grumpyoldjanner

When you have an unexpected week off work what better than an impromptu trip round Wales? Averaged a touch over 200 miles a day, which is more than enough tucked up on a sports bike! Took a clockwise route travelling up the western side of Mid Wales on the way out taking in the Black Mountain Pass, Abergwesyn Pass and the Elan Valley. Only rain during the trip thankfully started about 5 minutes after arriving at my accommodation in Snowdonia, where it proceeded to chuck it down for the evening. Thankfully it had cleared up by the following morning so had dry weather to take in the Pen-y-Pass into Llanberis and then loop round the top edge of Snowdonia and the Evo triangle before heading back south down the eastern side of Mid Wales. Final day saw me escape Wales via a blast through the Wye Valley and then back to the West Country via the A39 North Atlantic Highway and finally across Dartmoor to get back home. Whilst Snowdonia/North Wales had amazing roads and the better scenery it also suffered from a lot more traffic. Couldn't enjoy a lot of the roads as spent most the time weaving through queues of traffic caused by Grockle boxes. Every time you made it through one queue you got 5 minutes of open road if you were lucky before arriving at the back of the next queue. Whilst Mid Wales lacked the dramatic mountain passes it still had some amazing roads through the valleys and a lot of the time I had them to myself 👼 Enjoying the view from the top of the Black Mountains At the start of the Abergwesyn Pass Midway through the Abergwesyn Pass Deep in the Elan Valley B4391 Llangynog

Interesting stuff. Have done ice baths before after running marathons and found my knees and quad muscles ached a lot less the next day. Never thought about doing it as a daily thing though. Might have to give it a go if it cuts down on the morning hunger pangs. Put on far to much weight over the last 12 months that I need to start shifting in anticipation that we'll be allowed this summer.

Hello from Plymouth Hopefully you'll get the chance soon to strech it's legs soon.

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Finally scratched the itch and got my bike license in June last year. Kept it Japanese and treated myself to a Honda CBR650F. Should keep me amused for another year or two till I’ve got a bit more experience and no claims under my belt and hope to trade up to a Fireblade

Food shopping in my local Tesco yesterday and the toilet roll aisle was empty. However there was plenty of kitchen roll in the next aisle over. Thinking of buying it all and re-packaging it as 'Jumbo Toilet Roll'

Must have been an oddball growing up, Diddy Kong Racing on the N64 over Mario Kart for me.

I wonder if they go round sticking them on high performance saloons and estate cars as well or just 4x4s? Don't a lot of them these days (particularly the smaller 'cross-over types') come with pokey little 1.4 engines and hybrids? Yet you can drive round in a discreet saloon car with a massive great big V8 and the environmentalists don't bat an eye lid.

Agreed. Got into motorbiking last year and every now and again get thoughts of selling the Zed for a cheap and practical run about (normally when I'm stuck behind a queue of traffic doing 40 on a 60mph twisty A road) and upgrading the bike. Then I have to drive one of the work's diesel Astras and after returning to base and getting in the Zed to drive home soon change my mind! There is also the smug satisfaction of driving something a little different (and beautiful!) rather than another drab identical looking Euro box.

Speaking from experience, going down the motorbike route doesn't save any money! Had the same thought at the start of the year so did my CBT with the intention of pottering to work and round town on a 125cc. So spent a couple of thousand on a bike and all the kit. Returned around 110 mpg round town and to work and back so may have eventually paid back the out lay but it only lasted about 4 months as its lack of power got very boring very fast. So then it was a few hundred £££s more for my DAS course and test followed by a few thousand more £££s on a Honda CBR650F and then because I had a nice, newer, faster bike it was of course necessary to upgrade the cheap helmet and clothing I had bought to start with! And you can bet your house in a couple of years time when I've got a few years experience and no claims bonus so my insurance is more reasonable the 650 is getting replaced with something bigger still! Bikes are more addictive than zeditis The acceleration is intoxicating, no getting stuck behind someone doing 40mph along a national speed limit A road on the bike! Out, overtaken and a mere spec in the mirror in a matter of seconds The ability to filter through queues of traffic comes into its own in South West during the summer grockel invasion as well.

Nearly all positive comments when I'm in my Zed as well other than the odd glare from people who decide I'm speeding based purely on the look and sound of the car. Work colleagues like to give me a lot of stick about being a boy racer though. This despite the fact I think I'm the only person on the team with a clean driving license The standard of other people's driving though I find is much worse. You get the boy racers who want race you at the lights, people tailgating through town to show their car is just as fast, because at 30mph the Zed is almost flat out Motorways are the worst though. On one side is an endless stream of knobbers who have to prove a point by overtaking you, again to show how fast their car is, who then pull in and slow back down, even when I'm just happy chugging along at 70mph with the cruise control. Then, on the other side, people going at 60-65mph who speed up when you go to overtake. Had people go from 60 to 80 whilst trying to overtake before! Supercharger comes in handy here when I'm feeling mischievous, doesn't take long for them to disappear from view in the mirror

What is it that makes the Police hypocrites and that you disagree with? In relation to the comments about drones, there are strict regulations about flying drones in built up areas and yes the police have some exemptions. However, this does not make them hypocrites. For a start not any police officer can fly drones, those that can will have undergone Civil Aviation Authority approved training. Training, usually for commercial operators, is also available to the public that will allow them to fly drones over built up areas. Secondly, the drones the police use aren't you £100 cheap Chinese made jobs bought off eBay. From memory they have to have a minimum of 6 motors/rotors so that it will still fly if one or more fail. Comments like 'A whole lot of resources on traffic and not much on hit and runs, petty crime and robbery. Sad state of affairs when they close your case' are bullshit. One, as usual the police are damned if they do and damned if they don't. People moan about the poor standard of driving these days and the lack of traffic officers dealing with it yet when a force put on a traffic op targeting driving offences they get slammed for not dealing with 'real crime'. And secondly you'll find the reverse situation is the case. The Met have huge task forces that focus on specific offences like moped crime, knife crime, sexual offences, gang crime and a whole host of other areas. This will likely be a small team of around half a dozen officers if that from a force that employs 30 000+ officers. Lastly, one to think about. Are the resources better used elsewhere? London is a bit of a microcosm but elsewhere in the country road traffic collisions account for far more deaths and serious injuries than knife crime. Yet as above, when police target driving offences people can't moan quick enough that they should be tackling real crime. Most stabbings are drug supply/drug debt or domestic related. As an ordinary law abiding member of public pretty much anywhere in England you are far more likely to be involved in a road traffic collision than you are to be a victim of a serious offence such as a stabbing by a stranger. But you won't read that in the press because RTCs don't make as sexy headlines in the papers.

Nigel Farage is one of the biggest conmen going. It's hard to decide which his best con is, managing to convince people that he is a 'man of the people' when he is very much one of the 'privileged' that he rallies against or that over the years he has been paid hundreds of thousands of pounds to represent us in Europe, which he has not done, then continuously bleats that we have no voice in Europe. And to those that are saying we have to leave because that's what we voted for and that's how democracy works and if we don't leave we're living in a dictatorship, you're talking @*!#. One, the cornerstone of a democracy is the right for people to change their minds, it's why the government have to hold a general election at least every 5 years. Two, people voted to leave, they didn't vote on what terms. The government have been unable to agree on a deal so surely the most democratic decision is to put it back to the people.

Got all excited then reading the thread title thinking I'd been spotted but alas no, don't have louvers on mine. Don't recall ever seeing that one round Plymouth either but that's not to say it isn't local.

Always wanted a motorbike since I was a youth but wasn’t allowed one whilst I was living under the parent’s roof. After moving out plans for a bike took a back seat to paying the mortgage, bills and a bad case of Zeditis! Finally took the plunge at the start of the year and did my CBT and now the happy owner of a Yamaha MT125. Plan is to clock up some experience over the summer with view to doing my test around September so I can get a big boy’s bike. Here she is seen on her own and next to her big sister. Only a 400bhp difference in power. Although the bike will do almost 140mpg on the work commute compared to around 17mpg in the car so despite the initial outlay on the bike and protective gear it is already starting to pay for itself.