And today's commuting highlight is...

[CAPP0]

The M20 westbound has been closed since 0600 today between the M25 and West Malling, due to two crashes, one of which involved a bike and a lorry. The length of the closure doesn't bode well at all .

[Tall_Paul]

308mate said:

Why? Why why why? Without knowing a thing about the guy, his mindset, his car etc, you've created out of thin air a needless confrontation with the famous holier-than-thou biker head shake. Maybe he had a fragile item on the passenger seat, maybe he had a passenger with an ailment, breakage or stinking hangover, maybe the car wont go any faster, maybe he just couldn't be bothered going any faster than that because its Friday and he's chilled out.

If I was behind you on my commute, I might have wondered why you hadn't despatched with the bus and the dawdler long before hand and done the lot of you at once. Would I be justified in shaking my head at you on the way past, just because our priorities for road progress or levels of experience/risk aversion are different? Or would you have taken offence?

Think you read it wrong, he wasn't driving slowly. He was driving like a lunatic attempting to overtake a bus on blind bends on narrow roads with no visilibity, coming close to head on traffic while he was halfway in the other lane.

I pass plenty of slow drivers and don't react at all, but this guy's level of driving was downright dangerous. And yet he had the nerve to have a go at me for shaking my head at him.

[308mate]

Tall_Paul said:

308mate said:

Why? Why why why? Without knowing a thing about the guy, his mindset, his car etc, you've created out of thin air a needless confrontation with the famous holier-than-thou biker head shake. Maybe he had a fragile item on the passenger seat, maybe he had a passenger with an ailment, breakage or stinking hangover, maybe the car wont go any faster, maybe he just couldn't be bothered going any faster than that because its Friday and he's chilled out.

If I was behind you on my commute, I might have wondered why you hadn't despatched with the bus and the dawdler long before hand and done the lot of you at once. Would I be justified in shaking my head at you on the way past, just because our priorities for road progress or levels of experience/risk aversion are different? Or would you have taken offence?

Think you read it wrong, he wasn't driving slowly. He was driving like a lunatic attempting to overtake a bus on blind bends on narrow roads with no visilibity, coming close to head on traffic while he was halfway in the other lane.

I pass plenty of slow drivers and don't react at all, but this guy's level of driving was downright dangerous. And yet he had the nerve to have a go at me for shaking my head at him.

You're right, I read it wrongly. Carry on.

[Tall_Paul]

308mate said:

Tall_Paul said:

308mate said:

Why? Why why why? Without knowing a thing about the guy, his mindset, his car etc, you've created out of thin air a needless confrontation with the famous holier-than-thou biker head shake. Maybe he had a fragile item on the passenger seat, maybe he had a passenger with an ailment, breakage or stinking hangover, maybe the car wont go any faster, maybe he just couldn't be bothered going any faster than that because its Friday and he's chilled out.

If I was behind you on my commute, I might have wondered why you hadn't despatched with the bus and the dawdler long before hand and done the lot of you at once. Would I be justified in shaking my head at you on the way past, just because our priorities for road progress or levels of experience/risk aversion are different? Or would you have taken offence?

Think you read it wrong, he wasn't driving slowly. He was driving like a lunatic attempting to overtake a bus on blind bends on narrow roads with no visilibity, coming close to head on traffic while he was halfway in the other lane.

I pass plenty of slow drivers and don't react at all, but this guy's level of driving was downright dangerous. And yet he had the nerve to have a go at me for shaking my head at him.

You're right, I read it wrongly. Carry on.

No worries

I've become numb to the usual phone users/no mirrors/mirrors folded in/30mph in a 60 zone drivers, I see them on every commute, but this driver was another level of incompetent. And even if he'd got past he would have been 4 cars in front of the bus at the next traffic queue.

[Bikesalot]

Almost dark when I leave the house in the morning now. Might have to ditch the dark visor and use the aux lights

[SHutchinson]

Bikesalot said:

Almost dark when I leave the house in the morning now. Might have to ditch the dark visor and use the aux lights

Yup, same. I'm from oop north so leaving the house at 06:55 this morning meant that I commuted in the dark. I quite liked it. Lovely cold air and perfectly dry empty roads.

[kiethton]

Been dark for me over the past few weeks, almost always dork on the way home too!

Bloody working hours :/

[Fleegle]

Not exactly a highlight as such........but are the RAC always so crap? I normally use the AA as a personal cardholder, but thought I'd spread the load as the RAC are included on my insurance.

Bike broke down this morning. Long story short...went home on Friday on one cylinder taking it very steady. Replaced plugs on Saturday which is a real ball-acher of a job. It's had a new alarm and new battery in the last week as well. Plugs in and it fired up nice and evenly. Jumped on it this morning and thought how well it was running...that was until I was best part through Richmond Park. It started spluttering like it was out of fuel, but I knew it wasn't that as I filled up this morning. Came to a halt and tried restarting it and there was absolutely nothing. I'm guessing it is a failed reg/rec.

I rang the RAC at 8:50 and was told waiting time is 90 mins. I then received a call at 10:21 and was told approx. time would be 11.00.

I'm still waiting!!

Several calls on and I think they know I am not too impressed with them

[Matt_Zeus]

This was Friday. On a dual carriageway going over a crest, BMW in front slams its brakes on due to sun glare.
Happy to report my bike's brakes do work and nobody was following me closely

[Fleegle]

Just saved RAC the aggro and picked it up myself in the site Transit. Hopeless shower of shyte

[Bikesalot]

Fleegle said:

Just saved RAC the aggro and picked it up myself in the site Transit. Hopeless shower of shyte

I only ever use the AA because the first time I used them I had an excellent experience – I’ll summarise as best I can.

Said to the lady, lets pop over to Bruges for the day, it’ll be nice. On my R1150GS
Broke down in Belgium on the motorway (Alternator belt snapped) Being a Sunday, nothing was going to be open that day, or Monday.
Called AA.
Recovery truck arrived from a small family run Ford garage.
AA asked if I wanted to continue my journey into Bruges, they would pay for a taxi and a hotel in the hope I might be able to fix the bike on the Monday.
The lady wasn’t impressed at breaking down so asked what other options available.
They arranged a taxi back to the ferry port.
Called the taxi driver as I was in the cab asking ETA to ferry port so they could book and pay for the most convenient ferry back to Dover.
Then called me advising of the above.
Arranged a hire car so I could drive myself home from Dover (Enterprise chap was there waiting for me at the other side).
Arranged with BMW for my bike to be collected from the Ford garage, taken to the nearest BMW dealer and quoted for repair.

Repair was cheap, and there was no storage costs as I said I’d go back and get it next weekend.

AA phoned again saying bike was repaired and ready for collection, when was I going to collect as if I submitted a receipt to them they’d cover the return Euro tunnel costs.

Rode over pillion with a friend, collected the bike, went for lunch in Bruges and rode home – had a lovely day.

AA can take my money every year.

[Fleegle]

Bikesalot said:

I only ever use the AA because the first time I used them I had an excellent experience

Same here. That'll teach me

[RizzoTheRat]

Fleegle said:

Not exactly a highlight as such........but are the RAC always so crap?

I do wonder why I'm still with them. I've called them twice in the past...

Reg/rec failed on the bike and cooked the battery. Phoned the RAC, gave them all the detailes, including the obvious one that it was a bike, about 2 hours later a patrol finally turns up and was quite annoyed off to find it was a bike, as the patrol vans can't do anything with them so needed a contractor recovery truck. So he had to get in touch with the control centre and an hour and half later a recovery truck finally turned up. The only good thing about it was I had the basic package which should only take me to the nearest garage, but as they'd messed me about they took me home for free.

Second time was in the car, broke down on a Friday afternoon, took over 15 minutes to even get through to the call centre and then at least 90 minutes probably more for a patrol to show up. Turns out my car can't be towed on a bar, and the front skirt is too low for it to go on a towing dolly, so he gently towed it off the main road on to a residential street and I had another 2 hour wait for a recovery truck. Who then couldn't find me as he'd been givin the original location.

[Cbull]

No dramas today. 3 car crash on the M56 caused a bit of a tail back.

Dissapointed with my helmet though (HJC IS-17). It's only a couple of months old and when raining its dripping in front of my left eye occasionally and streaming inside a little. Bought from Ebay, shop is in Ireland so not sure if I should just put up with it.

[Fleegle]

Just received this.....





Well...that's alright then !!

[Harry H]

There seems to be a lot of newbies out there on the commute at the moment. Usually identified by brand new cheap gear and hogging the filtering spot. Hopefully most will disappear when the weather starts to turn proper and the committed will get their act together.

That'll just leave the GS Adventure guys tarted up for a round the world trip and 10ft wide panniers to get in my way.


One last wish is for the Uber ban to go through. Imagine how good commuting will be without 40,000 Toyota Prius's on Londons roads.

[Angrybiker]

supercommuter said:

Pussies on sportsbikes that can't filter everywhere at the moment. If I can fit a loaded Africa Twin thru a gap, you can fit a fireblade.

seriously, especially as you can so easily flip the mirrors in...

supercommuter said:

I may or may not have blown my r1 up on a track day yesterday that has left me hating sportsbikes

Oh dear!

[Rawwr]

Fleegle said:

Not exactly a highlight as such........but are the RAC always so crap? I normally use the AA as a personal cardholder, but thought I'd spread the load as the RAC are included on my insurance.

I used the AA last Wednesday:

9.20am: Pressed the button on The AA app to say I'd broken down.
9.40am: AA van arrived.

I can live with that.

[Pothole]

Bikesalot said:

Fleegle said:

Just saved RAC the aggro and picked it up myself in the site Transit. Hopeless shower of shyte

I only ever use the AA because the first time I used them I had an excellent experience

...here we have both sides of the customer service coin. (and the fickleness of the customer)

[itcaptainslow]

As above-I stick with the RAC because I've had a shedloads of excellent experiences with them. I've had the AA attend twice through Honda Assist and both times the patrols have admitted they know nothing about bikes-haven't had to use the RAC on a bike so no comparison available with them though.