"is There A Biking Community?"

[OAPillion]

Back in the UK & listening to Radio 4 - I heard this extraordinary question. Made during 'Excess Baggage' a travel programme on March 1oth by a presenter who I thought had more sense or maybe she was just being ironic. Having experienced the commaraderie of the GT lot there in Chiang Mai - I shouted at the radio. Not much good in doing that,but I thought that maybe you 'bikers' should post something on the bbc website to set the presenter -Sandi Toksvig -right.Listen to the programme and see what you think. There were 3 bikers on it -the Jupiter's Travels man,who has just done another long trip at 70+ and a woman who had just driven a trail bike from Alaska down to S.America plus another chap called Ken -very boring voice,not sure what he'd done ,had gone out of range of radio when he was on.If enough people write in,maybe they'll do a programme on the very strong and solid 'biking community'
Miss you all,miss Chiang Mai

 

[Rhodie]

Chris
It was great having you riding & posting in GT Land.
There is a real snobbery in the UK about riding on 2 wheels.
MCN [Motor Cycle News] regularly reports on the sentencing inconsistencies by magistrates for traffic offences.
If you are caught speeding in a car you are likely to be fined and given points.
A biker on the other hand is sometimes jailed. This contrasts with the reception given to bikers on the coontinent whether staying in chateau or pension is always welcoming.
But the community in UK is strong and resilient that bridges most divides.
You just have to be prepared to ride in the UK weather, which is sometimes a little too demanding for those luvvies lounging at Broadcasting House.
May you return to GT land soon!

 

[tropicaljohno]

Hey the old biddy 70+ was that the lady on the back of Dr Gregg, he mentioned taking an old girl for a ride at his HU meeting.

not really connected but I regularly listen to Radio 2 Steve Wright In The Afternoon, those with ADSL it goes for 3 hours every day and is fun to listen to

 

[Rhodie]

Gentlemen language please. Do please note who posted this - our oldest riding and posting Lady member. []

 

[Tomo]

There are those of us who still twiddle the knobs on the transistor radio once in a while...

However I vowed never to tune into BBC Radio 1 again after a pair of moronic afternoon DJ's suggested that the way to deal with motorcycles filtering through queues was to suddenly open the car door into their path!!!!

Like good old British drivers need encouraging to put the boot into bikers?

French riders filter at warp speed through busy traffic and generally missbehave on a regular basis in their country yet bikers are still treated with respect on the roads (maybe because they all ride 'peds' from the age of 14?). In fact it's not uncommon for queues of Citroens and Renaults to squeeze over in order to allow approaching bikes easy passage. Lane discipline in France is noticably different - vehicles only move out into another lane when they are ready to overtake, then move back in - almost unheard of in Blighty! "That's my lane and I'm going to be turning right in 7 miles so I have every right to stay here!" Aaaaahh!!

For all the jolly jibes you hear in the UK about the French, they could surely teach our drivers a few things about road manners.

There, I feel better now.

Cheers,

Tomo (AKA Whinging Old Git).

 

[Tomo]

Hi Daewoo,

Do I understand you to mean that it's illegal to 'filter' or ride down the center line even where there's room in Aus? That's pretty harsh...

Rossers, hmmm.. I think cockneys used to call coppers Rossers or Peelers (after Mr.Peel who foolishly thought lawlessness was a bad thing!). Don't think either terms are in current use now though.

Just for the record, I don't personally wear a bowler hat or carry an umbrella either... []

Cheers,

Tomo.

 

[OAPillion]

Good to hear from you but Captain Slash is not listening again - I mentioned Radio 4 not Radio 1 and the presenter is a woman.

 

[Tomo]

It's a wonder your mate found his way to the pub at all with all those corks dangling from his hat Daewoo...! []

Actually Paul Hogan epitomises the atypical Aussie in my mind - especially as Crocodile Dundee. Some truly great one liners and good, dry Aussie humour (IMHO).

I actually have a half brother who lives in Perth WA but that's another story.

I'm somehow surprised to hear that the traffic rules are so strict (but I'm probably just drawing on Mad Max memories..) but I guess there's a lot of Australia where the 'rossers' are very thin on the ground and there's ample opportunity to do your own thing....!

Cheers,

Tomo.

 

[tropicaljohno]

I probably take the record in OZ for number of fines in the shortest time, I rode a friends XT 250 across the Harbour Bridge one evening, got pulled up by the law on the other side, and had 4 traffic fines slapped on me, started wall papering the office with them

 

[Tomo]

That's a 'chav' where I come from Mike but we digress.

As Rhodie rightly pointed out, there is a strange kind of motorcycling snobbery in the UK.

It's tempting to point the finger at individual groups but to what end.. The fact is that more and more garages contain motorcycles which must be good news for the m/c community when Euro legislation and every police force in the land would rather get rid of them completely!

Some of these bikes are only ridden on sunny Sundays, some every day to work, some will be 400 kilo leviathans and others exotic Tupperware torpedoes ridden by guys who wear made to measure leathers over their Kelvins (but only passed their test last year when they got divorced).

My point is that it doesn't matter what you ride or how often you ride it as long as you do. The more of us there are, the more investment there will be in race sponsorship, developing bikes and gear and the less likely we are to be persecuted as an irrelevant and inconvenient minority.

Sorry to drone on..

Tomo.

 

[mja34]

Originally posted by tropicaljohno

Hey the old biddy 70+ was that the lady on the back of Dr Gregg, he mentioned taking an old girl for a ride at his HU meeting.

hi johno, the oapillion just to let you in on it is my mum and not the 70 year old on the back of dr gs bike so nice words please , there are few mums in the world who ride two up with there kid and who can hack it with some of the gt rider crew!,if you are ever in somerset she could arange a nice ride for you on the back of a tractor/combineharvester nice and fast... ta ta marcus

 

[tropicaljohno]

"and a woman who had just driven a trail bike from Alaska down to S.America"

Marcus the quote above is what I was referring to, surely your mum didn't do the Alaska trip

 

[mja34]

sorry guys, my mistake,will drain the sugar back out of your tanks,bit touchy when it comes to mumsey, all forgoten now. m.

 

[DavidFL]

Does anyone remember "the old biddy" Linda Bick (ex 70s Miss Two Wheels Oz)
http://haefale.de/linda/index.html
who did Europe - Australia, alone on her Suzuki DR650?
Linda passed through Chiang Mai in June 2006, staying at Jonadda Ghouse, & celebrated her 61st birthday in Bali, en route to oz.
What a woman, & "we" all thought we were tough!