I've just finished reading Ixion's brilliant Reminisces of Motorcycling.
Utterly brilliant and well worth it if you can be bothered to find and download a copy.
If I may quote a couple of pieces, published in the 1920's remember,
"It would be an excellent thing if the police employed a few traffic experts with large powers to educate and punish the offenders against road sense and road manners, ‘instead of persecuting people who slightly exceed an absurd speed limit in a safe locality."
and
"The willing machine between our knees is our slave, and we are its king. Nobody except a policeman can command our obedience, and even police authority does not extend beyond the next corner - unless fate should have placed a second bobby
