Saturday, 9 June 2012

The mayor's official carnival escorts.

Strolling round march carnival with the other half, and came across this.
Top dog! :-)


Thursday, 31 May 2012

Celebratory/Practice ride route #1

As previously mentioned, I went for a ride to celebrate the arrival of my Bikesafe certificate, and my copy of Motorcycle Roadcraft (see earlier posts), and to spend some time putting into practice what I had been told in my de-brief.

If anyone's interested, here's the route I took:



View BAD-MCC Loop in a larger map

Wednesday, 30 May 2012

They've arrived!

At lunch time today, I returned home to find that my shiny new copy of Motorcycle Roadcraft, and my certificate and assessment sheet for Bikesafe, had arrived in the post.

To celebrate, I'm using it as an excuse for a ride out this evening :-)

Monday, 28 May 2012

Ride to work day 2012

"On Ride To Work Day, motorbike and scooter riders around the world show just how enjoyable their daily commute is.
By riding to work we demonstrate that life would be better if more people rode motorcycles and scooters every day, with time savings, less congestion and reduced travel costs.
So we want you to join us on Ride to Work Day."

From Ridetoworkday.co.uk

Bikesafe observation.

So I had my Bike safe observation yesterday.

For those of you who don't know what this is, basically you send a couple of hours with a police motorcyclist, being led around (from behind), before being debriefed at the end of the ride.
My ride had good and bad points. Key good were mainly comments made by the police rider (Bedfordshire 388, Gary), namely that after my first couple of bends, he thought I was going to be hard to keep up with, and he also stated that it is obvious I am "at one with my machine". Grins all round! :-D

As mentioned, unfortunately there were bad points. My third corner wasn't as tidy as the first two, which showed I need to work on consistency (this will be improved as I get better at "reading the road"), I ran a red light because the cars in front moved off (DOH!), I entered a couple of corners about 5mph too fast, causing me to stray across the centre line or struggle to set up in a good position for the following bend, again down to reading the road, and I need to keep an eye out for speed limit signs, as I was both too fast and too slow for the prescribed limit at various times during the ride.

Despite being exceptionally hot, it was still a great ride, once I got used to looking in my mirror and seeing a police bike! The debrief was extremely helpful and constructive, and I can't wait to get out and practice so I can have another go, hopefully with better results :-D

Many thanks to the Beds Bikesafe team, especially Alison and Gary, and also to Martin, from the fire service.

You can find the main website for the UK Bikesafe initiative here

Friday, 25 May 2012

Wednesday, 23 May 2012

Report bad drivers in the UK

Whilst this has no legal benefit, as far as I can see, it is both amusing and disturbing to read about some of the idiots currently taking up space on our country's roads.

"Do you get angry when you see bad driving? People “cutting you up”, dangerous driving, speeding, road rage? Report bad drivers here on the official site of My Road Rage. Let the world know about the idiot you have seen. When you see bad driving or incidents of road rage, don’t get mad at the time, come here and tell the world about it. You can anonymously name and shame bad drivers – get it off your chest, it’s fun and you may even find it therapeutic."

MyRoadRage.co.uk