manxie49

No wind, just need a decent set of textiles

Riding in high wind has become something of a daily occurrence this year. And, like you, I'm not keen. The old P1, P2, P3 riding positions giving good forward vision training, sort of goes out the window. I tend to ride on whatever part of the road seems best at the time giving me the greatest margins of safety. Sadly, just can't seem to avoid those windy days at the moment.

1 - Drivers failing to open their eyes and look Distraction 2 - Poor quality road surface (Pot holes, fuel spills, surface degradation) 3 - Lack of experience 4 - Poor standards of driving / riding 5 - Rider / Driver fatigue resulting in loss of concentration Just my opinion and some of the reasons I've come across over the years in my day to day job.

Happy Birthday @rennie have a good un

FFS what next .....How about a new suit to go with it .....

Sounded like a good trip, nice pictures. Only ever done it on a bike, although I never stuck religiously to the prescribed NC500 route. Lovely place though with some fantastic scenery.

You could also try using some loctite disc brake quiet, smeared on the back of the pads. It dampens down the high frequency vibrations that @Tinkicker mentioned. Not expensive and it worked ok for me.

I had a look and seen they did my favourite motorcycle magazine , Ride, so just signed up for the two months free. Looks pretty good with a good selection of reads. Thanks for the heads up

I don't recall saying I wanted to take racing lines ...... I said to be careful because there are some bell ends up there that do.

Been a while but Snake Pass and Winats Pass (probably spelt that wrong) were two excellent rides. Be careful of Snake pass though, there were a lot of boy racers up there taking racing lines through some of the sweeping bends, not seeming to give a toss about what was coming the other way. Not sure how true it is, but apparently the Police are regularly up there and are coming down hard on individuals, with road side cautions appearing to be a thing of the past. Great roads though with fantastic scenery .... Oh, and when I was there the roads were unusually, for this country, in pretty good condition.

Happy Birthday fella, have a good one

Happy Birthday @Stu, have a good un

I agree with Nick, look at a smaller, low value bike to build up a bit of no claims. I feel your pain. My brother lives in Middlesex, he has 4yrs NCB and is still paying through the nose for insurance, he pretty much has all that you have plus an advanced qualification, none of it seems to make any difference whatsoever. Sadly, insurance companies have you by the bollox.

Have a good day

When it's safe to do so, I will filter. Emphasis on the word safe though, I've seen some riders filter in the daftest of places, and at speeds that would leave them with no get out of jail free card should something go wrong. I've also seen some drivers, deliberately move their cars over to stop me when filtering, and on one occasion got into a heated discussion with one driver, who caught up with me at traffic lights and told me he was going to report me because filtering was illegal (Uneducated Nob!). Personally, I think ride your own ride in a way that makes you happy, and don't worry about what other think or do.

I used to use the Tech 7 Enduro boots (Alpinestars) when I was off roading, they were 1st rate, loads of protection plus they were pretty comfortable to wear. I found I had to go up half a size for a perfect fit.

Have a good one

Never used deflectors and never had a problem? Maybe I've just been lucky .....

Shoei helmets fit the shape of my head perfectly. I find them to be well made and very comfortable. I currently have the Neotec and will probably get the same again when it comes to replacement, I quite like the flip front aspect. Your new helmet looks pretty good.

We have a good few of those things here now, and I agree with what you say, seem to be mainly on the estates. As Simon said, they were designed with input from the Emergency services, mainly the Ambulance service, so they could drive over them without bouncing patients about. They should be marked though, I sometimes wonder if local councils want to cause accidents.

This is quite an old page, but it appeared that MCN took up and addressed the issue? Although I have heard of it still happening since. https://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/2009/december/dec0809-mcn-ends-lost-licence-chaos/

Have a good day

Love the pics @Fiddlesticks, served out there for six months, cracking island, enjoy the rest of your trip.

CX500 isn't what you consider to be the ideal get away vehicle I had one myself years ago, first shaft driven bike I ever owned. I remember picking it up and riding it home, through Leicester, in the pouring rain. I came up against a traffic hold up near Welford Road prison, went down through the gears and locked the rear wheel ....... Nearly shit myself!! Learning lesson that shaft driven bikes can be pretty unforgiving. That said, I kept the bike for a few years, put nearly 40k miles on it, and it never missed a beat. Ridden year round in all weathers, and subjected to my own personal idea of what servicing should be

Riding defensively has saved me from a fair few accidents over the years. I've been riding bikes for a good few years now, both for fun and work, I rarely get angry or confront anyone now, I just swear inside my helmet and move on. I know we all like to blether on about bad car drivers, and yes, there are plenty out there, the driving standards are definitely taking a nose dive. However, I've seen some pretty horrendous riding standards on this rock, especially during TT, and have nearly been taken out on several occasions that spring to mind, by other motorcyclist riding like complete and utter t----t's.