bonio

Bummer of a birthday. Praying for a speedy recovery for your mum. At least you saved the bike!

That's not what I expected. Especially with those golden wheels. But a midlife bike isn't something to be taken lightly, buddy. You've gotta do what you've gotta do.

Same here too. We both got it before Christmas. Wife still under the weather with sinus and hearing loss.

Saw one in the flesh yesterday, outside Norwich. Looked very smart.

Did my car test in Wallington, near Croydon in June '79. Must have been about 1984, I had decide to get a 250 to commute on (hadn't realised the law had changed the year before) but my cousin talked me out of it. In 2010, took CBT + lessons + 2 x Mod 1 + 2 x Mod 2 = a bit over a grand. Small beer compared to what it's cost me since.

Welcome in. Italian bike owner here: an MV Agusta plus a Suzuki for reliability.

I've hard panniers plus a lomo dry bag for when I need more space.

@rob m That's genius.

@Mawsley Really sorry; that's terrible.

Nice. Enjoy the roads before us grockles come!

Welcome in. Which tiny bit of Devon are you in? I used to live in Ware, one of Devon's microhamlets, although our house was just in Dorset.

Welcome in. Great roads up your way, especially in the Dales and north Pennines.

Self-service tills are crap, but I'd take them any day in preference to the tills they used to have at the Somerfield next to work. Always a toss up between the convenience of it being next door and the excruciating wait - half and hour perhaps - for the two people ahead of you to get through the till. But then they brought in an improvement: instead of the lady at the till waving the items in the red beam and the customer putting the items in their own bags, they had the bright idea of adding value by getting the lady to pack your bags too. So now she took the tin of sardines from the belt, waved it a few times in the beam until she scored a *ding*, then she'd turn right round so she could see your bag, then she'd puff up the opening to make sure she could get the tin in, and finally lay it down next to the loaf of bread or whatever. Then she'd turn back the other way, pick up the next item and oh no please shoot me shoot me shoot me quick or at least pluck out my eyes so I don't have to look at it any more.

You can definitely do Das in a week - and even if you didn't pass you'd be well placed to retake in Scotland with not a lot of fuss. Stay in a youth hostel for £30 a night? But why not first call up your local guys or even better drop in on them near the end of the day and see if you can like them.... can you find any reviews on them?

I've used ebay. You have to filter out the punters who only want a bargain, but get the price right and photograph it well, and you'll have a buyer soon enough. When I sold the VanVan, the guy bought it without seeing it, sent a van down from Yorkshire to pick it up. I think £3-£30 was a reasonable fee to pay; it would have been hard to move it on at all if I'd had to rely on selling it locally.

tbh = to be honest. You can just skip over them tbh.

Welcome mate.

Me too. Gave their bike a good old drop. Tutor was very relaxed about it, picked it up and off we went.

Jeans and leather jacket for 3 seasons, in the dry. Any sign of rain, and it's textiles for me

Welcome

Welcome in!

He didn't mean you, @Bender.

4th Dimension. Ah, bless 'em.

Nope, sorry. What your saying is possible. But upper back discomfort could also be caused by riding with your shoulders too stiff. Before you start playing with spanners, it's worth trying consciously to relax your shoulders every 5 minutes and seeing if that makes a difference.

Mate you're a star. Sol is 100% on my level. PM'd you my address.