Today the Blade went in to have its chain and sprockets done in time for the California Superbike School Level 2 course I'm going to on Tuesday. Needing a bike to get me home again while the work was being done, Howard at Conquest let me borrow this beast of a bike. It a 1995 BMW RT1100. This bike represented a few firsts for me. It the first BMW and out and out tourer that I've ever ridden and is actually the oldest bike I've ridden too for what that's worth. After the disappointment of the TDM a few weeks back I let me eyes dictate my feelings and I looked at it as just something to get me home. I was a little concerned about its size too, however even from low speeds the bike was perfectly balanced and hid its weight well. By no means sportsbike fast it could certainly hustle along and was very easy to ride. The riding position was very upright and having read about it during numerous tourer group tests, I got to experience the negative pressure that bikes with big high screens can cause. A very strange sensation, the pressure actually pulls you forward and down into the cockpit.
The brakes were okay if not amazing, but they were slowing down a big old barge of a bike so that can be forgiven. It has loads of features like ABS and a radio! A flippin radio. Not bad for 1995. If I still needed to ride up and down the motorway for work then I could do a whole lot worse than this. Powered with a full on drive shaft, the bike trundled along and just to test her out a bit, I took her down the awesome Wimborne to Cranborne Road, which is one of the best roads in Dorset. The Beemer took it in her stride.
During the ride, a pheasant decided that I and the ugly Beemer were the last things he wanted to see. Thankfully, for me anyway, the bird just bounced off the left side of the bike and left its last meal all over my leg having clearly panicked at the very last moment. The Beemer didn't even notice. Really an awesome piece of kit.
The brakes were okay if not amazing, but they were slowing down a big old barge of a bike so that can be forgiven. It has loads of features like ABS and a radio! A flippin radio. Not bad for 1995. If I still needed to ride up and down the motorway for work then I could do a whole lot worse than this. Powered with a full on drive shaft, the bike trundled along and just to test her out a bit, I took her down the awesome Wimborne to Cranborne Road, which is one of the best roads in Dorset. The Beemer took it in her stride.
During the ride, a pheasant decided that I and the ugly Beemer were the last things he wanted to see. Thankfully, for me anyway, the bird just bounced off the left side of the bike and left its last meal all over my leg having clearly panicked at the very last moment. The Beemer didn't even notice. Really an awesome piece of kit.
Finally today, I just wanted to talk about something a little more serious. Yesterday saw the conclusion of the Isle of Man TT races for 2016 and sadly this year we lost four competitors: Paul Shoesmith, Dwight Beare, Ian Bell and Andrew Soar. Coming off the back of the Pre-TT classic where Dean Martin was killed, the NW200 where a Malachi Mitchell Thomas died during the final Supertwins race and the loss of Billy Redmayne during the Scarborough Spring Cup meeting, there have been renewed calls to cancel road racing. Couple this with the very recent death of Spanish Rider Louis Salom at the Catalan GP last weekend, motorcycle racing has come back into the spotlight.
I find the responses of those, some of whom are suggesting, others demanding the cessation of the Isle of Man TT races very interesting. On the whole, the people who are talking about this dramatic change have rarely raced on a circuit, let alone the roads and so, in my opinion, have no right to make comment.
The races at the Isle of Man stand well above the rest, as the most dangerous series of races across the motorsport calendar. Each and every rider who has ever sat on the grid of a road race is there because they want to be there. Racing is, financially, very expensive, however, they are all fully aware of the dangers, but still they wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
I recently saw a very interesting statistic regarding the number of deaths of climbers who have died attempted to make the summit of Everest. Since 1922, sadly, approx 280 people have died on the mountain. Its an approximation as several bodies have never been found. This is just one mountain and for the record, when you die so high, its almost impossible to recover the body, so most of them are still up there. We mustn't forgot the other dangerous peaks. Annapurna, which has claimed 61 climber lives compared to the 200 or so who have reached its peak. www.grindtv.com states that for every three people who reach the top, one climber attempting it will die. Then there is K2, Everest's neighbour and the second highest mountain in the world, where on just one day in August 2008, 11 climbers were killed, adding to the eighty climbers who have died since 1939. I could go on and give you a list for Nagna Parbat in Pakistan or Kangchenjunga in Nepal but you get the point. With all these statistics and despite all these deaths, the call to cancel mountain climbing doesn't get very loud.
We all know biking is dangerous and race racing even more so, but so is life. You can die getting out of the bath, you can die crossing the road or you can die eating peanuts. These deaths are absolutely tragic and my heart goes out to the family and friends of those riders, but they were doing what they loved and it's not for you, or indeed me, to tell anybody what they can or cannot do. We should all remember that.
I find the responses of those, some of whom are suggesting, others demanding the cessation of the Isle of Man TT races very interesting. On the whole, the people who are talking about this dramatic change have rarely raced on a circuit, let alone the roads and so, in my opinion, have no right to make comment.
The races at the Isle of Man stand well above the rest, as the most dangerous series of races across the motorsport calendar. Each and every rider who has ever sat on the grid of a road race is there because they want to be there. Racing is, financially, very expensive, however, they are all fully aware of the dangers, but still they wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
I recently saw a very interesting statistic regarding the number of deaths of climbers who have died attempted to make the summit of Everest. Since 1922, sadly, approx 280 people have died on the mountain. Its an approximation as several bodies have never been found. This is just one mountain and for the record, when you die so high, its almost impossible to recover the body, so most of them are still up there. We mustn't forgot the other dangerous peaks. Annapurna, which has claimed 61 climber lives compared to the 200 or so who have reached its peak. www.grindtv.com states that for every three people who reach the top, one climber attempting it will die. Then there is K2, Everest's neighbour and the second highest mountain in the world, where on just one day in August 2008, 11 climbers were killed, adding to the eighty climbers who have died since 1939. I could go on and give you a list for Nagna Parbat in Pakistan or Kangchenjunga in Nepal but you get the point. With all these statistics and despite all these deaths, the call to cancel mountain climbing doesn't get very loud.
We all know biking is dangerous and race racing even more so, but so is life. You can die getting out of the bath, you can die crossing the road or you can die eating peanuts. These deaths are absolutely tragic and my heart goes out to the family and friends of those riders, but they were doing what they loved and it's not for you, or indeed me, to tell anybody what they can or cannot do. We should all remember that.
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