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Tube strikes in London mean it's loving amateur hour on my commute. Not sure what annoys me the most - car drivers who think that if they can see the front of the mile-long jam they're in it'll make it shorter so they pull out and block the filter lane, cyclists who think their freebie high-vis vest obviates the need to look behind them before changing lines, or weekend bikers paddling their midlife crisis money sinks 20 yards then stopping because the gap is less than six feet wide. Oh wait it's the last ones because they manage to combine all the sins of the others, also then take up all the loving space in the car park at work.
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Apr 30, 2014 07:46
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Snowdens Secret posted:Note, that's only $15 less than Amazon, and like twisto posted in another thread yesterday, they deal really poorly with wind noise and can only be configured via the (lousy) computer software A bit of foam glued over the mic cuts the wind noise out almost entirely under 30mph and still keeps it manageable up to 60ish, and you can configure them by editing the file on them (but once you've found settings that suit you you never have to touch it again) Gonna fire up gifcam to get some illustrations of why tube strikes suck, courtesy of my Roam2, in a second.
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Apr 30, 2014 18:00
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Got too bored to do any more so just have a couple from the last five minutes of my commute: Dude was less than six inches from the bumper of that car and maybe a foot from the scooter with those stupid hard cases, then got himself stuck at the next red light because he doesn't know poo poo about how to filter.  The hand gesture is pointing out that bright loving blue dedicated, segregated bike lane (sorry, Cycle Superhighway) exactly 3 yards to his right, instead he was motoring along the pavement and if I'd have been a car he'd have been strawberry jam. And finally...  This stupid bitch was right in my parking spot. 
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Apr 30, 2014 18:30
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Nitrox posted:Rode home in a dense fog last night. The water was on both sides of my visor so I've flipped it up. And then had to wipe down my glasses every 20 seconds just to see something. Any source of light was blinding as well. Is there a way to deal with something like that? I kinda miss 50 degree dry weather we had for a total of 3 weeks Rain repellent outside the visor, pinlock inside, and a vee-wipe or similar on your glove (ghetto option - microfibre towel secured to your left arm by rubber bands). Be careful with Rain-X that you get the stuff for visors, not the normal stuff for windscreens, which can eat certain coatings and make the situation even worse.
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May 10, 2014 14:54
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Oh insurance companies you so funny. Last year's premium - £279 Cheapest equivalent quote on Compare the Market - £254 Renewal quote (with "special return customer discount") - £391 Got them to knock £100 off and throw in free breakdown cover and protected NCB for a year to make up the difference with just a little bit of whining (mainly because that best quote was from Bennetts who have hosed me over twice in the past) but for fucks sake. I wonder how many people just blindly renew without even looking at the number or remembering what they paid last year.
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May 20, 2014 11:41
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echomadman posted:I use Adelaide here in ireland but they're in the uk too. Yeah, but I live in an area of London where they'll cut your head off if you think about money too hard, so I feel like that's a pretty reasonable rate. (Never bothered with fully comp because the extra premium and excess are way more than I could normally hope to recover from a crash - that's probably a bit different now I don't have a fully-faired bike)
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May 20, 2014 19:34
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KozmoNaut posted:There is an EU directive which states that "quadricycles" can be street legal as long as they adhere to the rules set forth in the directive. For instance, it has to have a headlight, indicators, license plates, a catalytic converter and whatnot, but unlike cars, there are no requirements for seatbelts, ABS, ESP or any other safety equipment. So despite not actually adhering to the various safety requirements set for cars, you're welcome to register your ATV as a fully-fledged automobile. You're not allowed to ride them on motorways in the UK but TBH I've never seen them anywhere but tearing up local housing estates with blinging rims and low-profile car tyres on. They seem to be filling a hole in the biker ecosystem normally occupies by the gixxerbrah in the US. goddamnedtwisto fucked around with this message at 21:23 on May 30, 2014 |
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May 30, 2014 21:18
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High Protein posted:Oh I've also seen one of those covered BMW motorcycle things on the highway once!! They're paragons of sense and sanity compared to a quad though. (I still sort of like the concept of those things though - I rode one around a carpark at a bike show once and it didn't seem any worse, dynamically, than any other scooter, and I'm a little surprised they weren't more successful)
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May 31, 2014 00:02
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Sagebrush posted:Yeah I feel like that's the one case where "I want to be thrown clear of the wreckage" is actually the correct answer. I'm just imagining her crashing that thing and it sliding a couple hundred feet down the road on its side with her arm pinned underneath.... *Allegedly* that little projection next to your shoulders is enough to stop your arm getting pinned under the bike if it slides. My bigger concern was getting a leg pinned in a crash, but again allegedly crash testing showed that was rarer on that than on a conventional scooter because of the seatbelt.
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May 31, 2014 08:28
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Linedance posted:There's usually a couple parked in the bike lot at the airport. I saw shitloads of them in Paris during rush hour however. I think it's one of those European things that just doesn't translate into English. Can't help but think a Piaggio MP3 with that sort of shell (or just a non-structural roof like an Adiva) would be a perfect poo poo-weather commuter tool. I'd never ride one myself, obviously, but I'm surprised nobody's tried it.
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May 31, 2014 14:30
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That is the single most awesome thing I have ever seen.
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May 31, 2014 20:24
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TBH I always assumed a big reason for the leg dangle was to make it that little bit harder to go up the inside of them - they only seem to do it on corners that are good overtaking zones.
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Jun 1, 2014 09:26
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There's a black and red Benelli TnT 1100 at my local workshop that is apparently up for sale for £3k. I may have to ask someone to lash me to a mast to keep me away from it.
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Jun 2, 2014 21:21
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Slavvy posted:Oh, come on. Now you're just being stupid. You have all the Italianness you want in your life trust me. There's always room for more Italianness. Also I've now seen three other Shivers in four years, so they're getting a bit too mainstream for my tastes. (Luckily, of all things, my resolution to make sure my next bike has ABS is probably what will save me here)
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Jun 3, 2014 07:28
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Slavvy posted:You just described every daily commute for me. Except I'm on a 250 hyosung. And the people holding me up are exclusively supersports and harleys (BMW riders don't split here because they all without exception have fullsized panniers that make the bike too wide). God I wish BMW riders in London realised that loving fact.
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Jun 12, 2014 14:57
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Slavvy posted:Hahaha I doubt this. Every single piece of media I've seen in my life indicates american city roads are insanely wide, with every gigantic vehicle still having a large air gap around it in lanes, parking spots, freeway lanes and turn-offs. Yeah I'm really not sure where he gets that idea - the roads I commute to work on were mostly laid out by the loving Romans and Saxons, with a few laid out in the 19th century. The absolute best thing about biking in London (at the moment) is that bikes are allowed in (most) bus lanes on major roads. No filtering needed, you've got your own express lane (until you have to get around a bus, obviously).
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Jun 14, 2014 10:23
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Chichevache posted:From everything else Slavvy has posted about his town I'm pretty sure it is just that every New Zealander is exactly as lovely as you would expect from descendents of genocidal criminals who were so abhorrent that the British didn't even want them in the same hemisphere. wrong former colony - Australia is where we put all the people who liked short shorts and lovely beer, New Zealand is the place people fled to because they found Chalfont St. Latimer too cosmopolitan and exciting.
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Jun 18, 2014 22:19
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OSU_Matthew posted:No, I think there were people flourishing there for tens of thousands of years (hobbits, if memory serves me correctly). Then the British came in and brutally murdered/raped/pillaged/generally oppressed the natives as Europeans at the time were generally fond of doing, and voila! We did very little of the actual murdering ourselves, we mostly got natives from other places to do it for us. Leaves much more time for tea and crumpets.
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Jun 18, 2014 23:42
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Safety Dance posted:Yeah, no can do on the contact lens front. I've been tossing around the idea of getting some cheap clear-lens safety glasses made, treating them with Rain-X, and then keeping them on my bike for just such an occasion. Get a pinlock on your visor and exhale through your nose - I wear glasses and never have a problem with them misting up other than when I'm stopped for an extended period of time.
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Jun 19, 2014 17:06
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Super Slash posted:Cheap helmets, or at least mine is suffering (even with the breath guard) I ride all year long in standard English weather.
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Jun 20, 2014 17:29
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MoraleHazard posted:I think there are expensivish balaclavas that specifically force exhaled air down and away from the visor. I haven't seen one in a while and don't know where to look though. No balaclava required: http://respro.com/store/product/foggy-mask Bit of a faff but works well - I only abandoned mine once I got my Pinlock.
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Jun 20, 2014 20:22
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captainOrbital posted:I've had 2 cyclists pass me on the right (kerb side) at an intersection, like RIGHT when I was about to make a right turn. I would have turned right into them if the timing had been bad, and if I managed to stay upright, I would have kept on riding because gently caress those guys. Three things (which may or may not be criticisms of your riding because I can see scenarios where these might not have helped) - Unless those cyclists were in a professional time trial you almost certainly overtook them pretty soon before the junction - depending on the relative speeds you should either have hung back behind them or been much more aware of them. - When turning at an intersection you should be positioned such that it's nigh impossible for anyone to get up the inside of you. Not actually in the gutter but less than a shoulders-width from the edge of the road - Lifesaver! Because even if you do those first two things right the cyclists could be utter, utter idiots who've just jumped out of a side street (or indeed are bombing along with pavement). Being in the right won't fix the damage to you or your bike.
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Jun 22, 2014 08:40
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Tanbo posted:Jesus it's annoying when someone is going dogshit slow in the curves, then as soon as there's a passing zone and it straightens up they immediately speed up. Bieks are awesome so I just drop a gear but ugh. I went out for a little half hour ride to dry the bike off and on my only nearby good bit of road (a half-mile strtch with between two roundabouts, with two intermediate not-really-roundabouts (there's a roundabout but there's no side turnings off them), which sounds dull but is much more fun if you treat it like a mini Mulsanne, there somehow managed to be a car on each roundabout each time I came to it, and not a single one on the straights. It was just bizarre, I even pulled off onto another road and came back and exactly the same thing. Did a total of 6 both-way runs, and didn't get a clear shot at a single one of those roundabouts. So then I came home and drunk beer in the back garden.
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Jun 22, 2014 18:22
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Sagebrush posted:I would say that any regular maintenance item that requires you to remove the engine from the vehicle indicates a bad design, even if it comes up every 12,000 miles. Maybe on a racing superbike where you care much more about aerodynamics and weight and cramming things into the tiniest possible spaces it makes sense. For the average bike on the road, reliability and ease of maintenance should be near the top of the manufacturer's priorities. I think he was saying just replacing the spark plugs was a ten hour job, which is just  (given he said that it was about the same amount as work to replace the plugs as to do the valve clearances)Stripping down and checking every component on MY APRILIA'S loom (60-odd sensors and actuators) cost me 8 hours labour. Buell have managed to make bike where a service item is harder to complete than fixing an Italian electrical problem.
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Jun 22, 2014 21:57
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Slavvy posted:Don't ever buy a Ferrari. Or a Porsche. Or any FWD V6 vehicle made in the last decade. Air-cooled non-turbo Porsches are actually pretty easy to work on once you wrap your head around the concepts of never doing any job the way common sense tells you. Also the VW belt change trick should work on them too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQhfcdQf1QA One thing I've never understood is how main dealers can get away with charging 10-15% (hourly) more to work on bikes. Okay I know doing, say, valve adjustments on a Ducati is a complete pain in the arse but surely that's reflected in extra labour time, not having charging more for the same amount of time. It makes it all the more ridiculous now that (in the EU at least) warranty clauses demanding services are done at a main dealer are null and void, are they just relying on people being too dumb/lazy to actually look at what they're being charged? (It's all the more ridiculous with multi-brand dealers - there's a big sign at metropolis in Vauxhall saying that there's an extra £15/hr charge to work on Triumphs. It's not even like they can claim that there's anything particularly special or exotic about them that would require some super-secret ninja training for the greasemonkeys, )
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Jun 23, 2014 00:01
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There are cyclists (some on this very site) who make the argument that helmets cause more injuries not through the traditional bullshit "Too much weight on the head" argument, but through an even more ridiculous one. Their "thinking" goes that making helmets mandatory discourages cyclists from riding on the road (because they look dorky and/or they increase the perceived risk) and therefore stop cycling reaching a critical mass (yes, that's where the name of the protest group comes from) which would improve safety. It's really best not to argue with people that far down the rabbit hole. Someone will end up getting hurt.
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Jun 26, 2014 07:28
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Coydog posted:Does running actually ever work? Tons of bikers think they can just get away from anything. I'm most interested in the helmet being flung far away. Was the rider even wearing it? Was it strapped? It can do, but not very well if they've seen your number plate - assuming that is you don't manage to dump the bike, get home, discard all your biking gear and replace it with stuff that looks different, and report the bike stolen. Of course if the bike is stolen then yeah there's a fair chance, if you can get enough speed up before they turn round, that they'll never be able to catch you or they'll call off the pursuit as being too dangerous. Back in the day at the Chelsea Bridge tea stall you'd see guys pull up, take off their number plates (held on with velcro) and then head off for some proper stupidity - then the old bill started charging them with attempting to pervert the course of justice (serious prison time) on top of crushing the bike if they ever caught them.
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Jun 27, 2014 17:21
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Sagebrush posted:I don't bother running from the cops because the cops never come after me (knock on wood) because I don't break the law, goddammit. I usually ride a little over the speed limit and that's about it. I used to get pulled over all the time in my stupider days, mainly because of stupidly loud exhaust and tiny number plate. I ride like an old lady (apart from the occasional bit of speed) though. Also I used to have to go through three police checkpoints on my commute (terrorism yay) and I'd get pulled over on the RS125 all the time because "One of your headlights is out". My favourite one though was getting pulled over because "You looked like you didn't want to get pulled over". The existential crisis that provoked in me almost caused me to give up biking.
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Jun 28, 2014 12:56
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Shimrod posted:That's a thing? I go out daily hoping I get pulled over. I'm super bummed when I'm not Well now you know why - if you only tried to hide your desire to be pulled over you'd get your wish. HotCanadianChick posted:My reply would have been "Have you ever pulled over anyone who wanted to be pulled over? Who enjoys this BS?". Yes, there's nothing a member of Her Majesty's Constabulary loves more than sarcasm.
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Jun 28, 2014 18:21
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Not really a rant, more of a sigh - took a run up to High Beech (big biker meetup spot in the Epping Forest in the outer suburbs of London) and it just seems to get worse every time I go up there. Time was even on rainy days you'd see >100 bikes up there, and on nice days in mid summer people would be parked a hundred yards up the road, with >500 bikes. Today (admittedly a cloudy day with rain forecast for mid-afternoon) there were maybe 50 bikes, of which my Shiver was one of the most exotic there - I saw a Panigale, a couple of S1000s, and the rest seemed to be just pretty normal bikes. In it's heyday you'd have everything from heavily (and horribly) modded I4 supersports bikes and Harleys, oddities like RD350s and lunatic poo poo like CR500 supermotos and supercharged V-Maxes. People would mod their bikes just to take them to High Beech and bask in the reflected glory. Now what was once a sort of impromptu bike show and social event seems to be just a car park for locals waiting to start up rides. The reason for this is blatantly obvious though - there was a police car parked up in the middle of the car park (and they seemed to be checking documentation on a ZX-7RR), plus another car parked on Epping New Road that leads to it - once a 60 mph road which thanks to being arrow-straight with only two turnings was basically the Essex answer to Bonneville is now dotted with new "executive homes", and so has a 30 limit being enforced not just by three speed cameras but a mobile speed trap. The other roads around it - tight, 1-1.5 lane country lanes, perfect for a bit of a workout of your reflexes at not-too-stupid speeds - are now a blanket 20mph and completely coated in horse poo poo and clogged with mountain bikers making horrifying lycra-clad mobile chicanes. Most annoying of all, my little performance-testing road - a previously-ignored little road parallel to the M25 just near Waltham Abbey with an awesome roundabout at each end - is now falling to pieces, the Shellgrip surface that used to stick like velcro deteriorated to the point that it's more like loose sand interspersed with suspension-destroying ripples and potholes. Basically everything loving sucked about today - I even got stuck in traffic for just long enough to get caught in the rain. Ho hum.
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Jun 29, 2014 21:49
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nsaP posted:With lane sharing being legal was that really that bad? Yeah, you'd lose your poo poo in London traffic where it's not rare to have your foot clipped by cars squeezing past as you sit in the alleged "refuge zone" waiting for a right turn. Oh and occasionally deciding to pull alongside you and turn with too.
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Jul 3, 2014 20:02
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Woop, I got a parking ticket. I'd parked on the pavement in a private car park, miles away from anywhere people would want to walk, because I've seen more than one car just plough into a bike parked in a car parking bay. The guy who wrote it out told me it was for "health and safety" reasons but that's bollocks, it's a naked money grab (£90! but it will be discounted to £50 if you pay up NOW NOW NOW!) that has no actual legal basis, it's actually an invoice for breaching the contract under which you park. I'm going to write them a nastygram offering them a settlement of kissing my left bollock but offering to meet them half-way by them loving off and never bothering me again.
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Jul 6, 2014 22:42
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captainOrbital posted:I wonder what the legal basis for that would be? Maybe that you partook of their services without the adequate payment? Although there is no way that they would charge you 90 quid to park. I know London is expensive, but that is exorbitant. The whole "breaking a contract" think is testicles unless you had prior business with them and signed something that had hilarious fine print. It's legal for them to do so (it's part of the conditions of entrance to the retail park) as long as the conditions are displayed at sufficient size at the entrance and appropriate intervals throughout. I don't think they are and if my initial gambit (which I'll explain in a second) fails I'll have to head back with a camera and a tape measure because these companies *never* make the signs big enough or regular enough. This sort of implicit contract is common across pretty much all jurisdictions (which is one of the places the freemen-on-the-land loons get their ideas from), and it's legal as long as the conditions aren't overly restrictive, unfair, or onerous. However I'm starting off with a much more fun gambit - that small claims court (and they won't be allowed to take the case anywhere else) only allows people to reclaim provable direct losses. Given I wasn't parked obstructing any entrance or gangway or parking space, they can't claim loss of revenue to the shops in the park, and so I'm going to offer to settle and pay the equivalent parking charge for the time I stayed there, which is exactly zero pounds. If they want money out of me they're going to have to take me to court and there's no way that they'll bother because it'll eat into their profit margin.
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Jul 7, 2014 07:52
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Sagebrush posted:Men's clothing has the "functional" part of the fastener (the buttons or the zipper pull) on the right side. Women's clothing has it on the left side. European men's motorcycle jackets have the zipper pull on the left side for some reason. All of my zippered clothing has the pull on the left. If I had to guess why I'd say it's because that puts the fiddly bit (where you have to put the zip into the pull thingy (I'm sure there are better terms for all these components)) is in the right hand.
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Jul 8, 2014 12:17
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Sometimes if you get a bike serviced at a dealer they'll set you up with an extended test ride on whatever they're trying to sell which is a pretty good tactic. The shop I get mine serviced at offered to hire me (for £20) some Chinese scooter but one of the main reasons I use them is that they're walking distance from the office so I just drop it off in the morning and pick it up on the way home. (Mind you they don't officially open until 10am but there's normally someone around from about 8 so that's okay)
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Jul 21, 2014 20:23
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Shoulda got an (APRC-equipped) Aprilia. Just tell it how high you want the wheelie and it'll keep it there, and even let you down gently (as long as you don't touch the brakes) when you're done. Interesting about the crests though, I wonder if that's a mistake (it just kicks in at one particular angle and is just completely ignorant of all other situations) or a deliberate thing ("I didn't get him into this position so something's probably not right, I'll just stay out of it" sort of thing). Not sure how APRC handles that but I do know there's a particular feature where if it detects freefall it just ignores everything until both wheels are on the ground again because the last thing you want if you're coming over, say, the mountain at Cadwell is the traction control and wheelie control arguing over what speed the back wheel should be doing.
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Jul 23, 2014 00:07
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Linedance posted:On a 3+ lane motorway I've never experienced any of these scenarios, for several reasons, and even the goddamn government recommends avoiding the middle lane on a motorbike. I guess you've got some pretty interesting ideas about blocking positions too. Well the government avoids being in the middle lane in any form of transport, you're supposed to move to the inside lane as soon as it's clear. Obviously on most motorways that involves hanging around in the middle lane most of the time because the left lane is full of HGVs doing 56 (who the loving gently caress though that was a good idea anyway?). I don't understand why people think being merged into unannounced is such a huge problem in the middle lane, you're supposed to be watching out for these dickheads regardless of what lane you're in.
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Jul 23, 2014 10:29
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Sagebrush posted:Well that is essentially what I said I was doing, if you read back a few posts. I camp out in the left lane going slightly faster than traffic, slowly passing the majority of the cars, and once in a while someone will come up behind me at 90 and then blow by on the right before I notice them. Everyone has experienced those people. I just said that I don't think that makes me "a dick". If someone's tailgating me and it's safe to move over I'll do so. An interesting side-note here. In the UK undertaking isn't specifically illegal, but it can be cause for a charge of driving without due care and attention (if the Plod is having a really, really bad day or if you're otherwise a dick about it). However a lot of the specialised motorway Police take the attitude that if there is space and time for someone to safely undertake you, you are in the wrong and not the driver passing you because if there's space for an undertake there's space for your car to be in.
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Jul 23, 2014 18:32
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Some dickhead has been running his R6 with no silencer up and down the main road near my house for the last half hour. I can actually diagnose that his chain is way, way loose just by the sound - every time he opens the throttle it revs like crazy for a fraction of a second then suddenly drops. The thought that this is likely to snap fairly soon and cause him and the bike some sort of damage is the only thing that's stopped me either ringing the police or stringing piano wire across the road.
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Jul 27, 2014 22:44
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Rev. Dr. Moses P. Lester posted:Pretty major engineering job. I can see it being great with a large air cooled Ducati engine or something though. Is the engine a stressed member? Can't see it working if so, if only because of the vastly different v-angle. What about the water-cooled motor out of the V-Rod? That would at least be roughly the right shape and give a lot more tunability.
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Aug 10, 2014 09:36
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