Steve_M

Good afternoon. This morning had been quite productive with the fitting of the hand basin in the downstairs toilet room. I’m currently waiting for my good lady to return with a new toilet waste outlet so I can install the toilet. Oh happy days.

Good point, well made.

It’s an oldie but a goody. There’s the issue of finding extra resources from a finite pool of skills. Then there’s the mythical man month

From my work days, I’m sure many here will understand…

Hey, they’ve paid to have them installed now they’re justifying that expense.

On my ride back from Glasgow yesterday I notice the many electronic signs with various road safety messages on. Typically “ Have you had your eyesight checked” ”Tiredness kills. Take a break” (just before a service area!). ”Wear a seat belt - it’s the law” ”Soft tyres use more fuel” ”Child seats must be of an approved standard” ”Watch your distance” ”Watch your speed” etc. The one that I really was hoping would make an appearance would be something along the lines of “move to the near side lane you wazzok”… Seriously, why do people drive in the middle lane at 62.3mph (ok, I made that up, but you know what I mean) for mikes with no chance of overtaking the only vehicle on the inside lane that’s a mile down the road?

I did a few assessments of new associates to the IAM and you can tell pretty quickly if they’re doing their normal ride or not. It usually shows in inconsistency in dealing with hazards. A quick word to explain that it’s better if they do their normal ride (bearing in mind speed limits… ) to give a baseline.

I got around 8,000 miles off my Road Pilot 5 Trails on the GS. That included a lot of motorway/autoroute (2 up, fully loaded) use and a day on track at Cadwell Park. Now onto the Pilot 6’s.., I’ll be pleased if they do as well (though no track work this year).

I took a little trip up to see a couple of the grandchildren. I had to use some motorway but found some non-motorway roads for added fun.

A guy I know used to take a Honda Vigor on track days. Now that’s brave / foolish.

Went for a little bimble around the southern bit of Dumfries and Galloway. I knocked out a variety of routes on MRA, last night and chose the D&G option once on the bike. With hindsight I may modify it to avoid some of the towns for future use. I took a diversion from my satnav route when I hit the A75 to Newton Stewart. I really couldn’t face it, so crossed over and found a section of the National Scenic route which is a single track road across moors and through mixed forest. Most pleasant, with some good scenery. The screen shot is of my actual route, not my designed route.

I have a Stihl battery powered leaf blower which I use… Obviously that wasn’t the reason I gave my good lady for buying it… blowing leaves off the drive…

Incidentally, a few years ago I attended a talk by Simon Yates - you’ll know who he is if you’ve read the book or watched the film. Only towards the end of the talk did he, light heartedly, refer to Joe Simpson as “the accident prone guy”. Seems fair enough description having read other Joe Simpson books…

Not a humorous book, but another vote for Joe Simpson’s book, Touching the Void. On a lighter note, Tony Hawks’ book, Around Ireland with a Fridge gets a vote as does Dave Gorman’s Googlewhack.

A visit to that area has been on my wish list ever since we moved up to Cumbria. Hopefully I’ll get around to it sooner rathe4 than later, though I’m not sure when, being a bit busy working on the house.

Ah, that’ll teach me to read the post correctly. I would always expect my insurer to deal with the claim, not a third party unless my insurer had advised me they were outsourcing the claims handling. In writing.

Churchill are your insurers and it’s their responsibility to deal with the claim. Stay away from anyone else claiming to be a claims handler.

There speaks the voice of experience. I concur.

Good afternoon. Today I will be mostly laying OSB floorboards. My knees, thighs and back are going to be most uncomfortable tomorrow, when the OSB laying continues. At least I got out for a quick ride yesterday.

People who drive down a motorway slip road at 40mph then wonder why they can’t merge with the traffic. Plus. Politically manufactured “Culture wars” from extreme political stances of all colours.

My frequently used kit is kept in cupboard in the utility room. Miscellaneous old bits of kit and security stuff are kept in a cupboard in the barn / workshop where the bike is kept. The cupboard is actually two kitchen units stacked one above the other - we have a low ceiling in the utility room so it’s the only way we could fit something of that nature in.

I think you’ll find that the GS is quite tech heavy with its ride modes and ESA. I get your point that new technology needs familiarisation (I may have noticed this rolling out new software while working in IT for 30 years) but if it’s to be adopted as a popular feature than it really needs to be reasonably intuitive to use. Or, at least, the basic features should be. The likelihood is that any of the esoteric features (and this applies to most software) will rarely be used… even if the manual is avidly devoured by the end user.

I still haven’t read the manual for my GS, and I’ve owned that over four years now. My brief experience of DCT on an X-ADV (interesting little bike) and a Crosstourer (disappointing with conventional gearbox) was that, left to it’s own devices, the gear changes didn’t always take place where I would expect them to happen, but easily dealt with by manually overriding. This was, though, about five years ago and I understand the system has been refined.

Out for a ride yesterday I took a little side turning as I went over Langholm Moor, deciding to follow it and then let the satnav show me the way out. oops.

22nd July, CJ Ball will be giving people chance to try out bikes with DCT. Here’s a chance to see what bikes with DCT are like to ride. Also an opportunity to ride bikes that you would normally not consider. EG. I’ve ridden an X-ADV and a CTX1300 on previous CJ Ball events.