
125cc bikes CAN crack up to 120mph. Most 125cc "racing" bikes will get up to about 90-100mph. Got a couple of friends that have cracked speeds like that on theirs several times.

Seems like total madness, but why not.
 
With the incident with the cool board, and other times, Jeremy has shown he has a severe hatred for motorcycles. Anyone know why?

Because he'd look an utter tit riding one.
 
I think people hate motorcycle because are scared by them. No one can say isn't exciting riding a motorcycle. I have a Yamaha r6 '05 black and She is fast as hell and I do know is dangerous but I paid She just 9000 euros and have the same performance of a bmw m6, even more....

It's also quite fascinating to wear in a leather black suit and also confortable. If you have the passion of speed and you can't buy a Pagani Zonda F you should consider the idea to buy a motorcycle.
 
He's probobly scared. Bikes can be csary.
But I like them. I never had a big, fast bike, but I've been riding since I was a kid.
I've got a 23 year old Tomos 15 (Ice Bone should know :D ), 50 cc engine, 5 gears.
It doesn't go fast, around 60km/h at best, but i like riding it. reving it and shifting gears, it's just a joy! :)
It's best in the summer, when it's hot, I just take a short ride to cool off, lol

But one day I hope I'll have a naked. Kawasaki ER-5 or ER-6, i like them:)
Don't like the supersport models or chopers.
 
I am a biker (having a 23-year old Honda VF750C) and I don't get the fuss made about the fact that :jc: isn't very fond of bikes - so what?
I, for my part, am laughing about the bits that don't include me (American cars, French) just as hard as I am about the bits that do include me (bikers, Swiss) - after all, there's usually a grain of truth in it and as an "insider" you can appreciate the jokes even more.


@ Peter3hg
DON'T DO IT! I've tried 125cc scooters and they scare the hell out of me. Micro wheels, poor suspension (esp. at the front), front and back only connected through a not very sturdy feeling floor plate etc. According to the speedo it could do 150kph, but my inner panic levels reached max at 90kph already! No, scooters are more dangerous than bikes. They don't give you a good riding feeling either. Riding a bike is a wholistic experience, all your limbs as well as your body are involved in it. On a scooter your lower body renders useless, it's a bit like being in an electric wheelchair and you soon behave like paralysed. It happened to me more than once, that I forgot to put my foot down when stopping at red traffic lights. :grin:
 
I once experienced that at our cabin with a scooter. Stopped. Fell. Hit my head on a fence. Threw the damn little thing over the fence and sweared a lot. It was so small and cute, and me being the size I am, it must have looked really special.

Had some good fun on it though, rough terrain at 30mph and such.

Doesn't work anymore. One winter, the barn it stood in blew down.
 
Because it's entertaining to dislike bikes ;)

I agree 100%

A lot of what JC says is just for entertainment value.
Realistically, a lot of the things we like or dislike about the automotive industry
and its products are just a matter of nuances.

Tiny differences which aren't easy to point out.

Then JC and Top Gear step in, and make it all hyperbolized,
make it absolutely clear ( with a chainsaw ) what they think, what they prefer etc.
in an entertaining way.

Without that, they'd be just another TV show about boring tech stuff.
 
Bikes are fun, and fast, but i ahve absolutely no interest, because talk to any biker and its a statistically accepted fact among the biker brotherhood that you will wipe out at least once, probably more.

Plus i work in the trauma center at a local hospital who come in with all sorts of injuries, often as a result of accidents which they had little control over, despite riding responsibily and wearing the appropriate safety gear.

The state of pennsylvania lifted their motorcyle helmet requirement a few years back which i think is idiotic, but there were rumors that the orgna donation program Gift of life had something to do with getting it lifted so there would be more brain damage accidents and thus more avail organ donations from young healthy bike riding ppl. Of course these claims were never proven, but there was a significant increase in permanent brain damage related to bike accidents than prior to the helmet law repeal.

Ed
 
The state of pennsylvania lifted their motorcyle helmet requirement a few years back which i think is idiotic, but there were rumors that the orgna donation program Gift of life had something to do with getting it lifted so there would be more brain damage accidents and thus more avail organ donations from young healthy bike riding ppl. Of course these claims were never proven, but there was a significant increase in permanent brain damage related to bike accidents than prior to the helmet law repeal.

Ed

Heh! It'd actually be a good idea to make a requirement
that anyone who wants to ride a bike without a helmet
automatically becomes an organ donor :lol:

That way, people would probably start wearing helmets more,
and those who don't would automatically become 'useful'.
 
Heh! It'd actually be a good idea to make a requirement
that anyone who wants to ride a bike without a helmet
automatically becomes an organ donor :lol:

That way, people would probably start wearing helmets more,
and those who don't would automatically become 'useful'.

I wanted to take it a step further saying that ppl who would not wear helmets automatically waive their rights to life saving medical care if they get injured with brain damage.

Those ppl are an enormous drain on the medical system and raise all of our health care insurance costs higher.

Ed
 
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