I’ve shaken off the hideous cold that took me out after New Year’s Eve. Number Two Son – who I blame for bringing the germs into the house on Christmas Eve – is still moping around, complaining of being ill. He even says he’s too unwell to come for a ride tomorrow. I don’t know.  [Read full post…]

I’m not making any New Year’s resolutions. But I have decided to change what I do and how I do it. I did pretty well with my ride-5000-miles-every-two-months thing last year (not every two months, I admit, but more often than not). So this year I’m going to aim to hit that properly. And I’m  [Read full post…]

Sorry – rude of me to talk about my Christmas present and not ask if you got what you wanted. Did you get something for the bike? Tickets to a GP next year? A new bit of kit? My other bike-related presents were generally a bit… bought by non-bikers. A couple of T-shirts with motorcycle  [Read full post…]

Sometimes I get thrown when things change unexpectedly. It’s probably my age. It means I can struggle to adapt to things that are better, just because they’re new. Which is a roundabout way of saying my primary Christmas present was a new sat nav – the latest BMW one that integrates with the S1000XR properly.  [Read full post…]

Nothing worse than being ill over Christmas. My friend the hack is notorious for always being sick over the holiday period – and I’ve always mocked him for it. This year I thought it might be me… I’ve been layed low by a hideous flu-like killer disease that kept me off work for a few  [Read full post…]

Talking of 600s, I thought I’d idly check out the state of the market (after all, old farts like me riding tourers or adventure bikes – ahem, and an S1000XR – don’t tend to follow sportsbike trends so closely). Where are they? The only sports 600 I could find was the R6. No Ninja 600,  [Read full post…]

I’m heartily sick of all the Christmas ads and displays in shops that have been everywhere for months. When did they start all that nonsense? Feels like June… It’s too much. From here on in there are 24 days before the big day. That should be ample time for all that guff. Maybe sell your  [Read full post…]

Very quickly, if you like Halloween – in the American, trick-or-treat sense – raise your hand. Quick, someone tie all their hands together and drag them off somewhere. I don’t mean to be curmudgeonly, but I hate halloween. I know it is just me being a curmudgeon, but there you go. Anyone else feel the  [Read full post…]