S-Westerly

If you think £20 or more us expensive for ear protection then consider this - having abused my hearing for years I now require hearing aids which come in at a cool £ 3200 a pair. In my day we didn't know better and are now quite literally paying the price. What's your excuse?

Filtering generally is not illegal although it's more restrictive than in Mediterranean countries!

Bus lanes are usable BUT only when the blue sign clearly shows that motorbikes can use it. E.G. in London I believe most bus lanes are NOT usable by motorbikes whereas in Bristol most are but not all so you need to watch the signs. Cycle lanes can't be used by motorbikes.

I ride a Ducati and if nodded to I nod back. A while back I passed a HD club outing and by the time I'd passed about 50 bikes my head felt it was about ready to drop off. I find even BMW GS riders occasionally nod back. The only time I don't return a nod is if I'm rattling along and concentrating on my ride, then I might not even notice.

Well here's my first problem , I haven't even set off yet and I'm already too hot ! My biggest concern is getting stuck in traffic . There are no rads or fans on a Harley ! I'm going to pack some bottles of water to keep hydrated . I haven't planned a route yet but I'm definitely thinking M1 rather than M6 at least to get up level with Sheffield .

Suggest the A1 up as far as Scotch Corner then the A66 to Penrith and the M6. Alternatively stick in the A1 to the A68 junction near Darlington and take that road into Scotland. That's a good road to ride.

All well and good in principle, but 90% of theft is by organised crime, and most of the gangs/syndicates have corrupt officials in their pockets, so they will never get caught, or brought to account, complete and utter waste of time, more money wasted from the taxpayer

And what is the source of that rather sweeping statement? Corrupt officials where? At least people are trying to do something about the issue and given we are not allowed to discourage the bandits by killing them off what would you suggest people do?

As to being an insecure site it did not come up as such on my ISP.

Kriega rucksack with OEM panniers which require no scaffolding to attach and are the same width overall as the handlebars so no real difference filtering.

You are correct, I'd forgotten the other 3 mainly as they were all failures. Commercially there were 4 nuclear powered ships built. None of them was a commercial success due to a number of reasons not least cost. The one still working can hardly be classed as commercial as it's owned by a branch of the Russian government and being operated by their MOD in the Russian Arctic. She is also an ice class vessel. She cost US 265 million in 1988. A modern large tanker (310,000 tonnes) costs about 92 million today. All other nuclear powered ships are military so far as I know.

Currently in operation there are about 53,000 merchant ships in use and in 2017 they moved 10.7 Billion tonnes.

You'll find that most diesel electric powered ships don't have conventional propellers but instead use azipods and thrusters. As I said apart from cruise ships they are mainly found on small vessels like supply boats.

More like neck busted.

Most commercial ship's have diesel engines which use either diesel fuel as you would know it or HFO otherwise known as thick black sh1t.

Many newer cruise liners have diesel electric engines but they have different hull forms.

A few but increasing number of smaller ships are being fitted with LNG fuelled engines.

There has been exactly one nuclear powered cargo ship, called the Savannah. It was built in the 1960's and was a commercial failure as most countries banned it.

First off we don't discharge anything when more than 12 miles offshore mainly because if we do I personally get fined a huge amount of money and get sent to jail. Secondly just how would you propel 158000 tonnes with electric power? As it is the total daily fuel consumption for my ship is less than 40 tonnes per day. This is considered to be very low. The fuel I'm burning has a sulphur content of 3 per cent. In August we are getting an exhaust gas scrubber fitted which will prevent any crap getting into the atmosphere. From January 2st 2020 we will be using fuel which will be 0.1 percent. We dump no garbage into the sea except for food waste. In an average year we carry around a million tonnes of crude oil over about 60,000 miles. We are one of hundreds.

Tbh they should be stinging the cruise liners and oil tankers for the amount of shite they churn out.....

Bullsh*t. Oil tankers and the clue is in the name carry oil around the world from where it's found to where it's used. How far would your motorbike go without petrol? Where do you think it comes from? In terms of shite we churn out in terms of tonnes carried per mile it's very low. Also under international law by the end of this year all ship's will have to be fitted with exhaust gas scrubbers or burn fuel with less than 0.1 percent sulphur. These scrubbers cost over a million dollars a pop so require significant investment from owners.

The problem with deserts is they also get bloody big sandstorms which can be like getting sand blasted. Solar panels don't react to well to being sand blasted or buried under moving mountains of sand. Whether there's some technology that could prevent this I don't know.

Halifax was a marginally larger aircraft but could not carry as large a bombload as the Lancaster.

Split in May is well worth a visit and although it's not quite as pretty as Dubrovnik it's a lot cheaper and the old town is still pretty damned good. Can't speak about Ancona but personally I prefer northern Italy and would ride down through Slovenia with a possible side trip to Trieste.

Sounds like Theresa May.

The Ducati branded panniers for their bikes are mainly made by Givi so the quality is not that bad. £700 for a pair so not cheap either.

High horses I can get but "post turtles" is a new one on me. Please enlighten me so I can add it to my lexicon of insults!

A mate works for the refinery and he tells me that all the petrol is the same, just different additives. A road tanker has several internal tanks. The same petrol goes in them all whether it's destined for Shell, Esso, Asda, Tesco etc. The only difference is that the tanks contain additives specific to each brand.

So your big brands do contain more detergents for example, but so long as you fill up at a big brand every so often you can safely use supermarket petrol most of the time. I usually do one in four fill ups at a big brand just to get the better detergents in there from time to time.

What he said. Do be aware though that some suppliers use more bio fuels although I believe in the UK E10 is the max allowed. I only know my bike really does not like Jet petrol. I try and avoid using them.

Sadly I never did a course in Moreton but have done more than a few down at Warsash with Hampshire Fire Service. Got the blistered ear lobes to prove it.

Fire courses have always been ones where I feel I've learnt something new and technology and techniques are constantly evolving.

Although I don't totally agree with the old saying "those who can do; those who can't teach" there is an element of truth in it.

Errr....I used to be a Fire Service instructor, a gliding instructor and a ROSPA Associate Tutor .... and (despite my best efforts)... I'm still alive and (as far as I know) so are all of my pupils. So I must have been doing something right...

I did say that some I'd met along the way were pretty damned good and it wasn't me who coined the phrase. Professional trainers are often the better ones but in my industry some are a waste of space. For example some years ago I was required to attend a course mandated by the IMO to get a bit of paper. The instructor had never actually performed the operation he was 'teaching' whereas I had done over 70 by this time. What he was teaching was plain wrong and when challenged got a bit upset.

Some of my merry men have the delightful habit of sun-drying fish, usually close to the air conditioning intake. You have no idea how foul a dozen or so mackerel can smell after a few days in a hot sun

There's been a few courses I've walked out of rather than get into a slanging match with an instructor I've often felt sorry for on various counts. Although I don't totally agree with the old saying "those who can do; those who can't teach" there is an element of truth in it. Having said that I've also met with some brilliant teachers/instructors over the years to whom I remain grateful to this day.

To be fair to the OP he's not talking about that green slime rubbish but something somewhat different although the principle seems to be similar. Can't say I fancy it myself though. The Stop and Go kit sounds worthwhile though.

As I said disputatious. Helmets - I change them roughly every 4 years because after about 20000 miles it gets pretty rank even with a washable liner. Counter steering - is there any other way?

Chocolate Hob Nobs are still the best.

Horses for courses really. I'll filter and lane split if I feel it's safe and if it's going to save me enough time to make it worthwhile. When I can legally use bus lanes I do especially if the traffic is otherwise very slow.