Fiddlesticks

Same. I'm planning on doing it the night before.

To some extent you can get around this with height increasing boots, or even these weird contraptions. But I'd agree with the above and try and find a school who can have smaller bikes available. Either that or buy the bike you want and have it delivered to the school.

Not that we saw, but it was a first for us. We did used to know the guy who put on the food with the scouts. It was a good fundraiser for them.

Agree with that. I don't tend to go for a neck buff unless it's freezing cold, but find the skullcap helps as much as the earplugs. Just taken the Tiger in to get the throttle bodies adjusted. They lent me a Scrambler 1200 while the job was being done. That was a noisy ride home.

Comfort pillion seat fitted to the Thunderbird. Much wider than the old one, but Mrs Fiddlesticks wishes it be known that it was bought for its depth, not its width. Went for a test ride to the bike night at Lydiate. Good turnout, including a few who thought doing two-up wheelies at speed down the road was a good idea. Takes all sorts to make a perfect world, my gran used to say. Well, the seat received a glowing report. And 9 days for a 24 hour delivery is not too bad, by Evri's standards. Alls well etc...

Evri. Ten days to deliver a 24hr package. At least it got here.

Congrats

So I got a couple of responses from Freeads for the XJR. The first from "Louise": Hi, are you the first owner, which day can I view it? (Did she not read the description?) Then "Martha" in the middle of the night: Hey, when can I view it? Thanks It seems that I'm single-handedly responsible for the upward trend in female bikers. Not sure quite what the crack is here. Anyone care to enlighten me?

That one is pretty good - and it fits in my tank bag.

Hi

I've got the Eco | 2023 Smart Portable Tyre Inflator from Amazon and agree about the screw fitting. There's maybe an adapter you can get, haven't looked into it.

Awww! She stuck a Triumph sticker on your dinosaur hat.

Taxed the Explorer. £111 for the year. Question at the end - Satisfaction survey: Overall, how did you feel about the service you received today? Answer: Very dissatisfied. How could we improve this service? Answer: Dispense with vehicle taxation altogether, thus obviating the need for a complex system of control that flies in the face of the libertarian principles of natural property rights and the principle of non-aggression. No promises, but I'm hopeful they'll take it on board and we'll all be a bit better off next year.

Whenever someone suggests throwing more people at a project to get it delivered faster, we tell them you can't get nine women to have a baby in one month.

Next up, "Don't run with scissors"

Day two. Same time, same place. This was something organised by the local agencies to compliment Bikesafe - the opportunity for a one-to-one ride with a Rospa or IAM qualified observer. First, though, a session on first aid. How to deliver CPR, when and how to remove a helmet, a defibrillator demonstration, stemming bleeds and more. After collecting some freebies, it was time to be introduced to our trainer for the ride out. He reviewed PC Dave's charge sheet from the previous day to give him some idea of what to watch out for, and we got out to the bikes. Today's run was down to the Horseshoe Pass near Llangollen and to the Ponderosa for a lunch break. Lots of nice twisties, albeit with a recently reduced speed limit. We got there safely, despite the annoying yellow jacket sleeves flapping around and getting in the way of the mirrors. At one point an oncoming Range Rover decided to use the whole of our lane to overtake some cyclists, but a quick dip into the gutter put us beyond the reach of his crumple zones. We got to the Ponderosa, plenty of bikers about, one guy said he had ridden up from Luton for the day. A bit of a chinwag and some food was in order. "Have you thought about doing the full IAM Course?" I was asked. We went over the basics - cost, length of time, advantages, socials, ride-outs. It has never happened to me (although I'd never be able to tell you if it had) but I imagine this is how they recruit you into MI6. We set off back to the centre ahead of the incoming rain. A run of about two hours through North Wales' winding roads, followed by a review of the ride. It was all very friendly, lots of good tips, where things went well and a few areas for improvement. Apparently, I can be a bit too hesitant, which Mrs. Fiddlesticks thinks is hilarious. I put this down to both having to navigate and being too aware/concerned about the guy watching behind. Heisenberg called this The Observer Effect. It is demonstrated in a physics experiment in which the act of watching affects the behaviour of the object being watched. One final classroom session from the IAM trainer with safety very much the watch word. We looked a little at the mechanisms of the brain when it comes to focussing on moving objects. Scanning, looming, circadian masking. There were one or two videos to demonstrate all of this, and an invitation to do some further training. Top marks to the guys who put it all on. I found the two days very useful and would highly recommend the course to anyone on two wheels.

Bikesafe has been on my list of things to do for a while now. For a subsidised £65, the opportunity to take part in two days' training seemed like a pretty good deal, so I signed up online a little under two months ago. So here I was, at a quarter to nine on a Saturday morning, on an industrial estate on the banks of the Mersey. Wednesday had been a very late one after driving to London and back, via Surrey. Up for work on Thursday then out at the pub quiz till gone midnight. Friday, same again, only this time sitting for three hours in a soft cinema seat watching Christopher Nolan's masterpiece Oppenhiemer. Great film. Terrible timing. Full of self-recrimination and lower back pain I very gingerly parked the bike and moved with all the speed and agility of a ninety-five year-old arthritic into a hangar-like building. It's used for various training exercises for the emergency services, but today it was home to a motorcycle safety course led by Merseyside Police and IAM RoadSmart trainers. There were about 12 of us taking the course. We started the day with a brew in the canteen. This is England, after all. A few forms to complete, then it was time to decamp to the conference room for the morning session. This was led by Paul, a serving motorcycle police officer with experience in both the North West, and also on assignment to London for events such as the Queen's funeral and the Coronation. Also Dave, an IAM Trainer with a wealth of experience to share. These guys give up their weekends to deliver the course, and are passionate about riding well and being good ambassadors for motorcycling. It was all quite informal - we went around the room and introduced ourselves, bikes, experience, and what we wanted to get out of the weekend. We were encouraged to ask questions as the day progressed. We had a couple of sessions to cover road positioning, braking, overtaking, the IPSGA system, cornering, group riding, junctions, filtering and general roadcraft. With the aid of PowerPoint and a couple of whiteboard illustrations it all seemed to make sense. The sign in the canteen promising all kinds of French pastries was in all likelihood decorative, rather than a menu as such. In any case, the cheese and pickle sandwich that came in the complimentary packed lunch was most appreciated as I'd not thought that far ahead when I'd staggered downstairs earlier in the day. Lunch done, we donned the fluorescent vests of shame for an afternoon jaunt to North Wales. Wait. It's not a jaunt when you have a police motorcyclist behind you taking mental notes to fire at you later. Best behaviour, lads... I was in the lead. PC Dave in the middle. My new Triumph friend at the back. The other groups in similar formation. No comms, so we were relying on my sat nav, my ability to watch Dave's indicators in my mirrors, and my goldfish-like memory. I only balloxed it up once, by going all the way around a roundabout and back the same way! We were heading to a bike shop and cafe. Half way there we stopped for a minor debrief and switched positions, me bringing up the rear. This gave me a good opportunity to see how PC Dave used his positioning. Mental note made to use more of the road. At the destination we had a good review of the ride: "That lady who pulled out on you.. Dealt with it well... Why didn't you filter there? Good, three lanes going into two, not the best plan to squeeze between lanes one and two..." And so on. The key thing was, what was the thought process behind the decision making. After a good look around the bike shop it was time to do it all again in reverse (not literally, you understand, we're not on Honda Goldwings!) and back to the centre for the final verdict. Just one opportunity for an overtake on the way home. On a long straight with no oncoming traffic. It was a little slow narrow roadsweeper. "Did you put that there on purpose so we had something easy to pass?" PC Dave denied it all. Once back at the centre I was surprised not to get a stern talking to for pushing the amber-turning-red light at a roadworks. I deserved one, really, keeping with the riders ahead isn't an excuse. Instead, a positive report showing improvement in positioning throughout the day (as per my mental note) and some good feedback. All told, a good day. Back tomorrow for more...

Is that a haiku? Sounds like it could be a bad earth, but maybe two separate issues. Maybe just focus on the front brake first.

Best to discuss with your local riding school. They'll have bikes and instructors available. They'll maybe want to take you for a lesson first, just so they know you're ready.

Happy Birthday from sunny Wirral.

Welcome in

Is it for drying the bike?

New brake pads on the Explorer. Ordered Sunday, dispatched Monday, fitted Tuesday after work. Top marks to WeMoto. Lever felt a bit spongy, so I've zip tied it for a bit, and I'll bleed them properly if that doesn't help.

I'm not sure if it's in that book, but the story of Harry Seacombe and the cannon had me chuckling... He first met Spike Milligan in Tunisia. Milligan's artillery battery had a larger calibre artillery piece that was too big for the gun pits that Secombe's unit's cannon had used. The rest of Secombe's battery had already moved and he was with the last elements in some tents at the foot of a cliff below their former position. The officers in Milligan's battery had not bothered to enlarge the pits. When Spike's cannon fired its first shell, the recoil drove the gun up out of the pit and over the cliff. Secombe recalled that when the weapon fell outside the tent, he and his mates thought, "My God! They're throwing cannons at us!" A moment later, the flap of his tent opened and Spike poked his head in and said in his Eccles' voice, "Has anyone seen a gun?" Secombe replied "What colour?".