At lights

I have heard it said that when at lights its best to wait with your bike in
gear ready to take off in case a car fails to stop behind you, at least
until 1 or 2 cars have stopped behind you as a buffer.

I have always felt safer holding onto the handle bars (as I would be in the
situation above) however would give my brake light a flash or 2 then hold
the font brake on until at least one car behind has complete stop.

The reason given for the first suggestion (from different riding schools)
has been so you are able to take off and reduce the impact with
acceleration.

Okay...so you reduce the chance of injury from a rear collision by
increasing massively the chance of a much worse side impact with
traffic coming through the intersection instead. hmmm...tough call!
:-)

Personally, I'd rather stay where I was and let the bike take the
initial impact of a rear collision, than risk a side impact with a car
smashing into my leg/arm etc at 50kph+

Damien
GPX250 -> CBR600 -> F650/R1200GS (when the $$$ are there!).

If you accelerate into traffic moving through the intersection are you
going to be more or less injured than if the car behind just hit you?

The reason I think it is important to be holding on to the handle bars is so
I go with the bike rather than have to get my gear rack surgically removed

Have you calculated what the forces would be if your bike was hit from
behind? Would you be able to hold onto the bars during sudden
acceleration? Would the forces cause damage your arms? If a uniformly
shaped object (say a huge brick) was hit by a car directly from behind
would it move forward? Is your bike uniformly shaped? Do you think the
presence of suspension and its construction from non-brick materials
would change the way the bike behaved when hit from behind? Do you
think the gear rack will cause you more damage than the car hitting you
or the moving traffic you are planning to enter?

Nev..
'04 CBR1100XX

however I don't want to enter an intersection suddenly and just take off
through it just after an accident.

I am interested on other peoples opinions and experiences as I find this a
less painful way of learning.

Over here in Ingerland...

There are two methods which are encouraged and one which the Driving
Standards Agency suggest but nobody does. One called "The Safety
"Position" which is taught to learners.

The Safety Position:

As you're coming to a halt always be in the correct gear for the speed
which you're travelling, you should stop in 1st gear. Use your front
and rear brakes as appropriate to halt the bike while pulling the
clutch in when appropriate. When you're stopped remove your hand from
the front brake and hold the bike on the rear brake. Leave the bike
in 1st gear, holding the clutch.

The Hendon Shuffle: (web-search for it)

Stop with front and rear brakes as appropriate, when stationary your
right foot goes off the rear brake (hold bike on front) and on to the
road to hold you up, left foot changes gear into neutral, release
clutch, hold bike on front.

The Driving Standards Agency:

Stop bike and with clutch pulled in left foot to get into neutral,
release clutch, both footses on ground.

While the Driving Standards Agency prefer their own method to be
displayed I know of no riding schools that subscribe to their method,
preferring The Safety Position. The DSA examiner will not fail you or
think anything less of you for using your preferred position and not
theirs as they're interested in your riding style as a whole and not
which or your lallies you dangle on the road.

I suppose it's personal choice. I am a great fan of the rear brake
and drag it while riding and filtering and as appropriate for
stability and many other reasons so use a combination of The Safety
Position which my riding school taught me most of the time and the
Hendon Shuffle depending on my mood, surface camber and if I'm on a
hill or not.

If you are holding the bike on the rear brake and someone drives into
the back of you slowly it reduces the risk of losing control. If

Cable operated front brake? I trust this is for drum front brakes. I
thought just about every bike about these days had a disc brake at the
front at least?

you've filtered to the front of a queue of traffic at a crossing or
traffic lights then being ready to go on green will improve progress
slightly.