Fiddlesticks

To clarify, that's special fragrant priestly oil, not Castrol Power 10W/40.

Tuesday and Wednesday we had blessed dry roads. What a treat to be able to put the bike away without cleaning a ton of crud off first.

Hi, welcome in. What are your expectations in terms of time and costs? You'll have 4 main steps to go through to be road legal: CBT (you may need a bit of experience first - taster sessions are available) Theory inc. Hazard Perception MOD 1 test (car park stuff) MOD 2 (on road stuff) Assuming you're upwards of 24 years old, that'll get you a full license. A bike school will get you through the steps but lessons will be required in addition. Also helmet, gloves, boots, jacket and trousers.

A similar thing has happened to the Explorer, the contacts have got gummed up. I'll take it all to bits tonight and give it a clean.

Happy birthday

Good point - my rule is never put the bike away mucky and/or wet. Even a hose down is a good start. Traffic Film Remover in a garden sprayer works wonders, snow foam is good too. Ebay do cheap and effective bike / pet driers.

Mrs Fiddlesticks drives a V60 Estate. She'll be pleased to hear it

Wow! Good job you weren't on the bike when that hit.

Happy birthday!

Am generally out in all weathers; one thing I would say is that a wet backside is no fun. Waterproof gear doesn't have to be crazy money - military surplus gore tex over trousers are around £30 and a waterproof bike overjacket is around £45. Other than that, waterproof boots, gloves, textiles, a down jacket for when it's really cold. All good investments. You can also get rain repellent for the visor, and worth carrying a little spray bottle of windowlene and a microfiber cloth. Have fun.

All well thought out points. And all appreciated. These things are quite often marginal and judgement calls made in the moment are best examined afterwards on a couple of levels. Not only the course of action taken, but attitude towards the other driver, impact and risk of it all not going to plan (in this case, no real danger of serious injury, but still... ), likelihood and benefit of it all working as intended. Also from the other angle. Submit, brake hard and skid, get rear-ended, drop the bike as the forks dive on a turn... Sometimes there are only least worst options. Still think my examiner would have probably given me a bollocking, but we'll never know.

True. Rewarding bad behaviour is something that goes against the grain.

Interesting little problem on the way home this evening. It involved a car driver trying to gun it onto a roundabout, trying to jump out in front of the person already on it (i.e. me). Happens all the time, and usually it's just a case of rolling off the throttle while the moron pushing his way out makes himself scarce. It's bad manners, particularly when done to a more vulnerable road user, but c'est la vie. Often it's just poor judgement or bad road skills. I tend to let it go without even sounding the horn. What would be the point? They know you're there, and they are in front of you by now anyway. Tonight, though, bit different. She'd seen me. Reflective vest, spot lights on, no question. She had decided to ram her way onto the roundabout, at speed, anyway. Yes, the approaching motorcyclist would be forced to brake pretty hard in the wet, but so what, the important factor was that extra two seconds on her journey. Quite frankly, I was irked. Not completely ticked off, but certainly somewhere beyond miffed. So, split second decision. Brake and wait, or ride on positively with no increase in speed, sound the horn and assume the priority that should have been yielded. I chose the latter, knowing that she knew I was there and wouldn't want the paperwork of running me over. She slammed on the brakes a little later than I expected, which I took to be thinking time, plus time to get her head around the fact that I wasn't about to be bullied off the road, plus braking time. I slowed, turned to look at her, shook my head and rode off. But now what's bothering me is this: On the one hand, I knowingly rode into danger. And that's bad. On the other hand, strong communication of intention to follow the rules of the road, and not to allow a more confused situation to develop. There's a fine line between recklessness and confidence. Thoughts?

Was quite impressed with a recent episode of Matt's Off Road Recovery where he made reference to getting grief for not torquing up bolts. "I do torque them up", he said, "I just don't use a torque wrench". One of his kids looked a bit skeptical, so tested his work with a torque wrench. It was spot on.

Mad weekend starting Thursday, Quiz night. Poker with the guys (Fri into early hours of Sat). Advanced bike test Sat (lol), a choice of either Sandrazer or Tony Wright live Sat PM, son's birthday Sun, off to see Dare & Blackballed in Holmfirth. Working from home Monday, which may or may not involve a little snooze at the desk.

Having blindly trusted a torque wrench in the past, I'm firmly of the view that if it feels too tight it probably is. Older threads (particularly if dirty) get micro-stresses in them which can "go" before the recommended torque setting. I bought a wire wheel for the bench grinder to clean up bolts which should help some.

North West England #1 - Aira Force High Force car park North West England #3- Dalemain Mansion & Historic Gardens North West England #5 - The Falls Coffee House & Bows & Arrows Gift Shop (with Hoggs bonus picture of actual falls). North West England #6 - The Gather North West England #9 - The Lakes Distillery North West England #14 - Woodbank Garden Centre & Nurseries North West England #15 - Yew Tree Farm, Heritage Meats

North East England #5 - Nosterfield Nature Reserve North East England #8 - Ripley Castle North East England #10 - The Station

Don't know about the flu jab, but if it's built on MRNA technology (à la Covid) I'd run a mile. So many sudden and unexpected deaths in my extended circle post jab, and that's before the women's issues, illnesses etc. Dr. Claire Craig, diagnostic pathologist and co-chair of the HART group is taking the ICO to court to get them to release the raw data on deaths by vaccination status so independent experts can review it.

More on the cattle grid. Brought spare undies though.

Hardknott Pass, two up. One off the bouquet list.

Hi, well done on the CBT, good to have you along.

I'd knock out the 500 and make it a two horse race between the Rebel 1100 (non-DCT: my preference) and the Harley. Definitely try them both. If it was my money I don't know which way I'd go. The Harley probably has more cool factor and a better sound. I'd be surprised if the Honda wasn't cheaper to buy/run/insure and Honda build quality (ie good). It's also quite a nice looking thing. I believe the Harley is belt driven, and the Honda is chain drive.

Doesn't it depend on what "build" means? If you start from scratch, it will be different to if you have a frame with a vin that you can send off to get the V5 for.

Not sure, but generally I think pyramid are well regarded for screens, fender extenders etc. I'm sure someone in the know will be along shortly.