Give me a break ffs! : P (long waffle)
Discussion
Biking experience so far...
Did my CBT a week or so ago, got one of them Varadero 125's, couldn't wait to get out on it.
It then subsequently pi$$ed down for several days, so it sat in the garage, cleaned, serviced and ready to go (air filter was a b
h mind), but I didn't fancy my first proper ride being in the rain.I'm not scared of rain by the way and I know I will need to get wet one day, but I wanted this to be a memorable and happy experience.One could compare it to their first shag maybe? Yes, I could have gone out, looked stupid, inexperienced, scared and probably finished my ride before the old girl had even warmed up, but I wanted it to be a proper bonding session where we got to know each other first, one where we had much respect for one another and one where I could learn in relative safety what turned her on..
The sun came out after a few days however, so off I went for a gentle ride.Loved every minute of it and I repeated this the following day.The time then came for me to take it to work as this was one of the reasons I got the bike.Guess what? yes, it pi$$ed down for several days! Good one.After scanning the online weather reports, they suggested much rain for the following days too, so I left the bike at home and took my car.This ended up being rather annoying, as not only did we not end up having any rain at all, but it was also extremely warm, clear and sunny.Gutted...
Another quick blast about at the weekend saw me gaining confidence however and the weather reports looked good for this week, so yesterday became my first early morning ride out and my trip to work became a lot more fun.I had a more scenic route planned for my relatively short journey to work, but I forgot that my intended route home included a short stretch of motorway (no go area on L plates of course), so I decided to just go home the way I came in.I got to work in one piece, no rain, not much traffic, no drama, (apart from trying to wipe an insect off my visor, only to realise it was on the inside).. all was good then! Despite us having a large warehouse, I left the bike outside in an old and now unused small area which was fenced off for pallets.It is a perfect fit for a bike and nothing can get near it unless they smash down the fence, although we are at the end of a quiet dead end road anyway, so nothing much could happen to it...
After returning to the warehouse (I drive an HGV), a biker friend and workmate came over looking rather glum and said "do you want the bad news?" To cut a long story short, it had started to rain and he decided to place a cover over the bike for me, but as he tucked the cover under the wheel, the bike came off the stand! He grabbed it, saved it, but it fell over enough to hit the mirror on the fence and it snapped clean off.Ho hum, 'stuff' happens.He was truly gutted and offered to pay etc etc and had made calls to replace the part, but as I say, no big deal.I made a few jokes about having 7 years bad luck, dropped in a few "on reflection" and daily mirror jokes etc and off I trotted on my journey home...
Things got interesting around 3 minutes after leaving work, not only due to me being a mirror down, but also because a set of roadworks had appeared at a junction I needed to use.I can handle roadworks of course, but these were at a junction where normal traffic lights had been replaced by temp ones and the road I need to use to get to them is very narrow due to parked cars, so it is a constant give way battle in the evening.Of course, it was now the busiest and most jammed up I had ever seen it, no room for a bike at all, so no room to have a practice at nipping up the outside and all that.My alternative routes were also no better as there were only a few ways out of our estate and due to my motorway restrictions, they would have meant many more miles and even more traffic!Bugger...
The lights obviously took an age to change, you could tell by all the skeletons in the cars ahead, so I ducked into a side road, naturally assuming that I was the only person who knew of this sneaky cut-through.Oh dear, how wrong was I? I ended up a few cars lengths from a small and narrow T junction with a huge queue behind, several cars in front all at funny angles and nothing was moving.I couldn't see round the corner though, but it was obvious things were not good.If you placed a time lapse camera at that location at that moment, the flowers would have grown and died, it would have got dark, light, dark, light, paint would have faded on peoples front doors etc, but the traffic would have stayed perfectly still...it was jammed up pretty good then...
I sat still for what must have been 5 minutes with various options going through my mind, still with the old girl in first gear, still with my foot planted on the rear brake and the clutch held in.As a result, my clutch hand began to feel like I had just done 100 clenches with one of those spring loaded hand grips, so I decided I should just get round the cars, get to the end of the road and see what was occurring round the corner.I did toy with the idea of getting off the bike and walking down to see what was going on, but I could picture people behind me saying "wow, there are learners and then there is this guy!" so decided to just move off slowly.After all, what would be the chance of any oncoming traffic appearing at that corner after so much time sat waiting? Not gonna happen is it, not at the exact moment I decided to move?.I was suprised then, that at the exact moment I moved, a car appeared at the corner.It was now coming towards me as it turned in, so we were effectively nose to nose and he no doubt assumed I had just spent the last few minutes riding across peoples gardens, over peoples cars and up and down pavements etc to get to where I was.I could now see round the bend and it was jam city with cars all having to go up onto the path etc, so he had no doubt spent a looong time getting to the piece of road I now occupied.I'm sure this chance meeting put biker/car driver relations back several years as a result.His window was open and I heard him say "yeah, great, that really helps" and I 'walked' the bike around to the side of his car and turned into the next jammed up road..
Joy of joys!! Just ahead of me in this road, there sat 600 cc's of throbbing, leather clad, guardian angel! I may have imagined it, but I could have sworn this fellow biker held out his hand and said "stick with me my child". No need for me to think about what to do now, I just need to copy this guy
I did exactly that and we weaved our way to the next junction where I recall the give way sign had been replaced with one that suggested we could turn left for freedom! That's pretty much where my copying of his riding habits ended though, as even with my 125 screaming so loudly only dogs could hear it, he was but a distant speck by the time I was in third.No matter, I had made it out alive and as I glanced in my mirrors, (oops, I mean mirror, the other one was in my rucksack after all) I could see all the cars still jammed solid, so I gave my tank a little pat and carried on..
Approx another 3 minutes of riding passed and as I got up to speed, It occured to me that something wasn't right regarding the way the bike was riding.Ok, so I lost a mirror, but we are talking Varadero here, not Veyron, so the mirrors wouldn't upset my downforce and handling.I rode through a few lorry tyre ruts in the road and to be honest, my first thought was that the wheelnuts were about to drop off! Things got a bit hairy as the bike became very unstable and off balance, so I flicked the indicator on and pulled up.By pure chance, I stopped in such a position that a large pot rivet type item could be seen clear as day sticking out of the rear tyre *sigh*.The tyre still felt quite hard, but there was movement on the rim when I pushed/rolled it side to side.Great, now what? I was still quite a way from home and by the time I managed to get my gloves, helmet and rucksack off and dig my phone out to call for help, It would be early morning and everyone I knew would have been in bed.I decided at that point (feel free to sg me off) to do a bit of a 'Blues Brothers'..."ok, it's 10 miles to home, I have half a tank of gas, 25 grammes of golden virginia, one mirror, a flat tyre, it's dark and I have no sunglasses, HIT IT!!"...
It was an interesting ride home, certainly not something they teach you or prepare you for on a CBT, but I kept the speed way down and cornered as if I were riding on a wall with a 1000 foot drop either side.So, Saturday is new tyre day and the bike is once again back in the garage, this time minus a mirror and the rear wheel.Apart from that, my introduction to biking has been great thus far..
Did my CBT a week or so ago, got one of them Varadero 125's, couldn't wait to get out on it.
It then subsequently pi$$ed down for several days, so it sat in the garage, cleaned, serviced and ready to go (air filter was a b
h mind), but I didn't fancy my first proper ride being in the rain.I'm not scared of rain by the way and I know I will need to get wet one day, but I wanted this to be a memorable and happy experience.One could compare it to their first shag maybe? Yes, I could have gone out, looked stupid, inexperienced, scared and probably finished my ride before the old girl had even warmed up, but I wanted it to be a proper bonding session where we got to know each other first, one where we had much respect for one another and one where I could learn in relative safety what turned her on..The sun came out after a few days however, so off I went for a gentle ride.Loved every minute of it and I repeated this the following day.The time then came for me to take it to work as this was one of the reasons I got the bike.Guess what? yes, it pi$$ed down for several days! Good one.After scanning the online weather reports, they suggested much rain for the following days too, so I left the bike at home and took my car.This ended up being rather annoying, as not only did we not end up having any rain at all, but it was also extremely warm, clear and sunny.Gutted...
Another quick blast about at the weekend saw me gaining confidence however and the weather reports looked good for this week, so yesterday became my first early morning ride out and my trip to work became a lot more fun.I had a more scenic route planned for my relatively short journey to work, but I forgot that my intended route home included a short stretch of motorway (no go area on L plates of course), so I decided to just go home the way I came in.I got to work in one piece, no rain, not much traffic, no drama, (apart from trying to wipe an insect off my visor, only to realise it was on the inside).. all was good then! Despite us having a large warehouse, I left the bike outside in an old and now unused small area which was fenced off for pallets.It is a perfect fit for a bike and nothing can get near it unless they smash down the fence, although we are at the end of a quiet dead end road anyway, so nothing much could happen to it...
After returning to the warehouse (I drive an HGV), a biker friend and workmate came over looking rather glum and said "do you want the bad news?" To cut a long story short, it had started to rain and he decided to place a cover over the bike for me, but as he tucked the cover under the wheel, the bike came off the stand! He grabbed it, saved it, but it fell over enough to hit the mirror on the fence and it snapped clean off.Ho hum, 'stuff' happens.He was truly gutted and offered to pay etc etc and had made calls to replace the part, but as I say, no big deal.I made a few jokes about having 7 years bad luck, dropped in a few "on reflection" and daily mirror jokes etc and off I trotted on my journey home...
Things got interesting around 3 minutes after leaving work, not only due to me being a mirror down, but also because a set of roadworks had appeared at a junction I needed to use.I can handle roadworks of course, but these were at a junction where normal traffic lights had been replaced by temp ones and the road I need to use to get to them is very narrow due to parked cars, so it is a constant give way battle in the evening.Of course, it was now the busiest and most jammed up I had ever seen it, no room for a bike at all, so no room to have a practice at nipping up the outside and all that.My alternative routes were also no better as there were only a few ways out of our estate and due to my motorway restrictions, they would have meant many more miles and even more traffic!Bugger...
The lights obviously took an age to change, you could tell by all the skeletons in the cars ahead, so I ducked into a side road, naturally assuming that I was the only person who knew of this sneaky cut-through.Oh dear, how wrong was I? I ended up a few cars lengths from a small and narrow T junction with a huge queue behind, several cars in front all at funny angles and nothing was moving.I couldn't see round the corner though, but it was obvious things were not good.If you placed a time lapse camera at that location at that moment, the flowers would have grown and died, it would have got dark, light, dark, light, paint would have faded on peoples front doors etc, but the traffic would have stayed perfectly still...it was jammed up pretty good then...
I sat still for what must have been 5 minutes with various options going through my mind, still with the old girl in first gear, still with my foot planted on the rear brake and the clutch held in.As a result, my clutch hand began to feel like I had just done 100 clenches with one of those spring loaded hand grips, so I decided I should just get round the cars, get to the end of the road and see what was occurring round the corner.I did toy with the idea of getting off the bike and walking down to see what was going on, but I could picture people behind me saying "wow, there are learners and then there is this guy!" so decided to just move off slowly.After all, what would be the chance of any oncoming traffic appearing at that corner after so much time sat waiting? Not gonna happen is it, not at the exact moment I decided to move?.I was suprised then, that at the exact moment I moved, a car appeared at the corner.It was now coming towards me as it turned in, so we were effectively nose to nose and he no doubt assumed I had just spent the last few minutes riding across peoples gardens, over peoples cars and up and down pavements etc to get to where I was.I could now see round the bend and it was jam city with cars all having to go up onto the path etc, so he had no doubt spent a looong time getting to the piece of road I now occupied.I'm sure this chance meeting put biker/car driver relations back several years as a result.His window was open and I heard him say "yeah, great, that really helps" and I 'walked' the bike around to the side of his car and turned into the next jammed up road..
Joy of joys!! Just ahead of me in this road, there sat 600 cc's of throbbing, leather clad, guardian angel! I may have imagined it, but I could have sworn this fellow biker held out his hand and said "stick with me my child". No need for me to think about what to do now, I just need to copy this guy
I did exactly that and we weaved our way to the next junction where I recall the give way sign had been replaced with one that suggested we could turn left for freedom! That's pretty much where my copying of his riding habits ended though, as even with my 125 screaming so loudly only dogs could hear it, he was but a distant speck by the time I was in third.No matter, I had made it out alive and as I glanced in my mirrors, (oops, I mean mirror, the other one was in my rucksack after all) I could see all the cars still jammed solid, so I gave my tank a little pat and carried on..Approx another 3 minutes of riding passed and as I got up to speed, It occured to me that something wasn't right regarding the way the bike was riding.Ok, so I lost a mirror, but we are talking Varadero here, not Veyron, so the mirrors wouldn't upset my downforce and handling.I rode through a few lorry tyre ruts in the road and to be honest, my first thought was that the wheelnuts were about to drop off! Things got a bit hairy as the bike became very unstable and off balance, so I flicked the indicator on and pulled up.By pure chance, I stopped in such a position that a large pot rivet type item could be seen clear as day sticking out of the rear tyre *sigh*.The tyre still felt quite hard, but there was movement on the rim when I pushed/rolled it side to side.Great, now what? I was still quite a way from home and by the time I managed to get my gloves, helmet and rucksack off and dig my phone out to call for help, It would be early morning and everyone I knew would have been in bed.I decided at that point (feel free to s
g me off) to do a bit of a 'Blues Brothers'..."ok, it's 10 miles to home, I have half a tank of gas, 25 grammes of golden virginia, one mirror, a flat tyre, it's dark and I have no sunglasses, HIT IT!!"...It was an interesting ride home, certainly not something they teach you or prepare you for on a CBT, but I kept the speed way down and cornered as if I were riding on a wall with a 1000 foot drop either side.So, Saturday is new tyre day and the bike is once again back in the garage, this time minus a mirror and the rear wheel.Apart from that, my introduction to biking has been great thus far..
Ah, but the give away is the humour in your post. You love it all. The pat on the tank bit i love, I do that, too. Perhaps we all do? Oddly, my only puncture was in my first month of riding, too, so i wonder if experience guides us away from the bits os road where all the crap sits? I reckon it does. Also, we all drop a bike sometime, so you've been lucky enough to have someone do it for you.
You've started with a good wee bike and what appears to be a great attitude. Welcome to the fold, my child.
You've started with a good wee bike and what appears to be a great attitude. Welcome to the fold, my child.
Digby said:
Biking experience so far...
Joy of joys!! Just ahead of me in this road, there sat 600 cc's of throbbing, leather clad, guardian angel! I may have imagined it, but I could have sworn this fellow biker held out his hand and said "stick with me my child".
I love this bit Joy of joys!! Just ahead of me in this road, there sat 600 cc's of throbbing, leather clad, guardian angel! I may have imagined it, but I could have sworn this fellow biker held out his hand and said "stick with me my child".
I've thought the same thing seeing a biker ahead and following their lead, I got a puncture too recently, not nice at all makes overtaking interesting 
Hope you get some nice weather this weekend
When i had my 125 ped i had a puncture,
When i had my 250 quad i had a punctre
When i had my 125 Eliminator i got a puncture about 8 hours after getting the last one repaired.
Just got new tyres on my sports biken & its making things interesting as im trying to stick to the ahem limit to scrub them in!
It's all part of the experience!
When i had my 250 quad i had a punctre
When i had my 125 Eliminator i got a puncture about 8 hours after getting the last one repaired.
Just got new tyres on my sports biken & its making things interesting as im trying to stick to the ahem limit to scrub them in!
It's all part of the experience!
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