(More anorak stuff.
Feel free to ignore this until I start posting a more interesting travelogue
from the real Big Ride.)
I’ve got the bug! I’d
love to do another, longer tour. And I’d
do it so much better now I’ve had a little practice; knowing what to pack,
where to stow it, how to plan routes, how long to ride and how long to rest for
maximum safety and enjoyment.
Longer daylight hours or shorter hops are a must: two
two-hour rides with a really long lunch hour between them, plus a leisurely
start and finish to the day, would be excellent. I really noticed how my riding got sloppy when
I pushed on a little bit further than I should ideally have done and tiredness
started to creep up on me. Vocalising
the ride, per advanced riding technique, kept me safe, but it made the ride more
of a chore than a pleasure. Tours should
not be endurance events!
I should also put in more frequent ‘comfort’ breaks! With my saliva glands fried, I need to sip
water frequently. Consequently, I also
need to visit the loo more often than Private Godfrey. I found that, in the riding position, one
doesn’t notice a full bladder, but once you stop and get off; ouch!
My bike was more filthy than it had ever been by the time I
got back. Thorough cleaning took
ages. Next time, I’ll clean as I go. It’s so much more pleasant to see a shiny
bike waiting for you in the morning, and to know that small boys look on in awe
as you pass by. Having a little more
time in the day would allow for the cautious application of a garage jet wash
every other day or so. Space is precious
so I wouldn’t pack my voluminous cleaning kit, but a small squirty bottle of
Scottoil FS365 would be worth squeezing in.
I will definitely not take homework with me again. I had incoming work on the Friday before I
left and took the work laptop with me to do it in the evenings. Another job came in on the Wednesday just as
I got to Lowestoft and I made a start on that in the evening before coming home. I don’t
mind the work, especially with long, dark evenings with nothing else in particular
to do, but the personal laptop doesn’t have the software to do work, and the
work laptop isn’t allowed to have the software for blogging, hence I had to
find room for two laptops and accompanying cabling. I’ll declare
myself properly unavailable and leave the work equipment at home next time.
A couple of times, I really struggled to get the bike on and
off its stand and move it around. I
wondered if I had been too lax with my exercises lately and was getting a bit feeble. But once I was back and unpacked the panniers
and top box, I realised what the problem had been!
Funny thing: nobody tried to kill me for the whole
journey. I usually reckon on at least
one homicidal lunatic on every ride I do.
(The trick is to see him coming and take evasive action in advance.) There was one occasion in Wales where
somebody coming in the opposite direction swerved slightly to avoid a pheasant,
but he barely crossed the white line and I could see that he had seen me coming. And in Norfolk, a couple of drivers came a
bit close to my back end, but there is lamentably little unusual about that and
I had a good handful of acceleration to spare if it started to get alarming. Perhaps spotting the careless and dangerous is
becoming so second nature to me that I don’t even register it now.
My bike is excellent.
It trundles around ancient market towns just as well as it munches miles
on motorways. It is more economical than
many a smaller motorcycle, but it has the power in reserve to get out of harm’s
way when necessary.
With an extended ride in different conditions, I could
experiment with the screen position. At
motorway speeds, I found that the screen fully up, so I look through the top
section, reduced wind roar to almost nothing.
In the fully down position, the wind roar is constant (though I wear ear
plugs and have a good helmet so it is not uncomfortable). Halfway up, the roar cuts out, but there is a
random buffeting from the turbulence.
Curiously, fuel consumption was best with the screen down. My irregular shape fully exposed to the wind
apparently causes less drag than the vortex created by having the screen fully
up. What’s more, the pressure of wind on
the upper body allows a comfortable forward lean without putting strain on the
arms.
My gear is likewise spot on.
The one-piece suit kept the changeable weather at bay. It was fractionally too warm, in fact. The thermal lining is removable, and with
smarter packing, I could have left space in the panniers to stow it away. But I suspect I will only ever really need it
in the coldest of riding weather. Boots
and gloves were also faultless. I
wondered if I would miss the heated grips I had on my last bike and toyed with
getting some inner gloves – possibly heated ones. But cold fingers were never a problem; the
fairing keeps the wind blast off the hands.
My [not very] smart phone was a disappointment, once
again. I really should have waited
longer before adopting this technology! I’d
already established that it wasn’t up to blogging on the journey as I had at
first hoped. Then the Sat Nav app that I’ve
had for a while and have previously used to some effect suddenly decided to
give up, just when I could have done with it.
(Still, the little holder that attaches to my handlebars, designed to hold a Sat Nav, is also good for
holding paper sketch maps and waypoint lists; my ‘flat nav,’ as it were. A map in the map bag section of my tank bag
might be a good idea next time, too. Peering
down at the tank to check a map while travelling along is not recommended, but
it’s sometimes nice to stop and see what’s in the area; alternative routes,
places to stop, a general feel for the lie of the land – things that a sketch
map or waypoint list don’t show. I went
without it this time and found it inconvenient to keep stopping, getting off and
digging out the map from the panniers. )
Music held on the smart phone and played back through the
headset in my helmet was a bit tinny, but then if it wasn’t heavy on the
treble, I probably wouldn’t hear speech when I make phone calls. In any case, it was more or less drowned out
at any kind of highway speed, though more satisfactory when pottering through towns. And I find a little music with a driving beat
and a not too engaging melody is an aid to concentration in the eyes-everywhere
urban environment. On motorways and when
touring through pleasant landscape, it’d just be irritating.
The voice control app was occasionally useful, but
definitely not to be relied upon. My new
basso profundo voice probably didn’t help, but the app never was particularly
successful.
Perhaps on some future journey, a smarter smart phone that
really does do everything – reliably – would be in order, but only if I come
into some money or their price drops significantly.
In any case, I pine for another tour already, with or
without assorted electronic aids.
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