manxie49

Some very poignant responses, a lot of which I can relate to. I had a really crap couple of years with my wife being diagnosed with cancer in 2018, 2020 was to be a year for travel and enjoying life then covid hit and changed everyones life. Like trooper, I went through a period of what was thought to be PTSD after serving a lot of years in the army and serving in a couple of the worlds hot spots, then having to deal with the transition to civvy street. I dealt with it by drinking more than I should and got through with the support of my wife and friends. Motorcycling gives me my release, just riding aimlessly, no where to go in particular just riding. Lockdown caused me some issues, I think it was due to being stuck on this rock and not being able to get away, now we have the upsurge of the anti TT brigade over here, slow joes wanting ridiculous all island speed limits. It's left me feeling like I want to move away lock stock and barrel. I think we all have problems with mental health to one extreme or another, the trick is being able to talk about the issues, and it come down to how we deal with them. I try and remain positive now, try and see the funny and humorous side to most things, keep smiling and keep telling myself we're all gonna get through this crap time, and when we do, we should all meet for a good ride out, open fire in a field, music and a really good blow out .... Take it easy everyone

Good for you Rob, regardless of what your friends say or think doing what's best for you can never be the wrong move .... I personally believe in the old saying, everything in moderation, if you don't do the perceived "wrong" things to excess then there shouldn't be a problem.

I'm also 6'2" currently ride an MT10 and a CRF250 on the green lanes. It all depends what you're looking for, you can get some pretty big tourers and also some very tall adventure bikes, as has already been said you need to go and sit on a few bikes, test ride them, see what you feel comfortable with. Whats right for one person won't necessarily be right for another. Shops will be OK with you sitting on the bikes and test riding them, I've just test ridden about six different bikes in the past two weeks, so get out there, have a look around and enjoy the shopping experience

I used to rebuild old series 2 and 3 Land rovers a few years ago as a hobby, absolute doddle to work on, wouldn’t attempt anything with a modern car, much prefer working on bikes, the vast majority of jobs on bikes can be done without specialist tools or computer diagnostics, when they do need those things then it goes to the garage.

welcome on board

Looks like work done by the same nob end who installed our kitchen .... How they qualify as electricians beggars belief

xTReme’s solution is my favourite .... move to Spain

I've ridden all year round for years, both here and in Leicester where I used to live. The only tips I would say are, buy decent gear, I've wasted so much money over the years on crap, inferior products that weren't really fit for purpose. If you stay dry and warm the whole thing will be more bearable. Secondly, slow down, plan ahead and keep your eyes open, make sure you have good tyres for wet weather riding, if your bike has traction control use it, if it has dynamic riding modes use the armchair setting. Not sure how long you've been riding but you develop a feel for the bike, the one thing that improved my winter riding ability, and this wouldn't be for everyone, was learning to ride off road. If you can learn to control a bike in off road conditions then it'll give you a better understanding and feel for what the bike is doing, more importantly it'll teach you how to react and go some way to preventing over reaction. IMHO I think it helps to stop you from panicking when things go awry, such as when the back end steps out . Lastly I would say, pay attention to your bike, brakes, tyre pressures, lights, good coating of ACF50, look after the bike and it'll look after you. There is no real one size fits all solution to winter riding, just take it easy and scrub some speed off.

The wife bought these as a Christmas present for me last year, I rode the bike through the winter on the daily commute, admittedly its only a 34 mile round trip, but can happily say, with confidence, that they did keep my hands dry in the rain, I had heated grips on the bike, the only part of my hands that suffered was the tips of my fingers, I also wore glove liners. The gloves felt a little stiff and awkward at first, presumably due to the armour, once I'd worn them a few times they were great. Winters on its way back again and these will be my glove of choice for the forthcoming bad weather.

Have a good one ....

Could have been doing the blue light driver training, pulling out and maintaining a position of safety without actually overtaking. Allows them to see further down the road but be able to move back in behind the near side vehicle if a car comes in the opposite direction .... failing that, as said, they were admiring your bike

On the up side they do sound pretty damn good though

Electric bikes are certainly not for me, ridiculous charge times, restricted range, which basically knocks touring on the head, most of them look pig ugly and worst off all .... NO NOISE!.....In fact, to celebrate the invention of the internal combustion engine, I'm gonna go sit on the drive and rev my engine just to P--s off my greeny neighbours "who incidentally drive a big diesel motorhome to attend ER rallies in the UK", Go figure!!

Hope you get sorted out mate, not nice hearing that news. Don't know about the cataract problem but my brother in law had lens replacement surgery done, he was in and out in a day and no problems, he actually wished he'd had it done years ago. Hope it all goes well for you....

I ride right through every winter with a pin lock visor, only ever had a problem once and that was my own fault, I basically didn’t install it properly , other than that no problems at all

Good luck mate hope the recovery goes well

Yes but more than 10yrs ago, come off a few times when off roading, but hey, that’s part and parcel for that game

hope you have a good day

yeah i had a 75 S111 for seven years and it was as good a condition as the day i bought it when it went The older Landy's were brilliant, when it rained outside you used to get wet inside with mine, Drove a lot of S3's and defenders in the Army, the abuse they took, and kept going, was unreal.

Nice car, the only Land Rover I've ever owned was an old Defender, drove like a tractor, "leaked like one as well", tend to expect it from the Defender though .... Hope it all goes ok for you

I think you should go for the tiger 900or the versys 1000 though the ktm does look bloody nice I did like the tiger, good bike and a nice ride but I still got off it thinking “I’m not sure”. Not sure about the KTM, bit of a wild card for me but I’ll ride it and see. Whatever I opt for has got to be right for the daily commute as well as everything else ..... As I said the other day I think I need three or four bikes in the garage (I wish)

Congratulations to everyone Bonio, good luck with the grandad duties

Well, continuing my test ride on different bikes this weekend, so far I've test ridden a GS1250, Tracer900GT, Triumph Tiger 900 and tomorrow will see me astride of a KTM1050 ADV bike, not too sure about this one though, I'm also gonna have a blast on a Versys 1000, by next week I'll hopefully have made my mind up as to what I want .... He says!!

Sidi is really good kit, I found I had to go a size up with my sidi boots, the same with Dainese leather trousers, one size up required, I think its an Italian thing....SBS are really good, if they don't fit they exchange with no quibble, nothing beats actually going to the shop and trying them on though, although I know that isn't always an option. I did find that Richa boots were very much a true size fit and definitely wider than sidi.

I can only speak from my own experience of having one on my Tenere, I had a 50l top box, it was expensive, but this is what I found: Yes I could get two helmets in the box, however, worth bearing in mind that top boxes are easy to break into. I found that if riding solo with top box and panniers, especially at motorway speeds, the bike became a tad unstable, I later found that this can be a problem with certain bikes when riding with this configuration due to air movement around the bike. Top box was great if you ride with a pillion, it gives them something to lean against and makes them feel more secure. They're safer than riding with a back pack, ruck sacks have been known to exacerbate potential spinal injury if involved in an RTC, even more so if carrying hard items in the back pack. I personally would have another top box, I found it really useful and left it on the bike most of the time, above all else it was great for throwing stuff in that I picked up from the shop, and putting the items inside that I needed for work .... it kept everything dry as well.