Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

You are wrong about France, speeding tickets arrive in the UK now.

No idea about Italy.

Motorbikes can take a test to be ULEZ compliant, even two strokes pass.

Am getting bored of saying that again and again.

I know, let me rephrase it. Is it already registered as Ulez compliant?

I don't want to have to do anything about any vehicle I buy to ensure that it is compliant because life is already too short.

A number plate can be partially obscured with a dangling lock and chain. Unlike an angled plate or an undersized plate, you can claim it's unintentional, not a premeditated attempt to evade the law.

What's wrong?

Many cameras in the Alpes / Route Napoleon / any of the panoply of twisties down south?

Maybe just avoid going banzai on the Peage.

Damn, I could spend a week just ripping around the backroads inland from St Tropez around Grimaud and La Garde Freinet. Few sorties up the coast road back to Cannes. Mega. We only used to dip into Italy because the food was better.

I REALLY miss that bit of Europe, it's magic.

Now speeding tickets arrive in the UK from France. Lots of cameras have appeared as well as mobile units. If you get stopped they check phones and sat navs for speed camera notification too.

Doesn't seem to be any issue on the peage as a friend sat at over a 100mph for a while and nothing happened.

Edit: Quite a few towns and cities have air quality stickers to but not sure how that is enforced.

100mph for a while. I used to average 110mph in a day on the peage in a car.

Far too long ago to be prosecuted I hope!!

Always a good idea to follow the speed limits in the villages for sure. They were always pretty hot on that. Still bliss compared to the UK - grippy smooth tarmac, sunshine and twisty roads for miles. Rose wine on the beach at the end of it.

Italy was a bit more congested but the culture is so welcoming towards bikes. Never even saw a cop outside of the big cities.

Northern Italy has some amazing roads. Everything there really, fast dual carriageways climbing mountains and tiny country roads. Maybe the lakes are a bit busy for traffic but right from the tunnels at the border with France/Monaco there's some really exciting roads.

Only thing that freaked me out about Italy is you'll be doing 130mph and someone will sit on your bumper because they want to do 160.

If you’re doing less than 140mph they flash you to go faster or get out the way.

Getting a lift back with people that were half-cut going about 120 upwards and flashing people out the way was bad, until we were flashed to move over by the next guy. That was Abbruzzo, where the roads aren’t great.

Haha - I agree. It always appeared the speed limit in Italy was the maximum speed for whatever you were driving. The twisty autostrade up north, with all the tunnels through the mountains are nuts. The short on ramps too!

Driving in Italy is a contact sport.

Did lol. Also correct.

Ha. I take the ear buds out before removing the helmet. Just ease them out by pulling the wire gently.

Now villages have put in chicanes sort of things and major sharp speed bumps too.

Had different experiences of cops in Italy.

Every weekend a few people die in car accidents where driving drunk or heavily drugged.

I drove drunk too, where I had no recollection of driving. Couple of times no idea how got from the in the town center a few km away to where I lived and then got in my car and drove to a friends place. Woke up not knowing where I was, no idea how I got there. The car was still ticking over with the drivers door open. That was a shock to the system.

Then again the vendemia in montalcino was an experience of everyone driving drunk.

It's crash season for bikers in the UK. The papers are full of fatalities.

Daily in Swindon as of the warm weather. Last night two-up bike was wiped out by a Range Rover and both died (claims drug related). The past week a number of serious/life-changing injuries. Not great.

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The fuck? How do you achieve that shit?

I was only a passenger in the car, but every journey by someone who wasn’t my ex, the driver was either on their phone or drunk or both. On a few occasions my ex was also drunk. It was jarring to say the least.

One of the worst was when the ex was super pissed and also super drunk. She drove over the speed limit on the wrong side of the road, wrong way around roundabouts, all the way back from a wedding. When we got in to the house? She threw up for a couple hours. Her hangover the next day, she couldn’t remember the drive.

Fuck a duck. That's some messed up juju. Not saying I'm glad she's an ex, but yeah I am.

Also, Let's get you on track. Whatever itch I had to going triple digits was satiated on the track. Cooled down my road riding.

The other day I visited the go-kart track to see about some knee-down mini moto riding.

Bloody hell that shit is expensive.

A serviceable bike from 2004 started at £1600, and of course the Chinese shit was recommended to avoid.

Then I spoke to the enduro racer friend, his research had said the same. Avoid the black hole of mini moto and maybe consider mini-sumo pit bikes like the Stomp 140.

The Stomp pit bikes or similar seem to be a way forward.

Spoke to the son of the scrapyard owner today about it. He raced MX for years (with notable results) before getting into triathlon a couple years ago. Again, recommended avoid the low quality shit. Again, recommended pit bikes with quality slicks. He ran a Stomp-esque bike for a while and said they were hella fun on gokart tracks.

Even if I did a track day at Castle Coombe, first I need the van. Vans are so few on the ground at the moment that prices have risen in the past month. Worse still, I looked at bank loans to raise some dosh and they fucked me on interest rates. So, I might be out of luck all around.

Most people run either Supermotos or mini supermotos on the Kart tracks here. Little CR85/YZ85/KX85s on 17" rims and moto3 slicks. They're not hard to convert - heavier oil and new springs in the forks and shock and that's about it. Brakes maybe.
I've got a very tatty Honda RS125 with a CR85 motor stuffed in it which asides from being a torture rack, is hilarious. The 85cc two stroke engines are AMAZING fun.

So much cheaper than track days. One set of tyres will last a season and track fees are a tiny fraction of the real deal. Also, because the speeds are lower and the bikes weigh nothing, you can crash with semi-impunity. Leathers last longer etc....

Don't know about the UK but the whole scene here is super mellow.