Respite

A last minute cancellation meant no Dungeons and Dragons this weekend. At least, it looks like a last minute cancellation but I think it may deserve looking into. Messengers do not get shot unless they attempt to avoid the responsibility of delivering their message! Then they get hanged.

On Friday Sam, Richard, and I took a big ride out onto the M25. Big roads, relatively little traffic, and a wrong turn that took us into London on the M4. Ugh, never again! Everyone is out to kill you, taxis filter like motorcycles, motorcycles take every available inch and just go crazy. Sam thought it was an adventure, I thought it was a tragedy, Richard thought it was only a matter of time before someone ran across the road and shanked one of us. But there you go. It was much harder to leave London and each one of us had our share of ignorant drivers trying to send us to the nearest A&E ward.

Never. Again.

The ride that was not in London was better. I think it's more a test of concentration and endurance than anything else. There was one point where I almost undertook a lorry but managed to pull back and overtake properly as I regained my senses. Yes it's monotonous and no I would not consider doing it every day (or even once a month), but it's not that bad. I learned a lot about overtaking. Because of the speeds that your fellow drivers are operating at, and because some people like to occupy the outside lane below the speed limit with no one to their left, you really have to commit to overtakes. Normally on the open roads I don't do much overtaking or filtering. I don't think I'll be doing it more often but when I need to overtake in the future, I'll know what I should be doing. On the sections of the M25 that have more than four lanes on either side and you're overtaking in the furthest, fastest lane, you must gun your engine and proceed both swiftly and confidently. I reached 100mph on one or two of those overtakes. I'm no speed freak but on big roads like that you have to go that fast to clear the overtake as safely as possible if you can.

Something that hitting a ton taught me: the Versys really does make one-hundred feel like forty. You can feel the engine, but not the wind. While Richard and Sam were leant down on their bikes, their torsos touching their tanks, I was sat up straight, relaxed, and cruising in triple digits.

I'll not be reaching speeds like that again any time soon though. I'll reserve my need for speed for another time when I might be required to ride on a motorway again.

Oh, and motorways definitely warrant the use of earplugs.