S-Westerly

I think it's all down to the fact everyone is different - different head shapes, different ear canals and different helmets just for starters. Eg. I can't use any kind of in-ear head phones as the shape of my ear canals means they just call out. Some folks can actually exercise in them

Park and ride ones are usually ok but for any other kind of bus I'm in full agreement. Slow, smelly, and often late. Haven't ridden one in years.

You wouldn't have to adjust the headlight as Japan drives on the same side of the road as us.

Personally I much prefer ferries to the tunnel. Mainly cos I don't particularly like North West France so like to take a ferry to Normandy or Brittany from Portsmouth (have family there). You're then straight into some nice (to me) parts of France and can get interesting routes if you are going further East or South.

Dream on for that. My wife fancied one and put down the refundable £1000 deposit more than 2 years ago. She cancelled the order last year as the earliest RHD version was not expected until next year. Since then I've heard it may never happen and the price is rising to north of 45k if you have the battery extended range pack. As a "by the way" we did get to drive a Model S and it was pretty awesome and I personally quite like the shape. I like an internal combustion engine in a bike but to me a car is just a tool so I don't really care what is under the bonnet hence all our cars have been my wife's and I've long since given up on trying to work out the reason she chooses the cars she has.

Look like we are in the same business, I am on deck (chief mate), but if u are engineer probably ur hearing was damaged there, or , I remember working on the petrol tankers in the cargo room just on top of the cargo pumps, few years there and ur hearing is affected. About hearing protection on the motorbike I do agree, but don’t know if can be affected if u have original exhaust and ih u are riding from time to time 1 or 2 hours. Maybe people who are on the bike every day for few hours and got akra os similar without silencers. But maybe I am wrong, should consult someone who knows more than me/us Any doctor here? Yes I'm in the same business. Old Man on Suezmax tankers. A few years ago there was a report that the low frequency vibrations on low speed marine diesels which are continuous so long as the M/E is running will negatively affect your hearing regardless of where you are working on the ship. Given my average voyage length berth to berth is 40 days that's a lot of exposure. This is thought to be the prime cause of my hearing loss although it can't be proved. It's also why the MCA are pushing hearing as part of the ENG1 in older seamen.

Yes the whole thing was an unpleasant new surprise. I got the hearing aids privately as with my job the whole nhs thing takes too long. I'm not around long enough to go through the process and yes the tinnitus makes the audio test interesting. On a plus the aids have Bluetooth so I can run my phone through them etc.

Anyone dunking hob nobs in good coffee should be condemned to filtering the.North Circular on a.Gold Wing.

There are worse things than hearing loss. Tinnitus... Which in my case is so bad at times that people think I am hard of hearing. It's not that.. For me it's the constant "white noise/hissing/low grade whistling" sound I have constantly. No history of this in my family, the audiologist blamed the bike/helmet/wind noise over 20 years before earplugs/defenders were a thing. I now wear them every ride so that it doesn't get any worse than it is. I'm ok with it, but for some people it's intolerable to the point of depression/suicide. Yeah, I can agree with that, I've had tinnitus since 2003 and there is sod all you can do about apparently.

Sadly no, although the Shoei Neotec 2 is supposed to be pretty good in that respect.

Only if they actively protect your hearing from the noise associated with biking. A good helmet design which minimises wind noise is a positive.

This has probably been covered in a previous post but for any riders younger than me (most I guess) - protect your ears. If you are not already using earplugs invest in some good ones and start using them asap. I never bothered until about 10 years ago and recently I discovered that I had serious hearing loss in one ear and moderate loss in the other. In order to pass my medical needed for my job I need to use hearing aids. Over £3000 for a set. Apparently this loss is not primarily caused by biking but is caused by a range of things of which my job is the worst offender. (Constant low frequency vibrations). However biking with unprotected ears is a major contributor. Protect your ears!

Learnt to ride a bike on the CB250N and yes with hindsight it was a maggot's toenail. At the time (1978) though I thought it was great. Learnt to drive in my Dad's Citroen DS and that was an awesomely weird car to drive.

If it's a laurel they grow like bloody weeds. My son had an annoying one in the middle of his garden so we cut it back to about a metre high. Within the year it had doubled in size. My wife stepped in and killed it as a menace to horticulture. She takes gardens very seriously and considers laurels as the botanical version of Attila the Hun.

Of course. I was being super good and grinning when the camera flashed.

The Disco that got upset by me filtering at a roundabout then stormed past me at about 60 mph in a 40 mph then stayed at 55 through a long straight stretch of NSL. Needless to say I did politely overtake on that straight. Did I mention the 40mph stretch has an active speed camera on it?

Did this quiz and it seemed quite accurate. Spent most of my childhood in either North Wales, Canada it Northumberland. Many of my family are from Northumberland and so is my wife. The results had me firmly pegged in Northumberland or North Wales. Of course now I live in Gloucestershire so I'm having to learn a whole new language and these southern vowels are killing me.

Don't know of any near Reading but if anyone else does I'd ride over to give 'em a go. All the ones round here are filled with potholes, hedge cuttings, mud, and general debris. Keeps you on your toes.

What kind of warranty have you got? All the problems that you list should be under warranty. Talk to your dealer as you would seem to have some grounds for complaint. See what they offer before getting all legal beagle with them.

I lose the will to live in IKEA.

On the car I use cruise control really only in average speed checked areas unless I am driving in the wee hours on empty roads. In any kind of traffic I hate it. On the bike for the kind of riding I prefer there really is no need for it.

Is there one with sleep mode too? Yes, you just get a bike with cruise control. More a power nap than a sleep mind. Cruise control is one of those things I'm a bit ambivalent about. Even on motorway rides I am constantly adjusting the throttle and on the whole I don't do great deal of motorway riding anyway. On the other hand cruise control might help protect my license. More than once when I've been stuck behind traffic in lane 3 I've gone for a quick overtake as soon as I could then glanced down at the speedo and found myself doing a licence losing speed.

No, but filtering or simply being around loads of cars,vans, trucks and buses in darkness people are less likely to notice me as a bike. I'd rather spend a few months commuting by car than be stopped from riding bikes for the rest of my life as some driver squished me cause they simply thought I was a car that was further away... Just gotta adapt your riding style but fair enough your choice So you got a riding style then?

My wife had a Windows phone and loved it. She was really upset when they stopped but she went to Apple I've got a Motorola G6 and it.does everything I want. Solid bit of kit.

I stand suitably chastened. I'll have to grovel and abase myself before my mate's stupendous, mighty machine of awesomeness. As per the video they would appear to be capable of turning a corner. Like me my mate drives supertankers for a living so he'll probably feel right at home on the back of this 2 wheeled sumo wrestler of a bike.