today was a good day...

....to go and ride my motorbike.

first proper blast this year, including first (for me) knee-down of
the year, on one of the roundabouts in Welwyn.

Points learned:

* I've got really slow, even for me - must improve by 19/5/4
* the 'blade really does let you get away with riding like a
ham-fisted clot
* thinking you're in 2nd when you're really in 1st results in stupid
overtaking-on-one-wheel-and-almost-crashing incidents
* properly warmed Rennsports will allow you to do stoppies on wet
tarmac

good fun - bikes fucking own.

 

darsy posted:

They do, don't they? While out on mine today I did my first "off the
power" wheelie[1]. Didn't half make me grin.

[1] no, not as in the veggie dave definition of wheelie.

 

darsy wrote

Here they fucking come, the bleeding part timers.

The good part about it is later in the month when it has a wet cold
moment and you all go back to your little hobbit holes and whinge about
how rotten the weather is.

 

Why didn't you give me a call, I would have joined you on my GS.

Yes indeed, they have good sticky tread in the middle.

 

In uk.rec.motorcycles, steve auvache said:

Ain't it the truth! Normally I'd be just as vocal but under the
circumstances, I pussied out of the winter myself. I know things are bad
because I thought it was cold walking to the shops :-(

Not half as rotten as their riding ;-)

 

Are you related to Dave Swindell?

 

wrote

Dunno. Was his father in the Merkin Air Force?

 

I just leant over and ... *skersh*. Bizarrely still have
chicken-strips on the RHS. But I've only done ~250 miles on this rear
tyre, so there's plenty of time.

yup - Snetterton; me and Porl and Mups and Simian (and Kiran, maybe?).

I know what you mean - probably if I was more talented I'd prefer
something a bit more edgy. Still, it's fine for me right now. I could
relate another tale of today where I rode round the outside of someone
on "superior" kit (a 999) but that would be boring.

you're right - my big fear was always that they would be as bad as the
Pilot Races I had on my old TRX - Rennsports are much better in the
wet than the Dunlops.

 

I thought I was going to be busy all day, but I got my new curtain
rods put up in double-quick time, and decided to go out for a spin -
top fun, though it did start to rain in the last hour I was out.

 

Next time right?

 

I only saw about 4-5 other bikes on a 75-80 mile trip, and only one of
those was another sportsbike.

 

sure. I did 1/2-consider posting a general message to the newsgroup,
because essentially what I did was an afternoon BOTAFOF, rather than
the normal morning one - the standard South Mimms -> all over Herts ->
High Beach run.

 

just looking at this again - don't be impressed - I didn't mean to
imply that I'd got my knee down in the rain - it didn't get wet until
I was on the way back from High Beach, and I just attempted a little
slow stoppy at a set of traffic lights, just to see what the grip
actually was like in the wet in a straight line.

 

It'd be interesting to see if I could keep up [1]

[1] On my GS :-(

 

it would depend on the run - the one I did yesterday had loads of bits
where I was seeing speeds well into 3 figures. Then again, lots of
*really* twisty bits that didn't really suit a sportsbike.

 

No, I didn't think you'd got KD in the wet - I was just impressed that
you'd managed it at all

 

heh. So was I! I can't quite "do it at will" yet, but it happens now
and again - it'll be interesting to see whether doing Snetterton will
help or not in that regard - especially since I'm happier hanging off
and leaning on fast corners than on slow ones (like roundabouts).

 

Is the Gixer fucked?

 

What's with the riding the GS all the time at the mo?

GSXR out of action?

 

people see this as a benefit; for me, it's one of the reasons I

ITYM Tog-like in it's cringewothiness.