Author: Arthur

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

Categories
Riding

Great Ride To Shropshire

I had a half day at work, motorcycle loaded up, 170 miles to cover, time away from kids, lovely dry weather and a pub dinner booked with family in 6 hours time. It doesn’t really get much better than this. It turned out to be great ride up to Shropshire, cross country through the Cotswolds, Worcester and South Shropshire. Here is how I got on.

I left work after lunch and immediately cut straight up across the city via Islington, Highbury etc along the A1, before hitting the North circular and then out of London on the A41. This first leg was a little slow going due to traffic, but later on the A41 was almost empty. A fast dual carriageway with big sweeping bends leading to Aylesbury, a nice easy ride through green countryside, but not the fun country bends I was looking for.

Waddesdon Five Arrows Hotel
Five Arrows Hotel, Waddesdon

Aylesbury is a nice small town, but straight through I went continuing on the A41 to Bicester. The road was mostly single carriageway, but with occasionally stretches of dual carriageway. The scenery was pleasant, highlighted by passing the majestic Waddesdon Manor, but nothing compared to beyond Bicester as I entered the Cotswolds.

Continue reading “Great Ride To Shropshire”
Categories
Clothing/Protection Gear Reviews

NikWax Leather Care Kit Review

NikWax Leather Care KitI picked up this kit a few months ago and have been using it every now and again to clean up and condition my leather motorcycle gear. It’s a pretty decent box of bottles covering, head to toe pretty much everything you need. You get leather cleaner, leather restorer, waterproofing wax, glove waterproofing and visor water repellent. Not a bad bundle for £20.

The glove waterproofing I used on my Gerbings XR12 gloves, as recommended in their care instructions and on my wife’s Buffalo leather gloves. The bottle has a foam top sponge dispenser type thing, which lets you apply and rub the solution all over your gloves easily. Once dry, the solution is completely invisible, but the palms did feel a little slippery on my grips for a day or two. In the wet, it performed exactly as desired, no water leaks, dry hands – job done, big thumbs up.

Continue reading “NikWax Leather Care Kit Review”
Categories
Riding

Packed For Trip Up North

imageBike cleaned, serviced and laden with luggage, ready for my trip up North this afternoon. Spending a few days in Shrewsbury, Shropshire with family. I’d rather travel light, however I have a funeral to attend so need to pack a suit and shoes.
My plan is to avoid the usual motorways (M25, M1, M6, M54), as although quicker will get very monotonous and tiresome very quickly. I am going to take a more cross country route on A roads, with some interesting scenery and bends. The route is roughly A41, A44, A458 and will take me across the top of the Cotswalds and through the Vale of Evesham.


View Larger Map

Categories
Riding

Le Filtrage

Stumbled across this excellent riding video that brought a smile to my face. For anyone who spends most of their time filtering through the city, this is for you.

Categories
Motorcycles

Cleaned and Polished, Made Good Damage

image

Finally got round to giving the bike a damned good clean and polish. Tried to make good damage recently sustained in crash. It’s not too bad, but the belly pan and crash mushrooms look a right mess.

Still awaiting outcome from insurance, other party is contesting liability. Recently submitted by account of incident, photos and diagrams, but still playing the waiting game.

Categories
Clothing/Protection

Bust Zip on Hein Gericke Jacket

image

Dammit. Just broken the zip on my Hein Gericke jacket. This is the waterproof inside pocket. No idea what happened, just zipped it up, then found my keys falling out. Not good, expected better really, jacket is only 9 months old.

Might see if I can take back, however I’m not sure I still have the receipt. Not that you should need one for faulty goods. Otherwise I’ll shall gave to look into getting it repaired.

Categories
Riding

First Time Pillion Rider

first-time-pillion-riderYesterday I took my sister-in-law pillion on the bike, the first time she has ever been on a motorcycle. Kitted out in a mixture of my spare leathers and my wife’s gear, I gave her a lift back home to Islington.

Lovely sunny weather, just cleaned, polished the bike and a great day to ride out through the quiet-ish city streets. She was a little scared and apprehensive at first, but soon got the hang of it and thoroughly enjoyed the ride.

Was a great ride, except for when I mashed the gears trying to pull away in 2nd or 3rd, stalling lots and struggling to find first. Doh!

Categories
Riding

Public Transport Strike, Missing Bike

I’m currently working on site for a company in Heidelberg (about 1 hour south of Frankfurt), however there’s been a local public transport strike, both limiting my options and causing huge waits for taxis. The client is situated on top of a big hill a couple of miles out of town, in the middle of some lovely countryside and has some great bendy roads and hairpins on route.

Really missing my bike right now. It would be so handy to get about and so much fun on the roads over here. But alas it sat at home 500 miles away.

Categories
Riding

London Biker Borough Market Meetup

image

Just back from a good meet up at Borough Market with the London Biker forum bunch. Great turn out, lots of bikes (only half in photo above), of all shapes, sizes and ages. Good friendly banter, but cut a little short due to rain. Can’t believe I’ve not made it before as I only work 5 mins around corner.

Categories
Riding

Here Comes The Sun

At last, it looks like we might be getting over this long winter that has dragged on far too long. First ride into work of the year without thermals on, heated gloves off and shades on!

To be fair, yesterday was also fairly warm, didn’t really need heated gloves on, but I left them on the lowest setting. I must be turning into a nesh Southern pansy. 🙂 Could be time to swap to my summer gloves.

The bike desperately needs a nice wash and polish, however, I’m still waiting for the damage and insurance claim to be resolved. At least the other insurance company is starting to get their act together. Just had a visit from their engineer to assess the damage and push the claim forwards a bit. Fingers crossed it will be all sorted soon. However it’s looking likely it will be written off, but I have been advised to buy back the bike cheap and repair it myself on the cheap.