Author: Richard

Shakedown Run

| Richard

So after a bit of a nightmare journey to get to Birmingham, I did the deal and Wilf was wheeled out of Roger’s workshop. At which point it began raining…

We’d fixed the TomTom Rider’s RAM mount to the clutch lever bolt and I plugged in the address in Grimsby and off I went. A couple of coffees later and I set the TomTom to my home address. One annoying thing was that when riding, I was not allowed to change my destination to a previously stored one, no doubt due to some idiotic ’safety’ feature. No doubt they’d want me to pull onto the hard shoulder to do this … where a number of accidents happen!

Anyway, on arrival home, I checked the trip statistics and discovered that my moving average speed for the 380 mile journey had been xxmph. Oops! Best not put the number.

OK, my back ached a little but having spent five hours in the saddle, it had turned out to be a remarkably good high speed tourer. Maybe I need to rethink my choice of bike for the RBLR1000, a 1,000 mile ride in 24 hours I’m doing for charity.

Virgin Trains

| Richard

I recently booked a seat on a train from London Euston to Birmingham New Street. It was for the Bank Holiday Monday yesterday. Now travelling by train and Bank Holidays usually mean engineering work, but there was not a hint of anything wrong when I ordered the ticket through the Virgin Strain website.

I wanted to book a particular journey at a particular time so as to arrive before 10.00am. A bloke I know was collecting me from the station to take me to complete a deal to buy his Suzuki GSX-R750K4 and I was then going to travel a good many miles to see friends in North East Lincs. before heading back down to London. A long day. And as I would be riding a new sports motorcycle, it was a no-brainer that I should wear full leathers and boots, etc.

So I booked a ticket on the 8.23am train and got an e-mail confirmation through the e-mail address I registered with them. The ticket arrived by post a few days later and it was ‘open’.

Come the day, I got on a bus at 7.20am to London Bridge followed by a tube to Euston. Once there I looked at the departure board. No sign of the 8.23am. I asked at the information desk and was told that it had been cancelled. Nice of them to announce that, eh? And no e-mail to let me know. Nothing. So off I went to the information/ticket office. The next train would be after 11.00am and would take the best part of three hours as it would be part train, part bus! So much for letting Virgin get me there on time. She did say I could get a Chiltern Trains service from Marylebone that would get me there earlier and I asked how to get there. She suggested a couple of underground lines, so off I went down to the Underground.

The lines I needed were suspended for engineering works!

When I eventually got to Marylebone Station – complete with a massive blister from walking part of the way to find a taxi – it transpired that I had paid more for this ’service’ than if I’d bought it from Chiltern Trains. Great…

Insurance

| Richard

One little side-effect that was a tad unpalatable was the effect buying Wilf has had on my insurance premium. I renewed by insurance for the Kawasaki ZRX1200R fully comprehensive for £133.32 – I’m 47 and have been riding for 30 years with no accidents and just three points on my licence at the moment. That was with eBike Insurance, who I’ve found to be cheapest for the last couple of years and who aren’t overly concerned about modifications, providing you list them.

So adding Wilf to the policy and making sure that I was showing that both bikes will be staying down here in London from time to time over the summer, the additional premium was a whopping £474.12! Eek!

I’ve also spent another hundred quid or more on another Abus chain and a ground anchor in addition to the Meta alarm on Wilf who is also marked with SmartWater. Click that link for more details of what that is. Surprisingly, adding the chain and anchor would have done nothing to decrease the premium but had a theft occurred whilst they were not in use, the excess would have increased, so I have not added them to the policy on the basis that the insurers don’t want me to use them and it’s my choice if I do or don’t.

We’re all safe and legal now and ready to pick Wilf up later this morning…

Introductions

| Richard

Welcome to my shiny new blog set up especially for my fun and games with a 2004 Suzuki GSX-R750 K4.

I’ve bought it mainly for trackdays, both in the UK and abroad, but also for the occasional hoon.

The deal has been done and I am collecting it on Bank Holiday Monday, May 4th from the Midlands and then riding it the long way home to London via Grimsby and Lincolnshire Wolds for a quick hoon with my mate Wazza and his Rizla Replica GSX-R750 K2.

The bike’s present owner is an Instructor for the Motorcycle Folly and I made the mistake of saying that I really liked the 750 Gixxers as an all round package, especially for the track. Roger said it was for sale and suggested I take it out for a session on the recent Folly trackday at Castle Combe. It was sooooooo easy to ride fast and was so controllable, that it practically sold itself to me.

I’m intending to use my new TomTom Rider v2 satnav to guide me home, so that should be fun setting it to work. If not, I’ll have to rely on a small map book, Google Maps on my Nokia and signposts!

Budget Car Scrapping Scheme Rip-Off

| Richard

So Alastair Darling has announced a new plan to offer a £2,000 discount if you trade in a ten year old car and buy a new one. Woohoo!

Now then, let’s have a little think about this. I drive a 1999 Ford Mondeo ST200 which would qualify in a few months’ time. I bought this second-hand at less than a year old and got a whopping discount off the new price. So woohoo! Let’s go and buy the new equivalent Mondeo.

Except there’s not really an equivalent, but there is a 2.5L 220PS version though not as nice looking.

In 2010, I will pay £205 to tax the ST200. On the basis of the Ford’s emissions figures, I would pay £245 a year on the new one but in the first year, I’d pay £550!

So let’s do the sums: the Government discount of £2,000 is probably £1,000 more than mine’s worth. So I’m up £1,000. Then I would pay £350 more for tax in the first year, so I’m only up £650 now. And that’s around a 2.3% discount in real terms. No doubt the dealers won’t want to add their own discounts on top of this if they can help it and of course buying new and turning the wheels would lead to a huge reduction in value that would dwarf that discount.

And of course every year I’d be worse off because the VED is higher on the new one than the old one.

If I go for more of a performance car then the numbers simply don’t stack up especially as the first year’s VED would go as high as £950!

No doubt the banks wouldn’t want to lend me the money anyway…

Iron Butt Charity Ride

| Richard

1000 miles in 24 hours (plus 400 miles to and from the start!)

I’ve signed up to do this: the Royal British Legion is holding an event under the Iron Butt Association SaddleSore 1000 rules. There are several aims, first to raise money for Royal British Legion. The second is to try and take the record from the Americans. And the third is obviously the personal challenge of trying to ride 1000 miles in 24 hours (plus a 400 mile round trip to and from the starting point!).

The event starts on Friday 19th June at 12:00 with riders briefing, with riders departing between 08:00 and 09:00 on Saturday 20th June, completing the ride by 09:00 on Sunday 21st June.

I have sent off my entry form along with a cheque for £30 but I will also need to raise at least £50 of sponsorship.

As for the ride there are four routes, two north, and two south. I am taking the Route B North Anti Clockwise.

The RBLR website and route details is here.

The easiest way for me to collect sponsorship is the just giving website at http://www.justgiving.com/richardhmorris – they can claim the gift aid on your behalf.

Please sponsor me!

“I’m sure that the majority of motorists would support the proposals”

| Richard

From the same bunch of fuckwits that brought you “People ‘can’t wait for ID cards’” comes news of another twat suggesting that if the road speed limit was cut to 50mph the majority of motorists would support the new restrictions, which would be enforced by average speed cameras.

Well here’s news for you, Jim Fitzpatrick: I would be dead against yet another piece of ill-conceived, knee-jerk legislation from you bunch of arrogant control freaks! Or, put another way, you can fuck right off you power-crazed, arrogant, self-obsessed piece of shit!

Sounds like it’s about time for some well organised campaign of civil disobedience before the nanny state imposes yet more draconian legislation on us. Any takers?