bonio

I drove a car in Cairo once. Well, I was steering while some friends were pushing. That's as much driving in Cairo as I cared to do. Worst place I ever really drove was Palermo. The technique that worked for me was imagine the space that was about to appear and drive into it. Bonkers.

I thought I'd get the key message out there up front. Today we had beautiful, sunny, warm weather and dry roads. I had to go to Ipswich so took the twisty route, and on the way back came to this junction just as a bloke in a car comes down from the left where he has to give way, and he's going quickly, looking in my direction to see if the road is clear. In fact, I see him at look me straight in the eyes, and instead of thinking "Good, he's seen me. Better slow down in case" I only thought, "Good he's seen me". The next thing I saw was the horror on his face when he actually did see me as I appeared out of nowhere - mouth wide open, eyes out like in Tom and Jerry. Then I saw him grab the steering wheel in panic. And instead of thinking, "Oh shit. Anchors on now now now," I'm thinking, "Oh he's seen me at last, better slow down in case". This was probably the worst thing do; even speeding up at this point would have improved my chances. I went in front of him; he missed me by about a foot, mainly because he's swerved into the verge on his left. I didn't stop, I gave him a wave to show I was ok, and carried on. Lesson learned: plan properly and slow down.

They did. If you were driving a midnight on Jan 1, you had stop the car, slowly drive onto the opposite carriageway and continue your journey. It went fine until 9 months later when they had spate of wrong-side-of the-road accidents, probably as people relaxed into it and stopped concentrating.

I've seen that done in the full heat of rush hour ... by a lady on a push bike. I followed her to the roundabout, she went right, I went left. We met again at the exit. All the traffic in her quadrant had frozen in horror. I yelled at her never ever ever to do that again, but I think just she took me for a madman/biker/racist combo. I hope she's still alive.

MRA is the best of the 8 or so phone navs apps I tried. It is completely easy to use and has reliable routing. Waypoints work well too.

I'd recommend a secondhand Honda or Yamaha. Don't worry very much about the age or the mileage; you just want one that's been serviced and looked after and hasn't been knocked around. If you look after it yourself, you shouldn't lose any money on it when you come to sell it again. Sounds like you'll need a large top box, or rear luggage rack to strap a bag to, so you're best find will be something that comes with this already fitted.

Mine's definitely heavier than with the clutch in. I don't remember ever using one on any bike where it didn't have at least a slightly heavier feel.

It's winter and the roads are bit shite and not very grippy. You just need to keep things smooth and keep the bike upright and happy that that's what you've achieved. And you'll learn some great habits that come into their own come March or April, when you can start to make the bike work a bit harder.

This will make cornering really hard to control. You won't have the control you need as you turn, and when you open the throttle, the suspension will be unsettled as it absorbs the thrust from the rear wheel. This makes the bike feel unstable - and can be a lot worse if the throttle is snatchy. Try getting the power back on just a tad immediately before the corner starts. Keep it on steady until you're beginning to straighten up and then accelerate gently. Very gently if the road is slippery.

When my bike was stolen last year, I was surprised how easily it all went. I think the fact that the bike was never found made it more straightforward. In all, it was about two weeks from theft to insurance payout in the bank. All they wanted, apart from the V5 and stuff, were some pictures of the bike, and the keys. They never received the keys - either they got lost in the mail or in their post room. But they paid out without a quibble. The underwriters were Markerstudy. The whole claim was arranged with them; I had almost zero contact with the insurance company themselves.

I know loads of people love their MT09s, and rightly so, but when I rode the 2019 model I had the same response as you. Interesting that you had this on the 2021 model, though, which is supposed to be a real step up from the previous one.

Nope you can't. But if you buy a decent secondhand Japanese 125 and ride it (like the Varadero), you will be able to sell it on at the same price when you want to move up to a 650.

Please can I have a "groan" button @Stu

I've a 150 rear and 140 front on the DRZ and it rides... well, like donkey with colic, which is much like it did when the tyres matched.

Looks really awesome. But I'm not sure I'd want to spend too long in that I'm-trying-to-reach-for-the-loo-paper position.

Wow, what an amazing trip! What kind of bike are you planning to hire? Is it going to be strictly tarmac, or dirt tracks as well? I ask because there are some bike-specific and/or off-road forums that have areas where people get together for this kind of trip.

Me too mate.

I vote with the Fazer. Cheap as chips to run. More power than you need. Probably already got some signs of rust so, a bit of ACF50 and then you can happily forget about the salt and crap that winter will throw at it. And older bikes are less likely to be stolen than newer (good news when you're commuting). But if you're commuting through a low emissions zone, the Fazer might not pass the criteria, and then the Beemer would be good choice.

Oh dang it sorry. Best outcome is a load of faff and some degree of monetary loss.

Buy Honda. Buy Yamaha. Buy anything but Chinese.

Dunnit.

Sorry to hear about your crash . Hope you're not badly injured. Good advice from @husoi there. You'll find people here who're able to help you when you run into difficulties. I'm counting myself out, mind: bit clueless with a spanner.

I took one that had the SCS clutch out for a test ride, but I couldn't get on with it. I'll often slip the clutch when I ride - for example if I'm turning at a slow speeds - and I didn't know how to do this with the SCS - there's a clutch lever, but the bike really wasn't happy if you tried to use to disengage the clutch a notch or two. Also, I didn't think it did the job so much better than the quickshifter (which comes as standard on the base model) does; it works works really well, up and down, even goes from 1st to 2nd. Finally, the SCS bike comes with a handbrake, which you have to use to keep it stopped. And that point I began to wonder whether it was a solution that was way more complicated than the problem it was trying to solve. I know some people love theirs, but it wasn't for me.

Ooo. Now I'm curious. A thick skin will be 100% necessary. I actually saw one the other day. Hmm, where was it? Ah yes I wuz in London. There was a 1290 Duke parked up outside Peter Jones and a couple of blocks further up a VT85 went past. First one I've seen. Made for a good visit. As for the kafkaesque merry-go-round, I'm now booked in to get a second AZ jab at the end of the month . When I spoke to the doc about it, though, he said, "I'll put on your notes that you need AZ, not Pfizer. But the important thing is that you know this." What he meant is that when I get there, I'm the one who has to stop the nurse giving me Pfizer and try to persuade her that I should be having AZ instead. We shall see.