spikey

And quite right too.

Thank you, gentlemen. Verily, every day is a school day here ...

Gosh, I do believe you're right. That would make sense. Incidentally, Traffic Officer's Glare is a kosher plod term which I picked up from the bike cops in Brighton when I got sent by Superbike to write a story about them. This was early 80s, when Sussex Police had fallen out bigtime with BMW on account of them blaming the boxer's handling for throwing coppers off them. I took great pleasure in turning up at the Brighton HQ on my R80/7 and parking it next to the police Guzzis. Security was really tight, and the fact that Sussex had a squad of unmarked bikes ridden by unmarked coppers was supposed to be Secret. However, the copper on the gate checked my paperwork then asked who I was there to see, and as instructed I replied "the bike team". To which he said "Marked or unmarked"? Best part of the day though was tailing two police bikers around the town, then being tailed by them back to base the pretty way. I must have passed, because after lunch in the canteen we went up round Devils Dyke, and they both had a go on the 80/7 while I got a go on one of the Guzzis, which I must say went surprisingly well. They were fitted with an interesting bit of kit called the Police Pilot, but I'm buggered if i can remember how it worked. Happy days ... 🙂

Same in the US ...

Note how the one on the left has almost perfected Traffic Officer's Glare, with which in due course he will hope to slow down speeding motorists. But whatever, those gauntlets remind me to ask if anyone knows why so many of them had such a generous funnel-shaped "cuff". I get that it made it so much easier to tuck the cuffs of your jacket into them, but why on earth were they so cavernous?

I know the OP won't want to know this, but our local hospice charity shop had a very decent-looking black Squier Strat left-hander in the window last week reduced from £50 to £35. Just out of curiosity, I asked why the reduction, and was told that somebody had pointed out that it was LH ...

One of the many things about modern life which amuses me is the way in which the Old Bill has taken to speaking to the media in Plod-speak. Instead of saying, for example, "What happened was that A entered the room and B then left it", they nowadays say "A has entered the room and B has then left it". It's a long time since O-level English Language, so can somebody please tell me what tense that is?

Interesting you say that. I had a 1965 T90 (same dog, different spots) from new for a couple of years and put well over 40K miles on it with no complaints whatsoever, and a later (1967?) T100, and AFAIC they both handled well enough both solo and two-up, although I do seem to think they were a bit fussy about tyre make and pressures ...

And by way of this week's caption competition, 'er on t'New Imperial is thinking - what exactly?

Hmmmm. Enough of the reminders already! The 1968 Bonneville I bought new was a bloody awful bike. Maybe it was a Friday afternoon one, but it was never trouble-free at any point in the short time I kept the thing. It was one of the three major mistakes I made in my life that year, the other two being selling the Vincent and marrying the wrong woman. The only redeeming feature in that year was the subsequent acquisition at a silly price from Sport Motorcycles of a BSA Spitfire (which had a double-adult Busmar on the side but that's another story). That and some really good gigs, including the only time I saw Sandy Denny, and the first(?) Isle of Wight festival ...

I dunno. Is Ogri still about anywhere?

Where's all the mirrors?

Noted guitar player (and ace falsetto vocalist on that wonderful live recording of Jackson Browne doing "Stay" in concert) died yesterday. That's another one gone ... 🙁

Ta for that. What exactly is that site (i.e. how authoritative on a scale of 0 -10) and who's this Colman chappie?

That's a relief to know. But pray tell - can you still get a good pie barm in Wiggin Wigan\?

Only significantly so in the US of A, where they intensively farm their beef in feedlots. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/climate/beef-cattle-methane.html Ref the comment about greenwashing ...

It's the same approach as "Alright then, you can open a new deep mine but only if you export most of the coal so when it's burnt it doesn't figure in UK emissions". Or "Terminal 5 at Heathrow is green because it's heated by environment-friendly biomass", which is woodchips made from trees purpose-felled and chipped in Canada, then shipped over the Atlantic, then schlepped to Heathrow ...

Two of us here still wondering ... 🙂

I too only suffered a front brake cable-nipple parting the once, and ever after had A Thing about spare cables. On the main bike I carried them ISDT-fashion routed alongside the ones in use, with the ends taped over to keep the grot out. Bit of a PITA doing the routing, but worth it in due course.

It is indeed a crying shame that, for example, folk may soon be unable to find their favourite variety of tomato in Waitrose, but how bizarre it is that Harry Metcalfe could double his farm's profit for the next two years by growing green manure crops instead of food ...

The latest Harry's Farm video's well worth a look, particularly from around 9 minutes in, if you have no idea at all about any aspect of the reality of farming in the UK nowadays ...

The Lady Wife reports that one of the German news sites now reckons that the Fatherland is going to ship 18 x Leopard 2A6 to Ukraine. There's also talk of some Swedish A5 plus some A4 from somewhere or other. Are any of these variants likely to be of much use to Ukraine? Also it would appear that the Swedes are intent upon providing Hawk and Iris-T air defence systems. Might that cause any concern amongst the foe?

Did that have the trick levers?

What on earth is this bike?

This morning I went to have my eyes tested, and upon entering the shop was dealt with initially by a fragrant young man with a pleasant manner and a strange haircut. He invited me to sit down at a desk, enquired as to the reason for my visit, and prepared to enter my details on his computer. So far so good. He then said "So how has your day been so far?". This threw me. With living the simple televisionless life that I do, I had not met the question before when posed by a stranger, so all I could think of by way of reply was "Mustn't grumble". How is one supposed to reply? Do you say "Well, actually I got up a bit late, then had a bit of struggle with the lid of a new jar of marmalade which set me back a bit so I was late switching the kettle off before it filled the kitchen with steam, and after that it's just gone from bad to worse", or what?