I used to be an all round the year biker. Only stopping when the snow lay on the roads or the ice was too slippery to make it safe. Recently, I have become a fair weather biker although an all year round variant.
Also since buying a bike festooned in a lot of chrome, I find myself worrying about the effect on it from the treatments (read salt!) that we use in copious amounts as soon as the temperature gets near 0C.
This last weekend was Meldrews breakfast Sunday and I pulled Pepe out of the garage and as it seemed mild, I wore light gloves. Mistake. I hadn't gone more than a couple of miles and my fingers were numb.
Added to that finding the dry line through the damp so to avoid too much splashback was working me too hard!
I'd not got far and was in the next village, where there is a 40mph limit, and I was soon joined by a guy in a hurry in a small Peugeot. Maybe the 40 inside a red ring on the sign meant nothing to him as he sped up my tailpipes.
Don't get me wrong. In Kent there are many places you can do whatever speed you like and the chances of getting caught by the law is remote. But villages with houses and schools, is not the place.
This a-hole decided to try and pass me into a left and then right S-bend. The local authorities have a solid pair of lines down the centre. It means no overtaking. But a-hole tries it anyway. The truck coming the other way dissuaded him from that attempt.
Once through that S-bend, there the road straightens, still only two lanes though. The limit ups to the national limit of 60mph and he has another go. By now I have begun to get annoyed with him. I speed up to the limit. First there is a turning on the right, then the left some 150 yards later. A car turns out of the first to go the other way, he swerves back behind me. The other driver shakes his head.
Past the second turn and he pulls out and passes me. We continue with him barely pulling away from me. At the top of the rise he is maybe 100 yards ahead of me, his right turn signal comes on and he actually turns left! I watch him make the turn and stop where a youth is waiting on the side of the road. I go past and in a half mile pull onto the forecourt of the Blue and White Cafe.
The Peugeot goes past and the driver looks over and gives a hand signal that's not part of the highway code...... Describing yourself is all I can think as I laugh at him.
Anyway. As usual good company. Good breakfast. Too short a ride. Roll on the Spring.
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