Cars. Considered noisy, pollution making, environmentally unfriendly, dangerous to small furry animals and increasingly expensive. Yet they are loved by many.
Bikes and cars generally don’t mix well. Riders think car drivers on the road are out to get them and off road that they shouldn’t be turning tracks into quagmires. Motorists think that cyclists are often cheeky monkeys, jumping redlights, riding on the pavement, going slow on purpose and riding two abreast to get on their nerves. Anyway shouldn’t they be paying road tax like everyone else?
Perhaps ironically there are a lot of bike riders who think that cars are actually not just the de facto useful, utilitarian means of getting bikes from A to B, but that some cars are actually good fun to drive. And more fun when you drive them fast and ignore the nanny state’s efforts to protect us from ourselves.
Take the A523 from Ashbourne to Macclesfield, a great road to drive, but now ruined by a 50mph speed limit over most of it’s length with a smattering of money generating yellow boxes. To drive certain sections of this road within the speed limit would be lunacy and as dull as watching Big Brother, so from time to time you have to take a liberal attitude to the rules and plant your right foot to the floor.
I’m not saying speeding is a good thing, but there is a lot of dribble put about, the most often quoted phrase being speed kills. Speed doesn’t kill. It’s like saying guns kill people. Everyone knows this isn’t true, guns don’t kill people – rappers do… 30mph limits exist in urban areas because cats, dogs and children frequent these areas and are a danger. So in urban areas these speed limits make complete sense. Most of the time theres a good reason for 40mph limits too, so stick to them, but when that national speed limit sign appears you want to be leaving a flaming trail of rubber behind you.
50 limits never seem to have a legitimate purpose. It’s like saying alcohol is bad for you so don’t drink. There’s nothing like a nice beer, but like anything over do it and you’ll pay the price. Roads with 50 limits used to be covered by the national speed limit and irrespective of what sign is put up, end up over doing it in a car and you’ll end up going backwards through a hedge which can have far more serious consequences than waking up with a hangover that makes you feel like the living dead. You could end up dead*.
The risk associated with the naughtiness of exceeding the limits whatever the conditions is the reason why so many bike riders love cars. It’s that feeling of speed, a rush to the senses that is more pronounced in small lightweight cars without much sound proofing or power assisted steering and something that is enhanced by a throaty exhaust note.
The raw experence of railing around corners with tyres squealing at the limits of their grip and slamming on the anchors and feeling the seatbelt holding you in the seat is quite addictive. The same buzz as nailing a set of doubles on a mountain bike – you want to go back and do it again. So I ride bikes and I drive little hatchback cars and often use the latter to let go riding in exciting places like Wales and Scotland where, as there are some great roads and no unreasonable speed limits**.
* Although you’ll have a much better chance of walking away than you would if you were riding a motorbike.
** North Wales obviously the exception to this rule.
Rallye Project 
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