Call for law change on quad bikes

“Doctors say the law should be changed to force people who use road-legal quad bikes to wear helmets.

Accident and emergency medics say lives are put at risk because riders do not have to wear protective gear – despite the fact the bikes can reach 90mph.”

Oh my word! Think of the children! Something must be done!

And yet…

“There are no separate statistics on the numbers of quad bike crashes, but two particularly high-profile accidents have made headlines and brought the dangers to wider public attention.

In 1998, comedian Rik Mayall suffered serious head injuries and spent five days in a coma after his quad bike overturned while he was riding it at his farm in Devon.

In 2003, rock musician Ozzy Osbourne spent eight days in a coma, broke eight ribs and punctured a lung while riding a quad bike in the grounds of his Buckinghamshire mansion. He was not wearing a helmet at the time of the crash.”

So there’s nothing to support such a cry for us to be protected from ourselves. And clearly the high profile accidents took place off road. Not sure what a crash helmet would have done to save Ozzy’s broken ribs and punctured lung, but hey, let’s not let facts get in the way of a hysterical piece of so-called journalism.

So off we went to the Motorcycle Folly‘s Rockingham trackday on 19 July 2010. The weather was just right despite the Sunday before and the Tuesday after being wet and miserable; indeed I even got a bit sunburnt.

First session out there having led the Novice group round for the first session and I started pushing it a little faster each time until I was getting my knee down on both left and right handers. Indeed in most of the photos of the day of me – taken by the ever-fabulous EDP Photo News – I seem to have my knee down lap after lap.

Anyway, here are some photos:

Ready to head out

Look at these 'sliders!

Portly Blue with Virgin Kneesliders

Kneedown

Yes, they’re at it yet again and it’s getting really tiresome.

And what’s worse is that these fecktards can’t even operate their phone system properly, constantly hanging up or dropping calls.

“1&1 Accounts: The Home of Special Needs”

Recent searches had also indicated that 3 might well be offering free tethering, whereby you use your phone’s data package with other devices like laptops and indeed an iPad to save you having to splash out on a separate data contract. And yes, I am beginning to be tempted by the thought of an iPad as well, having had a photographer friend extol the virtues of his and having played with one at Meadowhell last weekend.

Merely having expressed interest, I’d been surprised to receive this text from 3 on the 22nd June:

“Great news: You’ll get an iPhone 4 upgrade and we’ve already reserved one for you…”

I didn’t even say I wanted one yet!

Then on the 24th June:

“Update. Your iPhone 4 is still reserved. Due to high demand we’ll contact you when we can process your order. View tariff details at three.co.uk/iphone”

The next day, I received this text:

“Great news. Your iPhone 4 will be available w/c 19 July. We’ll contact you between 1 & 7 July to process your upgrade…”

Well I’ve just received that call late this afternoon. They’re offering me a 16GB iPhone 4 on a 24 month contract with a one-payment to start with. In other words, it’s the same offer as anyone else would get, except that:

1. I wouldn’t want a 16GB one as I’d intend to actually use it and fill up the phone with music, video and of course work.
2. Why the hell would I want a 24 month contract when Tesco are offering a 12 month one?
3. Why the hell would I want a 24 month contract when my current one is a 12 month one?
4. Why the hell would I want a 24 month contract when Apple tend to launch a newer, better iPhone every year?
5. Why the hell would I necessarily want to stay with 3 when I have two pay monthly phones and want to combine the two into one?

Time to talk to 3′s customer retention department, I think…

Friday

As the ZRX1200R wasn’t running properly after its full service at Robspeed, I made the decision to use the Fireblade for the RBLR1000: 1,000 miles in 24 hours with proceeds going to the Poppy Appeal.

A last minute check of the Blade showed that another fairing bolt had gone missing and also that the satnav wiring I’d put in for the TomTom Rider was hard-wired into the ZRX rather than separately attached to the battery. So I also needed to get some electrical connectors and cut the wiring on the ZRX.

After those small wrinkles, I fitted the TomTom and loaded myself up before heading off to Squires for log-in. Paperwork and briefing over, it was back to the hotel for a pint and to watch England’s dismal performance against Algeria in the World Cup and then off for an early night.

Sharing with The Invisible Man

Sunset at the Hotel

Saturday

The alarm went off at 4.30am so I got up, had a coffee and a shower and watched the TV weather forecast: showers, Northerly winds, gale force at times but clearing from the West. Bugger!

I grabbed the packed lunch I’d ordered from the hotel and headed over to Squires to get myself signed off for the 5.30am start.

1020 miles to go...

I had chosen the North Anti-Clockwise route: Squires to Berwick-upon-Tweed to Edinburgh to Wick (18 miles short of John O’Groats) to Fort William to Birch Services (Manchester) and then back to Squires.

My first fuel stop was at Gateshead at 6.44am. Quite cold but making good progress. The sky was very overcast…

On to Berwick by 7.41am. It was very windy and there had been a fair degree of drizzle, so I donned my race rainsuit (aka “the Gimp Suit”) and we set off again. I say “we” because by now, one of my friends from the ZRX Owners Club, Ralph, and I were riding together.

A coffee and the infamous Gimp Suit

It was at this stop that I noticed that there was brake fluid leaking from one of the front brake hoses supplied and fitted by Robspeed. Not particularly good news as I was facing another 800 miles through the Highlands on a 180mph sportsbike with potentially no brakes…

We pressed on to the Dreghorn Link, Edinburgh (“Foghorn Dreghorn”) by 8.53am for more coffee and for me to buy some brake fluid to top up the brake reservoir. Grim and Viper turned up too whilst we were taking a break.

Our next stop was a quick detour off the A9 in the Highlands for petrol, coffee and a hot pie at 10.33am in Dalwhinnie. The ride had been cold and wet at times, but it was now brightening up considerably:

Checking the SatNav

Knowing we had a long next leg up to Wick, our next fuel and coffee stop was at Dornoch, in Sutherland, north of the Glenmorangie Distillery at 12.16pm.

On then to Tesco at Wick for a sandwich and fuel at 1.31pm. This was our most northerly checkpoint and marked our halfway point, more or less. We bumped into Yid, Grim, Viper and John (the one-armed rider I know from my trackdays).

Chatting to Viper at Wick

Then we headed off back down to Inverness in bright sunshine but still very windy. A terrific road too with lots of fast, sweeping bends. It was at this point that I began to resent having a deadline to achieve as I’d have loved to stop for photos of the stunning scenery. Maybe next time…

It had warmed up too so at Inverness at 3.39pm Ralph grabbed a Cornetto. I made do with a Double Decker and a coffee! We were looking forward to the next section: the blast along the lochs including Loch Ness from Inverness down to Fort William.

Loads and loads of fun on the road saw us safely to a beautiful and warm Fort William at 5.09pm despite not being able to rely on working front brakes:

Bikes at Fort William

Blade and Ben Nevis

We knew that the next section of the journey – the road past Glencoe and Loch Lomond from Fort William down to Glasgow – was going to be breathtaking and it didn’t let us down. Lots of wide open roads, twists, turns, ascents and descents. It was on the motorways around Glasgow that Ralph and I were separated thanks to his Garmin and my TomTom suggesting different routes, but we met up again at Bothwell Services on the M74 at 7.28pm.

We then rode on with our bikes casting ever longer shadows down to Southwaite Services on the M6 between Carlisle and Penrith by 8.53pm. By now it was starting to hurt a bit so a couple of Ibuprofen with the coffees helped. A change too from black visors to clear ones as we knew dusk was approaching.

So on to our last checkpoint: Birch Services Eastbound on the M62 which we reached by 10.20pm. More fuel, coffee and visor cleaning to clear the midges away:

They were clear 100 miles ago

And then on for a quick blast from there to Squires and a warm welcome when we rolled in at 11.09pm, the fourth and fifth riders ‘home’. Just as well the welcome was warm, because temperatures had plummeted!

Well over 1,000 miles in 17.5 hours. I got my fuel log checked, filled in the paperwork to submit all my receipts and the like for the Iron Butt Association membership and then had a laugh and joke with the people who’d applauded our return.

Sadly Squires had shut up for the night, so no hot tea and hot dogs but fortunately one of the organising team made me a warm cup of tea on their stove which helped enormously. We saw Viper back in around midnight before I set off for one more fuel stop en route back to home near Cleethorpes by 12.45am.

Same again next year? In the meantime, my JustGiving page is still taking donations until 20 September 2010…

So I had the bike serviced at Robspeed: a full service with shim check, etc. and a new chain and front sprocket which left me with a little change from £500.

But on the way home it started spluttering a bit. I assumed that some fresh petrol would help, so I topped it up and then took it out for a shakedown run on Thursday. Fine wide full open but running rough as a dog’s bottom at low revs or tickover.

I daren’t use the bike for 1,000 miles in the Highlands, so I had to quickly fettle the Fireblade to have the satnav working and the like. And so I abandoned Blue Rex for the Blade for Scotland. Read on…

I picked the Fireblade up this morning from Robspeed in Grimsby. They’d done the changes: fitting braided hoses, Diablo Supercorsa tyres, a tailtidy, R&G crash mushrooms and some bespoke silver graphics with CBR and fireblade logos as cut-outs. The graphics look great: judge for yourself from the cameraphone shots.

The bike is indecently capable and indecently quick. The handling is impeccable so far as well. Oh and I look like a complete n00b thanks to huge chicken strips – new tyres front and rear – and new leathers and knee sliders!

I live in London, so not exactly rural or out of the way, and my telephone line is a BT line. BT suggest – via their website – that I can get up to 2Mb download speeds but nothing greater than that. And of course the actual truth, as confirmed to me today by my present broadband providers, O2, is that:

“We’ve estimated that your maximum download speed is 0.5 meg. This is based on information BT gave us about your BT line. The reason why you can’t get better speed is because of the distance between your home and your local exchange which is about 5930 meters.

So, there’s nothing that we can do in this instance. At the best you can realistically hope for speed up to 1Mb download speed. Therefore, we’re unable to provide you with better speed.”

Great, eh?