Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

Crossing all the fingers for sure.

It’s an advertisement for hard armour though. May have been a lesser break with solid knee braces.

Yes I have some huge leatt ones and was very happy to have them when I came off at an ok speed and got my knee pinned under it. Them and the crossfire meant I walked away fine no issue.

Fuck!
Hope your pal heals fast.

What a fuckin nightmare.

When I came off and busted my leg a year or so ago, all the damage was above the boot. I had big boots and soft armour but was lucky the bike crushed the boot and not the bone.

Definitely advocate even the cheap Acerbis hard knee armour like mine. Never going without it now.

Mine are Acerbis Impact Evo 3.0 or something.

He told me last night they did a nerve block and he’s due for op on Tuesday now. I guess it’s a messy one if they need the extra day to get the right surgeons in.

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From another forum, on a thread about people messing with other people’s bikes.

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Ow, that sucks! I did tib / fib years ago and waited a day or two for Surgery too. Hope he's feeling better soon. Legs take a while to heal, but at least after they pin it he'll be able to get up and about. I could cycle and ride my motorbike much sooner than I could walk properly, which was handy.

Jesus I’m glad he’s alright all things considered. That’s heavy duty.
My boots saved me for sure when bike pinned me on the kerb when I got doored. I’ll look into proper knee armour.

Knee armour is a tough one. There's only so much room under your kit and hard armour seems too bulky on the road... that said I feel even more inclined now to wear a hard armour over my jeans as I really doubt the ghost armour will offer enough protection come the day I'm off.

This sort of stuff is why I'm maybe trying to avoid myself getting into dirt riding in Vietnam. No ambulance here really at all, air ambulance ha, no way, language barrier alone is enough to make even a bust ankle or wrist in a not even that remote location into a major event.

The most dangerous thing here is.....

1) older women on beige coloured Honda Leads, they ride with hood up, horse blinkers on, pull out directly into any traffic, whether its 20-30 kmh city traffic, or 100 kmh highway traffic directly infront of anything you can imagine. They just expect that everyone will avoid them.

2) Guys who have bought or lease SUV or pickup truck recently. Unbelievable overtakes and head on murderous intent kind of driving. Uniquely only new SUV and pickup truck, you know the exact kind of people, they exist in the west, but they exist here too, only their driving skill is even smaller than the content of their pants.

If I'm ever hit out here, it will be due to someone from category 1 or 2. Imagine your on a large A road, huge, wider than any normal single carriageway in the UK. Broad daylight. COming the other way is a bunch of bikes in the hard shoulder, a regular truck, bus or car in the opposite lane doing nothing wrong. Around that comes 1 or 2 new SUV or pickup truck, fully taking the entire road infront of you, literally right up to the barrier. I've twice now considered going for the gap BETWEEN oncoming vehicles as there is basically NO gap between ongoing SUV small prick and barrier.

Even worse, they don't get on with it when overtaking. Numerous times when been behind a truck and an SUV, SUV goes for the overtake, and I'm behind the SUV doing only 30 to 50 kph, image my surprise when instead of getting out of 4th gear into something sensible to get on with the overtake quickly, expose his entire family and every other road user to the least time in danger as possible yeah?
No.
Chooses 6th gear, car either nearly or does infact stall, ran into the back of two brand new SUV (toyota fortune is the worst offender) as they've stalled by changing into a ridiculous gear. Someone must have told them along the lines of '6th gear is for going fast', and not how a car actually works? Seen it enough times in just a few weeks to see its a large scale problem.

Traffic police here are a force to be feared, stun guns, batons and incredibly small man syndrome issues. Been stopped plenty, but every time so far for breathalizer, they either just pass me because 1) not been drinking 2) they see a white guy and don't want to have to deal with me. Should be have been done for mega speeding the other day, but nope, pulled over, guy was preparing to get really angry as I was going a bit quick (a road dualie in middle of nowhere), pulled mask up, saw I was a white guy and waved me on faster than my engine start stop could even knock off.
However Police do not really offer any real road policing, i.e. stopping the murderous intent SUV and pickup drivers from their daily chaos. Every single Vietnamese person fears traffic police for their out of the blue crazed baton wielding violence when you dare question their auth or tear AND new SUV/pickup driving pricks. All of them have dozens of stories of having to just ride completely off the side of the road and suck up the minor injuries and bike damage instead of the instant death the front of a Hilux would offer.

I'm not ashamed to say I now leave my rubbish water/pop bottles in a carrier bag hanging from centre of bars, when pickup/SUV prick goes the other way they get an empty bottle at the windscreen. This kind of person will only learn from financial pain. UK is infested with them too.

Sounds like Swindon.

Update, for those who care, on my first world dilemma (F3 800 RC v 1299 Pani v RSV4 v RC8R v S1000RR) - the Duc V4 has now entered the debate, because... why not? I'm dithering, partly because I'm waiting for some good weather, and partly because I'm waiting for some quotes on work required on my house, and partly because I'll be down to just one kid at university by the summer. I'm also going to be fucked by the insurance - age is on my side, as is having a garage, but it's well over two years since my last bike so my max NCB will have evaporated, unless I can persuade my previous insurer to take my record into account and the max NCB I have on my car.

Can you really ride any of them in a way that's fun? I found I preferred smaller engine bikes that could be ridden that speed machines.

Tough choices all the same!

Of course you can, but it depends on your idea of fun. If I were being sensible, I'd get something similar but cheaper, and put something like a KTM Duke in the garage with it, but I probably wouldn't get the use out of both of them. I want a bike for weekends away, Sunday rides, the odd track day, and doing the 200 mile round trip to see my ageing parents every 3-4 weeks.

I've had a rough few years, so it's time to spoil myself. Not everyone's choice, but it's mine.

Oh that's awesome and I support it. I just wondered.
I've always followed my heart with toys and never regretted it.

Quite right too. Can't discount the Duc V4, they're pretty fabulous. Loads more civilised than the 1299s by all accounts, so that could be a positive. The old twins sound mental (which I kinda like....) Do some test rides and report back!

Phone the brokers and some might give you some and all of the no claims back.

Also yes we do care. Don't envy the choice as I'm Ducati fan, actually like all Italian bikes. Wish I'd bought a Cagiva extra Raptor when they were cheapish as a couple of damaged panels that would also damage the bespoke rads and they were beyond economic repair.

Or been offered a couple of brutales for cheap as they spent more time at a dealers than on the road. One was a shit alarm install that had to be there by the insurers....even broken down the view was nice.

Yes, you deserve something that makes you smile. Anyone that disagrees I'll kick in the nuts.

Update, for those who care.

I am here for all of it, keep us updated on how you get on. Visiting local dealers could be a way to get some seat time on this envious shortlist.

Update after his op yesterday…

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in case anyone is headed that direction anyway, my pals at Pier City have just dropped a new build off at the Bike Shed

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FS he's having a tough one there.

In other moans, I sold a Honda zoomer I had as 3 was too many, I went to change the old in furnace over to the new bike and they wanted £75 to move the policy and £60 to cancel it even though I'm insuring the same bike with the same everything.

Insurnace is a total racket!

Shit that's not good. The body can really not like metal in it

I've got a rod, a plate and quite a lot of screws in one of mine and it's been no bother other than setting off the metal wand at Berlin Airport years ago. Rolled up my trouser leg sharpish as they were about to take me off for a more 'intensive' search....

They did take one of the screws out later as it was pinching a nerve and causing some discomfort.