[Webmaster's comments on postings bracketed in colour] John: I have a nasty feeling that I agree with most of your heretical musings, but don't tell anyone! ;-) I'd be interested to know what the Senior Observer's response to your associate musings was - are there copyright problems in publishing what he/she/it said? [Permission secured - it has been uploaded]. Also, you can add a peacock to the list of creatures stupid enough not to get out of the way of an oncoming car - only fast action on my part saved me from having a most unusual bonnet mascot one day last year when the idiotic creature leapt off a wall by the side of the road. TTFN Another John: Dear Peter, I've taken the liberty of replying to you off-forum. I've been re-reading your musings of an associate series and in particular making progress and making more progress. The latter certainly gave me food for thought about accelerating & gears. I must say I'm with you all the way with the former as well. SMOOTH but otherwise rapid gear changes must be an improvement for the reasons you specify. I note that you now observe for Derbyshire Advanced Motorists and was wondering if your position on gear changes has moved on, or if your group's position has, or what you tell your associates. (Actually I'd be interested in extending the context of my question to your other musings also). [When observing, I toe the party line. If anyone ventures to ask, I explain my own thoughts as a personal rather than corporate view]. Cars and Bikes. reading this article and thinking about "poorer lighting" reminded me of one dark evening travelling the A4 stuck behind a motor-bike which was doing fairly-consistently 10mph below the limit (in 30, 40 ,60- NSL) zones.. I'd been wondering why he didn't put his headlight on to beam until I realised it actually *was*. I then remembered my Honda 400-four days back in the late seventies and how rubbish the standard headlight was (I upgraded it after 6 months). and understood why his speed was down - he just couldn't see far enough. ,I made the mistake of trying to use my beam for a few seconds to see if I could now see far enough to ascertain if there was an overtaking chance. See him wobble as my car beams are reflected from his mirrors straight into his visor. OOPS. Dip again very quickly and stay behind him meekly until he pulls off 40 miles later. [My 1990's BMW R80RT still had terrible lights. I only discovered proper headlights on a bike when I moved to the current K1200RS]. Web editors take note: My only negative on this site relates to the roadsafety index page, On my browser (netscape 4.6) a mustard(gold?)-coloured background with red(orange?) text does not show much contrast. Incidentally this got me thinking about whether commercial web-page authors take into account the percentage of visitors with red-green colour blindness? (My stepson has this problem). [I received several comments on colours which did not come out quite right. It is important to check out more than one browser.] ...the stripy background is a little headache inducing! [This refers to the previous site at www.peterharris.org.uk/RoadSafety which featured a Microsoft Publisher background which I rather liked. It just goes to show that you cannot please everybody by pleasing yourself] PreviousTop