S-Westerly

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.

That is exactly what I think. They are MASSIVE. Once my mate has his I may be less in awe of its all round mightiness. Could be fun though. Somehow given its equally massive price tag I doubt he'll be letting me have a thrash on it. Whilst trying to blag a turn replace the word thrash with tootle Kind of big for a tootle. Speaking of turn- what if you have to do a u-turn?! Think I'd have a turn and probably for the worse.

That is exactly what I think. They are MASSIVE. Once my mate has his I may be less in awe of its all round mightiness. Could be fun though. Somehow given its equally massive price tag I doubt he'll be letting me have a thrash on it.

Armed guards became the thing in 2011 when various authorities agreed it would be a good thing. Like all such things in the early days we had very experienced ex British forces guys. Also very expensive. Then a bunch of cheap cowboy outfits turned up (cue the vids mentioned earlier). My company never used them but have gone for cheaper options of ex gurkas. Depending on where we are going we pick them up / drop off either off Muscat, Djibouti or Sri Lanka. As to the razor wife that was my auto spell check having a fit and me not seeing it. Oops. I guessed but I think a boat protected by razor wives would work well Would certainly scare me off and I suspect Mrs. S-Westerly would qualify with minimal training.

Think I’ll avoid watching that. Sorry know this is off topic but when did they start carrying armed guards? Also how do you apply for a job as razor wife? I think I might have the necessary qualities It could be my “If I could start again.....” Armed guards became the thing in 2011 when various authorities agreed it would be a good thing. Like all such things in the early days we had very experienced ex British forces guys. Also very expensive. Then a bunch of cheap cowboy outfits turned up (cue the vids mentioned earlier). My company never used them but have gone for cheaper options of ex gurkas. Depending on where we are going we pick them up / drop off either off Muscat, Djibouti or Sri Lanka. As to the razor wife that was my auto spell check having a fit and me not seeing it. Oops.

My mate is coming back to biking after about 20 years of expensive cars instead. This could be considered a plus. However the 'bike' he has actually bought? A sodding Honda Gold Wing no less It's a bus with 2 wheels! We should have some interesting ride outs at least although small country lanes may be a challenge.

No, we do have a double barrier of razor wife and strategically located spikes about 1.5 metres long. Since ships started carrying armed guards there has not been a single successful Somali pirates attack. Most sensible teams fire warning shots only. There are some fairly horrible vids on YouTube of somewhat gungho characters blasting away like dambusters (Russian and American ironically).

You sure you weren't in the 'Navy' queue? Nope I spent 6 months learning how to shoot people. Never needed that particular skill set since although may have been tempted when Somali pirates were being a nuisance.