Fiddlesticks

I'm reminded of the old joke about the man who was driven nuts by the dog barking in his neighbour's yard. "So what you going to do about it?" asked his wife, fed up with his constant complaining. "I'm going to go out there," said the man, "get that dog, and put it in my own garden. Then we'll see how he likes it."

Welcome back

Saw one brought down by a kid with a bow and arrow once after it was annoying the whole campsite. Gave us all a good chuckle.

The only legal requirement is to wear a helmet.* There's a case to be made for "reasonable adjustments". The question is as to what is reasonable, given there is a safety consideration, and there are other alternatives available. If you speak to the bike school they will have their own view on that, possibly informed by their insurance position etc. *Interestingly, if you were a follower of the Sikh religion, there is even an exemption in law from mandatory helmet wearing.

Have you seen the bootlift products? https://bootlift.store/

You can get bike trainers, but they're more like basketball boots. At least they're soft around the high tops and adjustable.

You'd have no idea that oil is a multi billion dollar business.

Had a nice bike day today. Out doing an observed ride on the Explorer first thing. Off to a local music festival for the afternoon on the Thunderbird. Met the local bike club and got an invite to their annual rally. Back home via the Tap at Eastham. Out to a friend's 60th this evening on the XJR. Still can't quite believe I wandered into a showroom and bought that days after passing my MOD2, much less that they sold it to me! It really is just a little bit nuts. But I'd forgotten just how much I love it. So much power, torque, character and, erm, noise (apologies to the neighbours, we were late getting home).

For the first time ever tonight I was asked to remove my helmet before fueling. It has a flip front too - not good enough, apparently. Felt sorry for the lad on the till - he'd had a few bikers ride off without paying.

Unless I was due to walk my daughter down the isle, this would be the perfect gig for me. Being stuck on a ship on the other side of the world due to an incompetent HR department is a pretty unbeatable excuse when most of us can only muster a bad case of Man Flu.

Medication probably not the best plan, although a few whiskeys have been known to calm the nerves and make you feel as if you can do anything. Seriously, though, get enough time on the bike with a good instructor, and it'll very quickly become second nature. There's nothing insurmountable about learning to ride (so no need to consider Option 4), it's just that there's a bit of a learning curve - and everybody learns at their own pace. If you were slightly nervous, I'd be just getting you to do simple manoeuvres - starting, slowish riding in a straight line, stopping under control, simple circuits in the car park. (I once made my instructor sit through me doing an hour of U-Turns as I wanted to get them right). Point being - the repetition will build familiarity with the machine, and therefore confidence. Sometimes, I think, time pressures and the fact that there's a whole bunch of people to get through the sausage machine as quickly as possible means that some don't get the help they need (and have paid for). What's a 1:1 session cost for a couple of hours? That's probably all that's needed to get things back on track.

Hi, keep us posted. Lots of helpful folk on here.

I've been checking and it doesn't seem to have done it since. Maybe just the hot weather. Cleaning out the air box is a tank off jobbie. One for a rainy Saturday.

Ye, I did the same on mine with the figure of eight. Maddening.

... And space