Cat & Fiddle

[mav617]

I love this road - so long as I ride it in the evening when none (or fewer) of the nutters or coppers are out there. Anyone whi hasn't had the pleasure can check out this paradise playground by watching this:

and I hasten to add it's not me riding - he's pretty smooth though and quick, couple of dodgy overtakes though....

[squirrelciv]

Tsk! Tsk! Tsk! and we wonder why bikes get (A) a bad name and (B) squished!!

Love a windy road as well as the next man, but I thought that guy was plain daft in places. Couldn't watch after the lorry and two cars were taken on double whites over a brow and around a corner :-0

Heyho, I must be getting old (sigh)

[Steve H]

I rode this years ago on the National Rally on my CB500RS. I think it was around 5:00 in the morning so very quiet, and misty. It has always stuck in my mind, as a fantastic ride. it was a quite few years before I found out what the road was called, and its reputation.

[Steffan]

What a dickhead!! People like that ought to be made to walk. Blind overtakes on double solids - I hope he enjoyed himself because it is prats like him who will see us all legislated off the roads completely. I only wish people like that, who clearly feel the need to compensate for the inadequacy of certain parts of their anatomy would find some other means of doing so.

Steffan

[mav617]

Yeah, can't condone the illegal and downright stupid overtaking at points - shows the road off nicely tho!!

[themoudie]

Aye,

Same sort of 42 carat as the one decapitated in N.Wales and used as an exhibit by the CC for N. Wales.

The CC should have got permission to use the images before using them, but the ignorant rant by my namesake in "MCN online" and the associated forum by some easily led motorcycle riders is crass.

Having read that the rider decapitated had no license, insurance and was doing ~'to quick'when becoming embedded in the car and it then took ~90 minutes to extract the occupants who are a young family. Little wonder motorcycling gets bad press.

Getting off soapbox now, Bill

[TOAD]

This clip should be used in motorcycle training courses to show how not to do it.

Riviting viewing from the armchair though.

[Alan Hughes]

The word "Tithead" springs to mind when watching that video; I'm not even impressed by his riding skills, if he were that good he'd in the TT this week - and I doubt if he is!

Funnily enough on the weekend of our Wetton meet this year, Martin Churchill and I took a ride over the Cat and Fiddle pass Friday afternoon before going on to Wetton. We were overtaken by a bike being ridden like that and after passing us he then overtook a large articulated truck on a very sharp right hand bend; now admittedly he could clearly see round this bend and there was no traffic coming the other way, but large truck? narrow road? sharp bend? there was absolutely no where for this idiot to go if for some reason the truck had strayed even a foot or so over the centre of the road.

The rider in that video is not long for this world, I just hope when he goes he doesn't take anyone else with him.

Alan.

[Andy M]

What a Muppet.

I've followed similar riders over the Cat and Fiddle and what always gets me is how they view the while line. With the truck there the solid line isn't even viewed as a potential slip hazzard. Without the truck, the Klingons suddenly switch on their force field and the line becomes an impenetrable barrier that can't be crossed even if it does let you see an extra mile down the road and open up in safety seconds sooner!

Andy

[Martin C]

I love this road - so long as I ride it in the evening when none (or fewer) of the nutters or coppers are out there.

As it happens, I rode an almost empty Cat & Fiddle yesterday evening on my recently-acquired Ducati ST4 (that's a 916cc "double-thumper"), travelling from east-to-west - I had to wait at Buxton for a while until the sun was low enough so that I wouldn't be blinded by it.

Early this evening I rode back from west-to-east, again on almost empty roads.  I passed a couple of sportsbikes just before turning onto the start of the Cat & Fiddle (I saw no reason to wait in a traffic queue just because they were doing so) and I was about two-thirds of the way across when they eventually caught up with me (yes, I was expecting & looking out for them, since I'm a cowardly rider on fast/tight corners).

I had no intention of riding competitively on a bike I don't really know properly yet, however it was interesting that they were all over my rear entering corners - but I left them way behind on every exit, presumably due to their bikes lacking the mid-range torque of my Duke (I reckon they were changing gear rather more than I was!).  After several rounds of this game, they apparently gave up and then stayed a respectful (?) distance behind me for the remainder.  Or maybe they were just afraid to try actually passing a bike fitted with a pair of rather wide, solid panniers and obviously being ridden by an incompetent.....

[guest18]

I had no intention of riding competitively on a bike I don't really know properly yet, however it was interesting that they were all over my rear entering corners - but I left them way behind on every exit, presumably due to their bikes lacking the mid-range torque of my Duke (I reckon they were changing gear rather more than I was!).  After several rounds of this game, they apparently gave up and then stayed a respectful (?) distance behind me for the remainder.  Or maybe they were just afraid to try actually passing a bike fitted with a pair of rather wide, solid panniers and obviously being ridden by an incompetent.....

Or more likely they suffer from a common power ranger problem... plenty power means they are all over you on the straights, more power than confidence/ability/throttle control then results ridiculously low mid corner speed and too late on the throttle exiting the corner. You were riding (I'm sure!) well within your limits and so more than likely opening the throttle yards earlier and much more progressively, resulting in a speed advantage for the first half to two thirds of the next straight

I watched a beautiful example of the above from an old Escort Rs2000 (Mk2) which had a tuned Escort RS Cosworth all over it every time it entered the hairpin at Knockhill, and every lap the RS2000 would be half way down the ain straight before the Cosworth caught it up, and that despite 4wd and a HUGE power advantage! Most amusing

It's like a friend once taught me, (hammered into me more like!), above all else be smooth, then work on fast, then you'll find you're not smooth enough so be even smoother and as if by magic it will feel slower but you'll be covering ground faster... different I'm sure on racetracks but it seems to work on the road.

[Beardy weirdy]

Hello
I thought video was quite good, and for the many opinions about it. Hmmm, i agree on the whole. But i would defend that persons freedom to do it, while he can. So go for it dude, i dont know what a537 means. It sounds good to me so there.

yours i dont like safety helmets,

MikeFry...

[squirrelciv]

Hello
I thought video was quite good, and for the many opinions about it. Hmmm, i agree on the whole. But i would defend that persons freedom to do it, while he can. So go for it dude, i dont know what a537 means. It sounds good to me so there.

yours i dont like safety helmets,

MikeFry...

Hope you'll still be defending our mate in the video when Brussels invokes it's already proposed ban on bikes over 650cc, or when through an act of pure selfishness he wipes out some member of the general public. Possibly you'll raise a glass to his good health next time you send off your insurance premium up 21% even though you haven't had a claim since starting out 26 years ago! We all have to realise this kind of stuff WILL HAVE AN EFFECT ON US ALL!!!
Also if riding like an idiot and endangering life is an acceptable human right upto the point of actually killing someone, would it be acceptable to drive a car or lorry in the same manner??
Don't want to sound like an old fart hear, and no one likes a twisty road more than me, but when you start gambling with the lives of others, you've gone too far. Now if matey boy wished to ride like that on a deserted lane and chose to put himself into a wall, best of luck to him, but when other traffic is about, you have to reel your neck in and show respect to other traffic.


Climbs off soap box, puts away lecture notes and retires to a dark room to cool off. :-)

[Steffan]

Well said Pat! I think?
Thing is I too am all for personal liberty and if you don't want to wear a lid or a seatbelt that's just  fine by me. I think my objection is that when he goes he ought to go alone and not take a family of four with him - I guess its the don't disturb the horses argument. My other objection is that as much as descent and reasoned people may desire to feel they're free, we are not and we are rather stuck with the social contract, but we need to be vigilent as to how much control we are prepared to hand over. So as  the blood suckers are just looking for another excuse to step on someone and piss on their parade , I don't want it to be mine because this d&*$less prat and others like him think they are sooo good and draw attention to the rest of us. As Robert Bolt's common man put it - better  a live rat than a dead lion.

Steffan

[guest27]

Mmmmmmmmmm

Camera is mounted lowish on the fairing right out in front - mid screen behind the Panda is about the boot catch level - so the rider has 50cm more height for seeing ahead from.  Do not know the road - have ridden it a couple of times but cannot remember what the sight lines etc are like.  Taking the two above thoughts I am not really sure where you are all finding these blind overtakes etc.  Yup he goes past on the double white things - but remember they are there for grandad in his Punto and we all have to obey (ahem)  and as has been said above he seems to spend time to the left of them when it would be safe and smooth to the right.

Seems to spend a lot of time on a trailing throttle rather than riding the corner under power - but again do not know the bike not the road well enough - always taught to have some power going in when cornering - the bike is more balanced and take up is smoother.  I would have thought that in a couple of places if he backed off a little he would not have to slow right down behind a car / truck but actually catch them on the straight - maintaining more momentum etc. But again I do not know the road the bike nor the rider.

Not convinced that he is riding half as badly (assuming it is a he) as we are making out, however I would not mind betting that a number of the cars he passed had the same idea - bloody nutter.

I will watch it again sometime and see if I change my opinion, but at the moment I beg to differ and suggest that it was a pretty clean ride.

R