Who rides all year

We have a confirmed mating situation

 

Sorry to bring this back to topic, but I've not had a car for nearly 5 years now. Was riding at night in the pouring rain the other day nursing my front tyre with little tread left on it thinking to myself -Am I getting to old for this sh*t (I'm only 30)?

Today I left my bike at home and borrowed my mums car as she's not using it. My tyres are/were touching not legal so decided to try out 4 wheels for a change. What a shock to the system! Not really sure where to start, but I'll go with the car first.

Hyundai i20, really not a fan on this one. It handles ok, but you get the feeling that the steering column is made of plastic, the engine feels strained and slow. The lack of progress would be a little more tolerable if they'd bothered to put some half decent speakers in it so I could at least listen to my music without the feeling that I'm missing half the frequencies present (ok, maybe I'm a bit of an audio snob).

Thing is, driving just isn't fun any more, and it's barely even tolerable. I can't get past other cars when they're going frustratingly slow, often because there's a convoy of traffic between them and me. I find myself vagueing out, thinking about mindless dribble, drifting on to autopilot, when I have to slap myself and try and work out where in the journey I am. This just doesn't happen on a bike!

When I do get somewhere I have to figure out where to park. As I'm currently all over the place with work and mostly in town/city centres this can/could be an ordeal in itself. I'm so used to being able to stick it wherever's convenient and not have to worry to much about getting a ticket put on it. This car thing is totally different!

Some journeys I do on my bike when I pass hundreds commuters with glazed eyes and the look that says 'I'd be frustrated if I wasn't totally used to this'. How do people do it every day?

So after today's journey, I'm back to thinking that I should just stick to 2 wheels. Would a different car help my experience? I'm sure it would, but it's hard for me to justify paying insurance, tax and everything else to run a car when I'm so much happier on a bike. Anyone else have similar thoughts/experiences?

(I now have a brand new Michelin Pilot Road 3 on the front now to match the one that is already on the back, so I'm looking forward to a nice trek up to Ellesmere Port tomorrow morning :biggrin: )

 

Dunno mate, I gotta really nice car too. It's a blast to drive yet I rarely do unless it's icy.....the traffic just gives me an aneurysm

 

I ride all the time, I haven't driven for a very long time, the wife drives the car...I am not even insured on it and don't wan't to be. If we have family trips she drives and I can drink

I'll ride my bikes all year around no question (alright maybe not the R3R when the salt is down...)...if it's nasty snow drifts or treacherous ice then I will not go into work unless it's by the wife driving or do-able in a taxi...it doesn't happen often so it's a small price to pay considering the waste of money the insurance would be to able to drive on those days only...

 

You're going to fit in here OK, I feel! :upyeah:

 

I was just wondering about da pink, when his missus is on her period, will he be da brown? Just asking x :smile:

 

To be fair, she's OK with it!

 

Is that a confirmed situation?

 

Code brown, soldier!

 

We live in hope pal, we live in hope

 

All year round but only on day s with sunshine in it iv done the snow and ice and rain bin there got the t shirt

 

Been there done that and wrecked a couple of good bikes in the process

Not any more.

 

Am only doing cold and wet on my DR now... Don't mind falling off on the mud it's softer...

 

I shouldn't reply........it's just not fair........I'm in Arizona........the math's been done a long time ago.........all the way round.............

 

keep the bike legal all year as plenty of good days in the winter, done a few years of full winter riding and it aint fun in snow/ice/-minus temps!

 

Well my 43 year old lump does it... i do take it easy though.. i dont go to a motorcross place just green laning...

 

Well it started off sunny but cold - the current wife is working today so I thought I'd take the Speed and meet her for a coffee break - nice, just filled up with motion potion and then the rain started... by the time I got into town and parked up it was bucketing down! and I had a huge grin on my face and thought fuck it why not? While I was putting the trinkets back on the Speed I had given it a good coating of bike protector so the bike will wash when I get home! So after coffee I went on for another 40 odd miles and got soaked twice then came home happy and dripping - my work provided Samsung Galaxy S3 is now on the radiator drying out as the pockets on my Textile jacket are not water proof and got wetter than an otters pocket! :upyeah:
The first pic is especially for Bry as my BLACK Sidi's are in it :upyeah:

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Sweet. x

 

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I think I may draw the line when the salt goes down though...