Flaming June

If you look carefully you can spot the animals beginning to line up two by two...

Attack of the Green Eyed Monster

Just finished reading Lois on the Loose, about Lois Pryce and her trip down the Americas. She's a great writer in the Ted Simon mould, writing about the people and places that make up her journey as much as the miles - and doesn't mind telling stories against herself.

Love this opening:-

"Rolling off a boat on a motorcycle into a foreign land is one of the most exciting experiences I know. No matter where it is in the world: freewheeling down the ramp, the metallic clank that marks your arrival, and your first glimpse of a strange land. Everything looks different, sounds different, even smells different - you feel different."

Makes me want to get the tie-down straps out and head off to Dover....

What God made the motorcycle for

What God made the motorcycle for
Originally uploaded by highwaylass

...impressing the opposite sex!!

Dear BBC...must try harder

In a sad attempt to emulate ITV's constant efforts to link F1 and football to build their audience, the BBC's coverage of Donington brought us an encounter between Michael Owen - a man who gave up motorcycling because "it's too dangerous" - and Nicky Hayden, who knows so much about football that he thinks you can buy popcorn at a match. Frankly, what was the point?! They could have showed us the rest of the Muddly Talker/Vale interview instead.

Foreign Parts

I have come to Greece on a boat by mistake. The sailing part is great, it reminds me a lot of riding, to make best progress you balance forward motion against the wind, while on a bike you try and balance forward motion against the centrifugal forces that want to see you crunching on the tarmac. The sunburn and mosquito bites, not so good. It has been really interesting to see how biking is done in Greece. As Nikos points out, motorcycling here is rather different than the UK. Helmet wearers are in a distinct minority, though some carry a lid nonchalantly hooked round one arm. Protective gear consists of shorts and a tan. But the way the bikes are used also strikes me as quite different than the UK - here, they are part of everyday transport, people carry all sorts of odd loads, put mates on the back (high score so far is three large teenagers on a C90), and do their shopping - top marks for style to Mr Red T shirt who rode up to the cigarete kiosk on his ducati, left the engine running in that slightly choked bag-of-nails dynamic which is how ducatis protest at not being allowed to travel at an appropriate speed, bought his ciggies without getting off, and then roared away into the Aegean dusk. There's none of that "them and us" you often hear about in the UK, with non-bikers protesting that helmets and leathers make bikers look terrifying and intimidating.

It's orange, boxy and parked in a motorcycles only bay - is it a KTM?

No - it's an RAC "Join Here" trailer!!

I asked the guy why he was parked there, he was very nice about it and said it was where Welcome Break had told him to put it. Which is why I'll be sticking with Moto! (apart from their hand-dryer issue...)

Only two kinds of bikers exist - those who've dropped their bike, and those who are going to.

I love this list from Dave Dragon - 128 ways to drop your bike.

I should own up to 3, 5 (nearly), 38 (nearly), 64, 95 and 112.

Many thanks, in no particular order, to the 4 guys renovating a nearby house, the farmhand on his way home from a late shift, the man who thought he was popping to the post office to pick up some stamps not a 900cc Triumph, and my brother-in-law who turned out to have a very handy trailer with tie-downs and ramp. The one advantage of being a lady biker is that it’s OK to ask people to help you pick it up again!

Haven’t been guilty of 94 but it did make me laugh.

Thanks to the helmet hair blog for spotting the list!

Multiplying...

The MCIA reports that bike sales are up 10 per cent overall, and up 16% growth in the sub-125cc market.

Sadly I can't see London councils making 16% more motorcycle bays available ...

Long Way Down

Ewan and Charlie are in Africa already - MCN said that security concerns meant they were being quite vague about locations. The BBC have posted a few videos on YouTube:
This one is for camping-phobes everywhere :)

(Can't embed the BBC's stuff, slightly irritating!)

Through a glass darkly

The Times reports that car drivers with over-tinted windows will be booked from the autumn.

Seems only fair!!