There are few topics more divisive in motorcycling than that of Hi-Viz. There are three camps on the argument. Firstly there are those who swear by it, claiming that its the best way to been seen on the road. Then there is the argument for those who claim that it doesn't make a blind bit of difference as if other road users cant see the bright lights on either end of the machine, a bit of flouro textile, isn't going to help. Finally there's the minority who find themselves somewhere in the middle. Me? I'm in the middle and here's why. I believe that the term Hi-viz is somewhat misunderstood. Most riders seem to feel that Hi-Viz is either bright yellow, orange or god forbid, pink. I am not going to deny that these colours will constitute being Hi-Viz colours, but in the right conditions black is also Hi-Viz and so is white. The key is in contrasting with the background. Due to the almost ridiculous time of day/night that I have to start work, almost half of my riding is done in the dark, therefore I make sure that I'm wearing something bright and/or reflective like my Oxford Hi-Viz waistcoat. When heading home, if the sun is out, I remove the waistcoat and rely on the black and white colouring of my jacket to ensure that I contrast with my surroundings. I think it also helps to have leathers and or a helmet of of different colours for this very reason. Yes, dressed from head to toe in black may look flippin awesome, but if you come off the bike and are lying in the road, unconsious, then the next car along has little or no chance of seeing you there. Now I understand that that's an really extreme example, but it does illustrate the point. In my opinion any advantage you can get from standing out from your surroundings is something that is well worth taking, and if that means that sometimes you have to look like a crossing guard, then sobeit.
0 Comments
Earlier in the week I had quite fancied the idea of riding one of my bikes up to Birmingham to spend the weekend with Sarah. I wouldn't have been able to get enough stuff in the backpack I use when on the Ducati and I didn't relish the idea of taking the Ninja up there having not ridden it for two weeks. Sat here on a Sunday evening, looking back in hindsight, I'm glad I went up in the car instead. Friday was really, really windy and today is rained all day. Neither of which are ideal biking weather. There are still plenty of weekends to use the bikes, so losing one isn't the end of the world. In a little bit of good news, I got home to find two new bike magazines sat on my doorstep. Excellent.
I was sat having a post workout coffee yesterday afternoon when I got a call saying that the Ninja was all fixed. Mike and Artur got it all sorted and so two weeks after that little scumbag tried to nick my bike, it was running again. After spending those two weeks riding the Ducati into and out of Central London, the Ninja felt almost alien. The clutch felt really light, I felt that I was sat down really low in the bike and it felt really spongy. On the ride to work this morning, it didn't take too long to get a feeling for the bike, but it felt slow and a bit lethargic , but that extended use of the Ducati has really highlighted the differences between my two bikes. I know the Ninja needs a bit of work, the shock for example, really needs to be changed, but its really nice to have it back, especially as the City is no place for a big twin
A drop in the recent highish temperatures, a stiff wind and a bit of rain today saw the roads covered with blossom petals. The last stuff to be so prevalent was the bloody road salt that was spread almost constantly between November and the start April, with the exception of course of the first two weeks of January. Much prefer the petals.
I finally got around to sticking the tax disc onto the Ducati this afternoon and whilst I was there I locktighted a few bolts back in, which as any Ducati owner will tell you, is a fairly regular bit of maintenance. In more Ducati news I got another Pirelli Rosso Corsa tyre put in today after the disaster of the last one. Cross fingers this one doesn't fall apart as well. In ZX7R news, the bike is still in the shop awaiting repairs to the ignition barrel so I'm still having to use the Ducati instead. Bummer. and finally I've stuck one of mounts for my HD Drift onto my HJC helmet and I'm going to try the camera tomorrow and see what the footage looks like. Hope the bloody thing doesn't fall off again p.s why is the news regarding Alex Ferguson higher up the news order than the Queens Speech at the State Opening of Parliament? When did this become The United Sundom? Work didn't want / need me to work this Bank Holiday Monday, so as it was one of the hottest and finest days of the year so far, there was only one thing I was going to do. I left the house just before 09:00 and headed South towards Boxhill. The plan was to make a quick stop for coffee and then head down to see the coast at Worthing on the A24. There were loads of bikes out and I when I got to Boxhill I sat there, sipping the frankly disappointing coffee, listening to a group of riders talk about everything from crashes, to the MotoGP.
When I got down to Worthing the seafront was covered in sea mist, but I could smell the sea air so I got myself some food and just sat quietly on a bench, empting my mind whilst looking across the pebble beach. The local mods were having a meet at the foot of the pier and dispite not having a huge affection for them, there were some clearly loved machines on display. I took the chance to head down to Brighton along the coast road which runs through a very industrial area between the two towns, which would have been better if I could have seen the sea. Brighton was heaving and I wanted to head back via Boxhill again so headed out of via the A23 and the A281 taking me back to the A24. Seeing all the traffic pooring into Brighton I was glad that I left early, but dispite this, there were still a fair few cars about, ruining some nice twisty roads. I say ruining, but they have every right to be there, I just wished they would drive a little faster. All in all I spent around five and half hours on the bike and was very glad to get home at the end of it. My body was tired and I had burnt off nearly two tanks of fuel. Would I do the same trip again? maybe, but I'm in no hurry to do it again. NExt time I have a sunny day to myself, I'll find a different route to explore. After work I headed back to Metropolis so they could examine this rear tyre. Riding out of London and all the filtering isnt doing my clutch any favours. After around nine miles of it, my clutch slips so badly that I can hardly get any drive when pulling away. I need to get an open clutch cover and then drill some ventilation holes into the R&G clutch cover to aid the air flow. They will need to be big enough to be effective, but small enough and well placed to minimise the chance of stones and debris getting in if the worth happens. Anyway, back to the tyre.
Both Mike and Artur were a little shocked by the tyre, but they had no problem in ordering me a replacement. This won't be here until next week, so at the moment the Ducati is wearing a scrubbed Bridgestone Battlax on the rear, but it should be fine for the type of riding I have planned for the Bank Holiday weekend thou. I sent some pictures off the Performance Bikes magazine this morning to see if they were interested and got a positive reply from the Deputy Editor Emma Franklin. Hopefully this tyre is just an one off and its making its way back to Pirelli via the distributor, but if there's a faulty batch, it could end very badly. Brands Hatch had a trackday on the GP circuit today so I headed down afterwork to grab a few sessions. As you know, I replaced my rear tyre with another Pirelli Rosso Corsa last Wednesday and I've been riding normally, nothing to extravagant and have been scrubbing the tyre in over a few days. The tyre has been fine on the road with no wear and tear showing on the surface. I hadn't changed the suspension settings, I was running 31psi on the rear like I always do and I wasn't riding as hard as I have in the past and this happened This was after the first 20min session which included a fastish few warm up laps and this was the state of the tyre after the second session I'm taking the bike back to the shop tomorrow to see what they think, but I'm really shocked/worried about the peeling of the layers of the tyre, especially at what appears to be the two different compounds splitting away from each other on the right side.
What do you think? Faulty tyre? The ride home was fine and the tyre was stable underneath me, but I didn't want to push it through any corners, so I jumped onto the M25, which is something I normally never do. It was actually fairly enjoyable, mainly as I wasn't sat eyes fixed on an Audi in the outside lane I have been riding to work now since 2007. That's into and out of London roughly 48 weeks a year, 5 days a week for 6 years. I have been stopped by the Police on the Z1000 and the Zx7r around 6 times I think, all for speeding and cautioned and let off each and every time. I had only been riding the Ducati to and from work for two days when I got stopped yesterday. The officers stated that they had stopped me for overtaking at a pedestrian crossing, which was, in my opinion, a little tenable, but after making a brief explanation, I certainly wasn't going to argue with the Police. Just for the record I have a great deal of respect for the Police and what they do. They do the hardest job and get little or no thanks for it. At the end of our conversation we were joined by the second officer who had been checking the bikes details on the computer system and I was free to go, with the standard, but justified warning. Whilst riding home I quickly realised that I had just experienced positive discrimination. The officers had seen a fast, expensive bike being riding in a part of London at the time when these things are rare. They took the opportunity to stop me to see if the bike was stolen under the guise of overtaking at a crossing. Once they found out all was in order, I was free to go. You can look at this event to ways. a) they just wanted an excuse to pull over a fast bike and see what they can find or b) they just wanted to check that the bike wasn't stolen and was indeed in the possession of the person who paid for it. I choose to believe it was the latter and so harbour exactly zero negative feelings towards the officers. Did I overtake at the crossing? No, but that's not the point.
|
MeMy name is Matt Brown and I'm a UK journalist formerly based in London, but now calling the South of England home. I've been riding bikes since 2007, but got hooked straight away. Nothing gives me the feeling of freedom, even when stuck in a city. In 2010 I became a RoSPA gold rider, but when it comes down to it, I'm Just a normal man, riding his bikes as often as he can. Archives
April 2019
Categories
All
|