Bike Magazine

Actually I've been surprised at the number of bikes commuting this
winter.
As a sweeping generalisation it's normally Pan Euro's and GS's that
you
see on the roads this time of year but this year it's been everything
you
could think of.
They must be in training for some sort of foolish winter trip.

 

My neighbour put me to shame by commuting every day, even in the snow,
on his Hardly Ableto. Crazy bastard.

 

Not particually the all coppers are bastards bit, more the whole 'live
to ride, ride to live', your not a real biker unless you ride the whole
year round, anybody with a modern sportsbike and leathers is a power
ranger... That sort of thing.

 

Round here there's a bloke on a ZX-7R who only went missing for a two
week period this winter; he was out on it on icy roads when I was in
the car. Oddly, he rides it strictly at commute speeds, regardless of
conditions; never seen him overtake anything, in fact, I've even seen
him with cars following him, which seems... odd. I'm not especially
quick but I'd find it a bit frustrating to ride that sort of bike at
that sort of speed on open roads, day in, day out. Still, RYOR and all
that.

There's another bloke on a Harley flat tracker-styled bike that
commutes, like me, when the weather's not too extreme.

There's also the odd sport-tourer type thing or maybe a V-Strom, oh,
and some sad idiot who rides a slightly ratty Guzzi.

Heh.

 

This might be down to the fact that when Ogri first appeared most
people who rode bikes rode them all year and sports bikes along with
matching leathers were 15 years into the future.

I agree that Ogri has long passed his sell by date and should have
been killed off in a big crash but I don't think the style of the
strip should have been changed to reflect the passing of time.

 

Heh. I took the YP250 out last week for the first time since the big snow,
nice and comfy with a big screen and heated grips until the back tyre went
flat AGAIN. The problem has now been diagnosed as a leak around the
valve stem so a new valve is on order from Yamaha - its a special
angled jobbie that bolts through the alloy wheel so nothng else will
fit. Hopefully it will arrive this week.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the rotten exhaust fell apart removing
it to take the wheel out so I now have a nice aftermarket stainless
system for 145 squids which is a third of the price of the original
Yamaha rot-prone crap.

 

A couple of weeks ago I saw someone on a Victory in the pouring rain
that was trying to turn to sleet. This was on the A1 in north London at
about 7am. Mad barsteward. I think it was the "Vision Tour" model.

 

All of which pretty much sums up how I feel about it. I'm sure that
what is in it appeals to plenty of people, but it all seems to be
focussed at the armchair/pub expert audience.
Interestingly,(or not) my wife is a mad runner and subscribes to
Runners World, and make just the same comments about that magazine,
perhaps it it's just what happens when you have been reading the same
thing for ages.

Can't comment on the rates 'though.

 

I liked Ogri. I even named my cleaner after Mitzi.

 

Was she from here...

http://www.eroticcleaning.co.uk/home.html

 

He is good, but I still miss Dan, he was fucking brilliant. Fucked in
the head, but brilliant.

 

Of the faintly unpleasant sub-culture he was depicting, I'd agree.

 

Which was where Ogri took a huge and unrecoverable turn for the worse.

 

Dragon? Never been.

Solent MCC Brass Monkeys, did it happen this year? Year I went there
was a heat wave. Down to T-shirts and Wangler jackets.

Elephant
http://www.bvdm.de/index.php?id=47&lang=3
Again I've never done this one. Sidecar is almost a must.

 

I must confess to being totally promiscuous in my motorcycle-related
reading habits. Bike, Ride, MCN or anything else that is bike-related are
all grist to the mill. However, I don't subscribe to any of them. I just
buy/read whatever is available when the mood takes me. All printed
publications are struggling against competition from the internet so it's
hardly surprising that they aim most of their content at the general
market and have less for "niche" groups like year-round riders.

 

NAHAY?

 

No, but I'll put her on to it.

 

He's back this month.

 

I have stumblrd across the odd classic bike magazine and, though they
are generally about bikes I do't ride, I've quite liked the ones I've
read.

 

Really? Some might well disagree with you on that point.