“Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood, thorough fire,
I do ride everywhere.”
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Midsummer Ride’s Dream
Category: Riding
You’ve all been there, spent ages on Google Maps trying to plot a perfect super twisty route down all the quiet back roads; but come unstuck when trying to follow the route whilst on the bike. At the end of the day, you’ve got a computer with a route on the screen and a phone in your pocket with a GPS and maps – why is it so hard to plan your route from one point to other and then ride it? This howto guide goes through all you need to ride a route off Google Maps on your bike, using your phone.
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Trip to North Wales July 2016
Last weekend I made another motorcycle trip up from London to Welshpool, North Wales to visit family and friends; which of course took a long, convoluted and twisty route there and back. Come on?! With beautiful weather and a couple of days to kill on the bike, do you think I’m just gonna sit on the motorway for 4 hours? Stuff that…
Over the last year I feel my cornering has improved a lot, I’m definitely more confident, leaning further over and carrying more speed (safely) through a bend. This became very apparent following a trip up to North Wales at the weekend and comparing my chicken strips to doing the same trip last August 2015.
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Dress for the Slide, not just the Ride
It’s forecast to hit 33°C here in London today, but we still wear full leathers. Dress for the slide, not just the ride.
As tempting as shorts and t-shirt are in this heat, you just never know when you may have a spill. Mary often tells me stories of a stint she did as a nurse in A&E & theatres. Once putting a biker under a general aesthetic so they could use scrub all the grit out of his remaining skin after a coming off with no decent gear on…
It maybe hot and sweaty in gear, but I’d rather retain some skin through which I can sweat.
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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.
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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).
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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!
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Where The Streets Have No Room
I want to run
I want to ride
I want to tear down the kerbs
That hold me inside
I want to filter past
A touch of vroom
Where the streets have no room
I want to filter, make good pace
See that dust cloud disappear without a trace
I want to take shelter from the packed lane
Where the streets have no room
Where the streets have no room
Where the streets have no room
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London Cabbie’s Right Arm
It’s when a cab driver nonchalantly sticks a hand out of their window, when you really need to stick the anchors on. As you soon learn in London, a Cabbie’s hand out of the window is a profound gesture of biblical nature, for it will truly part the seas of traffic, across all lanes and denominations to allow the Londoner’s saviour, the black cab to perform a U-turn. Come what may, no matter time of day or Sabbath, with no fear of other infidel road users present, the tarmac in front of that cab will be thy blessed and none shall interfere nor blaspheme. Thy shall let that cab perform thy holy U-turn decreed. Upon completion of this latter day miracle the tides of chemical emissions will crash forth, the sea of traffic will return and no enemies shall follow thy holy black cab as they deliver another fair paying city apostle to the promised land.
‐ Christopher. Licensed Taxi 40666.
Amen