little bits of everything

Since our office move  I've been cycling to work from time to time instead of going on my motorbike. The new office is only slightly closer to home than the old one, but there was a hill at both ends of the journey, so I never fancied it. Now I only have a hill as I go home in the evening (which I'm walking up apart from the first bit). I only cycle when it's not raining, and it's not icy, and I don't have to be home promptly, and I'm not too tired. I'm the cycling equivalent of those people who only ride motorbikes in the summer so they keep their bikes nice and shiny. (I ride my motorbike all year round, apart from when it's snowy or icy on the main roads.) There are number of differences that have struck me between the two different modes of transport. Sound On my motorbike all I pretty much hear is the noise of the engine, and on roads when I can do 50mph (it's not a very powerful bike) the wind noise. I'm wearing ear plugs so the roar ...

When I started riding a scooter 11 years ago I looked at a few scooter forums to see what people were talking about. Some of the people there looked down on those with "plastics" as they called the modern scooters that have become so popular. Then a bit later I got a motorbike and hung around on the Usenet group uk.rec.motorcycles. There everyone looks down on scooters, but the proper bikers look down on "power rangers" as they call those who wear one piece coloured suits and ride when the weather is nice. So we've got a hierarchy growing here. Anyone with a motor powering their two wheels looks down on those who have unpowered two wheels. So I wonder what hierarchies there are amongst cyclists. I don't know  but I imagine people with  fixies  look down on other cyclists as theirs is a purer form of cycling. Maybe the shiny road cyclists look down on the muddy mountain bikers. Or maybe the world of cyclists is tribe-free. Maybe not. Who's at the bo...

When I started riding a motorbike I took the Compulsory Basic Training - a day of training which you have to do before you are allowed out on the road. As we travelled to the car park where we do the training the trainer remarked "Have you heard that Joey Dunlop has died?". I hadn't heard of Joey Dunlop. If you haven't heard of him either, that's like not knowing who Ayrton Senna is. I am a proper biker if I don't know that? I do ride a bike to work almost every day normally, unless there's snow on the ground. Some "proper" bikers don't do that, but only ride when the weather's nice. I don't go to bikers' gatherings, watch bike racing, buy bike magazines or any of the stuff like that. I wonder if I come across a group of proper bikers if they'll want me to join their groups and only then will I be a proper biker?

The Top Gear have recently asked for examples of silly road signs. One that amuses me are the "Think Bike" road signs: What are you supposed to do if you're riding a bike and you come across one? Spend a few seconds considering how fortunate you are to be riding a bike when all around you almost everyone else is in their metal cages? Check that you've turned the choke off? That you've switched the fuel switch away from reserve? If you ride a bike sometimes, but you're in a car when you see it, there's a chance that you may forget you're in a car and nod to the bike coming the other way, or try to squeeze through a gap that's too wide for a car. Still, I'm glad that the car drivers are thinking of us.