h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Howzit - Sowfafrican general meaningless greeting of friendship.
What's your ride - I have an old Candy-apple red BMW that my wife calls my mistress !

But I think that's just because she won't ride with me...

Left handed wave to ya W W!

"Avel du" is VFR. (she the first one I've had thats taken to hibernating in winter!)

This is something we find most strange - hibernating bikes! We are lucky to enjoy 300+ sunny days per year - rather like Australia.
At worst we have a few days rain (like this week) and a few cold nights in winter when the dew may freeze, but even then a Winter Chill-out Run is a standard long weekend on the Bike Club calendar...Hell! I didn't even have wet weather gear for the first two years I rode Candy.

As it's the first "shy" bike I've had, i'm finding it strange too!!

What's "sunny days"? Can i get hold of any in England or would i need a licence?

We've had a week of overcast drizzle weather and already we're getting very ratty at work

The bike club had a training day in October at a local raceway - in pouring rain! What a sight to see - but we learned that riding in rain is safer than we thought

Oooh! Drizzle!

We're looking forward to the drizzle, when the weather brightens up. Trouble is, summer is months away.

I had to take a 50 mile observerd ride in a real dowpour when i was being assed by a cop! Brand new (20 mile) rear tyre! It was great fun.

You guys have a hard time in Wetworld, eh?

We had a case of a non-member visiting the Bike Club. He had a new rear tyre fitted and on the way home lost the back end completely in a turn on dry tarmac with less than 10 k's on the tyre.

We were discussing the advisability of scrubbing the tyre after fitment to the rim with a coarse sandpaper to improve initial grip, especially on the outer edges. The mould release lubricant would then pose less of a problem, but the manufacturer may not honour any guarantee on the tyre. What think you?

Another incident on a weekend Club run involved a front tyre forming a bubble that grew and GREW until it physically jammed the tyre against the mudgard. Fortunately this occurred near a town, and a quick whip-it-off-and-nip-in-for-a-replacement could be carried out and the group proceeded. If it had happened in the open stretches of Northern Cape where you can be 300+k's from anywhere, it could have been a real bummer!

Thought of, but never tried sandpaper. Trouble is, as soon as you get the tyre fitted you normally just go and play!

This time work intervened.

Taught me how good my throttle control is. You should have seen the cop and me huddled under a tree trying to light a tab!!!
He asked if I wanted to postpone (most did) I said if I can ride in frost and snow a little water won't hurt.

Hey if you've got any of that drizzle left, can we have some? I've got to walk the dogs soon.