They’re a bit more discerning in Manchester and only nick Ducatis BMWs or KTMs 
1 Like
Wrong. @Wessa is a BIG cheese in Manchester with a fearsome ruthless rep and nobody messes with Big Wes.
Are you not allowed a knife and fork for health & safety reasons?
1 Like
No. That’s Andy Burnham’s answer to knife crime in Manchester, no restaurants or cafes allowed to stock knives. When asked “how does he expect people to cut up their bacon”, he replied “fuck off”, hence no forks allowed either.
Helmut is on call for work today, so I went out by myself for a lovely ride - set out early when it was still pretty chilly to try and beat the worst of the holiday traffic and barely saw any for the first hour or two - and then the whole world seemed to come out onto the roads . I had a lovely time - first stop was the Honey Cafe in Bronllys:
then the Owl’s Nest in Llandovery (first visit there):
and lastly Abergavenny bus station:
I am also exceptionally thankful that I fitted a radiator guard to the Street Triple as I hit a pheasant that suddenly flew out of a hedge when I was going quite fast headed home…I stopped and had to pick a lot of pheasant feathers and general gore out of the guard and mudguard and thankfully the only damage seems to be a very slight crack in some mudguard plastic. The bike then STANK when I was sat in traffic in town and I got a few looks at the petrol station removing more gore from the bike. I wondered why people were looking at me when I went to pay and when I got home noticed my left leg also had a good amount of former - pheasant on it 
. All in all I feel like I got off very lightly, it was a very big bird!!
9 Likes
Nasty. Imagine if it had hit you in the face instead of the radiator. Silly unpredictable birds, pheasants. There seems to be more roadkill about than usual this year: I see dead badgers every time I go out, and, coming home in the van with the memsahib this afternoon, we saw a dead deer which wasn’t there this morning. She loves animals and is always upset when she sees dead ones. I certainly wouldn’t like to hit a deer or a badger when out on a motorbike.
3 Likes
I was very lucky today. I had a very close call with a deer last year; managed an emergency stop but had to pull over and settle myself down a bit .
Three of us went to a place we didn’t know existed until this week
Stopped at the Filling Station in Keswick for a delicious sausage and egg bun.
We made the mistake of going up through Ambleside, absolutely mental busy and some tosser deliberately blocked us from filtering driving at 10mph with nothing in front of him
Anyway, got there in the end.
Very small place, only a house really but some interesting stuff in there and run by an ex racer who was really friendly
12 Likes
We then had a beautiful run along the Solway Firth and down the west coast of Cumbria to home😀
About 160 miles which was about my limit for first proper ru of the year! About to crack open my first beer of the evening 
Cheers All!
11 Likes
That could have ended badly so you deffo dodged a bullet there IMO. Them pheasants are stupid birds especially this time of year when they’re only thinking of shagging 
2 Likes
Friend/ex-colleague hired a GS for what was supposed to be a couple of weeks touring N California. Second day hit a deer, broken collar bone and a few bruises, GS was a wright off. He’s the kind of guy always lands on his feet (pun), long story (he does them too 
) short, the staff at the hospital looked after him and he spent two weeks free board at a hospital porters home up in the hills. (He was a petrol head with a classic drag car - which he got a ride in)
4 Likes
What a lovely BSA Super Rocket. I had a couple of A10s back in my yoof, great bikes and unlike the Trumpets of the day they never leaked any oil. One of the wishIstillhadthatbikes
3 Likes
We have Fallow Dear in Wyre Forest and they’ve put reflectors on the side of the road to cut down accidents at night. We’re now being plagued by Munkjacks, horrible little things that are spreading like wildfire into all the wooded areas by us. Although a lot smaller they too will do some serious damage to a car or fetch you off your bike if you’re unlucky enough to hit one
1 Like
We have a lot of both here too @Littleade - I see them often when I run in the mornings and horribly often driving to work on early shifts. One reason I only tend to commute on the bike when mornings are fairly light as the majority of it is unlit and fast.
1 Like
They’re a right PITA. At least with the Fallow Dear you know they’re only going to be concentrated in and around the forest, but the Munkjacks are litterally everywhere. There was one splattered on the A456 on the outskirts of Bewdley this week within sight of the houses which makes them potentially so dangerous
2 Likes
I asked if it was an A10 as that is what my Dad had when I was a kid, but it is an A7 which are usually green made to look like an A10 so it resembles the bike some guy raced in the IOM.
Ooh I love that honda in the top picture! 
2 Likes
I ran over a rabbit years ago doing well over 70mph - it just jumped out into the road. Big bump, but fortunately I could hold the bike. A good scare though…
2 Likes
The A7 was a nice bike too, less power than the A10 but smoother according to my ex FIL as he’d had both.
1 Like