Come take a walk with me at http://www.liveworkdream.uk/
I have moved the hosting of this blog, and integrated my others, to a self hosted wordpress site. Come to the new site for new updates, to follow it using your wordpress.com account, or to subscribe via email.
The new site merges my interests in motorbikes, photography, technology and my own personal stories.
Anyone brit of my generation will recall Blue Peter demonstrating how to make things out of old household items, empty washing up liquid bottles and so on.
For a while now, I have wanted, perhaps needed, a dash/shelf on the bike. It came with a SatNav mount, but it is mounted near the middle of the handlebars which is just way too low down to be much use. Apart from having to look down, away from the road, to see it, the damn screen tended to reflect the sky in that position so was barely readable.
I also wanted some accessories and need a place to mount them. Last week, I stumbled across a bullet video cam. Designed really for pedal bikes, it seemed a potential bargain at £9.99 plus shipping. A 16GB MicroSD card for the same amount brought the total to just over £20 with shipping. Worth a punt from 7DayShop.com I thought. Especially as you don’t get much change from £200 if you buy a GoPro!
So I needed a mount for it. I dug out two small, old, shelf brackets, some coach bolts and cut a length off a mop handle. After drilling, cutting, bolting together and painting, here is what I ended up with. I call it my accessory shelf mark 1. I am planning to add a marine USB outlet and some other bits and pieces in the future.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTmMeic2AJ8
For those of you with an interest in riding bikes, if you haven’t watched “Son’s of Anarchy”, then you are missing some good TV. As is the norm for such series, it is full of inaccuracies and has some fairly inane storylines, but it is well worth watching.
My elder brother got me into motorbikes when I was in my teens. He has past away now, a lifetime of various substance abuses surprisingly didn’t kill him. The big C did.
This track is for you kidda. We miss you. Battle me – Hey Hey, My My.
It is strange the effect it has on you. Every time I have got on the bike in the past few weeks, I have had to remind myself, “steady now”.
Perhaps the proximity of death – my brother is terminally ill – is causing me to be more reckless with my own life.
Or perhaps it is the natural build up of stresses that accompany supporting my family through this time and dealing with my own emotions.
I tend to like an open road on the bike, lots of nice curves, like most bikers.
The route travelling to and fro, mainly to see my brother and the rest of the immediate family, tends to be somewhere between medium and high in terms of other traffic on the road. And I am in no mood to wait.
I’ve had a few funny moments, not as in humorous, but where I have had to remind myself to wind it back in again. Overtaking as I exit a roundabout and the back end slipping briefly on white lines or gravel thrown to the centre of the road.
Some drivers, take exception to someone moving faster than them. Even when it is perfectly safe to do so. When they are stuck behind slower moving traffic, and I work my way up the chain, some people just don’t like it. Some will make room, but some veer out towards the middle of the road in an attempt to block you. Or will accelerate up behind you and sit at the back wheel. I used to wonder what these people were thinking. Now I realise, that they probably aren’t thinking consciously at all. They have an affinity, a natural inclination to be stupid.
Perhaps I should feel sorry for them. And probably would, were it not for the unnecessary danger they place me in.
So steady now. Them and me. Watch what you are doing.
And be careful out there.
For those as old as me, here is a few obligatory links to “Let’s be careful out there” and the “Hill Street Blues intro“.
Yes. Life is dangerous. Why do people go rock climbing, bungee jumping, paragliding and all the other hobbies and activities that are considered not normal or dangerous.
Because you can.
Riding is liberating. When it isn’t pouring down with rain or blowing a gale, there are few experiences like it.
When we drive, we typically plan our way from A to B with the minimum time, simplest route and with the least traffic.
When I ride, I often go out of my normal route, explore new roads, find new twisting curving roads and arrive at my destination with a silly grin on my face.
And even on a regular commute, the ability to filter through the traffic, blast past the meandering drivers, all add to a sublime experience. Life is short. Too short. For anything else.
So I ask you. Why not?
The smell does funny things to me. It brings back times and situations of my youth.
The growl of engines, you can almost feel it resonating through you. Like a deep dark song that embodies your thoughts and feelings.
And the rush of speed, windswept, exposed. In control, yet at the edge o
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Buzzing B 