In a bif to improve my commuting experience from Home to Work has turned my attention towards "Motorcycling"....! yep i know...
right my experience today has been as follows, door to door
Train, Tube - £311 / month - 1hr 50 mins.
Train, BorisBike - £250 / month - 1hr 50 mins.
Motorcycle - £150 / month - 1hr.
it is obvious which path i am gonna try to take.... so
taken my CBT, passed that
Got my Theory Thurs 28/6/12
gonna get myself a nice little Honda/Yamaha 125cc to practise on, and use, which by the way does about 100-120mpg... have that Mr Ford Mondeo.
earn some stripes, then apply for my DAS 1 & 2 before embarking on a new journey with a 600cc.
well, thats the plan (Below is my 'Head Shell')
Things have progressed.
1) Purchased ALL my motorcycle gear (bloody expensive)
2) Purchased a New bike (Great Deal) and lovverly. nicknamed "Poppa"
3) Passed my BIKE theory test.
wow, all in 1 day..... pick the bike up on the weekend, so no picture yet, but for those that cannot wait
according to "Googlemaps" the journey from Postcode to Postcode is 27 miles, and in midday traffic in a car will take (1hr 15mins) so on a bike slipping traffic (1hr) i have had this confirmed by a seasoned motorcycle commuter travelling to similar location.
Here is "Poppa"......
From Behind....
What a weekend we have had. When i picked "Poppa" up on Saturday i think i was suffering Anxiety at actuallt committing to buying and riding a bike. i heard all the stories, and laments from various people about motocycling that i got myself tied up in knots. Don't get me wrong, everything people say is correct, and i have found out alread that you have to be master of the beast, because it will tear itself away if you let it....
so the art of any new motorcyclist is "Slow and Steady", remember this and follow all the lessons taught on the CB. Thats looking, waiting, looking again....
anyhooo.. after the first 30 minutes, i was at ease and comfortable, and on the 2nd day, even more confident as my speed was picking up slight, not fast i mean, but better than the day before where i was holding up traffic doing 25....
i almost feel like a normal biker, except i have not experienced tearing rain, or blisteringly cold winter. when i achieve these, i may feel lik a biker.
next stop now, is some experience, DAS test, license then "Harley".....
5 comments:
Right, i did it....
this morning was the first ride in... should have kept it at the weekend, so i could get used to the route, but Ohhhhhh noooo... i had to do it. and at a cost...
It took me 1hr 30mins... 30 mins more than projected... and i can tell you now why.
1) taking it easy slipping the traffic through A13
2) stalling my motorbike 3 times at junctions causing me to wait a lights for longer.
3) missing "Northunmberland Road" turning
4) cause of 3) having to negotiate Parliament and going down Pall Mall.
5) Should have stayed on Pall Mall, but ended up going back to Regents St.
6) knocking my mirror in Haste, and having to pull over to sort it.
7) not able to turn left into Oxfords street from Regent Street
8) getting tied up in knots round 1-ways
9) final getting onto "Park Lane" negotiating Marble Arch and then....
finally arrived 5 mins before starting work...
Ok, better ride home, although I did get caught in 1 ways.... Again.. And missed out on using a bus lane so in the end it took 1hr 15 mins result, so effectively it will take 1hr.....
Cool
Day 2
---------
Morning - Not too bad this morning, Wet and gritty, discovered what it is like to ride with visor down with lorry spray comming at ya, no way to clean the helmet. You just deal with it...!
still took me 1hr 30 mins this morning, a lot more traffic around embankment than i would have liked, possibly due to a smash up at the Tower Hill junction.
also, i took the wrong exit at Trafalgar Sqaure and ended up going half way down the Strand, U-turn back onto Charing Cross Road, then plain sailing to the parking slots.
i also was a bit of Giril...!! lol because although i am getting the hang of filtering, it is taking me longer to know the bike to control it perfectly, although i did notice today that my control was much better.
so possibly tomorrow taking it down to 1hr 20m?
Evening - (TBD)
The evening was a total disaster in terms of commuting towards the goal of 1hr...! in terms of riding though, good shout, as it took 2hrs...! yep 2 hrs totechnically do a 1hr journey.. the reasons for this are as follows
1) missed my turn off on commercial road (although did not know i actually missed the turn off). i was too busy checking the bus lanes for Bike to use them!!!
2) ended up in
a) Stratford
b) Leytonstone
c) Romford
d) Gants Hill
e) Canning Town
f) back onto A13
3) bike played up at Leytonstone, and either got flooded with fuel or overheated due to my excessive revving and low gears, trying to pass a Learner driver that wanted to literally drive on ALL the road.. i could not pass, i am sure the driver saw me coming and decied to block me...
anyway, as a silver lining, my journey in today has taken 1hr 10m... woohooo 10m i need to find to reach my goal.
what out for further adventures, as the Olympics starts soon, so a lot of lanes will be closed and traffic will be heavy... i'll see how it goes.
Right,we are getting a little better, last night i managed to miss my turning "AGAIN", but in wisdom of doing things wrong in the past i put it right, and done a U-Turn, which cost me about 10-15 mins extra time, but got me on track. in all
1hr 30mins
Friday morning - the weather was lousy indeed, rain, cloud, wet... all the things that go against a biker. i had a slight experience with a wet maintenance cover, and my back whel had "NO Purchase" and slid a little, but not to worry i was over it quick enough.
It did however give me a great big heap of respect to watching the road surface as well when biking and avoiding all things slippery when it is raining.
tonight..... not sure if i am going to take the same route home, or go a different route? may see what the weather is like. if it is nicer, i will take a different route, otherwise better the devil you know.
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