8 hours Yorkshire to Berkshire - A CBT newbie's account

[Lord Percy]

AMAZING!

If any of you saw a guy pootling along on a GN125 with a rucksack on and a huge blue saddlebag wobbling around at the back... that was me, having the most draining yet amazing first experience of a long haul motorcycle journey.

With only a CBT, I had to take a bit of a different route and specifically wanted to avoid the A1, so I took the A61 south as far as Chesterfield, then a bit of dual carriageway on the A38 towards Birmingham, then the slightly milder A423 past Coventry, onto the A45 towards Oxford and then the A34 for Newbury, and a bunch of smaller roads after that. My typical speed was between 40 and 50mph and, as some of you may be aware, my bike's been having problems with 'going fast', so it took a bit of throttle dexterity to make sure it all went smoothly.

I don't want to specifically hate for the sake of hating, but there were some dickhead car drivers who clearly went for the overtake simply because I had an L-plate on. Sometimes I allowed it and was ready for them to come past, but others swooped past at the daftest of moments. One guy overtook me as we exited a roundabout that only had one lane to exit onto. On the dual carriageways it was pretty fun having lorries go past me. I'd know they were coming without even having to look, because of the punch of the wind as they approached. And then, once they were past, I used their slipstream to get a few extra mph for a bit, hah.

I also finally understand the whole biker head nodding thing. It makes the journey that little bit more fun when people greet you along the way. And... Now, I know I'm obviously a total newbie myself, but I found it pretty hilarious when one lad came past me, also a definite newbie, who made such a blatant effort to give me a nod, it was as if his whole purpose at that moment was to get it right. To that guy: I salute your concern for such an unimportant matter

I took up the challenge/pressure/conformity of following in the style of my biker uncle and decided to go with the 'wind, rain or shine' attitude of an open-faced helmet, stuck on some shades to keep my eyes free from the wind and wrapped a scarf right over my face. It was fine, apart my eyes are now totally bloodshot and my forehead has this strange, dull cold sensation at the point where I couldn't protect it from the wind, even though I've been off the bike for about 4 hours now.

The weather was relatively ok, although it was pretty windy much of the time. Sometimes I lost a lot of speed/acceleration to high winds. Not much rain though. Do heavier bikes cope better with the wind, or is it something I'm just gonna have to learn to deal with? I felt like I might fall off at times!

Anyway that's a short newbie account of my first long trip. 250 miles in 8 hours. It was amazing and I feel like... like I've just done battle or something! I'm pooped, and I'm gonna wake up sore as hell, but it was fucking amazing, and I'm hooked.

[thepuma]

This could be the next Karl Pilkington.
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YBR125 (SOLD) - CBR250R(SOLD) - CBR650F(SOLD) Current - Street Triple
765 RS

[Lord Percy]

[Alex_B]

[blito]

Excellent stuff there m8.
Well done on your journey - I bet it felt like an epic to you! I know my 300 miles in 9 hours from Lincoln to the West Highlands felt pretty awesome on my old MZ 125.
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2012 Zontes Monster

[Andy_Pagin]

It's not the L plates, cagers will still try to kill you when you're fully licenced.
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They're coming to take me away, ho-ho, hee-hee, ha-haaa, hey-hey,
the men in white coats are coming to take me away.
Yamaha Vity -> YBR125 -> FZS600 Fazer -> FZ1-S Fazer

[Flatbadger]

Hats off, I've only been 60 miles out since my CBT.

I did my first rear-ward nod the other day to an overtaker on an A-road by nodding at my right mirror - she (it turned out - long ponytail, could still have been Francis Rossi) dropped her left arm as she went by and wiggled her fingers. Very stylish - left me feeling like Mr Bean.

[Irn-Bru]

The abuse should be all the insperation you need to get rid of the L's and get a big bike I reckon

After my CBT I never got off my scooter, then quickly got bored of having no gears, then got a DTR and never got off that either.
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KTM 990 SMT & Suzuki DR-Z 400 SM

[yaigi]

[Billo63]

[abc123321]

Quality post mate and well done.

I cant wait to get out on mine once its fixed
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You get what you give in life.