S-Westerly

Like Throttled I had a place at uni to do law. I went for a soldier instead but for various reasons ended up going away to sea. Been doing that for 40 years and to be honest I can't think of anything I'd rather do. It pays well enough and I only have to work for half the year. Not as good as it was though with 'dry' ships and ever increasing BS paperwork and ever decreasing opportunities to go ashore in the various countries I visit.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

@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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Not another one from the Guardian?