Bike jaunt today , starting off by meeting here at the UK,s biggest pub “ Royal Victoria Pavilion” ( Wetherspoons of course) here at ramsgate
This obelisk was to honour George4th , he liked ramsgate cause he & his mates used to stay here b4 travelling back to Hanover , but mainly stayed here to see their many mistresses they had locally , ramsgate was also the last port of call to pick up prisoners on the way to Australia, never been short of rogues & villains in east Kent I can tell yer
Dover transport museum is a go to place for the old days , bikes, cars, vans etc , great gem just a few miles from lydden circuit
Cracking weather today after some really wet days. Had a nice ride out after a quick pit stop. Too much choice but chose Greggs for a coffee, baguet and a steak bake. Not quite the Neville Arms
The next day or so looks pretty decent too, i'm 99% sure I will be heading down to Thetford on me bike tomorrow/Tuesday, alas the 961 is currently sorn'd so it will have to be the 'other one', might pop into KrazyHorse for brunch while i'm there.
Yes a nice couple of days i believe and around 12 degC which is fine. If I wasn't so busy at work, would catch up en route
It might peak at 12deg but for most of the day it will be around 6 or 7. I've just heard that Lincs gritters have been out and plan to spend the evening on major routes.... this could well signal the end of the riding season, I've done far too much damage already to the 961 due to wet salt on the roads, I hope the Indian has a more robust finish
I do admire these bikers that ride in all weathers. Then I remembered I rode a Suzuki GP100 to Peterborough tech college and back for a year in all weather including snow on the backroads. How my parents let me do that I don't know but I survived. Just turned me into a FWB
So here in sunny Queensland Australia we ride all year round, did get to 16'c heading out to Canungra one morning, lucky I had my liner in the leather. Rode around ESSEX as a teen on my RD125 in any and all weather though so I've done my time.....
Same here WR, did lots of it when I was younger, had to really as my bike was my only means of transport for a good few years. Definitely helped turn me into a FWB! It’s not just us that suffer though, it’s important to remember the horrid damage salt will do, especially to nice shiny bikes !
Passed bike test in 74, passed car test in 84. In the 10 year gap I had 1 suzuki 380, 1 honda cx500, 1 honda cb900, 1 750 Commando and 4 850 Mk3 Commando's.... and put approx. 20k miles on each. I'm ok still about getting wet/cold but I don't volunteer myself to the torture unless absolutely necessary
To be honest, it’s not the cold and wet ON ME that’s my main reason for not wanting to ride in bad weather these days, I’ve got good kit, so when I do venture out in bad conditions I’m fairly well catered for. What I don’t like is: 1. Slippery roads. 2. Having poor visibility through wet visor and steamed up specs. 3. Sharing the roads with cars with poor visibility with wet, greasy windscreens and misted up internals. 4. Bad driving caused by cars with ABS and traction control. Today’s drivers make NO allowance for poor conditions. They’ve been made ignorant. And f*cking dangerous. 5. Having to dry out kit afterwards. 6. Having to clean the bike afterwards. 7. Having to clean the bike afterwards. 8. Having to clean the bike afterwards. 9. Having to clean the bike afterwards. And finally... 10. Having to clean the bike afterwards. Bottom line... it’s just easier to take the car...!
Ditto Nigel, For me it is not the wet/cold (I do draw the line at ice and snow on the road) but the lack of visibility and the condition of the roads. One of my neighbours has successfully forced the council to pay for significant damage to his car when he hit a 10 inch deep pothole at 35mph on an unlit road. Still - here in the South East I am still able to ride in reasonable conditions till the end of November/early December so can’t complain too much.
That was what was so brilliant about riding in the 70's, 80's and to some extent the 90's, we didn't have collectable classics back then or bikes that were a pain to clean, most bikes were good honest commutes with just enough hint of sports. You wouldn't see so many Italian exotics on the road over Winter but you would see a lot of Brit bikes, Jap bikes and as strange as it might seem today a lot of H-D's too.
