Two shocks on the way to work

On my way to work this morning I had 2 shocks.

First shock, I was crossing a roundabout, but the guy to my left decided
I didn't have right of way and just kept on going which meant I had to
throw on the brakes as hard as possible. Eventually he did notice me but
he didn't seem to take any avoiding action like braking or accelerating,
he just watched me getting closer and closer. Tosser.

Second shock, I stopped to fill up for petrol this morning, and for the
first time ever it came to £20. £20 is significant to me because at
Texaco you get a 2p off voucher when you spend £20 or more, but because
I ride a bike I could never reach it so I always missed out on the deal.
About 4 months ago I brought a spare fuel can which if I filled my bike
tank and the spare tank at the same I could just about reach £20. That I
can now put £20 of petrol in just the bikes tank is a very visual
demonstration of how much petrol has gone up in just 4 months.

CBF 1000 Test Ride

As a result of my feedback to the salesman about the VFR, he suggested I take the CBF 1000 out for a ride. The ride was much better, not quite as powerful as the VFR but with a smoother wider power band meant that I was able to use more of the power, wider bars with soft suspension meant I was able to pick the route I wanted on the roads.

The Triumph Sprint is probably the best all rounder I've ridden so far but the CBF 1000 is a close second and is about £2k cheaper with a 0% APR deall on at the moment.

The only thing I have against the CBF so far is that its butt ugly.

VFR Test Ride

Today I took a test ride on the Honda VFR from Marshalls in Peterborough. Great looking bike and I was hoping it was going to be the all rounder that I've been looking for. Unfortunately not.

The bike was far more sport orientated that I was expecting, hard suspension, hard seat very short reach to the bars which made accurate turning difficult, especially on bumpy roads.

The engine was the thing that really killed it for me, no power at all under 3000 rpm, pretty good power upto about 6500rpm and then a big step up in power as the VTEC kicks in. Probably a great bike for riding to a track day, zipping around the track and riding home again but thats not what I do with a bike.

It's one redeeming feature is that it's a great looking bike.

Fencing Tournament

Last night was the last week of the Fencing Beginners course so we had a
mini tournament.

Match 1 - Young bloke
He was very energetic and swung the sword wildly, pretty much no
technique and relied on jumping backwards and forwards. He won 3-2

Match 2 - Same Young bloke
This time I got his timing sorted and the down side of swinging the
sword wildly is that it leaves great big gaps in the defence for me to
attack him with. I won 3-2

Match 3 - Lefthanded Bloke
I think left-handed people should be rounded up and forced to live on an
island somewhere, my attacks against him were clumsy and the match went
on for ages because neither of us could land a hit. he couldnt hit me
because his sword arm was towards my back and so off-target, and I
couldnt hit him because the angle I needed to attack with the sword was
reversed to what I'm used to and so keeps glancing off his tunic where I
would have scored a hit against a right-handed person.

Lefthanded Bloke also liked to come on strong straight from the offset,
and try to score early point, if you can resist his first few attacks he
sort of ran out of steam.

I won 3-1.

Out of the evening, I think on me and Lefthanded Bloke won 2 of our 2
matches so I guess it was a draw. I'll get him next time :-)

Chavvie Bastards

Last night I went to the cineworld in Huntingdon to watch Vantage Point.

On my way to the cinema, there is a long section of one way roads where
the cars up ahead kept braking sharply and then pulling way. Once the
car 2 places ahead of me got to the point I could see why, a group of
chav bastards were standing at the side of the road and then jumping in
front of the cars to make them stop.

As I went past one walking into the road so I pulled further over to
avoid him but had no intention of stopping, so the little bastard kicked
my right pannier trying to knock me off, luckily I was moving at about
20mph by the time I got kicked so the bike was pretty stable and I
didn't come off - FUCKING GIT.

I thought about stopping and having a 'word' with the little shite but
then thought any one of the group could be armed with a knife (or worse)
and although in my leather I wouldn't feel many punches if it came to
that, the suit certainly wouldn't stop a knife so I just carried on.
Even on my way to the cinema I still wanted to go back and find the
retard, I hope he broke every bone in his foot - that or he carried on
doing it and someone in a car didn't stop in time.

Wish I'd called the police but deep down, I guess I was still hoping
they'd get run over.