Now you can pay even less attention

According to the Beeb:

A convoy of self-driven cars has completed a 200km (125-mile) journey on a Spanish motorway, in the first public test of such vehicles.

The cars were wirelessly linked to each other and "mimicked" a lead vehicle, driven by a professional driver.

The so-called road train has been developed by Volvo. The firm is confident that they will be widely available in future.

The project aims to herald a new age of relaxed driving.

It may be relaxed, but to what extent is it 'driving' at all?  Are we 'driving' when on the bus or in a train?  Seems like the input is about the same.

According to Volvo, drivers "can now work on their laptops, read a book or sit back and enjoy a relaxed lunch" while driving.

Correction: drivers "can continue work on their laptops, read a book or sit back and enjoy a relaxed lunch" while driving.  Ask any motorcyclist, or indeed any car driver with moderate observation skills.

I nearly got taken out in Anna's car this morning.  A 90° blind bend on a tiny country road, van driver in the middle of the road, phone in one hand, enjoying a vigorous conversation, while he palmed the wheel round with the other. When he saw us he palmed the wheel further round with a squeal of tyres and sped off - still talking.

Death penalty for someone, one day.

Horses for courses

This post may read like a statement of the bleedin' obvious, but bear with me. I've had a kind of revelation.

On Saturday, I took the XT out for probably the longest day's ride I have ever done on it - 268 miles.  For the last 50 miles, I was alternately standing on the pegs and than leaning forward with my feet out behind doing a Superman impression, all to relieve the stiffness in my back and the aches in my legs.  Much as I love the XT, I have to confess that by the time I got home I was suffering and cursing the head-up, knees-out riding position.

On Sunday, I took the Sprint out for what was planned as a morning's outing, to grab a serious biking breakfast and do a few miles to scrub in some new tyres.  I met some of the Triumph Club in Llandovery and we partook of the West End Cafe's All Day Breakfasts.  No-one seemed keen on moving on (having third and even fourth cups of coffee) and I had to get to work that night, so I took my leave of them and, on the spur of the moment, decided to take the long way home. For reasons which I won't go into, but which involved a dodgy free iPhone Satnav app, an upside-down paper map, and some very poor signage on the Brecon by-pass, I got home several hours later, having visited Brecon (three times), Lampeter, Newcastle Emlyn and Cardigan.  Total distance 191 miles.

Now, after I got home from the Saturday ride (and curiously about 30 seconds after I had pressed Publish on the earlier post) I had a bout of cramp in my left leg which lasted about 15 minutes and was incredibly painful, leaving me sweating and limping pathetically.  I assumed this was at least partially as a result of the day's exertions, and was a little anxious that Sunday's ride might bring a return of the cramp, so I was very alert to any symptoms while I was riding.

Not a bit of it.  When I got home on Sunday afternoon, I could have turned round and done it all again. The Sprint makes riding fast and far so easy it's almost wicked.  The riding position is part of it - leaning forward, but not too much weight on the wrists, and the legs tucked up but not uncomfortably so - meaning that at any speed from walking pace to three figures the body is balanced and relaxed.  The other factor is the engine.  Plenty of power, enough to be relaxed at any reasonable speed, but always eager and willing.  At 65, the XT is working and lets you know it.  At the same speed, the Sprint is polishing its nails and whistling a jaunty tune while wondering what to have for tea. 

Logically, of course, this is completely predictable, and only goes to show that things which are designed to a purpose are better at doing the thing they are designed for than things which are designed for something completely different.  So far, so obvious.  Of course a sports tourer will munch distances in a way that a dirt bike cannot.  Equally, if the day had consisted of some green laning and forest tracks I would be saying how clumsy the Sprint was where the XT was smooth and adept.

What has rather taken me aback is how much the difference really is.  It's almost like they were different modes of transport altogether - like a passenger jet compared to a pogo stick.  This is the kind of knowledge that is always there in the brain (after all, the concept is hardly difficult), but which takes a practical demonstration to make 'real'.  I don't think I have ever done two substantial rides on such different bikes back-to-back in this way ever before, and I am still quite amazed at just how different they were.  I imagine readers who drive very fast cars will know what I mean.  100 miles changes from a distant goal to a mere waypoint on a longer journey.

Horses for courses: the XT is still the best commuter and shopping hack.

No brainer

While I was enjoying a fantastic ride with the XT500/Thumper Club (see previous post), a text from the lovely Jo (Secretary of the Triumph Owner's Club) inviegled its way into my telephonic inbox*.

She, and as many as respond to her textual solicitations, will be meeting in the West End cafe, Llandovery at 10 am tomorrow for breakfast, followed by a group ride at 11.30 to ... well, no-one has decided yet, but in that part of Wales you are spoilt for choice. The problem is, tomorrow is a work day, but I don't start until 9 pm.

Normally, I would give myself an easy day in preparation for a 12-hour night shift, starting with getting up as late as possible.  However, there are a number of contraindications to this:

• The weather forecast is good
• Jo is great company, as are the other members who are likely to turn up
• A mega-breakfast on a Sunday is never a bad idea
• I fitted a set of Michelin Pilot Road 2s to the Sprint on Friday, and they need to be scrubbed in.

I think I have a solution.  Get to Llandovery for 10 am, meet the guys, eat an artery-clogging fry-up, ride home again, and have a kip in the afternoon.  If the agreed route involves heading towards Aberystwyth, I will join them for the first part and then head home down the coast road.  120 miles (or more) of Welsh twistery should see the shine off the new tyres, and the breakfast should put a smile on my face.  Work can go hang.  I'll get through it.


* While I was on the Rosslare-Fishguard ferry last week, and on the Internet At Sea service, my phone's browser defaulted to Google Norway for no discernible reason.  For this I learned that the Norwegish for 'inbox' is 'innboks'.  This pleases me greatly.

A little stiff ...

You at the back there, stop giggling.

It is the weekend of the (now) annual XT500 and Thumper Club International meeting, held (as before) at the Baskerville Hall Hotel, Clyro, in Powys.  I missed the first one in 2009, but made the last two.  This time, there was too much going on at home to justify a full weekend camping in the Welsh hills, so I just went up for the day.  This meant a 100-mile ride up there, a rideout with about 50 bikes, and a ride home again.  268 miles in total, which is the most I have ever covered in a day on the XT.  I think the previous record was the 100 miles from home to Clyro.  One thing is for sure: in its present configuration, it is not a long-distance tool.  My legs, arse and back are aching like buggery, and I don't think I will be able to stand up straight again.

The rideout was around the dams and reservoirs of the Elan Valley, close to Rhayader.  This is a favourite route of mine, and it was no hardship to do it again.  Proof, if any were needed, that there is no danger of a hosepipe ban in Wales:

You are looking at almost 10 billion litres of water here

(Actually that's wrong: there is no danger of a hosepipe ban in Birmingham, a source of considerable irritation to local people when the dams were constructed in 1893, and many hill farmers were forcibly evacuated and whole villages were drowned for the benefit of English consumers 73 miles away.)

After a coffee at some tea rooms at the old Erwood railway halt, I left the guys to it (for some reason I felt I didn't really need a barbecue and several bottles of genuine Belgian beer) and headed home.  My route took me across a wonderful bridge spanning the River Wye.  At first I thought it was a footbridge, but on closer examination it was indeed wide enough for one car, as long as the door mirrors were folded in.

It was built in 1922, and a cast iron sign at the entrance states that it is suitable only for vehicles up to five tons, on four wheels, and moving at a speed not exceeding four miles per hour.  The XT is one-sixth of a ton, has two wheels, and was travelling at considerably more than 4 mph, but we made it.  The views of the river from the bridge were spectacular:

The bridge can be found here.

The Yamahaha was obviously pleased at passing its exams on Wednesday, as it ran like a champ all day.  It's an honest, unglamorous workhorse and it brings a smile to my face every time I throw a leg over it.  I love this bike (have I said that already?) and will never sell it, but I'm not sure I would choose it if I had to be in Berlin by tomorrow tea-time.  My nether regions would never recover.  Here it is amongst friends and relations:

Driving test petition

If you're not interested in the motorcycling content of this blog (and why would you be, you're normal, aren't you?), please read a little further anyway, as this concerns everyone who has an interest in road safety.


Motorcycles are very different from cars, which is why some of us are so fond of them as a mode of transport.  On the positive side, they are generally much more agile and manoeuvrable, a lot quicker off the mark, and cheaper to run than a car.  Riding is physical in a way that driving a car isn't, and this physicality is part of the pleasure.  There are numerous negatives: exposure to bad weather, greater vulnerability to poor road surfaces, and of course the risk of much greater injury in the event of an accident.  There are big differences in the way a bike needs to be ridden, as well.  Hard braking on a bike requires skill and practice, whereas in a car most emergencies can be dealt with by mashing the middle pedal and letting the ABS sort it out.  A few bits of gravel, a wet manhole cover or a spot of diesel on a corner might cause a small slide in a car as one wheel out of four loses grip.  On a bike, you're down on your side and heading into the scenery.

Bikers clearly have different needs from the car driver.  We are less easily seen, we fall over a lot more easily, and if we hit, or are hit by, something it causes us a lot more damage.  In the Highway Code we come into the category of 'Road users requiring special care'.  Sections 211 to 213 cover the approach to cyclists and bikers; briefly: look out for them as they are less easily seen, give them room when passing them (!), and be prepared for sudden changes of direction due to changes in the road surface.

All well and good.  So how many questions in the driving test ask for understanding about sharing the road with motorcycles?  Answer: zero.  I think, given that the Highway Code is so clear on the issue, that this is a bit of an anomaly.  Bennetts, the specialist motorcycle insurers, are backing a campaign to get bike-related questions included in the driving test.  There is a petition which, if it reaches 100,000 signatures, will be passed to Parliament for debate.  At present, there are 37,529, so it is well on the way.

If you feel that this would be a good idea, please pop along to www.bikerpetition.co.uk and add your name.  It's not going to cost anything (other than Parliamentary time, and what else would they be doing anyway?), and nobody is going to be compelled to do anything or stop doing anything.  The petition is just asking for a small change in focus in the structure of the driving test to ensure that the needs of motorcyclists are made a little bit more prominent.

If you do go and sign, you have my sincere thanks.