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Positively Negative

Blog Date - 06 April 2016

This weekend the BAT team were at the Manchester Bike Show. We had a marvellous time meeting folks and the experience was worthwhile and uplifting.

A pristine Honda CD 200 Benly and the Manchester Bike Show 2016How can you not have a great time anywhere there's a CD 200 Benly?

There is a "but..." 

When I was an instructor in the late '90s I worked along with another gentleman. FN was a big strong ex-policeman who'd retired and was supplementing his income and avoiding boredom by passing his 2 wheeled knowledge on to the next generation of bikers. He was always softly spoken yet firm with the customers and between us we managed to put a lot of people on the road and through their test. To see him in a wheelchair comes as something of a shock. The silly bugger has had a spill and is recovering. No. Paralysed from the chest down - motorcycle accident. His demeanour is the same as ever and his purpose this day is to seek out someone who could build him a trike. It is good to see him still upbeat and positive but it really hammeres home the fragility of our bodies.

Another chap whom I've not spoken too for sometime also came to say hello. For some time his good lady wife had not been on the back of the bike due to the discomfort of pillion riding and various other reasons. To resolve this he'd fitted a sidecar to one of his motorcycles and she started to warm to the notion of sharing her husband's passion once more. He tells me how comfortable she is in the outfit even when he'd crashed over a pothole. She died a few weeks later from a massive heart attack. 

A BMW branded sidecar, looking rugged for off road use
I guess if sidecars look this cool they ain't so bad. But still...

A friend who's featured on this website was diagnosed with Ataxia a couple of years back. I caught up with him 3 months ago and while he was walking with crutches to aid balance he seemed to still be living a normal life for the most part. This Monday I put him in contact with another friend and a deal was struck, he's finally sold his motorcycle. As the deal was carried out it became painfully clear my ailing friend has deteriorated a lot since last we spoke.

To see him having to sell his motorcycle because he can never ride it again is sickening for me, I dare not imagine how it feels for him.

How do I process this? How do I deal with this? What attitude do I adopt? How do I prepare myself? I can hear a chorus of comments like "Live each day as though it's your last" and "Make the most of every day". 

OK lets think about this. If I was sure this was my last day on earth then I would not be writing this blog post and I would not be getting things ready for work tomorrow. But I am not sure. If I don't get ready for work then there will be no more money for motorcycle parts, petrol, campsites and websites. I would all too soon be stony broke and hungry too. If I knew that soon I would be facing disability or illness then I would not have bothered servicing my motorcycles last week or booked my ferry for a forthcoming trip. But I am not sure. Motorcycles don't look after themselves and I can't just turn up at a port and expect the ferry to have a space for me. 

So come on, own up, who actually lives each and every day as though it is truly, really, genuinely their last day? Even the most "YOLO" types (You Only Live Once) still buy enough milk to last a couple of days. Wild adventure types still save up and prepare for their journeys. The very act of living requires some planning and when we do not know what the future holds for us, all we can do is hope some of our plans come to fruition.

The image shows "YOLO - but how should I change my life to accomodate this?"

Life is wonderful and amazing. Life is also cruel and unfair. It confuses me.

Reader's Comments

Ian Soady said :-
Thought provoking stuff.

Life (like much else) is a constant balancing act - in this case balancing risk against tedium. For instance, I refuse to wear "protective" leather trousers and full-face helmet. I have tried both but they make me feel so constrained that I just want to get off the bike and throw them in the bin. But would I ride on the road without a helmet? No (although have done so in the distant past when I was young(er) and almost certainly stupid(er)).

So it seems to me that you establish where you are on that balance (and this will change from day to day, hour to hour, who you are with, where you are going, what you are riding, whether you've just had a row with your nearest & dearest..... Hopefully those occasions when you're towards the riskier end are the ones when your luck is in - going back to that idea that you start with a full bag of luck and an empty bag of skills. As one empties the other fills.

As you say you never know what tomorrow will bring but for most of us there's a very high chance that we'll still be around. So I personally assume that I will and behave accordingly. Others will have different views. And some I see certainly behave as though they do.
07/04/2016 15:51:34 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
Cheers Ian. Balance is the key to most things ain't it. I love my motorcycling but when I was a despatch rider for 3 years and an instructor for another 5 years I must say it rather took the pleasure out of riding, too much of a good thing and all that.

My real quandary is whether or not to take a year or so out and try to do some real travelling. I have the finances and at present I have my health. I also have some good work that I enjoy, Sharon, family and a house. I don't have a bad life.

So do I give up what is a good situation? But then if I wait I might wake up one day staring down the barrel of a terminal illness and wishing I'd made that journey when I was 44. I'll post a link to Nathan Millward's blog post regarding burning bridges and building security for oneself.
www.nathanmillward.com/#!The-Hitchhiker/c1q8z/5702976b0cf27bf9349ae4be...
08/04/2016 08:20:20 UTC
Ian Soady said :-
Interesting link. I have to say the thought of living like the hitchhiker did fills me with horror - partly the sheer discomfort, partly what seems to be an aimless existence with no goals or direction. But maybe that's the point.

Nathan's later point about being like that chap when on a motorcycle trip - I can relate to some extent to that. Like the time I needed to change money on a trip to Greece (before the ?, and not realising it was a bank holiday) and ended up on the dockside in Genoa outside a very dodgy looking cambio with a group of very tough looking locals eyeing my Norton up. Or on another trip in France when the rectifier on the Norton had burnt out and I was hopping between garages to get a bit of charge in the battery. But in every case I've had the security of knowing I could cut my losses, abandon the bike and get a plane home.

Like you I have a lot invested in relationships, home and interests and I'm not ready to give them up.

And that's true of most of us.
08/04/2016 13:27:20 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
There is a part of me that would like to live the tramp's life. No bills, no friends falling out, no boiler breaking, no hassle at work and no CBF 250 decisions. Then as I write I am laying in my warm bed with easy access to my clean toilet and my breakfast cereal. I like my simple home comforts.

And if I venture out into the world I know there are things for me at home. These are the same things that tie me to here though, family, friends and so on.

Of course I desire the unbridled freedom and selfish independence then I want the security and support. Which leads us back to your point of balance Ian. I, we all need to find the point where it works best and yet that point moves with the mood of the day.

Did the Norton ever get home?
09/04/2016 05:31:40 UTC
Ian Soady said :-
"Did the Norton ever get home?"

Yes indeed. It was the last day of my trip and I was about 300 miles from my overnight ferry at Cherbourg. I managed to get to a little local garage near my hotel (no roughing it for me!) early in the morning and they put a boost charge in the battery for an hour or so. I disconnected the brake light switch to use as little charge as possible and made it for about 200 miles until it started popping and banging (Boyer ignition systems are notorious for disliking low voltage). Another roadside garage, another hour or so on the charger and off I went again, worrying that the sun was starting to sink in the West.

As dusk fell I just made it to the top of the long hill leading down to the town of Cherbourg. Freewheeling down this allowed the battery to recuperate just enough to make it to the port - an exercise that was a bit fraught as I didn't dare turn the lights on or use the indicators....

Again, letting the bike rest while I went off into the town for dinner (excellent meal at Le MangeTout) gave it enough oomph to get onto the ferry, and the overnight trip gave me enough to get out of the ferry port and finally expire in front of the police station.

I was lucky that there was a Maplins only half a mile or so away (the cop in the station kindly letting me look in the Yellow Pages) so after sitting by the roadside till the shop opened I could buy a rectifier, get back to the bike and fit it. And lo and behold, once started I could see it charging happily so was on my way.

Fortunately the Commando was kickstart as I'd have had no chance with an electric-start only bike.

I eventually discovered that the fault was caused by an intermittent short in the alternator windings that was sending a high-voltage spike through the rectifier and frying it.

As for the scary crowd in Genoa they turned out to be merely interested motorcyclists.......
09/04/2016 09:58:04 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
That's a fabulous tale Ian! How often do we get home by the skin of our mechanical teeth? I didn't know Maplins sold rectifiers for old Nortons? I'm guessing you made a generic rectifier work somehow.
09/04/2016 10:36:30 UTC
Ian Soady said :-
Yes, the charging system is rather primitive compared to modern machines. Essentially it's a single phase unregulated alternator, rectified by a full bridge rectifier (generic solid state ones work fine) and "regulated" by a Zener diode which is a cunning device that conducts electricity when the voltage exceeds a certain level so dumping any excess. These need to have an efficient heat sink (the Commando uses the footrest mounting plates!) as they sometimes need to dissipate a lot of power. You can see the nut holding the Zener just behind the footrest on the photo.

It had taken me some time to work out what the problem was and I'd spent a lot of the previous day thinking it was carb-related as it seemed linked to throttle opening. The engine would seem to run OK but then would backfire as soon as I put any load on it. This wasn't ideal as I was riding up through the Massif Central at the time...

I can't actually remember what made me home in on the rectifier but I do remember sitting over a glass or two of wine in the evening trying to work out whether I could somehow use the Zener in a reverse configuration to effectively perform a half-wave rectification but decided it wouldn't have worked. My electrical engineering is on the rudimentary side however.

Commando
09/04/2016 15:01:05 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
I feel your rudimentary electrical knowledge may still be a little less rudimentary than mine.

Prey tell...the gear shift lever follows a most peculiar path. I can see it must bypass the kick starter, much required due to dubious electrical components at the time. However it still goes back to the hangar then across to the gearbox. I suppose it's all about levers and leverage.
10/04/2016 07:04:34 UTC
Ian Soady said :-
That's a non-standard rearset footrest setup - partly home-made using rose joints instead of the usual clevises. The standard Commando footrests are quite a long way forward and I always found them uncomfortable on longer trips.

The disadvantage with the setup I had was that I needed to fold up the footrest to start the bike. Add this to the fact that the kickstart works on the gearbox layshaft so it has to be in neutral to start and you'll see that stalling in heavy traffic was something to be avoided.

Below is a picture of the standard layout (not my bike). This is a Roadster model with the smaller tank - mine was an Interstate with 5 gallon tank so good for well over 200 miles.


Roadster
10/04/2016 09:28:33 UTC
Ian Soady said :-
ps some people just fit a reversed gear lever which of course is much easier. However this changes the shift pattern from 1 up 3 down (normal British except for Triumph) to 1 down 3 up and I always preferred the standard pattern.
10/04/2016 13:17:14 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
Aaah, so simply put you created rearsets and the curious gearshift setup is to accommodate that. I figure you engineered all that yourself too.
11/04/2016 10:15:20 UTC
Ian Soady said :-
I adapted something I picked up from an autojumble somewhere........
11/04/2016 10:56:25 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
Haa! Even better.
11/04/2016 12:02:21 UTC

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