Is it 40mph through there for a reason? Looks like a 60mph road but assume something has happened to bring the limit down?
Probably something to do with this: https://www.newforestnpa.gov.uk/tag/roger-penny-way/ TBH, I wouldn't want to be hacking it through there with the ponies liable to wander out in front of you.
It wasn't me! I'll say it quietly, but go out into the sticks in France and it is still possible to let loose with no danger to anyone but yourself, and no real danger to your licence if you pay attention.
The same goes for rural Spanish or Italian country side, zero sausages given if you ride fast but with respect
My memory is telling me the majority of the roads through the New Forest are now 40mph and yes, despite GG’s link being 4 years old, it’s for the same reason today, to reduce the number of animal collisions. Andy
An owl flew across the front of me, when riding through the New Forest - that straight road near Lyndhurst. Brown it was with big eyes ! An owl !
It was cool thing to see quite close - doing its owl thing. It would have been a shame to have hit it That straight road down to Lyndhurst is a nice bit of road - tempting - but all kinds of wildlife around there, some of it quite big.
The copper who stopped me on the Jota heading for Brockenhurst said I went by too fast for him to get a reading, so he gave me a ticket for doing 70.
Still have to keep your eyes open though and never speed through a village. The gendarmes are apt to pop up anywhere at any time...don't ask me how i know.
I still think myself lucky looking back over the trips to Le Mans taking a vehicle to it's max wherever possible (NSU Quickly). A late friend of mine got in the severe dumps after "systematically" being targeted on his FZR 1000 doing a similar journey 15 years later.
Those days are gone. French have started taking keys and licences away on the spot for serious speeding offences.
Be careful in the Austria or Denmark as well. In extreme cases they have been known to seize and/or crush your vehicle.
Oh, in the Netherlands, if you are caught with an 'illegal' exhaust, aka full system or even a loud end can, they will pull you and remove the exhaust at remote locations and confiscate it. Leaving you and the bike stranded.
Just back from a week in France and only saw a pair of police bikes on the Autoroute, a couple of random cars and a few standing around at the services getting drinks. Perhaps the heat has changed priorities? That said we rode sensibly (most of the time) slowed down in villages and mostly kept to the limits. Interesting that the French don’t seem to respect the 30 and 50 limits in villages though.
I rode up through France from the alps to Calais and apart from a cluster of meat wagons at a service station, saw no plod at all.
