And today's commuting highlight is...

[chris4652009]

CAPP0 said:

I commuted to the BMW dealer this morning to drop mine off for some warranty work and commuted home again on their F850GS Trophy.

There's a bike which will never make my shortlist (or my longlist). And that's speaking as someone who really likes the 1200.

I quite like the BMW 850 parallel twins, wouldn't ever own one though

[sjtscott]

Pothole said:

Don't do that.

If they pull a dangerous move on me which they did its my pleasure to buzz them back to wake them up. I'd already spotted them so took early avoiding action otherwise he'd have ridden straight into me.
To be honest if you don't ride in London you really have no idea how many clueless wonders come out of the woodwork when the sun is out... the way this guy was riding he'll be having an accident period.

Edited by sjtscott on Wednesday 18th April 12:21

[dibblecorse]

My highlight..

Addison Lee .....

Are they in the middle of a driver awareness education program ? Last few days they have been the most courteous and accommodating of drivers for moving over, making space and generally being throughly nice people .....

[The Selfish Gene]

dibblecorse said:

My highlight..

Addison Lee .....

Are they in the middle of a driver awareness education program ? Last few days they have been the most courteous and accommodating of drivers for moving over, making space and generally being throughly nice people .....

are you sure that isn't just because you're used to the incompetence of Uber drivers? maybe it's just making Ad Lea stand out as not totally st?

[Pothole]

sjtscott said:

Pothole said:

Don't do that.

If they pull a dangerous move on me which they did its my pleasure to buzz them back to wake them up. I'd already spotted them so took early avoiding action otherwise he'd have ridden straight into me.
To be honest if you don't ride in London you really have no idea how many clueless wonders come out of the woodwork when the sun is out... the way this guy was riding he'll be having an accident period.

Edited by sjtscott on Wednesday 18th April 12:21

I suspect I was riding in London when you were still in short pants. I've also ridden in many places around the world which have far worse and less predictable road users. All that's utterly irrelevant. For goodness' sake don't take your anger out on other road users, It's stupid and dangerous. You know that.

[fergus]

DirtyHarley said:

Sportsters have been around since the 50's and come in 883cc and 1202cc - so certainly not all show and no go.

As the user tag suggest - I ride a Harley, and a Sportster at that - I wear exactly none of what you describe as I prefer armoured textiles and a proper full face lid. I suspect I don;t fit the typical 'Harley' type though - mid 30's and commute all year approx 30 miles each way a day from Bucks into London and back - and I certainly don;t shy away from filtering, and the bike itself is regularly covered in road grime rather than shiny shiny chrome - oh and I nod to all bikers, even little L plate warriors if they aren't riding like tools

I say live and let live - we are all on two wheels and sharing the same experience - albeit I prefer a fairly nippy armchair on wheels than something my back would go all reverse John Hurt over!

Back on topic - I had to train it in again today - which absolutely sucked nuts! Really need that new battery to arrive and hope there are no more electrical gremlins awaiting me!

Edited by DirtyHarley on Tuesday 17th April 16:40

Is your bike black, along with all your gear, and a matt black helmet? Are you Amersham based?

[DirtyHarley]

fergus said:

Is your bike black, along with all your gear, and a matt black helmet? Are you Amersham based?

Hum, probably not me as chesham based, bike is a dark blue with chrome engine casing etc - i have a matt black lid for summer but normal lid is grey with black and white bits, plus in the most unharley manner- i wear a high vis vest! (Not a polite twunt though!)

Ride through amersham to a413 then a40 into town.

[Reg Local]

My (still probably overcautious) filtering skills are coming along nicely.

Had to ride home to Bolton from Manchester city centre around 5.30 this evening. Traffic was backed up & virtully stationary the entire length of the M602, Regent Rd & the Mancunian Way.

Filtered steadily down the middle, made way for a couple of faster bikers, stuck to my own “20mph speed differential & slot into a lane when the traffic goes over 30” filtering rule & made it home in 25 minutes. Would have been well over an hour in the car.

Loving bike commuting!

[CAPP0]

I took the GS back to the dealer but my bike wasn't ready. They needed the little GS for something, so they've given me......a K1600 something or other. GTL, that's it. It's hilarious. It's about 50% bigger physically than my RT. I've stripped the panniers and top box (which includes the pillion armchair) off and it's still massive. Tomorrow I shall try not to be the useless filterer we all moan about on here!

This is it, the 6-cylinder cruisatron:

Edited by CAPP0 on Wednesday 18th April 23:34

[chris4652009]

CAPP0 said:

I took the GS back to the dealer but my bike wasn't ready. They needed the little GS for something, so they've given me......a K1600 something or other. GTL, that's it. It's hilarious. It's about 50% bigger physically than my RT. I've stripped the panniers and top box (which includes the pillion armchair) off and it's still massive. Tomorrow I shall try not to be the useless filterer we all moan about on here!

This is it, the 6-cylinder cruisatron:

Edited by CAPP0 on Wednesday 18th April 23:34

I really want to ride one of these, look forward to hearing your thoughts
I'm hoping it rides better than it looks, I love the new GoldWing

[bgunn]

Train into work today as indulging in a few beers after work.

I don’t like it.

[Cbull]

Reg Local said:

My (still probably overcautious) filtering skills are coming along nicely.

Had to ride home to Bolton from Manchester city centre around 5.30 this evening. Traffic was backed up & virtully stationary the entire length of the M602, Regent Rd & the Mancunian Way.

Filtered steadily down the middle, made way for a couple of faster bikers, stuck to my own “20mph speed differential & slot into a lane when the traffic goes over 30” filtering rule & made it home in 25 minutes. Would have been well over an hour in the car.

Loving bike commuting!

Sounds exactly how you should be doing it (although I'm not quite a cautious). My biggest worry is getting to the motorway, pedestrians are a nightmare. Keep it up.

I personally hate the M62/M602 and stay away form it as much as possible, the M56 seems to flow a bit better imo but obviously it depends on your general direction. There has been a few crashes on my route over the last few weeks so I'm very lucky to be on the bike, makes a huge difference some days.

[Biker 1]

At the risk of ranting about retros & pretend cafe 'racers'/chops again, its getting seriously frustrating that now the large hot wobbly thing has returned to our skies for a few days, all the bloody non-regular bike commuters are out like a plague of (very slow) locusts!!
Pre-distressed £1,000 leather jackets, retro-lids, man-bags, black & silver number plates... The list goes on. Trouble is, most appear to have not ridden for months, & either wobble about &/or go far too slow without using mirrors. Should't they do some sort of refresher course before they're allowed out??

[Johnny50]

I had the typical filtering tw@t in front of me this morning.

Bumbling along through 4 miles of stationary traffic on the City Bypass before he finally seen me, then suddenly turns into Guy Martin and starts being a hero at god knows what speed rather than let me through

[itcaptainslow]

Was up until half 12 last night fitting a replacement rear indicator to the Grom (my regards to the person who knocked it and cracked the plastic housing-what a fiddly arse of a job!) as I was determined to use it this morning.

The sunny weather and avoiding the jam going to the station has paid off my commitment!

[sjtscott]

bgunn said:

Train into work today as indulging in a few beers after work.

I don’t like it.

The beer will make up for it later.. no pleasure without some pain lol

[Lee540]

sjtscott said:

bgunn said:

Train into work today as indulging in a few beers after work.

I don’t like it.

The beer will make up for it later.. no pleasure without some pain lol

I'm the same.. beers after work so sat in a horrible sweat box for 90 mins this morning.

Edited by Lee540 on Thursday 19th April 09:43

[CAPP0]

chris4652009 said:

CAPP0 said:

IK1600 GTL,

I really want to ride one of these, look forward to hearing your thoughts
I'm hoping it rides better than it looks, I love the new GoldWing

Well BMW are IME very good with test rides. "What do you want to ride? How iong do you want to ride it for? And what would you like to take out after you get back?" I test rode a few bikes a couple of years back, went back with one after an hour or so and the salesman said to me "what are you doing back already?"

The bike. It's huge, ridiculously so. I parked alongside something regular today (can't remember what, some Jap naked bike) and this thing is about 2ft longer. It's low - even with the seat on the highest setting, I sit too low and my knees are cramped - I am 6'4" tho.

It has every toy you could possibly think of, including reverse gear (haven't worked out how to use that). It has central locking (WTF?).

It's surprisingly stable at very low speed, you can ride it feet up as soon as it's moving. Obviously on the open road it just sits there and cruises with no fuss at all. It has a quickshifter (it almost needs to be auto, or at least have flappy paddles of some sort).

It probably has all manner of other toys that I haven't even thought about using yet. There's a multi-function dash and controller which is frankly far too busy when you're riding.

I commuted my usual route - M20/A20/Sidcup/Kidbrooke/Blackwall/Commercial Road - and it wasn't quite as bad as I feared. The mirrors are high and wide but you can fold them in a couple of inches which helps. I was VERY conscious of the £1000 excess on the insurance though.

Would I buy one? No. Am I looking forward to getting my RT back? Yes. The RT is a tourer, this is very much a cruiser. I've been thinking about changing the RT as it's a bit of a heavy lump but it's going to feel like a moped after this. And quite honestly I felt like a bit of a prat commuting on it, not that anyone else's opinion actually matter, but, y'know? There was another one in the car park when I got there, exactly the same bike, WITH all the panniers and topbox/seat still on. He must have arrived very early, is all I can say, or just sat in the traffic with all the other cars

Any other questions, fire away.

[Lee540]

Newish ZX6R parked on the road in motorcycle parking bay with no visible security just off Lemans Street, E1. Has MSV stickers on the screen.

Hope it is still there later, the owner should really know better..

[sjtscott]

CAPP0 said:

Well BMW are IME very good with test rides. "What do you want to ride? How iong do you want to ride it for? And what would you like to take out after you get back?" I test rode a few bikes a couple of years back, went back with one after an hour or so and the salesman said to me "what are you doing back already?"

The bike. It's huge, ridiculously so. I parked alongside something regular today (can't remember what, some Jap naked bike) and this thing is about 2ft longer. It's low - even with the seat on the highest setting, I sit too low and my knees are cramped - I am 6'4" tho.

It has every toy you could possibly think of, including reverse gear (haven't worked out how to use that). It has central locking (WTF?).

It's surprisingly stable at very low speed, you can ride it feet up as soon as it's moving. Obviously on the open road it just sits there and cruises with no fuss at all. It has a quickshifter (it almost needs to be auto, or at least have flappy paddles of some sort).

It probably has all manner of other toys that I haven't even thought about using yet. There's a multi-function dash and controller which is frankly far too busy when you're riding.

I commuted my usual route - M20/A20/Sidcup/Kidbrooke/Blackwall/Commercial Road - and it wasn't quite as bad as I feared. The mirrors are high and wide but you can fold them in a couple of inches which helps. I was VERY conscious of the £1000 excess on the insurance though.

Would I buy one? No. Am I looking forward to getting my RT back? Yes. The RT is a tourer, this is very much a cruiser. I've been thinking about changing the RT as it's a bit of a heavy lump but it's going to feel like a moped after this. And quite honestly I felt like a bit of a prat commuting on it, not that anyone else's opinion actually matter, but, y'know? There was another one in the car park when I got there, exactly the same bike, WITH all the panniers and topbox/seat still on. He must have arrived very early, is all I can say, or just sat in the traffic with all the other cars

Any other questions, fire away.

I'm guessing I was expecting too much over the years with BMW Parklane bikes bit - I found them useless when I went in or called them. Wanting me to pay money for insurance for a S1000RR test ride was the last straw a few years ago. Oh I'm still waiting the call back the guy promised for the K1200S test ride when they first came out too LOL
In any case a close family member lives virtually opposite Bahnstormer in hampshire - he used to know the owner, I should probably just get my test rides from here when/if I can be bothered.