bonio

Blimey, never seen you here before. How long have you been awol?

Once had to send my bike in along with a cardboard box of bits.

Too true. I spent some time in Colorado. Winter was the best time of year - bright sunny days with blue skies, views that stretched a hundred miles down the edge of the Rockies, perhaps skiing on Saturday or just a walk round the park in the happy knowledge that the rattlers and the bears were all hibernating. Every now and the snow would settle even at our low elevation (6500ft) and we'd go sledding. Dang it I miss that place.

Using a phone for navigation has a few issues Vibrations can kill the camera. I've heard of this happening on iphones, probably happens on others too. Some companies such as Quadlock and UltimateAddOns make cases that damp the vibrations and are safe for your phone. After 1000s of miles using an UltimateAddOns case with my cheapo Samsung, I've had no issues with the camera. The phone can overheat and shut off. A combination of high summer temperatures, the heavy processing required to do navigation, shutting the phone away in an airless case that heats up an oven, mean that this can happen. It's happened to me a couple of times on hot afternoons. Never been a problem, as I've been riding with others who have proper sat navs. No data at the bottom of your valley. Relying on data being available everywhere might leave you riding around looking for the nearest signal But some nav apps, such as MRA and I think google maps, allow you to download maps so they're always available. No dedicated hard buttons. It's not that easy to poke around at a phone screen when you're stopped at a red light, even if you have magic conductive gloves. A few hard buttons you can activate easily with gloves might help you out. It's not easy to use the phone. When the phone's all cooped up in its case, it's one faff to many to get it out just to take some pics or whatever you do with your phone. It tends to stay there until there's a proper lunch or coffee stop. It's up to you whether these are deal-breakers or not. I've gone the phone route because I got fed up with Garmin and BaseCamp and longed for something that was just a bit simpler to use. Ended up with MRA on the phone, and been happily using it for a couple of years now. Not thinking of going back to sat navs.

But A377 BCD is a tad special. Odd, I can remember my mum's old mini from 55 years ago - JLU823D since I know you were all wondering - but I couldn't tell you the number of any of my previous bikes or cars off the top of my head.

PS I've tried washing it and applying anti rain stuff. Makes precious little difference.

When I was young(er) the rain would bead up on my visor and a nod of the head to the side would see it all gone. But I can only think the law of physics have changed because it doesn't work like that any more. Yesterday is a good example: clear day, then it starts to drizzle a bit and suddenly the visor is all smears and I can only keep going by wiping it every two seconds (didn't help when the car in front kindly squirted me and the visor in screen wash...). Today it was similar: riding through cold, dark fog and all I have on the visor is smears and out of focus vision. Is the anything I can do to being the water beads back?

Nice @rob m. I'd love to get to Spain on the bike, but not quite find sufficient excuse. Hopefully just a matter of time.

That's a nice line up of bikes. Any pics?

I'm hoping the temperatures going to rise a bit before I have to ride home this afternoon. Had to scrape the ice off the seat this morning.

Welcome from a fellow ex-GS rider

Congratulations! And welcome in.

Frozen fingers today. Had to concentrate hard to make them squeeze the front brake. Oddly only on the right hand; the left hand was ok. Nice to find some sunshine to ride in for a change

I so dislike winter gloves... they're like trying to ride with hands that have gone blind. I know they're hideous to look at but have you thought about bar muffs (or whatever they are called)?

@Gerontious Say hi to snod

A couple of jammy dodgers and I'm in

The ottocast device arrived today. But oh noes, the version I've ordered doesn't come with a USB power cable. I've asked them if they can supply one, but I might have to send it back.

Make's @fullscreenaging's kit look like an even deal*. *Disclosure: I'm hoping for a 5% cut.

I guess it depends on your bike whether the current systems works out well for your or not. My MV provides the world with 148.5 g CO2 per km. If it was a car, the tax would be £255 a year. As bike, it's £111.

Warm and sunny here. Just washed the MV. Left it out to dry before putting it on to charge, probably now for the winter.

Fun to ride... that's what the s1000xr has in spades but enough bar vibes to make sure the fun was restricted to an hour at a time. Yeah, I'd agree they left the FT drive off the 1250. If they've found a place to fit it in on the 1300 then I must make sure I never give one a test ride. Sounds like a proper blast.

Hi Matteo. Welcome in!

To be fair, that hardly counts as warming the nuts up. Took me a while before I realised that to go faster you just need to drop a gear.

Too right . And perhaps a touch of ? So what would you say makes it so much better than the 1250? PS Congratulations of course. A touch envious tbh.

You'll want to get a decent set of chains for your tyres before you set off. Sorry, just teasing. Heated kit, like Joe says. Keep an eye on the weather forecasts and take a break in a hotel if snow is likely.