Tumbling Less Than Gracefully Into Middle Age

  • Looking back

    I’ve had a rough year, health wise. I’ll write about it at some point. Consequently I’ve had lots (too much?) of time to think, and as is human nature I’ve looked backwards a fair bit, so excuse the nostalgia. I’m not sure what prompted it, but I got thinking about my college days. College in…

  • The continuing saga of my Eyes

    The rough with the smooth It’s about six months following surgery for the rhegmatogenous retinal detachment of my left eye. The good news is that the retina has recovered very well; at four months an Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) scan of my eye showed nominal recovery. I was somewhat relieved. A complication of the surgery,…

  • Why Scoobi Is Probably Doomed, In One Picture

    UpdaTE: March 2023: I was revising a lot of these posts from the previous WP blog and found out that Scoobi have ceased operating, as of August 2022: https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/inno/stories/profiles/2022/08/01/scoobi-shuts-down-electric-moped-operations.html It is deeply unfortunate when any business shuts down – it’s jobs and people’s livelihoods, and even if I wasn’t enthusiastic about this scheme I’d rather…

  • Sight

    9th May, 2018 My Ninja 300 with Shane’s KTM 1290 Superduke, hours before I realised something was going very wrong with my vision. I’d had a great couple of weeks. I’d just got back from visiting my Dad in Spain, along with my sister and beautiful niece (whom I had never met). My sister and…

  • Fitting The 'ebay' Exhaust to my TT250

    N.B. this post originally appeared in edited form at chinariders.net I bought my stainless ‘ebay exhaust’ – the one everybody uses – months ago but never had the chance to get it fitted. These kits almost fit the TT250, but there’s one definite modification required; you have to widen or cut the flange as it’s…

  • California Dreaming

    California Dreaming

    …On such a winter’s fall day Back in September I spent five days in Los Angeles at the 2017 Open Source Summit. I’d never been to California before. I wasn’t sure what I’d make of it. My wife thought I might hate the endless, dusty sprawl, but I had a certain fascination with the place…

  • As Much As I Hate Winter…

    This really put a smile on my face. Do i bring bike in't house at end of November & trim it up for Christmas again 🎄 or keep it on the road & hope for a mild winter ? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/HUpqiyPK1q — Mucky Bandit (@Yorkshirebandit) November 2, 2017 There’s always somebody with a delightfully cheery…

  • The Ninja 400 is here

    The king is dead. Long live the King! It had to happen sooner rather than later. The Ninja 300 has had a five year run, and now Kawasaki has thrown another 100CC at the formula (in what is apparently a new engine, not the re-sleeved ER-6 650cc that has been around for a while.) Photo…

  • All Engines Great and Small

    All Engines Great and Small

    You Always Want What You Don’t Have I spend all of my riding time on small bore bikes, by US standards. My Ninja 300 at 296cc and the CSC TT250 weighing in at 229cc. The Ninja will – realistically – pull to about 75mph easily, above which there’s a tardy roll-on to about a top…

  • Our Friends Electric

    With apologies to Gary Numan… I’ll make no bones about it: My dream garage would definitely include a Tesla Model S and a Zero SR. I think they’re brilliant. Electric motorcycles are in the news cycle again, thanks to some YouTube and written reviews. Here’s Motorcyclist Magazine executive editor Zack Courts on the Zero SR.…