|
Author |
Message |
Mafioso |
This post is not being displayed .
|
Mafioso Two Stroke Sniffer
Joined: 26 Jan 2019 Karma :
|
|
Back to top |
|
You must be logged in to rate posts |
|
|
stinkwheel |
This post is not being displayed .
|
stinkwheel Bovine Proctologist
Joined: 12 Jul 2004 Karma :
|
Posted: 00:47 - 26 Jan 2019 Post subject: |
|
|
Just ride it. Pick somewhere to go and go there. The journey is an end in itself. Pick a route that's going to be on quieter, smaller roads and go have some fun.
If you're into that kind of thing, there are various bike rallies all through the year. Not everyones cup of tea mind.
https://cernunnos-mcc.org/whatson
The Ace Cafe has various events/meet ups throughout the year. ____________________ “Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles. |
|
Back to top |
|
You must be logged in to rate posts |
|
|
NJD |
This post is not being displayed .
|
NJD World Chat Champion
Joined: 11 Mar 2015 Karma :
|
|
Back to top |
|
You must be logged in to rate posts |
|
|
M.C |
This post is not being displayed .
|
M.C Super Spammer
Joined: 29 Sep 2015 Karma :
|
|
Back to top |
|
You must be logged in to rate posts |
|
|
Pigeon |
This post is not being displayed .
|
Pigeon World Chat Champion
Joined: 27 Sep 2012 Karma :
|
Posted: 02:55 - 26 Jan 2019 Post subject: |
|
|
Look for some squiggly 50-60mph b-roads that intersect / run alongside 60mph A-Roads.
Cars will tend to use the A-roads and on a bendy b-road the top speed will be more likely limited by the road than the bike.
Vanishing point is important as it is to remember Farm machinery / animals
I had a lot of fun bombing around b-roads to get to cafes on various beaches around the coastline. 200 miles a day for £8. Was good. |
|
Back to top |
|
You must be logged in to rate posts |
|
|
Teflon-Mike |
This post is not being displayed .
|
Teflon-Mike tl;dr
Joined: 01 Jun 2010 Karma :
|
Posted: 10:46 - 26 Jan 2019 Post subject: |
|
|
If you can commute to work on a 125, 'safely' you can pass tests.
Tests is just a set of High-Way-code questions, a set of CBT manoeuvres, and a half hour simulated commute in traffic... If you cant do that, safely, legally 'once' for half an hour.... do you 'really' think its a great idea to be trying to do it every day, on the way to work?
Now.... what you are talking about is leisure riding, and what you are doing is commuting... and I suspect that there is more than a little compounding and confounding of ideas going on here.... with more than a little kiddology trying to convince yourself that some-how, having got the bike to get to work, something you 'have' to do, you have a 'free' motorbike to go ride for 'fun'... which is a rather dangerous and slippery slope.
125's tend to have the major property of being relatively cheap.... ish. claimed 100mpg fuel consumption tends to set the bench-mark for ideas that that's 1/4 the cost of a typical car, so everything else will be too.... unfortunately don't work quite like that, and rather more demanding of routine maintenance, the 'margins' you have can get rather eroded rather quick. Then you step up to big-bikes, and the books might credit them with perhaps 60mpg... and well, Oh-Kay, but it's still better than a car.... and oooh! Look, the insurance is actually cheaper! Well... at least on a mundane commuter twin..... but, from there, actually the costs ramp; and it is pure kiddology that some-how, you buy a bike for 'transport'... and that gives you a 'free' bike for 'toy'.... it dont.
Turn the sums on their head, and the base line shouldn't be a car, which tends to be particularly expensive to run, but the 'cheapest' way to work you can get... a walking or a push-bike, or the bus..... and a bike vs a car suddenly isn't 'saving' you money, its just wasting a bit less. And, more you travel, more you waste.
If you worked other-ways about, and base lined off shank's pony or public transport, the costs would tend to come in a heck of a lot less than 'personal transport', for the simple reason that you wouldn't do the same miles, if bike or car wasn't there, or you had to pedal. So as soon as you get personal transport, you tend to start ramping the costs, doing miles that you just wouldn't, if you were limited by Shank's... Now you have three factors, 'essential travel'; 'leisure travel' and 'convenience travel'.
A-N-D... in that big-balance-sheet, the 'convenience-miles' tend to eat by far the larger share of the overall travel budget... and in the sums, time and time again, the unpalatable truth is shown, that when the costs of motoring are 'really' accounted.... it's them convenience miles that can most easily be culled, and the largest savings found, by things like, planning your shopping, or walking to the corner shop....
SO!..... toy vs transport......
And what you are talking about is leisure-biking, for pure toy... b-u-t... with some notions that 'well, the bikes there, I have to have it to get to work, its only the petrol...." and we are back to the kiddology.....
BE WARNED, be honest, with yourself.... how much do you want to spend on 'toy' and how much do you 'have' to spend on transport... there aint no such thing as a free lunch as they say.....
Back to top.... and your aspirations about 'off-roading'.... which is a can of worms.... if you mean genuine not on public roads 'off-roading', as opposed to loose-surface riding... well.... less than 1% of the UK's public road network is loose surface 'green-lanes'.. of which there aren't that many around the nations biggest city..... and they are STILL 'roads'.... rather like the fact that the local ring road isn't a race-track... and they tend 'not' to be all that challenging... little more than a farmers track, probably better graded in a lot of cases than many city streets!
Back to the toy vs transport and the costs of commuting..... I got into 'genuine' off-reading almost forty years ago, via School-boy trials; cos I wasn't old enough to have a moped on Her-Majesty's .... Trials, is still just about the cheapest form of Motorsport you can tackle; costs less than £50 to get licenced up and join a club for a year, and you might even squeeze a crash hat out of that. Event entries are around a £10 a time, and the costs of an event, including getting there, not a lot more.
Rationalising transport budgets when my first-born were in nappies, I SORNED the road bike, and went back to trialzin, and a 12 event 'season' with one club, cost me 'all in' about as much as the insurance did on the road-bike.....
IF you want to ride genuinely 'off-road', that's a lot of bang for your buck.... its pure 'toy' and it dont matter if you bend bike on a Sunday, you don't need it to get you to work on Monday... and you get four or five hours of total unadulterated genuinely 'challenging' riding for your money.... and a results sheet that says just how crap you did, rather than fisher-mans tales to try brag about at the bar... no gasto's no plod hiding in hedrows, no road-works to hold you up.... Its unadulterated off-road 'fun' and about as much as you can get for your money... which dont have to be a lot... I know blokes that spend more to dangle a bit of string in a muddy puddle in the vein hgope of outwitting a creature without a brain... they wont even eat, but chuck back in the puddle!!! Well, they iz having fun, I suppose... But that's the issue.
Riding for fun, 'costs' and how best to get the most fun for your money. If your idea of fun is falling off mountains under a motorbike.... y-e-r-s-- not REALLY sure having said that, even I can justify it as 'fun'... makes the chap trying to out-wit-a-fish, catching nowt but a cold, seem quite sensible actually.... BUT.... if you want that sort of fun... go do it for real... it needn't cost 'that' much, and you cant kid yourself that some-how its 'free' paid for by some bizarre anti-maths by the way you get to work....
Back to the commuting.... GO GET A LICENCE! as aid, if you can commute safely, you can get a licence, it aint that hard. If you cant get a licence... begs the question why are you trying to commute?
A-N-D that brings us back around to the issue of leisure biking, and the social side of it all....and again, how much you try kid yourself that that's 'free-fun'... and how much it may cost compare to, I don't know... going down the pub, or playing golf... BUT.... for starters lessons is a social activity; you are paying some-one to ride with you and watch you wobble... and you should get more from it than bragging rights when you reach the pub... you can get a licence.....
I instructed for an old skool BMF outfit, and we used to offer weekly 125 lessons, cos in them days you could still get a proper licence on a 125; but we had 125 ride-outs on a Sunday or some-times on a Friday afternoon. There were also organised ride-outs, like to the annual NEC show, or other bike events... but it was the entry point to club biking, and from the ride-outrs you had the option to join the rallies, and spend a week-end in a muddy field with a bonfire and a crate of beer...
Which may or may not be your cup-of tea, but..... whole smorgas board of stuff to hp and do bike-wise, from riding out to a hill-climb to a National Super-Bike race, as well as them muddy fields which might be some-where like the Isle of Man, with side-car loons waking you up at silly 'oclock in the AM practising, on the (Closed) public road, eight feet away, the other side of a dry-stone wall!
A-N-D I get eventually to the point... GO TO SCHOOL, go get a licence, thems your entry points tou ALL biking may have to offer.... you are like the fisherman, only hanging around the gutter at the end of your drive, with a my-first-fishing-rod kit from the post-office, wondering where all the 'fun' is at.....
But, before you try, do a little reality check, and dial in expectations to the level they can be realised, and cut out a big chunk of over enthusiastic kiddology, expecting that free-lunch....
Remember, Toy or Transport..... and on the toy front, IS a bike the way you really want to spend money looking for fun... and if so, IS looking for that fun on her Majesty's really the best place to get any of it?
And epic Charley and Ewan off-road trans-continental over-land adventures? Yeah... they 'may' be just a tad ambitious at this stage.... but still.... start point is STILL going to school, and getting that licence. ____________________ My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?' |
|
Back to top |
|
You must be logged in to rate posts |
|
|
TbirdX |
This post is not being displayed .
|
TbirdX Crazy Courier
Joined: 06 Dec 2015 Karma :
|
|
Back to top |
|
You must be logged in to rate posts |
|
|
grr666 |
This post is not being displayed .
|
grr666 Super Spammer
Joined: 16 Jun 2014 Karma :
|
|
Back to top |
|
You must be logged in to rate posts |
|
|
chickenstrip |
This post is not being displayed .
|
chickenstrip Super Spammer
Joined: 06 Dec 2013 Karma :
|
Posted: 13:01 - 26 Jan 2019 Post subject: |
|
|
Having mates to piss about with did help to keep my interest up when I was on learner bikes, it's true. The bikes themselves were hardly inspiring. But also, the bike bug had well and truly bitten from the influence of my brother and his mates who were all fully licensed and on big bikes. I read bike magazines a lot, which also fired my enthusiasm - some of them were actually quite good back then, and got me aspiring to do some of the things that they were writing about. And the bikes themselves - in my eyes, some were works of art, and reading about how much fun they were just to ride, anywhere, gave me a hankering!
It's hard for me to see how you could have got into riding without some kind of inspiration from somewhere. I suppose it was just the idea of 'cheap' transport and getting from A to B with more ease than sitting in traffic in a car? That wouldn't have been enough for me.
All I can suggest is have a look around at what other people do with their bikes. And be sure to get that full licence - it's the gateway to being able to do all these different things. Unless you just want to go racing, but you've suggested touring might be for you. So yes, I'd say focus on getting your full licence and moving onto bigger bikes for now. A bigger bike will open up more possibilities, and what to do should then flow from that. ____________________ Chickenystripgeezer's Biking Life (Latest update 19/10/18) Belgium, France, Italy, Austria tour 2016 Picos de Europa, Pyrenees and French Alps tour 2017 Scotland Trip 1, now with BONUS FEATURE edit, 5/10/19, on page 2 Scotland Trip 2 Luxembourg, Black Forest, Switzerland, Vosges Trip 2017
THERE'S MILLIONS OF CHICKENSTRIPS OUT THERE! |
|
Back to top |
|
You must be logged in to rate posts |
|
|
redeem ouzzer |
This post is not being displayed .
|
redeem ouzzer World Chat Champion
Joined: 06 Oct 2015 Karma :
|
|
Back to top |
|
You must be logged in to rate posts |
|
|
chickenstrip |
This post is not being displayed .
|
chickenstrip Super Spammer
Joined: 06 Dec 2013 Karma :
|
Posted: 13:24 - 26 Jan 2019 Post subject: |
|
|
Hmm, gotta say, I don't know why anyone would bother with a Street Triple for just "a form of transport".
I think M.C's on a bit of a downer today - cheer up! ____________________ Chickenystripgeezer's Biking Life (Latest update 19/10/18) Belgium, France, Italy, Austria tour 2016 Picos de Europa, Pyrenees and French Alps tour 2017 Scotland Trip 1, now with BONUS FEATURE edit, 5/10/19, on page 2 Scotland Trip 2 Luxembourg, Black Forest, Switzerland, Vosges Trip 2017
THERE'S MILLIONS OF CHICKENSTRIPS OUT THERE! |
|
Back to top |
|
You must be logged in to rate posts |
|
|
M.C |
This post is not being displayed .
|
M.C Super Spammer
Joined: 29 Sep 2015 Karma :
|
|
Back to top |
|
You must be logged in to rate posts |
|
|
chickenstrip |
This post is not being displayed .
|
chickenstrip Super Spammer
Joined: 06 Dec 2013 Karma :
|
Posted: 14:03 - 26 Jan 2019 Post subject: |
|
|
M.C wrote: |
chickenstrip wrote: | Hmm, gotta say, I don't know why anyone would bother with a Street Triple for just "a form of transport".
I think M.C's on a bit of a downer today - cheer up! |
Do people with an S Class or 7 Series drive to a shit cafe to talk a load of shit about cars? |
What are you banging on about?! ____________________ Chickenystripgeezer's Biking Life (Latest update 19/10/18) Belgium, France, Italy, Austria tour 2016 Picos de Europa, Pyrenees and French Alps tour 2017 Scotland Trip 1, now with BONUS FEATURE edit, 5/10/19, on page 2 Scotland Trip 2 Luxembourg, Black Forest, Switzerland, Vosges Trip 2017
THERE'S MILLIONS OF CHICKENSTRIPS OUT THERE! |
|
Back to top |
|
You must be logged in to rate posts |
|
|
Ste |
This post is not being displayed .
|
Ste Not Work Safe
Joined: 01 Sep 2002 Karma :
|
|
Back to top |
|
You must be logged in to rate posts |
|
|
grr666 |
This post is not being displayed .
|
grr666 Super Spammer
Joined: 16 Jun 2014 Karma :
|
|
Back to top |
|
You must be logged in to rate posts |
|
|
M.C |
This post is not being displayed .
|
M.C Super Spammer
Joined: 29 Sep 2015 Karma :
|
|
Back to top |
|
You must be logged in to rate posts |
|
|
chris_hu_cheng |
This post is not being displayed .
|
chris_hu_cheng Renault 5 Driver
Joined: 06 Jul 2018 Karma :
|
Posted: 17:54 - 26 Jan 2019 Post subject: |
|
|
Get on it, go somewhere where you don't have to and see what happens .
Run errands for people to pick up small items, any excuse "I'll pop down the supermarket and get that for you" (the supermarket in the next town..).
Visit friends and relatives you haven't seen for too long.
Find interesting bends with 'suggested' max speeds (eg, 25mph) work out a loop and try again and again to see how fast you can safely get around.
Work out what you need to do for the tests and go out on practice sessions, imagining the examiner is behind you, practicing in a carpark you find (I carried sturdy coloured plastic party cups in my backpack to stand in for cones).
Take a deep breath, calm down and jump on the bike to relax when overworked or overstressed.
That worked for me. |
|
Back to top |
|
You must be logged in to rate posts |
|
|
Sir Clip |
This post is not being displayed .
|
Sir Clip Two Stroke Sniffer
Joined: 08 Jun 2018 Karma :
|
Posted: 18:05 - 26 Jan 2019 Post subject: |
|
|
Hi Mafioso,
Apart from your commute (and if as you say you have no mates to ride with,) you seem stuck for different places to ride to?
When in a similar situation, I used to attend far-flung car boot sales, bid on local (50 mile radius) "collect only" ebay items, visit places asocciated with hobbies and interests....sometimes would strap a tent and dossbag on the back and go to a steam rally or summat.
I would plan the route avoiding dual carrigeways, and A roads if possible ....... being an old git able to read an OS map I would try to include steep, twisty, narrow, single-track or whatever.
I should add that I got lost frequently, but meh, I'm on a road, it leads somewhere, and I always get home. Mostly with a big smile on my face. |
|
Back to top |
|
You must be logged in to rate posts |
|
|
chickenstrip |
This post is not being displayed .
|
chickenstrip Super Spammer
Joined: 06 Dec 2013 Karma :
|
Posted: 18:29 - 26 Jan 2019 Post subject: |
|
|
M.C wrote: | chickenstrip wrote: |
What are you banging on about?! |
You can see vehicles as a form of transport and still want a nice vehicle. |
Nope, still don't get you ____________________ Chickenystripgeezer's Biking Life (Latest update 19/10/18) Belgium, France, Italy, Austria tour 2016 Picos de Europa, Pyrenees and French Alps tour 2017 Scotland Trip 1, now with BONUS FEATURE edit, 5/10/19, on page 2 Scotland Trip 2 Luxembourg, Black Forest, Switzerland, Vosges Trip 2017
THERE'S MILLIONS OF CHICKENSTRIPS OUT THERE! |
|
Back to top |
|
You must be logged in to rate posts |
|
|
linuxyeti |
This post is not being displayed .
|
linuxyeti World Chat Champion
Joined: 06 Oct 2006 Karma :
|
Posted: 18:46 - 26 Jan 2019 Post subject: |
|
|
Don't worry about finding riding buddies, or joining a local mcc, they only either hold you back, or will try and lower your self esteem, especially, those that advertise rides as 'a progressive ride' usually full of people up their own arses. Ride yourself, and, if you do have mates that ride, arrange to meet them at a destination, rather than a 'ride' out together. ____________________ Beware what photos you upload, or link to on here, especially if you have family members on them |
|
Back to top |
|
You must be logged in to rate posts |
|
|
Polarbear |
This post is not being displayed .
|
Polarbear Super Spammer
Joined: 24 Feb 2007 Karma :
|
|
Back to top |
|
You must be logged in to rate posts |
|
|
Mafioso |
This post is not being displayed .
|
Mafioso Two Stroke Sniffer
Joined: 26 Jan 2019 Karma :
|
|
Back to top |
|
You must be logged in to rate posts |
|
|
Mafioso |
This post is not being displayed .
|
Mafioso Two Stroke Sniffer
Joined: 26 Jan 2019 Karma :
|
|
Back to top |
|
You must be logged in to rate posts |
|
|
Mafioso |
This post is not being displayed .
|
Mafioso Two Stroke Sniffer
Joined: 26 Jan 2019 Karma :
|
Posted: 02:54 - 29 Jan 2019 Post subject: |
|
|
chickenstrip wrote: | Having mates to piss about with did help to keep my interest up when I was on learner bikes, it's true. The bikes themselves were hardly inspiring. But also, the bike bug had well and truly bitten from the influence of my brother and his mates who were all fully licensed and on big bikes. I read bike magazines a lot, which also fired my enthusiasm - some of them were actually quite good back then, and got me aspiring to do some of the things that they were writing about. And the bikes themselves - in my eyes, some were works of art, and reading about how much fun they were just to ride, anywhere, gave me a hankering!
It's hard for me to see how you could have got into riding without some kind of inspiration from somewhere. I suppose it was just the idea of 'cheap' transport and getting from A to B with more ease than sitting in traffic in a car? |
Well the backstory is that i do have friends who ride, they just don't live in London any more. Between talking to them and looking at some of the motorbike touring series on the net (since i love traveling) is what gave me the bug to get on a bike. Unfortunately the period between me deciding to do it and being able to do it was long enough that my 2 closest mates who ride both moved to Sweden.
Hence i still have the urge to do it, but no longer the community to do it with, if that makes sense. ____________________ "I wild each it lol that meet their naked" |
|
Back to top |
|
You must be logged in to rate posts |
|
|
Mafioso |
This post is not being displayed .
|
Mafioso Two Stroke Sniffer
Joined: 26 Jan 2019 Karma :
|
Posted: 02:56 - 29 Jan 2019 Post subject: |
|
|
chris_hu_cheng wrote: | Get on it, go somewhere where you don't have to and see what happens .
Run errands for people to pick up small items, any excuse "I'll pop down the supermarket and get that for you" (the supermarket in the next town..).
Visit friends and relatives you haven't seen for too long.
Find interesting bends with 'suggested' max speeds (eg, 25mph) work out a loop and try again and again to see how fast you can safely get around.
Work out what you need to do for the tests and go out on practice sessions, imagining the examiner is behind you, practicing in a carpark you find (I carried sturdy coloured plastic party cups in my backpack to stand in for cones).
Take a deep breath, calm down and jump on the bike to relax when overworked or overstressed.
That worked for me. |
Noted, and thanks.
The test prep thing is something i'm starting on already, visiting a local Morrisons to practice u-turns in their parking lot. ____________________ "I wild each it lol that meet their naked" |
|
Back to top |
|
You must be logged in to rate posts |
|
|
Old Thread Alert!
The last post was made 5 years, 60 days ago. Instead of replying here, would creating a new thread be more useful? |
|
|
|