When/Where/Pics was the last time you rode your bike ?

[Taipan]

Long way home…

[Skub]

Long way home…

They haz green bits in that there Lundun? Or did you go a really,really long way home?

[Taipan]

Long way home…

They haz green bits in that there Lundun? Or did you go a really,really long way home?

I work in the city but live in the green (er) bits outside of it!

[ZRX61]

[Skub]

Was meant to be sunny today,instead it was quite cool and overcast,but at least it was dry. Banged in a couple of hours good,enjoyable riding.

[Beancounter]

Long way home…

Wasn't you and your hypermotard that got stopped on Victoria Embankment just after Blackfriars Underpass this morning?

[Taipan]

Long way home…

Wasn't you and your hypermotard that got stopped on Victoria Embankment just after Blackfriars Underpass this morning?

Yes. That was me getting nicked!

[Yorick]

Long way home…

Wasn't you and your hypermotard that got stopped on Victoria Embankment just after Blackfriars Underpass this morning?

Yeah, he's a wrong 'un

[Yorick]

Long way home…

Wasn't you and your hypermotard that got stopped on Victoria Embankment just after Blackfriars Underpass this morning?

Yes. That was me getting nicked!

Go on then, how fast?

[Taipan]

Wasn't you and your hypermotard that got stopped on Victoria Embankment just after Blackfriars Underpass this morning?

Yes. That was me getting nicked!

Go on then, how fast?

No fast enough, he caught me!

[Beancounter]

Long way home…

Wasn't you and your hypermotard that got stopped on Victoria Embankment just after Blackfriars Underpass this morning?

Yes. That was me getting nicked!

Fuck. They've been sitting along Embankment quite a bit, usually just after Temple. FPN or a meeting with the magistrate?

You passed me on the Highway, I doubt you'll have seen me but I was on my R1200RT two-up. I think I was on the hatchings whilst you were splitting lanes 1 and 2.

[Skub]

Wasn't you and your hypermotard that got stopped on Victoria Embankment just after Blackfriars Underpass this morning?

Yes. That was me getting nicked!

Fuck. They've been sitting along Embankment quite a bit, usually just after Temple. FPN or a meeting with the magistrate?

Prolly reports of a dangerously loud Ducati being ridden in an antisocial manner.

These people need taking off our roads.

[Taipan]

Wasn't you and your hypermotard that got stopped on Victoria Embankment just after Blackfriars Underpass this morning?

Yes. That was me getting nicked!

Fuck. They've been sitting along Embankment quite a bit, usually just after Temple. FPN or a meeting with the magistrate?

You passed me on the Highway, I doubt you'll have seen me but I was on my R1200RT two-up. I think I was on the hatchings whilst you were splitting lanes 1 and 2.

I'd been following a food delivery guy on a scooter who was tying a sportsbike in knots all along the highway and passed the tower to the roadworks . Very funny. Thought i'd have a listen to the exhaust in the near empty tunnel...

[Whysub]

Just back home after a 5,958 km (3,700 miles) ride to Czechia and back. Only notable rain started as I left Millau yesterday, and lasted for about 90kms. Bright sunshine today.

Even did a bit of off road in Czechia. What a mistake.

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Needs a wash tomorrow-the rain shifted hardly any of it.

[Skub]

We appear to be having our Summer this week.

[Whysub]

And we appear to be having what I remember as a normal British summer here. Forecast to piss down all week. Bike won't be getting washed, nor any more dirty, for a while.

[Bigyin]

Parked up at the test centre waiting for my Mod 2 pupils to come back in from test



They both passed but one of the car examiners left on a test and came walking back in 15 minutes later …… I said “didn’t you leave here in a car a short time ago” , she replied “test terminated for the safety of the road going public” ….. oops

Couple of minutes later car instructor came running out of the test centre and away up the road

[David]

I never had that happen in years of instructing....

[Skub]

A good three solid hours riding,early today. Quiet roads,but cool enough at 10° to 12°. Heated grips etc were very welcome.

[The Spin Doctor]

They both passed but one of the car examiners left on a test and came walking back in 15 minutes later …… I said “didn’t you leave here in a car a short time ago” , she replied “test terminated for the safety of the road going public” ….. oops

Couple of minutes later car instructor came running out of the test centre and away up the road

That is pretty grim when that happens.

Out of several thousand, I had one test cut short. The trainee bottled it on a notoriously complex roundabout with multiple lanes, five exits and several sets of lights on the roundabout itself.

He forgot everything he'd been taught about getting into the correct lane on approach and got into the wrong one, then forgot the advice I'd given him not less than a dozen times (last time was five minutes before his test) that in the event of ending up in the wrong lane "to go the wrong way right, and not to try to get into the correct lane by changing lane mid-roundabout".

So having got into the lane leading into a superstore - the exit BEFORE the one he wanted - that's where he should have gone. The examiner would have turned him round and got him back out on the road, almost certainly without marking it even as a minor error.

But he realised at the last moment he wasn't going where he'd been told to go, so swerved to the next lane out to the right which was the left-hand of a pair of lanes heading to the correct exit heading towards the M2, but he should have been in it at the previous set of lights.

Unfortunately, since he'd been signalling left and in the superstore lane, the car waiting to get out of the superstore had already pulled out - it stopped in a hurry as he swerved right, blocking his path. He swerved right again to avoid a collision, but that took him straight into the path of a car that was taking the righthand lane of that pair of lanes for the M2. The car driver had to do an emergency stop, and was almost hit from behind himself.

Not entirely surprising the examiner terminated the test.

But... I'd drawn the roundabout layout on a blackboard before we left to look at it for the first time. When we got there, I parked up and we stood next to it looking at it with a graphic showing the markings and correct routes. On the bikes, we'd been round the roundabout at least a dozen times, and taken that particular manoeuvre at least five times. He'd led through it himself at least twice without problem.

But under the stress, it all went out the window. It's hard to explain to people who see riding like that and think "bad training" just how often the trainee's brain shuts down when they make a mistake.

PS, he passed soon after, after a morning's extra coaching. He got the same examiner who promptly took him on exactly the same route Managed the test with just a couple of minors.