New Helmet III

T'other half was on the phone today about the helmets, seems like we may be getting a discount on the next model up! Going to go on Friday for a fitting session, and see if it is worth the extra money. More later!

New Helmet II

Typical for me, the helmet is on backorder! Ahh-well, not totally urgent that I have it now, just would have been really nice. Still will update as I know more!

New Helmet

Done a long ride yesterday down the A303 (actually to attend my car clubs trackday which I was videoing but that is another story!), while it isn't the most engaging road, it does have some wonderful views along it. That is if you can deal with all the caravans and other traffic that was going along there! Actually it was the longest amount of filtering I have ever done, only one car tried to pull out (without indicating) onto me to get into the other lane. Ironically that lane wasn't going any faster, there was just a large gap so he decided it would be his no matter what.


View Larger Map

Was also followed, while filtering, by a few other bikers. Not sure how you 'nod' to bikers who are behind you, but sorry if I was going a little slow, still a bit nervous when filtering.

Anyhoo back to the story at hand, it is about an hour and halfs ride from Basingstoke to my destination so in total was on the bike around 3 hours. By the time I got home my head was killing me due to the helmet pressing onto my forehead. I decided that it was a good time to buy new one and this time not skimp on it. Last time I spent about £50 on the helmet as I was going for my CBT and wasn't even sure I would like riding, so didn't see the point in shelling out £200+ for a Shoei or an Arai. Now I do see the point, that said the helmet has done its job that I brought it for. So a trip out to Infinity Motorcycles in Farnbough was in order, would have gone to Mott Motorcycles but they were closed. After speaking to the guy in the shop about options (he was very passionate about getting the right helmet!) I decided on an Arai Condor in plain black, then was swiftly lightened of £200 from my wallet! Compared to my current helmet (an RDM) it is so much more comfortable with better padding around the face and cut more noise out. After putting it on all I could say was "wow" it was just so comfortable. Even my partner has brought the same one after saying the same comment! It is now on order and will have it, hopefully, on Tuesday. Unfortunatly I have to pick both helmets up so have to go in the car (want to keep my current helmet as a spare).

Out and about

Having just brought the latest edition of MCN I had a flick through the "Coastal Roads" booklet. Very interesting read and well worth having a look if you can. One of the suggestions (no. 14) is a trip around Coastal Britain and it also has some links that I thought I would put up here, in part so I know where to find them!

Biker Friendly Hotels and B&Bs
UK Campsites
Petrol Prices

Recorded for posterity.

Trip down to Eastney

Had a great little ride out on Sunday down to Eastney (Portsmouth). Taking the A339 (Alton Rd.) then onto the B3006, finishing off on the A3. Overall a great trip out with some great roads. That was until I got into Eastney when the roads started to become congested. Thankfully being on the bike some careful filtering and I was on my way.

Amusingly I had to get all the way into the Portsmouth area before I had another biker nod at me! All of the ones on the Alton Road didn't respond. Ahh well.

Map of the route:

View Larger Map

Wet weather

Decided that as the weather has turned for the worse that I should look at someway to make the rain come off of my visor quickly. So I brought a product for Holts that promises to be both a anti-mist product and a "Rain-X" type. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to work all that well. The instructions say that you just need to spray it on and use a soft cloth to wipe it off. If you do that though you rub the product off completely! So I put more on and left it to start drying (ala Rain-X) and ended up with it looking clean, but with a very fine mist on it which makes it harder to see though and causes glare from on-coming traffic.

Have another idea on how to apply it, if it works I will post up, otherwise avoid!!