Shadowfax-ST Blog

Shopping Trauma It's tradition, albeit a new one for me to leave the shopping for a Goose until the absolute last minute when there may be only one left in the cooler at Marks and Spencer's in order not to have to worry about trying to stick such a large bird in the freezer. It followed our first goose ordered 2-years ago, which went to the dogs at a local butchers that folded on us with only 1-day to go. In the past we've left any big Christmas bird in the garden shed in the cold and protected from foxes but this warmer spell of late, well... The tradition was meant to be repeated today, if a little more last minute than normal - but I forgot until reminded by text as I was distracted trying to shop for the Christmas presents I should have bought a month ago but I've been too busy. It was already 3pm. I had to visit a number of stores to find the bird and paid a hefty price, too: far more than we did in last years. I ended up near Southampton, too. Anyway, I'd ta

Husband and Wife Team Ka borrowed Nikki's helmet and suit and I dragged her down to Paragon Rider Training to review the cheaper end Buffalo "starter" bike gear in there and the HJC helmet like mine, but in pink. Purchased, this was one part of my Christmas shopping wrapped up! I'm not sure who was more nervous!? Back we returned and closed a loop of about 14-miles. I got told off for overtaking in a built up area (fair cop) and questioned about some aggressive-feeling-to-a novice-pinion filtering out of town but otherwise the wind noise jammed out most other commentary. An intercom was mentioned. It wasn't a bad ride and if I'm honest it was a pleasure to share this other side of my life with Ka; otherwise it will get a little more lonely, I expect. That night Ka went on about my planning a trip to Spain in the Spring. This started off with me asking to go alone to Bilbao and then touring as far as Gibraltar and back up via Madrid to the Pyrenees before eithe

Conspicuality Test I've tested the Hi-Viz jerkin on and off on my commute before. I now always wear the jerkin. The jacket Mat's donated is a full-sleeve fluorescent one with a zip to the front and hoops of reflective tape. I've also go the mirror stickies, which really work well. I saw them really spark up under a 60W external light this evening from an impossible angle. Cool. Today was my first test in the new scheme. Having filled with fuel I returned to the Fareham link and re-commenced my steady filter between the dual carriageway. I found drivers were far more "understanding" of my need to pass today and most made special room for me. It's not unusual for some drivers to pay the courtesy, whether because Shadowfax is a big old white Pan or because they respect the ability to filter but the noteworthiness is the number; loads. The jacket and mirror details seem to have had an effect? On slowing for a wide mini-bus in the RH lane and checking my near-side

Ooooooooops! Mat responded to my suggestion of sticking vast swathes of fluorescent material across Shadowfax's nose (under the blog title "Conspicuality" earlier this month) with some horror; " Nooooooooooo... "(this goes on for some lines)" ...ooooooooo ", all across my Facebook. Matt visited today and witnessed the dexterity and efficiency of my mechanical abilities installing the new rear cowl, which arrived mid-week - along with 1m x 30cm of fluorescent snot-green sticky backed reflective tape. Ooops. Sorry, Mat. Too late, I've started and so I'll finish. Shadowfax's new bling The cowl wasn't too difficult to fit once I'd consulted the ST1300 bible and doesn't look too "Policey" at all. Cutting brown-paper templates for the conspicuality sticky was harder though, especially in a stiff breeze. (No tracing paper in the house - the kids have eaten it and we don't do Izal). The templates and cutting for the mirror

Shadowfax's Shadowy Secret? I clean Shadowfax most every week. Each ride I also wipe down his lights, mirrors, and reflective baboon's bottom. Each ride through the weeks he gets more and more grotty. Sure, this is to be expected; it's difficult to stay out of other vehicles' spray when you need to overtake everything and I know there's a shit load of badger pooh, salty residue, and brake dust in the wet surface mix of late but I'm beginning to suspect it's not all others' fault. The splash patterns don't lend to their being blamed on splashing or splattering by Nissan Micras driven at 20mph by the Blue-Rinse mob or by trucks over-laden with illegal immigrants and dead prostitutes slaloming cyclists in the outer suburbs. In fact, I'm beginning to suspect the bastard is soiling himself! Dirty bugger THEORY Muck collects on the front wheel and heavy deposit collects on his belly-pan's centre seam and in his lower cowl, lighter liquefied crap bo

CAMPAIGN - Tax the horses! Along the country lanes today I slowed for a sharp corner (still recoiling from near colliding with a 4x4 on Tuesday) and came head to head at 30m with a set of horses; is that a gaggle, flock, or herd? Um, troop? Stable? I can't remember but there were 4 of them with fearsome faces in their saddles. They looked a little twitchy for comfort so I slowed to a halt just short of them. The last mare had no riding hat on. Stupid. I was thanked, and waved off on my way. Less than two corners later another hose in a stand off at 50m. There was no way the nag should have been on the road - it had poor road holding and was totally out of control hooving the soft verges and kicking more mud across the macadam to splat up on Shadowfax's belly for me to scrape off this weekend when I should be sticking a Christmas tree up in the front room. I had to draw the rider's attention (only by waving) and "ask" if it was safe to pass. LINK: About horse accid

A339; Alton to Basingstoke My wife drove me down the A339 as part of an alternative route home from Oxford some time late Summer. I'm familiar with Lasham for the paintball and airfield but the road North of here now also held memories of of wide fields with well-spaced oaks and elms off country estates and my yearning to walk among them for some chill time following entrapment by the kids on school holidays. This morning I resisted the urge to turn right down the A272 from West Meon and with great discipline stayed on track all the way to Alton. My ride today was relaxed and near sedate, at times. A trip up the A339 seemed in order and as I needed to go directly to Camberley it seemed the ideal way to approach via the M3. (There's an excuse there somewhere?) The A339 is a short stretch but seems longer for its lack of overtaking; extraordinary double white-lining makes a Scalextric chicane event of the route and the by-pass effect around Lasham airfield adds at least another c

Divination Diversion The Sun was shining brightly this morning and my black Behrings did their thing with the on-board solar heating. The surface was quite dry, too, and the traffic spaced well enough apart to turn an intended "slow day" into an exhilarating feast of sweeping over takes and maximum throttle passes. By West Meon, though; tired and bord from 3-days back on the bike and back up the same road, the over zealousness of the fog-riding all but a distant memory, I sacked it. I turned right toward East Meon. We were in Bayeux the other weekend and at the tapestry there's a model of East Meon as it was in Norman times. I just clicked in my head, "check it out". The little road meandered under the old Meaon Valley Railway via duct and the road dampened over cow pats and other animal shit (mud, if you will) making progress needfully slow. Given the stunning vistas of greens, blues, and other country sights (including sheep - not many of those I've seen d

Prey to HID I just can't say enough positive things about this HID light. Under on-coming bedazzlement I still have half a chance to see my way; in fog at night the white light penetrates the murk even on full beam without causing white-out except in the most serious fog banks, and when filtering or chasing dual carriageway traffic few could even pretend not to have seen me. And those with bright and overly high beams coming my way - and worse, late beam dippers? BEWARE; YOU are now MY prey! (Evil belly laugh that goes on just a little too long to doubt anything but an insanity born of HID power). Occultation of Jupiter (astronomical term for my HID beam bouncing off our biggest planet) It's little coincidence this month has seen the brightest Full Moon in 15-years and Jupiter acting as the Christmas star once more - its all down to their reflecting light produced by my HID!

Making out with the enemy I have said before how much I fear fog; truly fear it. It's worse than the dark, which you can pin down to irrationality and combat with a torch. It's an omnipresent white-out (except at night unless you've got main-beams on, but that's get complicated to expand on here so keep such thoughts to your self, please): almost impenetrable. If you loose your way or a friend in the fog your senses have no where to turn to. Even sound can be altered; cries for help change point of origin, amplitude, and sense of distance. Creatures can grow to gargantuan proportions in fog - you know it's all in the mind but those hoof steps can reverberate through the ground to you; fur brushing through the undergrowth brings home images of Jurassic Park-like monsters...fog feeds the imagination while depriving the senses. In the dark you have lights on vehicles (except that mad cow in the Nissan the other day - bloody hell - how'd she not notice?!)and even at

Surveying the (Most) Visible Spectrum There's good evidence on the web that the human eye responds well to fluorescent yellow among street furniture and other vehicula detritus: the emergency services each use the lime-yellow "day-glow" with their emergency "lights" (by Law) stickie reflective blues, greens, and reds. Sensible Police rider with conspicuality all over him and the bike It must be worth considering sticking some on Shadowfax, too then? After all, big and white as he is (when not covered in minced-badger shit) we still seem to disappear into the scenery at junctions. It's something to do with the human eye behind a windscreen being inable to recognise the shape or presence of a bike, or something? I don't know if I could live with myself dressing him up too "Policey" but I've done another of my "artist's impressions" to have a think about the implications of wacking some fluorescence on his snout (or forehead a

...to love him Shadowfax and I have completed just over 9,000 miles together over our 134-days of partnership. That's an average of 67-miles a day, every day since we hooked up. He's cost me an additional £980-odd for ancillaries and servicing / repairs atop insurance and fuel; that's nearly 10p per mile. Fuel comes in at an average 10-miles per litre; the cost of which has averaged quite high over recent months even if the price per litre has stabilised at the level I whinged at only last year. Call it, £1.20 per litre. That's around £1000, or another 11p per mile. So, 21p per mile is £1890 or £14.10 per day of ownership; around £100 per week. Gosh. The Alpha (less insurance) over the same miles and period would cost (@5-miles per litre and a 1/3 share of £900 brakes (so, say £300) and £450 other servicing / repairs and MoT / tax this period. That's £700 servicing and repair plus £2,160 fuel: so £2,910. Reckoning: £2,910 - £1,980 = £930 "saved"; or £7 per

Frozen Flesh in Just 1-hour It was a record that would have gone unremarked; minus 3-degrees. I pulled over at the Pheasant Plucker in Farringdon to take a photo of the temperature gauge but was dismayed to see only a minus 2; common place this week and not worth a photo where I'd just ridden 6 miles at -3! I tried again at my spot in East Tistead; that's the shot below. Minus 3-degrees and dropping... The screen was frozen; my visor was frozen inside and out but I was still pretty well okay. I've thrown caution to the wind in saving electricity and turn the heated grips up until my palms near scald through the Richo leather gloves - still performing okay WITH the heated grips. It stops my finger ends from dropping off. Frozen screen - not that it mattered this week - it's been clogged with Badger pooh since Monday The visor is a pain though - anything below 0-degrees and my breath starts to mist up the lower portion of my vision - on a Pan, that's the mirrors. Then

Cause and Effect Having had the brakes fixed front and rear I was a bit disappointed this morning to find the rear foot brake is still spongy on first compression making a second stomp necessary to feel as firm as it should. As Mike (Motorcycle Mechanic) had had some trouble with looking for air in the system I wonder if this is indicative of air in the combined braking elements of the pipe work? I'll call Mike tomorrow but it's going to be difficult finding time to get Shadowfax in for a review this week but I'm happy the bike is "rideable": at least, I've been able to stop when needed.

Bird Strike At Farringdon, there's the Pheasant Plucker pub. I stopped there once when I blew Ka's Omega up overtaking through the entry to East Tisted; I just managed to limp the thing to the pub before the temperature gauge exploded. It seemed the thing to do. Anyway, the pub stop was an excellent distraction from an otherwise piss-poor commute. The Green Flagged geezer from a garage out at Pertersfield said I was lucky the car was not immediately repairable as after two pints of Real Ale there was no way I could drive either legally, or not. This morning I was approaching Farringdon behind a slow motor and waited an overly long time for an opportunity to overtake as the surface was post-frost greasy and I'd lost some confidence in the traction across white lines and studs earlier. The road's straight for about 400m - it's an easy and safe overtake at the 50mph we were doing and still safe if you're going a hell of a lot faster (I expect). I gently eased Shado

Emergency Repairs The front brakes were wearing okay until this week and as much as I'd promised Nige at Taylor's Garage in Droxford to complete the change this was compounded by Mike's (at Motorcycle Mechanic) finding of the rear calliper's piston seals needing attention. With ice, rain, and rats jumping out at me the brake efficiency suddenly turned nasty and I had to arrange for the nearest garage to take my business to fit in with my Wife's availability as a free taxi service. It didn't seem a straight forward job either, Mike had a fair Devil of a time freeing the rear system of air by the looks of it. The rear pads also needed replacing (likely from where the piston had them pressed to the disk all the while - they're not all that old, after all - about 3000-miles, I think - but very worn). At invoicing time I was stopped a little short, though. (I looked brave as the kid was there and I don't like him to see me in a moment of weakness less he take

After Dinner Moments Before our Christmas Dinner (yes, it's early but there's not much opportunity to have the "office party" any later this month) I'd tripped over to M&S to buy some crackers. On the way I felt some vagueness in the new rear tyre; it felt very flat. M&S's crackers are crap this year so I sprung along to Sainsbury's, which was full of crackers. Once I'd finished perving (cheesy that, wasn't it? - Groan) I took the bike to the air pump back at the Tescos in Camberley and queued for a 20p piece to check the tyres. "F&$ing robbery", a fellow air hunter exclaimed. I agree, Tesco's - this isn't hot air, just cold-pumped: we're not all filthy rich in Camberley, you know. Some of us are just visiting! Anyway, I couldn't attach the hose to my converter AND see the reading but it seemed to pump a lot of air in. "Crap". It must be ANOTHER puncture!! (Three tyres in just over a month?!!) Later,

The Sky Falling (near) My Head Bloody freezin'. Up to some sensible dry but frozen speed on the A31 out of Alton and toward an Arctic' (great pun!) with a car acting all hesitant behind it. Explosions of ice scattered hap-hazardly across the carriageways, which made for an interesting slalom to distract me from the morning's chill. Catching the car, I wondered why they were going so slowly; they'd been quick out of the roundabout trap only moments earlier. (Passing the Alton slipway). Odd. I pulled alongside the car and prepared to take the truck and noticed how ragged it's grey roof looked; like it had rigid sides and a canvas roof that was wearing from the wind. Then a chunk of ice 2" thick and 2' across lobbed off the very spot that had caught my eye. "Steady on!" And we backed off the throttle as yet another Titanic-sinking ice clump flew up into a lazy arc in the lorry's wake before zeroing in on us like a cruising missile. We were saved

Minus Two Degrees We've a new record low temperature; -2 degrees! It was chilly and the back and front of the bike took it in turns to scare me witless and threatened to make me seriously re-think this Winter riding lark; but only in the car park and first roundabout. Once we blew past 50mph things evened out and I could relax a little more but at 51mph things felt pretty hairy again. It wasn't only frozen bits that were slippery, either. The salt-grit made for some fun at low-speeds, too. On the bright side, although at times I was uncomfortably cold my hands survived in their original Richo skins with the help of the heated grips. However, I'm going to have to do something about misting up inside the visor and the instant misting of my glasses when we first put the helmet on before we're moving and the air clears them pretty quickly - even if not quickly enough to know exactly where the f&%k we're heading from the parked position. I call that our, "leap o

To do, or not to do? I've found two replacement rear under-seat cowls on Ebay; one at £30 and post, and one at £20 and post. The latter has "conspicuous" stripes stuck on it - oh, and it's attractive as it's cheaper. Artist's impression - stripey baboon's bottom. Is it too "Policey" and would I welcome that at the moment? The part to be replaced has a snapped fixing, which makes the RHS side panel insecure and vibrate over the battery compartment. It's almost entirely cosmetic and I could just as easily use glue and scraps, else. I have breaks to purchase and have fitted urgently.

Hit by Chips Tractors performing hedge-trimming duties have featured on our commute quite a bit of late. I've even noted how they can hog the whole roadway on a blind bend quite legally because they have a flashing yellow beacon on them, which gives licence for them to do ANYTHING they freaking well want. I love how they can spill their debris across the carriageway and how that debris has lots of sharp bits you couldn't walk barefooted over so must be dangerous to the flesh and maybe even the tyres? But it's okay; they have the yellow beacon licence to do what they want, of course. A twist then, rounding a corner past the Privet junctions I saw a yellow winky-poty through the hedges and slowed expecting a licenced obstruction in my path but was relieved to see it was trimming the hedge from the side of the field. Excellent, throttle on, I thought. Then I got hit by the shrapnel of trimming from an unprotected blade set at just the right angle to spray me with 7.62mm bore h

No licence While slipping Shadowfax's wet and heavy cover off there was a moment of resistance. I tugged harder and the snag came free, accompanied by the plunk of the licence plate dropping to the floor. The sticky pads are just not up to the job in this weather (each covered in fine grit and wet grime) so I'll have to work out where to drill the plate without spoiling the custom effect I paid for. In the meantime, I re-drilled (or, carved) the rear fender's fixing holes and old plate to a wider diameter with a screw-driver blade and I helped the environment by recycling a couple of packaging bolts from Phut-Phut's crate (the Sanya 125 came as a kit, you may recall?) It looks crass but it'll not be falling off too easily.

Manic Moment "Hi, It's Pat; the white ST. You called a while ago?" "Yes" , replied our fella from Motorcycle Mechanic, " I've read your blog..." (Shit! I thought. What did I write? I thought it had been quite positive and forward looking; now I was worried if I had offended.) "...and I just thought you might like to know I've still got the tyre if you want it." Now, if that doesn't endear me to the business I don't know what will - except a night out with some lush lap dancers,a couple of pints of local-brewed real ale, and a pre-paid taxi. (Or is that just pushing it a bit? ;) Gregg thinks I should repair it and flog it and Ka doesn't think I should make a clock out of it. More on that later, I'm sure.

Taste of Winter After another thorough muddying on the way in to work I put in a long day and left work again at 8pm. Obviously it was dark and as I made my way from the office to the bike I felt the characteristic nip of 4-degrees in the air; I pride myself on sniffing out the potential for snow. As Shadowfax was ignited, his temperature gauge showed 3-degrees. It was going to be cold as the Meon Valley has proven a rule of being at least 2-degrees colder than at either end of the commute. My glasses misted up first and I had to put my gloves on by touch. As we commenced the ride the glasses cleared by the length of the car park so I lowered the visor part way. It misted up. Hmm. One of "those" nights again. I took it really steady - the weather had had a jump of 3-hours on me without any warmth of the Sun so the chance of ice was quite high and the tarmac was greasy slick with damp in any case. By the Bently by-pass the temperature read 2-degrees. A fine misty rain became a

Badger Pooh Showers We've never felt so dirty! It wasn't torrential rain; just some light soaking type stuff that lay across the mud left on the road at EVERY field's gate and spray from an artic', which kept us too out of the play to see far enough to overtake. My dirty helmet The visor became opaque at the close of the A32 and I was grateful for some heavier rain to cleanse it a little for the latter part of the A331. The damage was done though as I'd had to ride with the visor up for a patch and I knew I had road detritus all across my nose. And that was just on the way up. The way home was worse. Filthy badgers This is an element of Winter I've experienced before but been able to wipe-free by the squirt of window wash so I hadn't figured just how awful it could be on the bike; not really. At least I've kept his lights clean Even NIkki's gift wiping finger was useless against the muddy spray. I'm looking at putting a water bottle with spray at

The 2nd Rear Michelin Road Pilot 2 Punctures really are shit! Not to be caught out again I'm going to recce the area for someone that can swap tyres on demand. In the meantime, I'm stung for a new tyre where the punctured one wasn't even out of its diapers yet. Bonus was to find a more local mechanic for when Droxford is too long a haul. I was up against time and I had to make a decision. I read loads of tyre info on the Web to be sure I should repair the puncture and called Motorcycle Mechanic in Fareham to see if he'd take a look at the problem. Sure, he agreed. Far left corner...but the tea was to the foreground I re-inflated the rear from 15psi to 42psi and made my way with caution to the Kiln Acre Industrial Park on Wickham road and rode along to the workshop tucked away in the far left-hand corner. Our fella came out, looked, and sucked teeth. I was convinced a cheap repair was possible while he was uncertain of how "centre line" the nail needed to be

Hole in our rubber It's devastating news; Shadowfax is lamed out by a freaking miss-placed nail in his rear £140-Michelin Road-Pilot 2 tyre. I pumped up the tyres and noted (as I had on Tuesday, if I'm honest), that the pump's pressure gauge was a little erratic inflating the rear. On the road I was convinced by Thursday that the rear was low but I was locked out of the Lanny and couldn't access the pump. By home-time on Friday I was feeling cautious, but no more so than when we've chanced riding at 34psi, which is 8psi lower than the best-guess if the tyres are similar to the BT020s (42psi each); +/-6psi is the outer limit of being an idiot. The £?? nail Feeling Flat Interesting - 15psi and the puncture stabilised and we rode in an acceptable attitude. Not bad in support of the tyre's safety and all-roundedness, but poor form when you account for the internal damage water can cause when injected through a puncture by riding in the wet - and it's been very w

"Did you see my wheelie, Dad?" Yes. I saw my Son wheelie; twice in 3-seconds, each time a little closer to taking out 3 prams' worth of minors and a handful of otherwise unsuspecting spectators while Dave had his arm near wrenched from its socket trying to hold on to the sissy strap. My Son had been a little shocked when fellow Newbie Brandon had taken off on his smart new KX-65 and wheelied much of the length of the playground training area. We'd talked throttle, fuel and air mixing together in incresing quantities to make more explosions to drive the bike faster: all that. "Control", I had warned. Off he went toward the crowd. Still, he's looking smarter and everyone appreciated the bike's Spring clean. Looks the part... His Sister is now looking forward to her "first bike" in March next year! "I'll be doing really BIG wheelies, Daddy," she claimed. "No, you won't, and nor will you be marrying Ben, Young Lady;

Lessons Learned; Filtering on a motorway at night There are some excellent sites on the Internet to help get you by with your riding. Many of them have helped me really think about cornering safely, wet and windy weather riding, preparing for a journey, and on how to filter. There are debates, [ LINK ] , and lessons, [ Excellent LINK ] but until you are faced with motorway traffic in crisis you just can't imagine how dangerous things can get. This week I was tired (from being poorly earlier. Ahhhhh). So, I thought it'd be easier and safer to nip down the M3 than to tip-toe through the dark countryside and it's give me an opportunity to plasma-rise London's finest overnight escapologists. Things started badly; there was a snarl up getting onto the M3 from the A331; some shopping incident involving the WI a few miles on, apparently. Anyway, I was already struggling with resisting the urge to aggressively nip down the inside, and I can't struggle for long when I'm

Night Trials - HID Lamp Okay, so it'd be an exaggeration to claim the HID lamp to be a second Sun, but it's sure is bright - if white is bright. As only one of the two reflector cells is full of HID light the road image cannot really be expected to be "normal" but brighter, can it? Well, it's not normal; it's a lovely wide area in front of the bike that stretches left to right about 3m each side (with any definition) and about 20m to the front - so within the MOT limit on that last one, which calls for a 25m dip to avoid dazzle. It's fuzzy; but that's the focus bit I'll play with later. The light is white; there's no doubt. The image of the two lenses shows the difference at the lamp, but on the road this is a great strength. All the hype of it making vision easier on the eye is right. Looking down through the forks I can see yellow and dimpsy halogen splash on the left and bright moon-blue-white on the right, which is noticeably brighter. (I&#