L is for Lych gate#
Sat Nov 30 17:46:11 2024
I didn't go offroading today, but there was enough mud, gravel and water on the roads I did go on that it might be hard to tell the difference. Lesson: Kurviger is not for winter.
L is for "Lych-gate", with a side order of L is for "Light is fading fast" and of course L is for "Liquid" (see previous post).
According to reliable sources on the internet(sic), lychgates (from the Anglo Saxon word 'lich' meaning corpse) outside churches mark the division between consecrated and unconsecrated ground, and are so called because in a funeral ceremony that's where the coffin bearers and the body would wait for the priest. Assuming that I didn't get terribly terribly lost and end up at the wrong church completely, this is St Mary's in Great Canfield
Many years of street skating has given me a pretty good feel for the amount of grip available on different road surfaces, and the surfaces today were wet greasy muddy and generally yuck. I do suspect that there is still more traction available from a big fat sportsbike tyre than from 4x110mm plastic wheels and I was being probably way too cautious - but I know of no non-catastrophic way of finding out just how much more, so there we are
My airbag vest arrived#
Sat Dec 14 14:45:29 2024
My airbag vest arrived today, earlier than expected. Its a mechanical tether system, so the options are either a long strap with a buckle that goes around the seat, or a short strap with a hole in it that can be bolted to the frame, if you have a suitable existing threaded hole and bolt in the frame.
I've gone for the second option, and attached it to one of the bolts that holds the rear footpeg on. I had to enlarge the hole in the strap a little (hot nail) but think it'll be fine. Pictures are of the strap with the fairing pushed back to get access, and of everything in place
I realise I didn't post here about my change of mind. I decided to place an order for the M1 vest (not the V1 as I erroneously referred to it) , because an airbag with a sleeveless jacket seems a bit pointless when I could buy an airbag with no jacket at all. The web site said expected 3rd Jan, which was fine as I 'm not expecting much time for riding anyway in the next couple of weeks, so I was quite pleasantly surprised first to get an order confirmation saying expected Monday, and then to get a text message this morning saying out for delivery.
Anyway, I've tried it on over normal clothes and the S size seems right for my weedy upper body (36" chest if I puff it out) : there are a couple of straps/buckles to adjust it so it looks like it can go a fair bit bigger or smaller. Haven't tried it over riding kit: as per above, I'm not expecting much time for riding anyway in the next couple of weeks,
Looking at the pictures, yes, it does look like the buckle could dangle into the path of the wheel if I (or anyone) is riding without the airbag attached. (It doesn't, but maybe it could when the suspension's loaded). Should figure out how to clip it out of the way somehow
Or I could rotate the strap to come out of the other side.
The minor misgiving I have about this is the possibility that because the strap is behind the plastics, an "airbag event" could pull on it and snap the plastic. But maybe in an airbag deployment event then a broken fairing is not the most pressing of my concerns
M is for Microwave Mast in the Mist#
Sat Dec 28 16:55:49 2024
M is for Microwave Mast in the Mist. The photo mostly shows mist, but
if you look carefully you can see above the tree a tall structure made
from metal girders (I assume) in triangle shapes that looks a bit like
an electricity pylon and/or a skeletal Barad-dûr.
Going to see the microwave mast was the original plan, the weather
just turned up as I was riding along. Yesterday I looked at how much
free time I would theoretically have today for riding, and at the
weather forecast for cold but bright sun, and decided I'd save the
mast for another day and take a longer ride out to Finchingfield: "the
most photographed village in England" and also a bit of a biker
hotspot. But by the time I'd had lunch today I looked again at the
remaining hours before darkness and reverted to the original plan.
Which, when the mist came down, I'm rather glad I did. In the total ~
2 hours riding I saw one (1) other rider who might have been out for a
leisure ride, so I doubt there were many folk at Finchingfield anyway
The mast is at Kelvedon Hatch (according to
the map, also not far from the site of a Secret Nuclear Bunker) and was
originally part of the BT (read: "Post Office") microwave backbone
network for TV transmissions, before being made obsolete by fibre optics
Weather: ~ 6°, damp, fine mist on glasses and on visor. I wore my
heated gloves but didn't have to actually turn them on until ~ 10
minutes from home. One more data point to add re: RST Paragon 6 heated
gloves - it's easy to turn the right glove on while riding along, but
it needs practice or a long traffic queue to reliably activate the
left glove and turn it down from its default "heart of the sun" to
"comfortable" setting
Roads: also damp, but not grievously so. Hard to "make progress" when
you can't actually see as far as the next bend, so mostly I
didn't. The mist cleared on the way back, which was welcome and meant
I could stip pulling over to wipe moisture off glass surfaces
Bike: plumes of white smoke when I turned it on, but they cleared
after about a minute. I'm hoping this was just condensation in the
exhaust evaporating and the reason I've never noticed it before is I
haven't ridden in this degree of cold + wet. It seemed fine after that.
Airbag: first time out wearing the airbag. It felt a little bit heavy
and restrictive when I first put it on (like being hugged) but after a
few minutes I stopped noticing it. I tried twice to dismount the bike
without unclipping the tether, and it didn't deploy either time, which
is fortunate I guess. It's supposed to be quite hard to set off
mistakenly.
MotoRadds Gopro helmet chin mount: first time out using this too, but
I forgot to turn the camera on before the mist came down and I didn't
see much point in turning it on after the mist came down. I can say it
didn't fall off, and I can say it didn't get in my field of view at
all, so that's OK.
Wondering if a Pinlock would have helped in these conditions. I
usually ride with the visor up until I get to about 30 or 40 because I
value being able to see where I'm going more than I value a warm face
("while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items
on the left more") but it would have been nice to not have my glasses
lenses adding to the fog.
Addendum to last Tuesday's chain cleaning tool review: this was also the first ride since I cleaned the chain, and although there was some degree of fling which will need wiping off, not nearly as much as last time
N is for New Town#
Tue Dec 31 17:12:15 2024
Anyway, N is for New Town, which is a sculpture by Nicola Burrell, which is in Harlow, which is a New Town. The New Towns were a big
postwar government project so that people in substandard or bombed-out
accommodation in cities would have somewhere better to move to, so
Harlow was previously a small village up until 1947, then quite
suddenly a medium-sized town.
This last ride of 2024 was a milestone because it's the first
time I have ever successfully overtaken a car on a single-carriageway
(one lane in each direction) road. Waited for a straight bit, nothing
coming, moved out into the opposing lane for a better view, dropped a
gear and opened the throttle, and the car driver didn't decide to
speed up as I went past - or if they did, didn't react quickly enough
to stop me from getting past. So that was a nice confidence booster.
Better weather than Saturday, albeit quite windy (20mph gusting to
40). I'd been wondering for a while how much wind is OK for
motorcycling - I'd have no qualms at all about riding on any of my
much lighter pedal cycles in these conditions, but none of them are
fully faired and none of them can go at 70 mph (at least, not with me
riding). Turns out it was fine: I could tell the wind was there but
it wasn't blowing me around and didn't feel unsafe.
https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/new-town-244275/view_as/grid/search/2024--makers:nicola-burrell-b1966/page/1
Ahaha, I win at getting files from GoPro : it works with go-mtpfs when you use a different USB cable than the one you didn't know was dodgy.
Would like to point out that my speedo overreads slightly and this overtake was conducted entirely within the 60mph legal speed limit, officer.
Couple of rather cool vehicles pulled up alongside as I was waiting at the lights.
I didn't see the trike had L-plates until I looked at the photo just now. From the amount of noise it was making I'm quite surprised if it was a 125