S-Westerly

Every single driver this morning who doesn't realise:

 

2. If they have day time running lights it doesn't illuminate the rear lights of their vehicle
   
4. If they have automatic lights and they are set to 'auto' then in foggy conditions the lights are actually unlikely to turn on at all
   
6. Driving a white or grey car does not automatically confer you with mythical status in fog, just because you blend in with your lights off like you're a cloaked Klingon destroyer it doesn't actually make your car invincible, and you are not a Klingon Warrior
   

 

TURN YOUR LIGHTS ON IN FOG.

I thank you. Qapla!

Superb and oh so accurate rant.

The whole issue is being dealt with backwards. The knife itself is being criminalised as the issue but the issue is why people want to carry a weapon and attack each other. None of the toughening of knife laws has had any impact on the amount of violent crime. It's typical lazy politics; what's can we do to make it look like we are taking action without putting any effort in.

If you could get rid of all the knives tomorrow people would simply use any other easily obtainable tools as weapons , hammers, screwdrivers, wrecking bars, chisels, whatever.

Blah blah biscuits.

 

Labor could fix it though with their anti stab knives

Then next year they could make knives anti cut as well

 

I have an anti stab knife - I keep it in my sailing kit in case I ever capsize and get tangled in the rigging. It will slice through pretty much anything as it's very sharp but you don't want to stab yourself when cutting rigging off you so the end is anti-stab. Most knives don't really need a pointed blade for most things they are used for anyway.

My sailing knife has no sharp point but a wickedly sharp serrated blade for cutting ropes at which it is excellent. Having taken a slice off my thumb with it I can also state with some confidence that it will slice flesh as well. It also has on the back of the knife a rather sharp and locking marlin spike which I think would stab nicely. No doubt this is also an illegal weapon.

@Fleck I think as @MikeHorton says the locking part makes it illegal regardless of blade length.

I carry often a ‘My First Opinel’ in my bag to use at lunch time because it is quite possibly the most inoffensive knife ever made-

58FBD4E4-D74A-491B-AFE0-08AEAA30A7DB.jpeg

Perhaps a multi tool would be a wiser choice for the bike, I don’t intend on carrying it on my person but in the bikes seat hump.

I don’t fancy falling foul of whatever arse decided to prosecute this guy, a warning should have been plenty!

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7593039/Disabled-caravanner-given-criminal-record-for-penknife-in-car.html

This is insane. You can still buy Swiss Army knives so HTF can they be illegal? If you try and stab someone you'd probably slice your fingers off as they don't lock and fold.too easily. I've been carrying a pocket knife since I was 8 years old when my granda have me one. Don't even think about it but did lose one at an airport when I'd forgotten I had it in my pocket. I have knives for sailing, fishing, Leatherman for general use and a few handmade blades.which are just nice to look at. Usual gov't nanny state and using sledge hammer to crack a nut.

Who sticks cocktail sticks in a monkeys eye, do you live in Middlesbrough

Ohhh sorry they just hang them.

Oooh someone likes poking sticks into wasp's nests! To be fair it's Hartlepool which is home to the notorious monkey hangers. Always good for a windup of the locals when I lived in Co. Durham especially at rugby matches. More than a few black eyes and bloody noses from it.

When I was at uni, for a few years I lived a few doors down from a guy who owned a Lexus. Parked it on his drive. But hated anyone parking on the road outside his house. He'd come out of the house, saying "could you not park there please". No idea why, it's not like he had a steady stream of visitors. Maybe he just loved the view of the house opposite.

This morning I filtered back into stationary traffic five cars back from a roundabout, and had one of those drivers who gets ridiculously hurt about it. Lexus driver. Attempted to make love to my left leg all the way up to the roundabout, then was clearly itching to undercut me as we both went left.

And it got me thinking.

I've never met a Lexus driver (on the road or personally) who doesn't have a massive chip on their shoulder.

Is it because they have aspirations of owning a premium car, and the budget premium is as good as they could get?

I'm a reasonable chap so I'm sure there are some good Lexus owners out there... has anyone ever met them? Does anyone here own one and know that they are a good person?

I have to admit my wife's car is a Lexus and the one before was a BMW and the one before that a Volvo. So far as I know she is a good person and definitely has no horns, tail or cloven hooves. Her only pet hate vehicle wise is Nissan Micras and she does get grumpy with cyclists who slow her down. She rarely drives in Bath.

 

Oh I wouldn't slow her down. I passed 2 miles of stationary traffic to get to work today.

That was a good day for the car drivers, usually it's just over four miles

That's exactly why we tend to park at Landsdown Park and Ride and take the bus in and walk a lot. So much less aggravation.

When I was at uni, for a few years I lived a few doors down from a guy who owned a Lexus. Parked it on his drive. But hated anyone parking on the road outside his house. He'd come out of the house, saying "could you not park there please". No idea why, it's not like he had a steady stream of visitors. Maybe he just loved the view of the house opposite.

This morning I filtered back into stationary traffic five cars back from a roundabout, and had one of those drivers who gets ridiculously hurt about it. Lexus driver. Attempted to make love to my left leg all the way up to the roundabout, then was clearly itching to undercut me as we both went left.

And it got me thinking.

I've never met a Lexus driver (on the road or personally) who doesn't have a massive chip on their shoulder.

Is it because they have aspirations of owning a premium car, and the budget premium is as good as they could get?

I'm a reasonable chap so I'm sure there are some good Lexus owners out there... has anyone ever met them? Does anyone here own one and know that they are a good person?

I have to admit my wife's car is a Lexus and the one before was a BMW and the one before that a Volvo. So far as I know she is a good person and definitely has no horns, tail or cloven hooves. Her only pet hate vehicle wise is Nissan Micras and she does get grumpy with cyclists who slow her down. She rarely drives in Bath.

Finally got out over the weekend and ended up doing almost 300 miles. Great fun. On the way home from South coast the main road to Marlborough was closed just north of Tidworth. Asked duty cop which was shortest way to get round blockage and after a quick glance at the bike he said use the tank road until intersects with next proper road. Tank road was interesting - 2 miles of gravel, mud, potholes and water. Also tanks going the opposite way. (APC's actually). Got to the road covered in chalky glop. Took quite a lot of cleaning when I got home.

 

Do you think he was a biker then and next time are you going to ask for the smoothest route

I think he might have been, also with my bike being (ahem) an "adventure" bike he may have thought I'd be up for it and to be honest it was fun although given one pothole had a barely visible large tyre submerged in it I was spending a lot of time slowly weaving between the numerous bottomless pits rather than razzing it up.

Finally got out over the weekend and ended up doing almost 300 miles. Great fun. On the way home from South coast the main road to Marlborough was closed just north of Tidworth. Asked duty cop which was shortest way to get round blockage and after a quick glance at the bike he said use the tank road until intersects with next proper road. Tank road was interesting - 2 miles of gravel, mud, potholes and water. Also tanks going the opposite way. (APC's actually). Got to the road covered in chalky glop. Took quite a lot of cleaning when I got home.

On the way out to join a ship i buy every bike mag i can lay hands on and then read them at my leisure. Usually a few of the guys on board are also bikers so they get passed around. Other than that I have an e-subscription to Bike which I can download when I'm away but that's my lot.

English as a language is an amalgam of many foreign words. We will hijack any useful foreign word if we don't have an equivalent, such as schadenfreude or glasnost or entrepreneur. We have no institution like the French language society who's sole aim is to preserve the French language.

 

Thank god. We also get to have endless arguments with Americans over how words should be spelt. We of course are correct and they get quite upset when you tell them they don't speak English.

 

Except that a lot of American usage is really closer to the original English than our own modern usage. Languages change and evolve but the Americans seem to have got stuck in a bit of a time warp with some words. Their version is sometimes more 'English' than English.

 

This is true and apparently it is particularly close to 17th century Estuary English which is depressing. Also if you've ever read any English documents from that date, consistency in spelling would not seem to have been one of our ancestors' strong points.

Current business speak that gets my goat:

"Reach out"

As in "thanks for reaching out"

Management speak - who in God's good name invents this stuff? Our current enraging phrase is " meeting our customer's satisfaction quotient". WTF is that supposed to mean? Bearing in mind I'm on a sodding oil tanker shifting about 150,000 tonnes of thick black shit around the world how am I supposed to keep a customer satisfied?

English as a language is an amalgam of many foreign words. We will hijack any useful foreign word if we don't have an equivalent, such as schadenfreude or glasnost or entrepreneur. We have no institution like the French language society who's sole aim is to preserve the French language.

Thank god. We also get to have endless arguments with Americans over how words should be spelt. We of course are correct and they get quite upset when you tell them they don't speak English.

As long as they adhere to my points above you can use any mechanic and not void your warranty.

Obviously Yamaha is different from Ducati. Only an approved Ducati service centre (dealer) can do any servicing while the bike is under warranty. Since both the OP and yourself are both Yamaha riders I'll bow to your superior knowledge.

 

Pretty sure the law states that you can use whoever you want providing they are a VAT registered business and you use genuine parts

@Joeman is the guy for this sort of thing

Interesting, I must read the fine print on my warranty as I rather gave up when it started in with all the ways in which it can be voided. There is supposed to be a guy near me who is a wizard with Italian bikes and cheaper than the dealer. Could be a winner.

A pure Chinese bike will rot away and sadly won't last.

@S-Westerly

You have owned some Chinese bikes

No I haven't, because I'd prefer to spend my money elsewhere. However I have had to put up with Chinese built ships, tools, safety equipment and other stuff. It has all been quantifiably worse than the same stuff made in Europe, Japan, South Korea or the USA. Cheaper yes, but crap to use. That's my opinion and I'm not pushing it on you. However I will never buy a Chinese bike myself. End of.

As long as they adhere to my points above you can use any mechanic and not void your warranty.

Obviously Yamaha is different from Ducati. Only an approved Ducati service centre (dealer) can do any servicing while the bike is under warranty. Since both the OP and yourself are both Yamaha riders I'll bow to your superior knowledge.

Many years ago the cry was "don't buy a Jap bike". Time moves on and Jap bikes are as good as any and better than most. Unfortunately Chinese made and branded products are still in the phase of being not very good in general. Things made in China but to western standards can be good eg. Hilts bikes etc. A pure Chinese bike will rot away and sadly won't last. Read reviews and make your own choice. For what it's worth I have an Italian bike and thoroughly enjoy it despite many nay-sayers.

Haven't had the service yet.

Generally speaking while the bike is under warranty you need to have it serviced by an authorised dealer. Getting it done by anyone else will almost certainly void the warranty. Once the bike is out of warranty then you can do whatever. I believe this also applies to those clever fellows who can do their own bike maintenance. I can't but my son in law can so once my warranty period is over I won't be using my dealer, probably.

Visors are bloody expensive to say the least, heavy rain, not a problem just turn your head to one side and another to keep it clear, but when the rain has stopped and the roads are throwing up crud there are not many options but to stop and clean without actually trashing your visor, l would sooner stop and give it a good clean, l carry a muck off visor clean kit it comes with a microfiber cloth, nothing worse than not being able to see where your going or a scratch visor.

Tell me about it. £70 for a spare visor for a Schubert which I'm keeping for better weather. Meanwhile using my other lid which although a less good helmet seems less prone to scratching.

It's a real place, never saw a fairy but when I was there had an excellent inn with a very good restaurant. Made up for the lack of fairies.

Been there, done that. Definitely worth doing. Great B&Bs all round south Australia

Ditto. Absolutely worth doing. Port Fairy is a nice place to stay on the way.

I have seen rechargeable battery heated clothing for bikes. What about a heated scarf or something like that to wrap the food in?

I know the road you ride, have ridden it a few times myself visiting relatives in NI.

Yes and most of it is average speed checked as well making whizzing a bit problematic.

With due respect

Oh yes, and usually meaning no respect whatsoever. Although I have to say that I have used the expression myself especially when talking to senior management.

"Obviously" when said in a certain patronising tone as part of an answer to a question. If it was bloody obvious I wouldn't have asked the question would I?

Also the phrase "at this moment in time" so beloved of politicians. In fact if I think about it every word uttered by any politician is usually over used, distorted and seems to be the exact opposite of the dictionary definition.

I recognise your work, is this one of yours too

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Not another one from the Guardian?

I'm with MCE at the moment but have not made a claim (hopefully won't) and they were cheaper for me last year as a born again biker. They were half the price of Bikesure. I'll be interested to see what there renewal quote comes in at.