Author: Arthur

Seasoned London commuter, doing my best to stay rubber side down and never stop moving forward.

MOT Time @ Burwin Motorcycles

Post author By Arthur
Post date July 6, 2016
3 Comments on MOT Time @ Burwin Motorcycles

That time of year again – MOT. No matter how confident you are the bike is all fine, there’s always a little worry in the back of your head, just in case it fails for some reason. Certainly been a well used bike with 9k gone on the clock since last MOT.

After a prior bad experience at my usual MOT garage, I decided to give Burwin Motorcycles over in Islington a go. Had heard a few good reports and they open at 8am. Big bonus, as I couldn’t afford much time off work. As it happened, they started even earlier and I was done and down the road by 8:30am – that’s what I call service. Barely had chance to drink a coffee in a nearby swanky pre/post drinks artisan coffee shop cum off license specialising in gin…

Videos

Sixth Sense Skills – Tip 17

Post author By Arthur
Post date July 6, 2016
1 Comment on Sixth Sense Skills – Tip 17

It’s been a while since I last put up a Sixth Sense video, but this incident today was ripe for a fresh video. Enjoy!

Tags Tips

Gear Reviews

FreedConn T-COM VB Helmet Bluetooth Headset Intercom Review

Post author By Arthur
Post date July 2, 2016
77 Comments on FreedConn T-COM VB Helmet Bluetooth Headset Intercom Review

So, you want a motorcycle Bluetooth communications headset for your helmet, listen to some tunes, your SatNav or natter with your partner, friends or pillion whilst you ride. But, you’ve checked out other Bluetooth headsets for motorcycle helmet offerings from the likes of Sena, Midland, Interphone, Cardo etc in the shops and probably come to the conclusion it’s gonna set you back quite a bit of cash. But, you’ve seen eBay is littered with funny Chinese branded gadgets at far more affordable prices. Sure they may not be the best Bluetooth headsets, just how bad can they be? Well, I took a punt on a pair of T-COM VB Bluetooth headset and this review tells how they turned out.

The first issue is narrowing down what you’re buying as you browse the glut of these intercoms on eBay. There are seemingly dozens of subtly different variations, on branding, spec and revision. Ultimately, I just took pot luck grabbing one of the cheapest FreedConn T-COM VB Bluetooth helmet intercom kits I could find from a UK seller. I wasn’t keen on waiting 4-6 weeks for a China-based seller to post or risk getting charged for VAT and duty by Royal Mail on arrival. Expect to pay around £40-50 a pair on eBay.

TCOM-VB Bluetooth Headset

Tags Gadgets

Riding

Summer Solstice 2016

There’s nothing like a British summer to piss on your bonfire.

The summer solstice, when the Northern hemisphere is at it’s closest point to the sun. I wouldn’t know, I can’t see the sun for the thick cloud and rain. I got absolutely drenched this morning, definitely not fun biking weather.

Gear Reviews

Herbert Richter Phone Case Mount Review

Post author By Arthur
Post date June 16, 2016
No Comments on Herbert Richter Phone Case Mount Review

When it comes to satnav’s on a motorcycle you basically have two choices: splurge a tonne of cash on a proper waterproof and rugged device from the likes of TomTom or Garmin, or you make do with the smartphone you already have. With the latter cheapskate route, you either make do with audio direction only and keep your phone in your pocket or you look at a waterproof case to mount to handlebars. This is where this Herbert Richter phone case and mount come in.

Tags Gadgets

Riding

Mersea Island Essex Ride Out

Post author By Arthur
Post date June 10, 2016
No Comments on Mersea Island Essex Ride Out

The only thing worse than being stuck at work, is being stuck at work when there is perfect biking weather outside. So, the other day my wife and I booked the day off, dropped kids off at school and then just hit the road. Life’s too short.

We took a gentle bimble out into Essex with Mersea Island as our destination for lunch. Fairly familiar motorcycle roads Essex offers, but a good opportunity for Mary to continue building back her confidence and also test out her new Garmin Satnav. Here’s the route (though we plotted this in Garmin’s Base Camp app and then downloaded it to the satnav, which all worked perfectly).

Tags Ride Out, Route

Gear Reviews Hardware

Maplin USB Power Socket Review

Post author By Arthur
Post date June 6, 2016
No Comments on Maplin USB Power Socket Review

There’s nothing more annoying than being far away from home with no battery life left in your camera or phone. It’s sods law that at this point you’ll really want to capture some video footage from an incident, need to phone for recovery or just witness the perfect shenanigans to go viral on YouTube next. All of which are easily resolved with the addition of a USB power socket on your bike.

Tags Gadgets

Videos

ELAM Ride Out Video

Some highlights from a recent ride out with the East London Advanced Motorcyclist (ELAM) group I’m with. A great day blitzing around Herts and Essex. Hope you enjoy it!

Tags Ride Out

Riding

Marshalling Hackney Half Marathon

Post author By Arthur
Post date May 9, 2016
No Comments on Marshalling Hackney Half Marathon

A change is as good as a rest, so the saying goes and this Sunday on the bike was most definitely a change from the norm. I volunteered to help marshal the Hackney Half Marathon with the East London Advanced Motorcyclists (ELAM) group.

12,000 odd runners barely a hundred metres behind us.

Our role is to ride the race course in advance to ensure it is clear, the road closures are adhered to and route is generally safe for all the runners to come through. It was an early start, but lovely weather and warming up fast. Roads closed at 7am ready for the race start at 9am. We donned our high viz, took radios and trackers, and made some slow circuits of the course. Finally we rode out slowly in pairs just ahead of the race leaders with 12,000 odd runners barely a hundred metres behind us.

Lots of slow speed control, some polite warnings to public trying to leak onto the course and overall, a nice change to do something different and helpful. Also, a big congrats to the winner Mark Kibiwott, who managed 12.6 miles in 1hr 4mins, in the heat!

Tags Volunteering

Maintenance

Thumbs Up: Squire SS65CS Padlock

Post author By Arthur
Post date April 27, 2016
No Comments on Thumbs Up: Squire SS65CS Padlock

Last week when my wife tried to take her bike out she discovered the Squire padlock had seized, leaving it chained to the ground! Neither key would unlock, we tried dousing it in WD40, GT85 and Halfords Shock’n’Unlock spray, even after been left to soak for a day or two. We tried tapping it with a hammer, but nothing would make the key budge in the lock.

Upon contacting Security For Bikes who we purchased it from, they informed us it was covered by a 10 year warranty and put us in touch with an engineer at Squire. They got back to very quickly with some advice, mostly what we had tried already, but as a last resort suggested applying pliers to the key to force the lock. This worked and the padlock opened, however it wouldn’t unlock again subsequently.

As per Squire’s advice we sent it back for repair/replacement. A couple of days later a brand new padlock arrived through the post with a cheque to refund us for postage. So, a big thumbs up goes to Squire, for their top customer service, prompt responses and a warranty that really is worth the paper it’s printed on.

You can purchase a Henry Squire SS65CS padlock from Amazon here.

→ Check out our full Motorcycle Security Guide

Tags Security