Ahh, at last the temperature is up again, and the roads are dry.
What are you waiting for? Take that bike out of the shed and ride it, you Fair Weather Biker pansies!
If you don't own a bike - get the test booked and get one!
Buying a bike was the best thing I did in my life. Seriously. Every single journey is great.
You know how you wake up in the morning, and you think "Oh no - I have to drive to work"?
Doesn't happen to me! I wake up already looking forard to getting on the bike! I love going to work because I get to ride there, and then ride back!
I see people treating every car journey like it's some major chore - I'll jump on the bike at every opportunity! I've been know to ride 60 miles for an item that I don't really need, and could have got from the shop that's 2 mins away from me anyway!
These are the kind of reasons which make me view this road-tax-by-the-mile type toad with utmost horror. f*** that.
So on Sunday I did my first few real laps of The Cloverleaf on this VFR. Taking it at a medium pace, I lent it into the first uphill left-hander, and eased it over a bit more and then got that beautiful sound/feel of kneeslider on tarmac!
Ooh yeah - I've still got it!
And what better way to scrub in a brand new shiny tyre than a few laps? It's a pretty agile bike for a big old lump - but nowhere near the ZXR that I never got beat on around there...
I took the rear tyre right up to the edge, and there's no more of this Winter Chicken Strip* crap on my tyres anymore! *For you non-bikers, the Chicken Strips are the unscrubbed bits at the edges of the tyres. The more you lean a bike over, the smaller the chicken-strips. If you see some top-of-the range sportsbike, take a look at the rear tyre. Anyone on a sportsbike with chicken strips bigger than about 10cm from the edge is a bit of a pussy who's posing rather than using the bike. Tell them they're scared and say your cousins tricycle gets leant over more.
That wasn't my first knee-down of the year, either - I think that was around Valentines Day - also on The Cloverleaf!
The downside was that a pair of front fork seals and a new front tyre cost me £170! That was a bit painful, but had to be done. It just so happens I don't have front stands myself, and so couldn't do it - or it would have cost me around £10 for the seals and a part-worn front I could have got fitted for around £20.... Meh!
I used a new place for the first time - Dougs Bikes in Studley. He seems like a cool bloke who really cares for the bikes. That's rare. The main reason I do all the work myself is because my bikes always seem to come back with nuts and bolts missing etc.
Another first for me recently was following a Volvo Ambulance car on a high speed run using the blue flashy lights! Fast cars, but the main problem for me was that I couldn't see a fucking thing following it!
The blue strobelights were majorly trippy, especially when his brakelights came on, too (err... I should add this was all in darkness).
Also, when we went through residential areas, the lights reflecting off all the house windows was breathtaking! Partly because I couldn't see toad, and partly because it looked like I was entering some kind of timewarp or something!
I was half expecting Al to show up next to me and start blathering on about what I had to do to 'jump'!
Riding a bike is a whole new world, that you'll have no idea even exists until you enter it.
Every other biker is then your brother on the roads - and not the Bad Brother who used to piss on your Barbie's hair and then went down for armed robbery. You'll get 'the nod' from every biker you see, and the second you break down every other biker will stop to try and help you!
Plus you will probably NEVER get to experience the speed in any other vehicle. Most cars hit 60mph from a standstill in around 10 seconds. Most bikes are closer to 3 seconds!
I used to love taking off in a plane... I got a major buzz, and couldn't believe the acceleration... then after flying on my holidays a few years after riding bikes, found it wasn't all that fast, really!
So get out there on a bike, you sick little monkeys - you know you want to!!!
