Duh-ohh

As you know, I'm not one to think things out fully before I act. We've been enjoying a heatwave here in London, enjoying except of course when you're stuck in traffic in the blazing sun on a hot motorcycle wearing full face helmet, jacket, trousers and riding boots. As I looked around me the other day I noticed all the scooter riders were in tee shirts and lightweight trousers, no boots to be seen. So in an effort to reduce my body heat I tried wearing my draggin' jeans for a couple of days - that helped, but not enough. So yesterday while visiting the local bike shop to buy a new padlock I spied a mesh jacket. What a great idea! Armour in case I fall off, but mesh to let the wind blow through. Wore it home from the shop and was delighted with it. Now here's the rub, heatwave we may be having, but it's still England in May; I set off this morning wearing said new jacket and realised within 100 yards that the ride in was going to be chilly. Very chilly. And no doubt by next weekend the temperature will be back to normal and I won't wear the jacket again. Funny old life, isn't it/

Decisions, decisions.

I've been using the Triumph to commute to work on for the last week or so - had a little hiccup when the right-hand silencer split. This was soon remedied by the purchase of a pair of TOR silencers. Now these come with removable baffles; being a responsible rider I have not removed these, but no matter, as they still sound like a B52 bomber - even LF who has no interest in bikes said they're bloody loud.

I'm still trying to get to grips with the sheer uncomfortableness of riding the Triumph - spurred on by Trobairitz's decision to get rid of her Bonnie I thought I'd ride out at the weekend and look at some other bikes. First stop was at the Triumph dealers, where I had a test ride on a Tiger 800. It was OK, nothing really outstanding. Then I visited the local Moto Guzzi dealer - these bikes are lovely, but so small! Couldn't fit on any of them. I then took a ride down to Kempton Park where there was a classic bike show and auto jumble; the car park was so full of interesting bikes I spent an hour wandering around. Liked this strange concoction of a cafe racer

and was interested to see the flyscreen attached to this Velocette - must be graded to let only the little flies through!

I then spent a couple of hours riding aimlessly around the Surrey countryside listening to the sound of the exhaust bouncing off the scenery, and got home with a smile on my face. So, at the moment I'm still trying to decide what to do about the bike.