Steve_M

Glorious sunshine here now.

I can only apologise. Our fault entirely that the hot weather has come to an end across the UK. It was so warm we put up the sun shade on the garden. It happened last year, too.

I’m a Brummy, moved to Aldridge when I was 17, served my apprenticeship at Aluminium Bronze Co on Wallows Lane, Bescot, over the road from the old Saddlers football ground. I have many happy memories of my late teens in Walsall, particularly the “Bier Keller” at the Dirty Duck.

My mum used to have a blue badge. My daughter often gave her a lift into Walsall, parking in a disabled spot on the hill where the market is (was?). My daughter used to get flack occasionally as she’s patently not disabled and her car was a Merc SL - not your typical car for disabled people. My mum would arrive, hobbling along with the aid of two sticks, and make it very clear that the complainers were way off the mark. PS. My mum’s now 95, and fighting fit. She’s had operations to deal with the walking issues and has given up her blue badge.

Keep it if the harness works for you both. Or, if you want to try without, wean him off it by, initially, getting him to hold on to the bike’s grab handle with one hand while holding on to the harness with his other. Keep this until you’re both confident it’s working for you. I suggest this from experience: My first “date” with my good lady was her riding pillion with me. I advised her to hold onto the bike with one hand, and me with the other, a system that we kept to for some while (she now barely holds on - she’s the photographer on the back when we’re touring so needs to hold the camera).

Congratulations @Fozzie and Mrs Fozzie.

I was hoping it was one of those. My lad always held on to the bike’s grab handles so he could sit up and see what was going on. He soon learned to read the road and brace accordingly to whether I was about to brake or accelerate as required.

I took my son pillion from age 9, we did many thousands of miles on Sunday rides, attending BSB and WSB races, bike meets and shows. I took additional training to make us as safe as possible and ride smoothly. I don’t recall too many negative reactions: That said, I was usually too busy concentrating on my own riding to notice; knowing my son, he would either waved, given a thumbs up, or similar. Without knowing what you mean by harness, my assumption is something that attaches your son to the bike. If that’s the case, like V650 said, I would lose it. Being attached to 200kg+ bike would be really dangerous in the event of a spill even at low speed. Or do you mean a set of grab handles that attach to you?

It was their equipment. I tried to sneak the idea of a trials bike past my good lady to use in our field. Not a good idea, apparently. PS. I was 63 when I did this…

It was with TrailRideWales, who know the area well and led us along some fine routes. I did enjoy it. ”use it or lose it”… I like your thinking, though I am finding that it takes me much longer to recover now.

I’m going through my Gmail emails, deleting stuff to free up Google cloud storage. I stumbled across an email with images of me trail riding from 9 years ago. Damn, that was fun. Now wondering if this old body could manage it again.

We’ve pottered around the alps several times in September, and will be heading that way again at the same time this year. You’re spot on about the ski resorts - they’re like ghost towns at that time; I recall stopping for coffee and cake in Val d’Isere and the only people we saw were some Brummie builders working nearby. However, accommodation is generally easy to find, even for someone as selective as my good lady, and there are always plenty of cafes and boulengeries even in small towns and villages. Waterprrofs are essential - it’s bound to rain if you don’t carry them.

In the day I used to,commute all year on the bike I had a one piece boil in the bag oversuit. it was fine for commuting 30 minutes. Now I don’t commute this has been replaced by Berghaus walking trousers which have a zip down the full length of each leg which makes them easy to put on and remove. Combined with a waterproof over jacket from Infinity motorcycles. This works well for touring duties in those circumstances where weather can change quickly.

Because they’d discover just how slow they are, and how quickly they’d get black flagged riding like idiots?

This?