Just rode home and my street has snow on it. That was scary.

It’s been a couple of weeks since I was out on the Bike, so dispite the rain on Saturday I headed out for a wee run. It was the first time I’ve been out in falling rain, and with my new BMW Helmet, so a couple of new experiences.

The rain wasn’t a problem, but rain all over the visor doesn’t help visibility, but I got used to it. The RS doesn’t have a big screen, so once the speed gets up the drops of water just divide in the air flowing round the helmet. The wet weather wasn’t a major problem either, I just took my time and the clothing and gloves kept the wet stuff in the outer layers away from me.

The System 5 helmet is a good one, and I noticed that the classic turbulence from the standard screen on the R1100RS was lessened with the helmet. They claim to do all sorts of aerodynamic testing at the makers, and it definately seems to be borne out in practice. I only had one drip fall down inside the visor – the shape means that it didn’t actually go down the inside of the visor as much as drop straight onto my nose. It only happened once, so it could have even been when I took the helmet off and put it back on at the Little Chef that the drip worked its way in.

I took a run out to the Little Chef at Dreghorn, had breakfast, and headed back round the bypass, along the A71 and headed out to Bathgate on the A8. I usually loop round the Tesco and past Lothian Motorcycle Training. They had the trainees out in the car park in the rain, which brought back memories of taking my bike lessons in the Autumn of 1995.

The bike was covered in all sorts of muck from the roads. Another feature of the R1100RS is its propensity to get covered in muck. The RS was the first of the so-called “oil-head” BMW twins and with that and the telelever suspension was a trying ground for the restart of the modern BMW flat twins. Thus the idiosyncracies that are so much of the BMW experience are even more pronounced in this particular bike. So the road muck gets all over the timing cover on the front of the engine, on the two downpipes, and all over the exhaust and swing arm at the back.

So I gave it a bit of a clean when I got home. I bought a garden spray to give a low pressure way to wash the bike, and it really does the job with a brush and some motorcycle cleaner. So the bike was all clean and put away before our trip to Fife.

My mum and dad have their Ruby Wedding Anniversary coming up shortly, but being the organised people they are have arranged to be out of the country in Italy on the precise date.

So my brother and I treated them and the rest of us to a meal at the Plough Inn, in Star of Markinch in Fife. And nice it was too, I had to stay up late on Saturday to let my food go down 🙂

It was good to get the Laings together.

It occurred to me when reading over my previous post that I managed to completely miss out my wife, Rona. I’ve a deliberate policy of not mentioning the names of my wife and two kids due to hassles they’ve had in the past with their old dad. Sadly, the post makes it sound a bit like it was just me and the kids, and not me with Rona and the kids.

The long weekend has been a good one, and I managed to see everyone in our family over the weekend. I popped in for coffee with my Mum and Dad Laing in Glenrothes on Friday morning, and combined it with a bike ride. On Friday afternoon I took Rona and the two kids to Edinburgh on a lovely sunny, but cold, day and took them all to places they enjoy. Saturday was going to be a quiet one, and my daughter was out with a friend, but Rona and I picked up my son (who had been rained off at the skateboard park) and headed to Kirkcaldy to meet up with my brother, Andrew, and pick up a Ruby Anniversary present for my parents. And I topped that off with a visit to a bike dealer 🙂

Sunday was a very quiet one, but today was visits to Rona’s family in Edinburgh. After a gap of quite a few years, I registered at the same dentist as Rona in Boswall and with my check up today we all visited Rona’s Dad and later my Brother in Law and his family.

So, even though I have a cold and my nose is running, I feel good to have seen everyone, have a blether, smile a lot and see these people that I know and care about.

I took Friday and Monday as a holiday to try and chill out. Work has been getting to me recently, and frankly it sucks. So the time off has been an opportunity to remind me of the things I care about, to smile and to enjoy myself.

I took the bike over to Fife on Friday morning, to pop in and place an order at a clothing company and to see my Mum & Dad. Way back in November I ordered an overjacket called a Bikesafe Jacket, and supply problems led to me getting a refund from the intermediate company in January. A bit of digging around led me to discover that the manufacturer was based in Fife, so I was over there on Friday morning to get measured up and ordered and paid for the item. That done, I popped to see my Mum and Dad, had a blether and a cup of coffee and showed the bike to my Dad.

Then back to West Lothian in time to catch the kids, and we headed into Edinburgh. I bought us all a day ticket each so we could hop on and off the buses in Edinburgh. I parked the car at the Hermiston Park and Ride and got the number 25 to Princes Street. We were a bit early for the connecting bus, so we dived in to Costa in Hanover Street and downed a set of Massimo Lattes and Hot Chocolates before getting the 27 up to the old town. We then wandered around the boutique clothes and skate shops, the sort of thing that interests the kids, and I bought an old US import second hand Charlatans CD from Avalanche in Cockburn Street. There was little likelihood of us going back up Cockburn street, with the big hill and all, so the lift in what used to be Waverley Market got us back up to the Princes Street level and we caught a bus back up North Bridge to South Clerk Street.

Then in and out of various shops, Flip Incorporated the clothes shop, Blackwell’s the bookshop and of course Forbidden Planet. I managed not to buy anything until we got to Pizza Hut on North Bridge, where we indulged in one of their Family offers. We almost managed that, though the included dessert was a bit too much for us.

Waterstones was our last point before the trip home, and I picked up a couple of books; a Pratchett Discworld book and a book by Alastair Reynolds.

Back on the 25 to the Park and Ride, passing the sights of Friday night in Edinburgh.

Saturday was a late start, but three of us headed over to Kirkcaldy to meet up with my brother and pick up a picture for my Mum & Dad’s Ruby Anniversary. My brother stays on his own and the rumble of his stomach directed us to the Chippie next to the picture shop. So we sat down for various items including chips, we were the only folks in the place, and behaved ourself – mostly 🙂 It was dull and wet on Saturday afternoon, but still managed to pop in to Alan Duffus to talk motorcycle helmets. In my ongoing quest for clothing my big head has been a bit of a problem, so I tried a few on to no avail. My head is too big… They offered to phone up their suppliers to check, so news on that on Monday.

Nothing much to report about on Sunday, although I’m getting a bit of my Sunday evening apprehension about work, even though I’m not back to the place until Tuesday. Thursday was such a wind up day that I am not looking forward to it.

Dentist tomorrow!

I was back at the opticians on Friday, for a followup. What I had expected to be 10 minutes turned out to be a bit longer, with a good check made with the lenses, and the condition of my eyes. Thankfully I’d anticipated things by taking my glasses, which I needed after the process. I was quite impressed by the thoroughness of things and the last stage involved a very small quantity of yellow dye in each eye.

The result of the process was identification of a wee problem with my eye lashes, so I’ve got to treat them each day with a lukewarm solution of five parts water to one of baby shampoo, applied with a cotton bud. My lenses are to go up in strength too, not that I’m used to their current settings but they are going up a point, or a digit. And I’m back in two weeks for another progress check.

The fascinating side effect of the process was that the bogeys in my right nostril went a shade of yellow. I’ve been pondering that since. I’m sure it tells me something.

I was able to get out on the bike while wearing them and they are really the business. So much easier than the shuffle with spectacles when putting the helmet on and off, and I was a lot more comfortable without view steaming up. I had a ride over to Hamilton to check out J&S Accessories. An excellent shop, by far the biggest stock of motorcycle clothing I’ve seen in Scotland. Good for choice and budget. I didn’t buy anything, but found clothing in my size. Shoes and helmet were more of a problem, I’ll need to do some more searching to find a helmet big enough that I can try before I buy.

The ride over was another opportunity for practice. I know the roads fairly well, but not on the bike so the run on the motorway was good experience. I also worked on some of the points picked up in my riding assessment, but need a bit of time to knock the points off one by one.

I was at Boots Opticians on Princes Street on Friday to get my lesson in putting contact lenses in and taking them out. I’m benefitting from recent developments in toric lenses to have daily contact lenses. This suits me fine as my plan is to use my glasses most of the time, with the lenses to make life easier on the motorbike. The other option of monthly disposables would have been a bit of a waste.

The session at Boots consisted of putting lenses in, taking them out, then doing the same another couple of times. A bit easier than normal for me because I’m not squeamish about poking myself in the eye (note to self – maybe I should be a bit more). I’ve still to get the total hang of it, but now that I’m on day 3 things are pretty good. I have a bit more difficulty with my left eye blinking the lense out, and taking the lenses out is a lot harder than putting them in.

Wearing them is a pretty good experience so far. They aren’t bang on the same prescription as my glasses, a compromise to benefit from the daily lenses. This means I’m suffering a bit from the classic astigmatism responses – surfaces sloping away from me a bit, so I’m ever so slightly wobbly when walking. Not much of a problem driving, which is good. It is excellent not having bits of glasses getting in the way of peripheral vision, which is a great benefit to driving. I haven’t tried them on the bike yet, this weekend was spent doing family stuff, but I think the lenses will be just the thing. The downside at the moment are the wobblyness while I get used to the different perspective, and I feel a bit like I’ve got a mild case of hayfever when I’m wearing them. I’m therefore blinking a lot. So beware the big six foot in a half guy wandering up and down Princes Street staring and blinking a lot….

Before my “lesson” on Saturday I popped over to arco in Linlithgow. It was the opportunity for a bit of practice, and I was after a dayglo / reflective vest or similar to go over my bike jacket. I’d ordered a quality jacket at the beginning of November, but supply problems meant a refund last week.

In the meantime I ordered a cheap one over the internet, but to my dismay xxl wasn’t big enough 😦

A search around the web found arco, who supply all manner of workwear, from the usual boots and jackets to knee pads and other worky stuff. Nothing that I would normally need driving my desk. And I purchased an xxxl high visibility waistcoat to go over my black bike stuff. It isn’t a guarantee of visibility or that another driver will see me, but it hopefully helps a little. And it is another thing they like for the advanced test.

Had my ride out with Joe from Lothian Motorcycle Training yesterday, two hours riding with a bit either side to prepare and go through what happened.

I got the radio on, so I could hear the instructions for where to go, then out to the bikes.We started out with the preride check, giving the bike a once over to check everything was safely attached, no fluid leaks etc. Then off through Bathgate, through the centre, back out again, looping around to dual carriageway etc, then some country roads too. Quite a mix of roads. Joe rides following on his bike, giving directions through the radio. Then back to base for the verdict.

The good news is that it went really well, I was comforted that we ran the whole ride without a stop, so I couldn’t have been that dangerous! I’ve got a few things to work on, in no particular order:

• Dominate the road more, I tend to ride too far to the left on straight roads. Moving to the middle helps visibility. When waiting at traffic lights this stops other drivers moving into the gap I have left.
• Pick up the speed, I tend to dawdle a bit. And even a safe overtake past a Tractor wasn’t taken.
• Related to the speed bit is positioning, move earlier to get the extra visibility – Roadcraft describes positioning left for a right hand bend and right for a left hand bend, which can always be shifted if the road condition or other traffic dictates.
• Watch the distance when following larger vehicles, a bike disappears easily and even though I was putting a bit of space, I could add to it a bit more. Two bike lengths is the target when stationary. Don’t get stuck behind a lorry that can’t see you in the mirrors.
• Remember the left mirror check when moving around vehicles, just in case they have moved forward after being parked.
• Rear brake only under 20mph, which stops the front diving about. I’d had my speed a bit lower than this before switching to rear brake only.
• Don’t stick my leg out as far when stationary. I’ve developed a bit of a habit of this, and it doesn’t leave any room if my foot were to slip a bit.

I’ll add anything I’ve missed when I remember. It was quite reassuring however, I’ve taken away some details on the advanced test, but practice is the key for the next few months and I can take it from there.

Wish I’d put my thermals on though, I was freezing after the ride – we’d gone up some height during some of the ride and it was really cold. With going out before to practice and the ride itself I was out for over 3 hours, which is about the longest I’ve been out so far.

I started wearing glasses about three years after leaving school, I blame all that close up work at the Accountants, or it could be staring at TV screens typing in all those basic programs in my youth.

I followed up the reminder through the post to get an eye test, and was happy to find that my eyes have stayed much the same over the last two years or so. A couple of years ago I got prescription sunglasses for a change, this time I decided to try contact lenses. I’ve had real visibility problems with my spectacles steaming up under the visor of my crash helmet, and having discussed this with my optician reckoned that the trial at boots opticians was worth a go.

I’ve got astigmatism, so that makes the contact lens a bit more complicated, but was happy to find that they even do the so-called toric lenses in disposable daily lenses. Both the monthly and daily disposables were ordered up, and I went in to try them. Sometimes they try one of each type, but the visibility with the daily lenses was quite good, even though they weren’t quite on my prescription. Having put the lens in to your eyes, they send you out for twenty minutes to check that they fit correctly. So I wandered up Princes Street to McDonalds, blinking and staring a lot.

The visibility was excellent, albeit I was blinking a lot. Apparently the eyelids take a bit of getting used to going over the lens, it settles down over time. So I’ve ordered a batch up and await my call to go in and get the lesson in fitting them myself. In the meantime I must sleep more to reduce the bags under my eyes…