2014 - Pretty Good Year

Blog Date - 20 October 2014

Apparently it was the driest September since records began! 

I have been a very very lucky boy this year and I've been fortunate to be able to make the most of this year's good weather. Let me see...this year I've been to...ahem...Northumbria, Lincolnshire (twice), Scotland, Shrewsbury, Mid Wales, Hawes, Hereford, The Isle Of Man and I'm sure there's more. I can't recall a year when I've spent quite so many weekends away, it's been great.

While I've been soaked to the skin several times overall the weather this year has been incredibly favourable. The winter was wet, that much is true but it was very mild. We had but a handful of severe frosts and what little snow came down did not amount to anything that would stop me getting the bike out. I was looking through my picture library and I saw an image from March 2013 and my back yard was deep in snow. I recall that day with shivers and a feeling of despair. No such misery this winter.

BRRRRRRR! March 2013.

January 2014, Shrewsbury. Cold for sure but no snow.

Spring and summer have been good to us. While most of us look forward to long hot days I often find them too hot! Riding a motorcycle while wearing protective jackets, pants, boots, gloves and a helmet can be a sticky and nasty business when the sun shines and the air is heavy with humidity. We've had but a handful of those clammy days this year yet most have been an excellent compromise of dry, warm and yet comfortably average temperatures. Perfect riding conditions.

Peel Castle 2014. Sunshine but not too hot. Perfect riding for the Isle Of Man

Of course being a perpetual pessimist there has to be a down side. How am I supposed to review waterproof pants when it's not raining? How am I supposed to call all the fairweather bikers soft gits when it's dry? How can I review my new sleeping bag when it's not been cold enough to see if it really is as warm as it claims to be? This is all just silly, I'd rather wait and relish the weather this year has brought us. The cold, the wet, the wind and the misery of winter will all be upon us again far too soon and for far too long. There'll be plenty of opportunities for testing and complaining soon enough.

Even a little light rain at the Millennium Rally didn't dampen the party spirits.

As I write this it's now mid October. I got a damn good soaking yesterday on the bike and another this morning while walking to the shops. I guess this is it, I guess this is Autumn which will be followed by winter. When I'm sat in a biker hang-out moaning with the rest of them about how crap the weather is in this country I really ought to look back through this year's travels stories and my pictures and remind myself that it's not so bad, not so bad at all.

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