Jerry_Atrick

I did mean, on a celcius scale, 7 degrees is warmer than 6. It is currently 4 degrees where I am, with a northerly wind with a bite. Without heated grips, it is going to be a "fun" ride home. I may take longer and ride slower, me thinks. I have to do some work this morning and then I will be off to get the bike.

The cat's out of the bag now, mate...

I have to admit, they are comfy bikes - bit like riding in an armchair

Are trying to attract new residents to the area?

At least if that does happen, it will be a big enough smelling rat that the MAGA will further split and eventually implode.

While it's hypothetical that a party will win all seats in both houses, it isn't hypothetical that a party wins such a strong majoirity in both seats that they may as well have won all of them, especially at the moment. The old saying, "power corrupts and aboslute power absolutely corrupts" generally holds true, whether it is for personal enrichment, seeking to entrench power of disproportionately pushing an ideology. So what will happen will depend on the strength of the constitution and the constitutional institutions in applying the guardrails. On one hand we want to limit their power; on the other hand in such a situation, the electorate has spoken that it wants them to use their power.

I have seen the vid before and I agree about the leather. I have a good set of leathers, alas, still a little too narrow at the moment (still working on it). One of the articles of clothing were too small and one was way too large, so off to Bristol to sort it out. Tomorrow.. pick up the bike. Forecast for where I get the bike from is still good, if cold: Bristol is a little warmer: Taunton is the same as Bristol, so hopefully a good ride!

Just bringing the CBF discussion back to here: Thankfully, no tram lines on my route. London only has one tram line between Wimbledon and Croydon, and from the below snippet, it does not interact with the road all that much: I purchased a Shoe neotec helmet with a pinlock visor, which is an inner visor that fits to the main visor. It does a great job of keeping the visor from fogging up. However, it comes with an inbuilt drop down dark tinted visor, which is handy for someone like me who wears specs, but thgat does fog up, but for the times I ride in winter, the sun is rarely a problem. I do have a steep driveway, but the bike will be parked at the bottom of it, so I don't see the need to use the brakes at the times I ride in winter that often until there is some warmth with the bike. I have purchased a decent waterproof cover for the bike, which of course doesn't stop condensation and then picking up moisture when riding, so that's a fact of life I have to live with and manage. Peak hour drivers in the UK are much better than their Aussie counterparts in general. That is because there is so many of them and they are all very focused on getting through the traffic to get to where they want to go. They are generally situationally very aware and very courteous to motorcycles - often moving away fro mthe centre of the road if they see a motorcylist filtering, for example. Of course, there are exceptions. Day drivers are a totally different beast. I have learned the hard way about debris on the road - and not only leaves, twigs, sand and the like - but I was coming up the centre of the road to a red traffic light passing stopped cars. As I turned to get back in lane at the front of the queue to get back into lane, the ftont wheel slid out from under me (at low speed). As I was going down I was thinking what the F! caused that. I got the bike back up and stood it out of the way of cars ready to go on the green, and walked back to see what happened. You wouldn't believe it, but a think clear rectangle of perspex or similar was laying - impossible to see - right where I started the turn back into the lane. That was my skinny faird er6f Ninja, Bent clutch lever, scrape on the fairing, busted foot peg (they are cheap bikes) but massively dented ego. Yes.. there aren;t too many riders that haven't learned lessons the hard way. Youtube is full of those that can teach others. I agree - there aren;t too many. The First day I had my brand spanking new Honda CG125, I dropped it. I out it on its centre stand on the side of the road, not realising how much camber was on the kerb side of the bike. It stayed upright until I got to the front door! Thankfully, it is a light bike. The VFR750 went over twice - once it had snowed overnight and our road had ice and snow on it. So I walked it to the top of the road (about 100metres) where the main arterial road into London was, which was nicely ploughed. But, as I looked right, I noticed a bus coming and instinct kicked in to get out before the bus came. I gave it a little throttle and let the clutch out a bit while the rear wheel was still on the icy bit. Over she went. The second time as at a supermarket. I wasn't payint attention when disengaged the centrestand, lost balance and over she went. The er6f had three drops - the one I mentioned; one where a van cut me off in a turn and I lost balance as it clipped me (and then took off - but I caught up with him, as did a witness, so that fixed the damage), and my accident where I lost grip in the wet under moderate braking - I can only think I hit oil. As the bike started to veer into oncoming traffic, I had to dtop trying to keep it upright and drop the bike - just didn't get my ankle out of the way quick enough. These are all lessons learned. Even the van incident, which was not my fault, taught me what I could have done better in that situation. I have only hit black ice once, and that was in Richmond Park on by bicycle, on a concrete shared walking/cycle track. Wearing helmets is not compulsory when cycling here, but I make a habit of doing it. It was on the 24th December, and I came off backwards and whacked the back of my head so hard on the concrete, it snapped a side stap of the helmet and cracked the side as little. Shudder to think what would happen if I weren't wearing it. If it is too cold, I will leave the bike at home, but the weather seems a lot warmer, and the motorways are well salted these days (an issue for the frame - for which ACF50 will come in handy). I haven't yet encountered black ice on the maotorways or arterial/main roads in London yet. But, yeah, there will be a first time.

Been bucketing it down all day today. As we're on top of a hill, we are OK, but the village roads have standing water everywhere. And to top it off, we have found our roof has a leak again! F! And the builder's phone is diverting straight to voicemail. First world problems, actucally. But it is still, F!'ed But I still feel OK.. I get my motorbike on Monday. Have I mentioned that, yet? Forecast for Monday is stuill sunny, though the surrounding days forecast have become decidely worse Quite the opposite woudl be the case if I have an aircraft booked!

(editing window too late).. All done online, no Amazon involvement. It is a well known local chain supplier. With friends coming over this weekend, I would not have had a chance to get to Bristol or Cheltenham, the closest two stores... which are about 45 and 75 miles away respectively.

Just ordered: Textile Jacket -Alpinestars - Their own Dryshield rather than Gore-Tex... On sale. Has elbow and shoulder body armour. Body armour - back protector Trousers - Waterproof and knee/hip protection. Can't reall the brand, but they were well reviewed and the zips fit the jacket. About 1/2 the price of Alpinestars. Alpinestar racing boots (best protection) Gore-Tex on sale (1/2 price and I checked other stores). Bonza! Gloves - Alpinestar Gore Tex, with knuckle protection High Vis one piece waterproof outer. All done online.. Should arrive tomorrow. That is all the kit done now. Just waiting for Monday!

@facthunter - your post re the cooling system did get me thinking - in case, how much am I looking at. A new Honda (claimed) genuine waterpump goes from around £100 to £150 at dealers. The radiator is around £100 (again, claimed genuine). Fitting and coolant would be extra of course. .Allow a couple of humdred pounds. A thermostat is about £30.. So a full refit (ex sensors) would probably be £450-ish.. I am now double hoping there are no problems.

Yeah.. one has to be careful with water cooled bikes, but everythign checked out OK on this one so far. The radiator looks in good condition and although placed nicely away, has a guard on it, too.. Of course, that doesn't stop corrosion, but with only 3 owners and very well documented history, it seems it has been well cared for and with the right anti-freeze and concentration, should be OK for a few miles yet. Fairings are generally expeinsive over here. If I break a fairing, so be it.. It is a winter/commuter hack. Another reason why I didn't want to spend a lot of money on it. I will do a repair if needed, find second hand (never easy), or a mate has a really good 3d printing setup - I am sure he can knock something up in the right colour for a lot less. Honda here are not known to be more expensive than the other Japanese brands in parts. Hopefully I won't need to find out (famous last words).

Looks like the Democrats need to grow some gonads: Of course, it is only a few of the Democrats, apparently

It may come across that way, but I am not wedded to Honda. The CG125 was purchased purely on cost. I happened to be in the shop and they had a sale; something like £2300 down to £1,800. I got anouther £200 knocked off. I sold it for the same as I paid for it, and if it was maintained well, it would still fetch about £1,800 punds today, with hacks going for about £1,000. The VFR750 was impulse buy. I liked the look of it, it was cheap, so I threw caution to the wind. The next bike, the Kawasaki er6f, altthough definitely built to a price, earned my respect on its utlimate lengevity given the life it had forced upon it. Like aircraft, motorbike design is a compromise. So, I wrote down my mission and the important features of a bike. My mission was commuting 170 miles each way with an overnight stop from motorwasy to gnarly urban streets. Also, when this house is finally done and sold, I quit my job (3 month notice period) and head back to Aus. That could means from 6 months to god knows how long. So key charateristics for me are: Reliability. I don't want it to be in the shop too long. I don't have the tools to do much maintenance myself, so any down timeis a pain to get to the shop, and get back to it. I simply don't have the time. Price - I may have to sell it within 6 months, so putting a lot of miles on will depreciate it. I want something that has had the depreciation kicked out of it. Storage - Overnight stays reqire me to bring clothes and work stuff. Fuel efficiency - the less I can spend on fuel, the better. Flexibility - Good on the motorway and easy filtering in congested London traffic. Comfortable - The er6f was good for urban work and day rides where stopping frequently is not only an option, but desirable. But, mr posterior was quite sore after the long commute from the south west of England. Anythign else like fun on the twisties or speed demon is a bonus, but I just need a good allrounder that can be boring as anything. Oh, and it isn't that attractive to theives, especially in London. It is going to be used in all but the worst of the winter weather, so it has to be good at keeping the weather off. It had to be ULEZ compliant I tend to limit myself to known brands. On all of the above, the Honda NC750 came out trumps. It is virtually bullet proof. The engine is torquey, but doesn;'t rev too high or produce too high top end hp. Yet, it will eat up the motorway miles at 80+mph comfortably and is agile and narrow enough in town for traffic. It has a fuel tank under the seat so where the fuel tank is normally located is a 21l storage space - not quite enough, but a handy addition not to need a back pack to compliment the top box. It was about the most fuel efficient for the mission at up to 80mpg. I did test ride one and they are comfortable, but I probably would add a gel cover on the seat just to soften it a bit. It is thought of as a boring bike, so thieves generally ignore it unless they specicially need it, and many people use them in winter and rave about them. The problem was cost - and I didn't want to spend that much to sell later for a big loss. So, I had to compromise on my needs, which I did. In the end, I was looking keenly at a Triumph GT1050, but only 2010 on models meet the ULEZ requirement and decent examples of them were starting at around the £2,500. This one was £2,800. But, what walked me away from it was insurance at almost £1,000 without the add ons. In the end it came down to a good example on the second hand market of a bike that largely met my criteria at the right price and in the right condition. There were others I was looking at, at the right price, but they all seemed to be up in Nortnern England and Scotland, and it is too much of a faff to go there from where I live. That's a very long winded way to say I wasn't targettng Honda per se; it was a model that I didn't want to afford was the best, and in the second hand market, the bike that otherwise best fit my bill at the right price happened to be a Honda.