waremark wrote:akirk wrote:i would be less worried about his following time (he moved up in prep. for an overtake) than his inability to read the cars in front esp. when there was heavy braking… first overtake seemed fine - second was much riskier and he seemed to do an overtake where he came out accelerating still for the open road ahead, rather than easing back in, re-reading the road and then accelerating… meaning that he was accelerating more on the offside and perhaps out longer than necessary. The fact that he had to pull into the bushes to avoid the bikes says a lot about how close that was to a not very good result!
The need to get close to the bushes to avoid the bikes was surely caused by the bikes' position rather than any lack of space for his overtake? When travelling well above the normal speed you have to be aware that on-comers may not expect you to arrive as quickly as you do. In this case he was ready and able to make space for the bikes.
Not sure I understand your point about where he is when accelerating, or where you want him to ease back in. As I said earlier, I am not comfortable that he was prepared for the open car to go for an overtake. I would have used the horn before committing to pass the open car (lights if a heavy, or if more than one vehicle behind a leader).
I agree he did not do well earlier on being ready for the lead car to turn left.
Yes - using the bushes is caused by the bikes, but he arguably therefore didn’t allow for them as he has had to use up some of his contingency… a good road for overtaking esp. in nice weather may have bikes coming the other way.
He committed to the overtake from behind the car he was passing, the roadcraft approach means you move right without picking up speed, to give a clearer view ahead of the car you are overtaking, allowing you a better view of the space into which you are returning - a typical example (though not relevant here) would be passing a van which has a hidden moped in front - his style of overtake would not have seen the moped until he was committed.
He continued to accelerate through the overtake meaning that he was committing to more power and speed in his return rather than seeing the overtake as one move and then looking once back to make a decision on speed for the road ahead (a road which suddenly became cluttered with bikes!)
My interpretation is that he gave a very studied example of an overtake but out of the context of the actual road / reality… the most dangerous parts of an overtake are the unknowns, what is the road like ahead of the car I am passing / what might be coming / etc - and the roadcraft methodology is designed to mitigate for that as far as possible, but he doesn’t seem to approve of that approach and as such I think his overtake was borderline - his dealing with the bikes was reactive and had there been a bad road edge or pothole he would not have seen it prior to overtaking and it could have caused an accident or at the least damage to the car
though of course in reality some is needed...