Merry Winter!

Well, the snow and ice has arrived and is definitely here to stay. I haven't been out on the bike since the middle of November and with the worst snow in Sheffield for 40 odd years, it's staying tucked up in the garage until every last bit has melted! I got a SatNav for my birthday/Christmas which has a long battery life and is small enough to fit into my tankbag so I'll be experimenting with it in the new year. In the meantime, enjoy the festive season!

Hobs and Catie’s Biking Adventures Part II

Hobs came up the weekend just gone for a second round of biking adventures, and this time we decided to head a bit further afield! We headed out of Sheffield and, via Wentworth, Wath Upon Dearne and the outskirts of Doncaster, we ended up on the A19 to Selby. Once around Selby we headed across the country roads to Driffield where we joined the A614 to Bridlington just as the drizzle cleared up and the sun started shining. Bridlington was lovely, very sweet and old fashioned and we ate our sandwiches out on the pier watching the boats coming in and out of the harbour.



Sandwiches eaten, tea drunk and loo visits taken, we continued on our way. We took the A165 then the B1242 along the coast to Hornsea and pootled by the beach for a bit and ate an obligatory seaside ice cream despite the fact it was freezing. The plan had been to continue inland across country roads to Beverley but we somehow got lost in the suburbs of Hull which was less than ideal. After a good 45 minutes faffing we managed to find our way out and decided to take a different route; the A63 and B1230 to Goole then the A161 to Retford and then onto Worksop where we joined the A57 and headed home. By this time it was dark and raining quite heavily and I’d gotten very cold and was thoroughly miserable. We finally arrived back in Sheffield cold, wet, tired and hungry, but luckily my boyfriend being the jolly nice chap he is had cooked us a full roast! After dinner and a beer we headed down into Sheffield to see Sabaton who were brilliant. All in all an excellent but tiring day! We slept soundly that night.

I learnt quite a lot from the day’s ride, in particular how easy it is to get very tired and cold very quickly on a long ride. Although I’d taken an extra fleece to put on I still wasn’t warm enough, and with an already tight jacket, the additional layer made moving my arms a bit trickier. A thin thermal long-sleeved shirt is definitely required! My hands also got extremely cold, but I think rather than invest in some heated gloves (as I don’t do all that much riding in the winter months) I might get a thin thermal pair of gloves to wear underneath. I also learnt that I need to route-plan much better. Quite a lot of Saturday was spent on main A roads which were busy as well as being fairly uninspiring to ride on. I’ve realised now that route planning for a bike is a totally different kettle of fish than planning for a car journey, which is essentially getting from A to B without little thought as to how busy the roads might be and, more importantly, how interesting they are to ride on. This is something I’m going to bear in mind much more when planning routes in the future.

Sunday saw a more relaxed day’s biking, essentially pootling around in the Peaks. We ended up in Matlock which if you’re a biker is THE place to be on a Sunday, as it pretty much gets taken over. We parked up and wondered around the town admiring the rows and rows of bikes lined up along the main street. One particularly eye-catching bike was this custom Suzuki 1800cc which was absolutely incredible!!! The chap who owned it was kind enough to let me have a sit on it, and even with my gorilla arms the handlebars were just out of reach! Absolutely stunning, although I wouldn’t fancy being the one who has to polish it!

A gap in the market?

I haven’t been getting on very well with my leather trousers. I don’t like the style of them as they’re more racing trousers and they don’t really go with my bike, I only got them because they were the only ones that fit me! But biking gear doesn’t come cheap so I’ve been saving up for some decent textile trousers. I headed down to SMC to see what they had in stock, and although they had a pretty decent range, they had no long length trousers, everything was short or regular. The guy said he could order some longer ones in, but most manufacturers only do one style in long length. I like the Frank Thomas gear but and tried on a nice pair, but apparently they only do an entry level trouser in long length whereas I wanted something a bit more substantial. In the end I went for the Frank Thomas XTI trousers. They’re a bit too short but they cover the top of my boots at least, which is the main thing. It got me thinking though…surely I’m not the only long-limbed biker out there? What do other people do? It’s the same problem with my jacket, the sleeves are really too short and I got the longest gloves in the shop and they barely cover the ends. Maybe there is a gap in the market for extra long length biking gear?!

Hobs and Catie’s Biking Adventures Part I

My friend Hobs from back down south passed his DAS back in April and got himself a Kawasaki GPZ. When he found out I’d done my CBT he promised to come up to visit and have a weekend biking in the Peaks, so we finally got round to organising it! He came up on Friday after work (up the M1…rather him than me!) and we planned a route in the pub, which is definitely the best place for route planning!

We set off about 9.30 on the Saturday morning after taking a bit of a detour to SMC Bikes for a bacon sandwich and a cuppa and a browse at bikes we couldn’t afford. Then we set off on Ecclesall Road towards the Peaks. I’m writing this somewhat after the event so I can’t remember 100% where we went, but our route went something like this:

Foxhouse – Grindleford – Calver – Hassop – Bakewell – Haddon – Youlgreave – across the A515 to Hartington which was our first stop – Hulme End – Wetton – Dovedale – Thorpe – Ilam – Grindon – Onecote – Upper Elkstone – over the moors (with some amazing views of The Roaches to the A53 – Buxton – A6 to Doveholes – Sparrow Pit – through Winnat’s Pass (which is EPIC on a motorbike!!!) to Castleton – Hope – Bamford – Ladybower – Strines (where we stopped at the inn for a bite to eat) – Bradfield – Loxley – back into Sheffield. It was an amazing day, the furthest I’d been on the bike so far, and perhaps a bit too far as I hadn’t properly run the engine in! I asked Hobs what he thought of my riding and he gave me a few useful tips, such as positioning on the road during corners and using both my front and rear brakes, not just the rear! I had a bit of an incident on a muddy stretch of road where the back wheel totally went out from under me as I was only using the back brake. Luckily I managed to straighten myself out but it was a bit of a shock and I’ll certainly bear it in mind in future!




Not a great deal of biking took place on Sunday as I had to be at a band practice at 11.30, and we’d had a rather late night out at a metal club, so we headed out to Calver via Froggat for a bacon sandwich and a cup of tea (do you see a theme here?). We then headed to Hathersage via Grindleford. Once through Hathersage we took the sharp left along the awesomely named Fiddler’s Elbow which leads round to Ringinglow via Burbage. Burbage is a bit of climbers’ hotspot and today was no exception. Due to my abandoning him for band practice, Hobs was meeting up with a friend to go climbing so we parted ways and I headed back to Sheffield. All in all an excellent weekend was had!

Window Shopping

I'm not a great one for shopping. I think it's because I'm such an odd size I find clothes shopping particularly horrendous, but I do quite enjoy browsing stuff online, and I've now I've discovered that online biking clothing and accessories shops is a really great way of distracting me from what I'm supposed to be doing :) I've already purchased a dust cover as the garage I keep the bike in is pretty grimy, and I've started to compile a wishlist of all the other gear I would like.

Top of the list has to be this helmet It's blue. Sky blue. A sky blue helmet!!! It's beautiful and I want it but there's no way I can justify a brand new helmet after just a few months of having my current one! Still, it's something to aim for I suppose. Something slightly more useful (and much cheaper!) is a tank bag which I'd really like to get. I like the magnetic ones which just snap on to the petrol tank, and the fact they have a clear plastic pocket on the top to put a map in is pretty damn handy...I'm not sure how one attaches a satnav to a motorbike!

Peak Rider

A few weekends ago saw my first proper outing to the Peak District, which I am extremely lucky to have right on my doorstep. It was also the first time out in national speed limit territory so I was excited but a wee bit nervous as well. I decided to leave at 3pm when there was an England football match on in the hope that the roads would be pretty quiet (they were, but not as quite as I thought they might be!). It was a perfect sunny day, if anything it was a bit too sunny and I'd only had my leathers on for a few minutes before I started to feel massively uncomfortable!

I headed out on the A57 towards Glossop, past the Ladybower Inn then took a left towards Bamford. At the A6187 I turned left again and headed towards Hathersage. After Hathersage I took another left which takes me back into Sheffield via Ringinglow and round Burbage (I've since discovered that little road is called Fiddler's Elbow...awesome!). I stopped off briefly to walk on the moor a bit (somewhat of a challenge in leathers!) and take in the amazing view before returning to the bike where I took this photo:



I then headed back into Sheffield on Ecclesall Road, and realised how burnt my face was when I got back! I had such a fabulous afternoon, I really wish the roads could be that quiet all the time. One of my friends from back home has recently done his direct access and has got a bigger bike now so wants to come up and stay for a weekend and do some serious Peak biking. I'm very much looking forward to it already!

Night Rider

It was only a matter of time before I had to make my first night ride, and I suppose the sooner I got it over with the better. I decided to take the bike down to flute quintet practice, so I packed my trusty high vis vest and made sure that my lights, brake lights and high beam were all working. The ride itself wasn't actually too bad, although I think that was partly to do with the fact the roads were much less busy at that time of night. I did a lot of extra over the shoulder checks, particularly at junctions, fully aware (having done so myself on several occasions) how easy it is for motorists to miss bikers, especially at night. On the plus side, it was much easier to see the potholes in the dark with the help of my headlight!

Ironically, the journey down to the practice earlier in the evening was TERRIBLE. I stalled so many times, in particular when starting on a hill (of which there are a LOT in Sheffield). I could feel myself getting more and more angry, so had to mentally calm myself down before I could actually pull away smoothly.

B-Day!

Bike Day had finally dawned! I was so incredibly nervous and excited all at once walking down to SMC. It was a huge commitment in terms of finances, along with the obvious risk element, but as I got nearer to the store I knew I was doing the right thing. I got the bits and pieces of paperwork sorted and then it was time for the fun stuff...getting all the gear! I'd already tried on a helmet I liked so that was sorted. I knew the challenge would be finding trousers that had long enough legs and a jacket that had long enough arms, and I was right on that account. I'd also already settled on leathers over textiles, not only for the better protection but it looks I tried on a couple of women's jackets which were woefully short in the sleeves before settling on a nice Frank Thomas jacket. It was still a bit short but I managed to get some longish gloves which made up for it. The trousers proved to be more problematic. I'm an awkward size anyway, and I had to try on about 6 different pairs before I found some that even remotely fit me. It felt very strange and alien (and uncomfortably hot) walking around all togged up in the leathers but felt quite natural as soon as I sat on the bike. I few more bits and pieces to sign, a security chain to buy, then I was ready to set off.

The ride back up to work was terrifying. Only 2 weeks had past since I had last ridden on a bike but it felt like months. It also didn't help that, thanks to the vagaries of the Sheffield one way system, I didn't really know how to get back in the direction I wanted to be in once I left SMC. Eventually, after pulling in to someone's drive (oops!) and doing a sort of half-arsed U turn I managed to get back on track, and remarkably made it safe and sound back to work only stalling once!

The quest for the perfect bike

I seemed to be getting nowhere fast with my bike search, and I was worried that the uncomfortable feel of the Marauder was something to do with me being quite tall and having stupidly long legs. Whichever bike I decided to go for really had to be comfortable, and my legs did cramp up a few times on the CBT, so I decided to do some research into which was the best 125cc for people with long legs. I decided to drop SMC Bikes a line to see if they could advise me. I got a call back from a very helpful chap called Tony who invited me to pop down and try out various models, which I did that very lunchtime.

Tony was great, very friendly and helpful, hoping to make a sale of course but not pushy at all which I very much appreciated. The first model I sat on was a shiny brand new Marauder. It was still gorgeous but still didn't feel particularly comfortable. I then tried some of the motocross style bikes, which Tony thought I might be a bit more comfortable on as they're pretty high up and ideal for someone with long legs. I tried the Yamaha WR 125 X, and whilst my legs definitely didn't feel as cramped, I really didn't like the look of the bike. You may say looks aren't that important, but when you're spending this much money on something, it's got to be something you want to look at! Next I tried the Yamaha YBR 125 which was ok, but it didn't particuarly grab me. Then I tried a second hand Honda Varadero 125, again a slightly bigger bike more suited to taller riders, and again it didn't particularly grab me, although it did feel pretty comfortable. The last bike I tried was a Yamaha YBR 125 Custom. You'll have to excuse the cliché, but pretty much as soon as I sat on it, I knew it was the bike for me. It's sort of a halfway house between a normal bike and a custom, so it had the comfort but the looks as well. I tried the Marauder once more just to make absolutely certain, but it was definitely the YBR custom for me. I had to go back to work, so thanked Tony for his time and told him I'd be in touch. 2 hours later I'd phoned him to say "I'll take it" and, having paid my deposit, had thus crossed the point of no return.

Decisions decisions...

So, the question was...what bike to get? Actually, that was one of many questions; new or second hand? Private seller or dealer? Cruiser or sports bike? The latter question was pretty easier to answer as I've definitely a cruiser gal at heart. A bit of Googling revealed that there aren't many cruiser 125cc's, and the first model that caught my eye was the Suzuki GZ 125 Maruader.

It's an absolutely gorgeous bike and a search on Autotrader showed there was a second hand one for sale at a dealer about 30 miles away. So, I jumped in the car and went to see it. The trouble is, with second hand bikes, cars or indeed anything mechanical, I don't really know what I'm looking for! It was a 2001 model and in pretty good condition, some surface rust on the exhaust and the wheel lock was broken, but with 30,000 miles on the clock. Then I came to sit on it, and I hadn't expected a cruiser to feel so...well...weird. The angle of the shift pedal and the foot break meant my feet had to be stuck in a funny position, and I'm sure it's something I would have got used to, but it just felt all weird. So I drove back pondering the Marauder and thinking that perhaps it wasn't the bike for me after all. The quest continues!

The CBT

I did my CBT a few weeks ago with MCT Services in Chesterfield who were excellent. The instructor, Stuart, is I believe an ex-police rider and he was patient but not too soft on me! Unlike the first time I did the CBT where I was in a group of 4, Stuart only does 1 to 1 tuition, which is definitely the best way as you have the instructor's undivided attention. The morning was spent in a car park getting to grips with the bike controls, safety aspects and manoeuvring. The hardest things to master were pulling away slowly in first, then changing up to second still very slowly before coming to a controlled stop. I couldn't get the hang of smoothly releasing the clutch while giving it enough revs to start moving forward...I either revved much too hard or stalled! I tried to remember how it first felt when I tried to do it in a car with my feet, I suppose it felt just as strange back then! My other issue was keeping balance while doing a U-turn. The length you have to do a U-turn in the test felt ridiculously small, and despite Stuart's good advice ("make sure you grip the petrol tank tightly between your legs, it will help with the balance!"), I still kept having to put my foot down part way round.

Then in the afternoon it was out on the road for a good 3 hours which was brilliant but really tiring. We first road out to a bike shop + cafe in Clay Cross where I had a jolly good bacon sandwich, then we hit the mean streets of Derbyshire. I'm not going to pretend otherwise, it was TERRIFYING at first; doing 30mph felt about 90, and I stalled countless times. But once I got a bit more used to it and was able to concentrate less on the controls and more on actually riding it was much more enjoyable. It was an absolutely glorious day and the sense of freedom riding around the Derbyshire A roads was just fantastic. I'd been frustrated with my lack of progress in the morning and had been having a few doubts about whether I should really be doing the whole thing at all, but as soon as I got that feeling I knew I'd done the right thing and I'd been well and truly bitten by the biking bug. Before I knew it though, it was all over and I was back at Stuart's getting my CBT certificate.

Driving back from Chesterfield I had a kind of nervous excitement, the same feeling I had after I'd done the previous CBT eight years earlier. But this time it was different...instead of letting my CBT expire, it was time to seriously investigate getting a bike.

In the beginning...

I can't remember when my interest in bikes first started. My earliest memory of sitting on a bike is when I was about eight or nine up on the Isle of Skye. My dad bought me a book of custom Harley Davidsons when I was fifteen or so...perhaps he thought if I could read about them I wanted want to ride them :) Eight years ago I did my CBT whilst my parents were away on holiday. I didn't tell them I'd done it and needless to say they weren't best pleased when they found out. I'm not really sure why I did at as I couldn't afford a bike at the time, and before I knew it the two years were up and my CBT expired.

So now I'm finally at the stage where I can afford a bike, I have decided to bite the bullet and go for it. Having toyed with the idea of doing the DAS and going straight in with a bigger bike, I decided to start off with the CBT, get a 125cc and practice, practice, practice! I know I'll be a better rider if I do it this way rather than go straight in at the deep end, and as I'm not a speed demon when it comes to bikes (cars is another matter as some of my friends will vouch for!), I feel sure I'll be content with a 125cc for the foreseeable future. I decided to start this blog to keep a bit of a diary of my riding experiences which I will hopefully be able to learn from and be able to look back on with fondness when I'm an (hopefully!) experienced rider in many years time.