Survival Skills

You often hear new riders who are experienced car drivers complaining that they have to go through the full licence process to get a motorcycle licence. Their primary argument is that their years of car driving experience transfers across to riding a motorcycle, so they should be able to get to a full licence in a shorter period of time.

My personal opinion is that riding a motorcycle requires a different set of skills to driving a car, and that the dangers experienced riding a motorcycle ...

Well at 3.30am I got into bed after a lovely ride.

This sort of thing is par for the course for me, but it was with TOTO and Gremlin that I happened to do it with last night/morning!

TOTO texts me all excited about whether we were going to ride tonight. Since I knew Gremlin needed more training for his mad combo of a GC and TT soon, I figured this was just synchronicity at work.

So around 7.45pm TOTO rocks up from working his shift at 'Treads. Gremlin ...

And now my intrepid audience (all two of you, and the cat reading over your shoulder), I shall delve into the horror that is known as Ashhurst …

It was a dark and stormy night … er wait, it was a sullen night, with a churlish moon hanging low in the dark sky, it was near the time of 5am when I turned into the town of Ashhurst .. and I was trying to find the road that was a nice bit of twisty (Colyton Rd I do believe). Well I made a turn and ended up in a very rough muddy and ...

Still with me? I admire your persistence and veracity for applying yourself to my litany of lambast to the life of the ride I like to live! So, on we shall go!

From Waiouru to Taihape, there was serendipitous moment, as the snow receded, the state of the road conditions improving, a small unbidden thought came to my mind.

“Cindi”.

Que vera que?

“Cindi”.

A small voice at the back of my mind spoke to me, it was my ...

Now, I have just finished a slap up feed of lamb, roast veges and the ubiquitous lashings of mint sauce. My dearest mater is a most wondrous cook and since it is Pater’s day, she whipped up some nosh that hit the cockles of the heart just right. Pater is now mopping up the leftovers and I durst say his belt has had to be loosened a few notches somewhat. But, back to my sally into the snow drenched deposits in the dark parts of the night in Middle Earth! (oh alright, Waiouru!)
...

Now where was I? I was distracted by some enticing etchings that purport to be of some magnificent ladies in various states of repose and undress, all done in the best possible taste! Ah, but such delights for another time, I shall return to my dissertations of my diurnal wanderings ...

The light snow drifts turned into rock hard hail, the fact I could feel the impacts through my layers of gear was not noticed due to a Van Halens and Deth Metal concert with a drum and bass solo reverberating ...

The topic of L Plates comes up frequently, predominately about weather complying with the learner licence conditions and using the L plate increase the danger of the rider on the road.

The best place to start is by considering why we have L plates, and what they aim to do.

When the majority of people first start riding a motorcycle they will have little or no machine handling skills. This includes basic but critical abilities such as counter-steering, emergency braking, ...

Introduction

For the record I am not in their industry. But have been a customer of OPSM for four years. Recently my glasses suffered a lethal accident and required to be replaced. I considered buying of an international website, however now know that this may be cheap but you need some exact eye measurements like distance between pupils etc.

I had heard of Specsavers and was very dubious, as it almost sounded too good to be true. I know if that’s the case then it’s ...