Shadowfax-ST Blog

Testing Times Shadowfax came with an MOT put on him by MGM motorcycles on the day I bought him and Tax I'd bought only minutes before; insurance was just a phone call away. A year later and all three costs coincide with a needed 16,000-mile service and only 5-weeks following the last expensive rear puncture. Testing times indeed. The Bennets Insurance I raved about last year has shot up to over £300: that's over a 50% increase and I know I am not alone. Utter thriving bastards! On phoning them it seemed my milage did for me, too. Although I am gaining experience with every mile each one penalises me as a higher risk. Bastards, again. So, if I ride 1000 miles in 3 trips over a year I'm less a risk? Fine, obviously the fact I'm "new" to the bike each ride has no stock in this? Idiotic. I digress, but I'm also pleased to not I had 3 quotes from £135 to £175 FC; not bad and they come with similar packages and a lower excess than Bennets. I follow this lead up...

Speed Limits We're a Nation, if not a developed World of time watchers; speed, efficacy, ease of learning; no time, need to do it now; to have done it 10 minutes ago. A new model is coming out. It's under development but I want to see it now. Human kind is going to Mars; are they there yet? The train leaves at 0713hr (not bloody 0715; else we'll be late). Just tap those Ruby Slippers together 3 times and you'll be as good as back at home without so much as the need to blink through the transdimentional pathway as you instantaneously appear in front of your microwave to cook chips inside 3-minutes flat. This isn't a new state of society; I remember Brains Faggots* heated in a gas oven was the height of convienience in the early '70s, and to my math that'd put 60 to 70-year-oldsters in the realms of instigators of haste; the inventors of rush, and the executers of swift time. Then why must these not-yet-old teats swan about in their safe Nissan Micras at 35 a...

The Great Friday Charge What was that about bimbling up and down the route? This morning I flew up the A32 and only paused occasionally on the A339 for (more bloody Micras) slow cars in the twisties. The A33 was soooo sloooowwww it was frustrating and despite passing a few cars and trucks there was no great advantage. Reading was pedestrian, too :( So, a good initial run became a slow one and I had only 10-mins in hand to change before desk time. A bonus today was that it was cooler - and it even rained. The road up the Meon Valley was soaked and I had a while to test the mesh strides in the light rain and minor spray: no ill effect. I don't doubt they'll be pretty uncomfortable in a major down pour but there weren't many drops that landed on anything but the visor today, anyway. It was dress-down Friday at work. No one told me. It was at a 2pm meeting my Line Manager explained why everyone was so scruffy. It'd make no odds to me. I have to pack the work gear in a bag f...

Highly Explosive And Temperamental Nah; that's not a description of me but of a good 30-dozen or so car drivers around the roadworks section of the upper reaches of the A33 entering (and tonight, exiting) Reading. What a bunch of selfish unforgiving lunatics we allow to control cars these days! I didn't quite hear what one small truck driver shouted at me and a handful of other motorists caught out by a traffic jammed set of lights on the M4/A33 interchange (albeit we were now 6, not 3 lanes deep) because a. I had my plugs in, and b. I still have a deafened right ear. Suffice, it was not pleasant and to be honest it was entirely uncalled for. Most of the 4+ wheeled traffic had been at a standstill for a fair time anyway, and despite the few of us "blocking" his egress into the M4E he certainly didn't need to swerve much for a fat bloke, either. There was also a Masda driver who saw me (eyeball contact) in his near-side mirror filtering intelligently through th...

Commuters And I thought I’d lost the charm of the A32 for ever! We’re back; Shadowfax and I are commuting again only this time it’s further, longer, and harder than ever before. But don’t worry, I have new M&S second-skin trunks to assure bottom comfort and a snatty new pair of Hein Gereke mesh strides and mesh gloves. There are a couple of drawbacks to the new kit, mind. But this requires a recap of the past few days; it’s not a long story but, well. You know me! New Summer Kit The mesh strides I imagined would stop my waterproof Behring strides filling up with my body fluids (sweat, mostly) and give me some degree of comfort in these balmy heat-wave temperatures we all knew were coming. The thing is, if you think logically about why I survived Winter commuting with Shadowfax it’s the fact he’s got such great rider protection that comes out as a major contributory factor in our success. So, if you sit on him with waterproofed strides you’ll not feel much air; unfortunately, e...