I have just finished listening to an interview of Tanni Grey-Thompson by Aled Jones: what a terrific person.  Someone I would definitely want to talk to if I ever met in a pub or on a train.

One of the most interesting things Tanni talked about was when she got her first wheel-chair.  This isn’t a direct quote, I didn’t write it down, but the gist was “I didn’t see this as giving up, I didn’t see it as accepting defeat.  Many friends saw it as a huge transition but I saw the wheel chair as an enabler, something that helped me to live”.

Many see insulin the same way: there is almost a reluctance to provide insulin via injection until there is no other choice.

I find this strange: I don’t like injections, sometimes they really hurt, but my insulin is my enabler, it makes life possible.  I very physically hurt if I don’t have it.

It’s not easy replacing what my body is failing to do naturally but that is the choice.  Give up or get on with it.

Some on the planet see requiring the injections as being repulsive, the fact that it’s extremely difficult sometimes to get it right every minute of everyday, abhorrent.  There are definitely days when it seems like way too much bother, but unlike the friendship I wouldn’t want from these people, I am in this for the long game 🙂

I love motorcycling, it makes the commute to work a fun place to be and while I’d never take a car out for a fun drive, I love popping out for 30 minutes or so on the bike.

Since I did my first CBT and subsequently bought a bike the requirements of passing the test have changed and this is not a guide on how to pass the DSA test to get your license or even how to pass your advanced test.  It is how, where and when I learnt the basic skills.

Bike sense

Basic road sense is one thing but the motorcycle has capabilities and limitations not found on any other vehicle.  Learning the basic skills are very easy especially with a great teacher, but get them to talk about the experiences they had have.  I learnt how to corner from my teacher but I also learnt about using my horn at a junction to prevent the T bone accident!

If you don’t have a 125 while you’re learning, watch other riders and think about what they are doing and why that might be the case.  Especially if you’re pedestrian or bicycle rider as these use very different skills.  Where do motorcyclists sit at junctions against their signals (road position in other words)?  What are they doing on roundabouts?  What works and what doesn’t compared to other road users?

If you have a 125, take it out and practice what you last learnt.  The CBT is pretty good at teaching you clutch control, so choose a busy route as this stop start traffic is what clutch control is all about.  Do not filter at this point as it is all about sharpening your skills.  Filtering, in and of itself, is not illegal but traversing solid white lines is.  If you are keen to filter talk to your instructors and get some professional advice.

Park your bike in your local town centre and supermarket car parks, this is where the U-turn is most commonly used.

If you have suitable days, go to work on the bike.

I didn’t take the 125 out on the dual carriage way during rush hour but I did at other times.  One of the most surprising things I found with the 125 was the speed at junctions – I would be doing 20/30/40 in the speed limited areas and come to a roundabout and leave the car that had been up my exhaust pipe standing.

The right 125

Consider whether you want a brand new bike.  You are going to make mistakes and scratch the paint work (I dented mine backing it into the garage).

Remember that in the UK you need two L plates to be displayed clearly at all times when you are learning to ride, front and rear of the vehicle.  Not doing so when you’re a learner is a criminal offence and liable to earn you three points on your license which will affect your insurance.  I know some people wear L’s on their hi-viz jackets but I am not sure if that is good enough, although certainly that would get around the problem of sharing a bike with someone who had already passed their test.

You will have zero no claims bonus and the cheaper the bike, the less it will cost to ensure.  Some believe older bikes do better fuel economy but I am much less certain about that.  125s are really fuel efficient with the miles they cover – an 11 litre tank will get you more than 100 miles range on average.

A 125cc bike may be used on motorways in the UK once you have a full license.  Smaller than that is not allowed, currently.

Your first bike is all about building your skills and confidence.  It needs to fit you physically and mentally.  You need to be able to sit on it for 1-2 hours on a ride and be happy about the return journey.

Faired bikes weigh more, naked ones leave you buffeted by the wind, there are semi-faired options.  Think about the levers (125s often don’t have adjustable ones) and the foot pegs.  Do you have the option of a bag or box on the back?  Can it store your helmet for a period without it getting damaged?

A bike that starts every morning and evening is confidence inspiring, one that leaves you scratching your head isn’t.

If you are not riding regularly, a kick start on a 125 means you don’t have to worry about the battery.  An electric start (tends to be a button) is much easier – kick starting is a knack not a strength issue.  If you have a bike instructor, let them show you how it’s done.

Remember, most bikes have shorter servicing intervals than cars (3500 miles is a common duration).  Is this something you want to do yourself?  Do you need any equipment to help retrieve and dispose of the fluids?  Will you need some training?  You need to be able to check the fluid levels (including fuel) and the lights, the air pressures in your tyres, your chain condition and tension and be able to lubricate it.

Do you have garage space?

If not, good locks are essential for storing at home and definitely on the move.  The average 125 weighs around 120kg.  Even I can lift one and two people can easily pick one up and put it in the back of a van.

If you do direct access, the chances of you having the 125 two weeks after the test are slim, but these are the bikes most commonly taken after scooters.  Disc locks are amazing – always remember you’ve applied one or you and the bike will go down 🙂  I use data marking and apply the stickers which make it less appealing to bike thieves.  Again the trendier the bike, the more appealing it will be.  Let your insurance company know what you’ve got and seek advice on what to buy.  New disc locks are amazingly easy to apply and most have been rated on their effectiveness.

Chains are much less effective on motorbikes.  Don’t allow the lock to be positioned near the ground as this makes it easy to break!  Where possible, chain the bike to something else even if just a ground anchor.  Use a disc lock along with a chain lock: the disc lock makes it harder to move the bike to break the lock.

Bikes are not often taken if you are somewhere for a day but leaving the bike parked in front of your house every evening makes it more of a target.  Work is also a habitual place.

Riding in the wet

I bought my 125 and carried waterproofs in case it rained even though it was a beautiful spring day.  I had only spent 5 hours riding on the road in lessons so when the heavens opened I was very nervous.  It took me more than an hour to ride the 16 miles in the wet and the waterproofs didn’t last the first 5 minutes.

Modern waterproofs are fantastic but look at motorcycle, building or sailing gear as ski wear isn’t up to the job.  Modern suits often have a goretex layer which works really well and means you can wash the garments without destroying the goretex.

Modern tyres are also wonderful.  Braking is increased but on good ground you should stick to the road so long as the tread is good and the pressures are maintained.  Your visor will make visibility an issue but the advice is not to swipe it with your glove.  Above 50 mph (depending on the bike) you can clear the visor by looking to each side.

Buy boots early

I didn’t – I focused on a helmet, jacket and gloves but real motorcycling boots are amazing and change how you change gear.  Get them early in your training.  I didn’t but everything else is easy to borrow, boots aren’t.

The right big bike

You will learn what type of bike you want from your 125.  Whether fairing is needed or wanted, windscreen or not and if so, which types, whether luggage matters, capacity of the pistons, style, number of pistons, 2 or 4 stroke, night and day time presence and speed, braking capabilities and suspension set up.  Will you have a satnav or do you need to fix a map to the tank?  Always test ride the bike – if you can’t because of insurance ask a trusted bike friend.

Compare many different types and don’t rush it.

Remember you need to ride it to get the confidence up.  Do many short trips on your own to get the feel of your bike.

Plan trips with others.  Look at Bike Safe and book an advanced course from Bike Safe as there is usually a discount (whether IAM or ROSPA) – these are much cheaper than your original training and will help you understand the differences between “real riding” and the test and will be carried out on your bike.

Remember it’s fun

This is a lot of information and hopefully will let you guard against some of the pitfalls I encountered.

I’m just off to take the Hayabusa out 🙂

my bikes and look how the kit has changed!

I don’t quite know what’s going on, but I have been asked by a number of friends recently about how to get in (or return) to biking: the major question has been kit.  What do you need and what’s worth spending money on?

Learning to ride a motorcycle is amazing and when I did my first CBT, I had to borrow everything.  This is not a bad first approach if you’re learning but not so good if you are returning after a break.  So what do you need?

The legal bit – the head

Rightly (or wrongly) the only bit you are legally required to wear is the helmet.  Forget reading reviews, if it doesn’t fit you won’t use it.  You need something that fits your head and something that’s legal, thankfully that’s all that’s sold from motorcycle shops and they will give advice.  I’d love a Schuberth but until they make one that fits my head I might as well have a solid gold Hayabusa for all the good owning one would do me.

If you go to a motorcycle shop they will help you get that fit and something that serves your purpose.  Try it on for at least 15 minutes if it passes the basic fit test (i.e. your head doesn’t move if someone else holds the helmet).  For comfort and practicality I enjoy using a flip-front and my latest one finally has a flip down sun visor.  For protection, it has the full face functionality with the ability to talk properly to people.  (I don’t wear the flip-front when racing, they are great but not above 100mph in the event of a crash).

No helmet is completely quiet.  Earplugs are a great idea as for a fiver they protect your hearing and allow you to ride for longer with total focus.

I tend to get white or silver or patterns with those colours (not road coloured) as that’s an easy way of being noticed.

Cost of helmet

Budget for £180 to £400 – that way you get the protection and the comfort.  Look at ear protection too – to start, the roll in the ear plugs are good and only a few pounds.

If not a dual screen – get a sun visor bundled.  Consider a pin-lock for anti-fog (all helmets claim to be fog resistant but a pin-lock system is really effective to the extent some manufactures include them).

If you wear glasses, get your optician to straighten the arms so they fit easily with your helmet.  The trick is put the helmet on and then your glasses.  Glasses do fog when the conditions are right, so during the summer I wear contacts.

The bear essentials – gloves and boots

Gloves and boots are the next piece to consider.  Both your hands and your feet are exposed to the elements and controlling the bike.  I like leather gloves and they all tend to claim to be waterproof.  Thinner gloves in the summer stop your hands from cooking and gives you feedback.  Fit is essential.

The boots are fantastic – goretex has made a big difference here and the styles provide good protection   Again, the fit is important – nothing is going to cause problems more than uncomfortable or painful feet.

Spend time ensuring there are no pinch points and with the gloves, that you can reach the levers.  If you spend time learning without boots the change to proper armoured boots can be a shock – it took me around four hours to get use to it.

Cost of boots and gloves

Gloves – typically £40 to £150

Boots – around £150.

The best of the rest

I love leather but if commuting or touring are likely to come quickly, look to textile suits.  A matching suit should mean the pieces zip together but all should be supplied with zips.

New textile suits are waterproof and often come with different liners (the import one being the waterproof one).  Fit wise, the length should cover the boots and gloves even when sitting on a bike.

Try the kit on – and while doing so, sit on a bike.  You are looking for pinch points and tightness: bear in mind you need to be able to do a shoulder check (look right behind you) while keeping both hands on the handle bars.  The armour should fit on the knees and elbows – if it doesn’t, that set doesn’t fit so look for another set.

If you are likely to ride when it’s colder think about layers.

During the summer I use motorcycle jeans – armoured but allow more air through.  I live in England – waterproofs matter.

Cost of leather

Around £300 for trousers and jacket for a lady but you need waterproofs as well so factor in £60 on top.

Cost of textile

£300 to £600.

Cost of a Viz-jacket

These do make a huge difference, especially at rush hour.  I love the Motrax Visilite bright top hi viz vest as the diagonal zip doesn’t scratch your tank and it covers the major body seems while it’s raining.  £8 or thereabouts.

The snood

There is always a gap between your jacket neck and the chin bar of the helmet and a circular snood stops bugs hitting your neck while doing 30mph.  Do bike safe and you get a great one for free or reuse ski wear.  A bike one is around £5-15.

Luggage

While you are learning, this is not an issue but in the real world where are you putting your belongings?  Ruck sacks and tank bags are great short term solutions and I would check out sailing gear for waterproof options.

Priorities

If that all seems a bit much in one hit the priorities should be:

helmet, gloves, boots, the rest.

Everyone gets a jacket early 🙂 When it comes to waterproofs, when you are riding a bike your legs get wet, your top less so in my experience but then the viz-jackets tend to be waterproof providing that extra layer of rain protection 🙂

Motorcycling is a non-contact sport but if you are in an accident, armour helps.

Since I last wrote an entry for the Hayabusa Journals, there have been some changes.

The first has to be the purchase of an ER6.  This is a 650 V-twin Kawasaki bought for a short commute into the centre of our closest town for a short term contract.  That placement actually stopped early, so in principle I should be looking to lose the ER6 but that hasn’t happened yet.

The arguments go like this: tax and insurance are already paid and it is the height of summer: a small bike is a useful thing to have.  I haven’t modified it at all and it doesn’t use much petrol and since having the 125 learner, I haven’t just gone out for a blast after work and the 650 v-twin is a great bike to do that with.  But there are more serious reasons for having that particular bike.

Last weekend, I covered 410 miles in two days to see my friend Taliesin Nuin appear in The Tempest in the Botanical Gardens in Bath and return home again.

One of the very best things about the journey, apart from enjoying my motorcycle in reasonable weather on some amazingly clear roads on the highly comfortable Hayabusa, was the fact that the really difficult stretch down London Road in Bath has a motorcycle use bus lane.  The weather was warm and there are the frequent traffic lights and pedestrian crossings, but the fact I didn’t need to filter was a joy and allowed steady progression down the A4 during rush hour on Friday a joy without any stress.

Since Boris Johnson opened the bus lanes in London to motorcycles, there have been lobbyists on both sides of the fence arguing whether or not it posses a greater risk for all road users to allow bikers to use the bus lanes.  From the 23rd January 2012 the results came in that one of the busiest cities in the world benefited from motorcyclists using bus lanes: I took part in those trials back in 2009 with my Bandit and in 2010 with the Hayabusa.  Both times, the weather was pouring with rain and the bus lanes allowed me to make easy progress with no filtering.

Bath is not the only city in the UK to allow the inclusion of Motorcycles: Colchester opened up its busiest route along London Road back in 2009.  As someone reasonably local, this has meant it is easier for me to get to Colchester’s railway station than it is to Ipswich’s (a difference of 18 miles in journey length).  This is especially so in the summer when the heat when wearing leathers makes riding and stopping in town centres unpleasant on a larger motorcycle.

This is bringing me back to the 2nd bike – bear with me.

I live 3.2 miles from the centre of Ipswich.  I cannot ride a motorcycle into the centre of Ipswich from my home in Claydon without having to use some road which has at least a 60mph limit, and the shortest route, thanks to a bus lane, needs a bike capable of at least 70mph useless I want to be cut up on the busiest stretch of dual carriage way used by freight traffic.  Not one, trust me I have tried.  My journey length to the centre of Ipswich by motorcycle and car is a minimum of 7 miles and has at least 4 miles of 60mph roads.

In motorcycle terms this means at least a 650cc bike.  There are 250’s on the market but they aren’t really up to the job of ensuring I don’t get stuck behind a slow car which has a couple of lorries over taking it.

This is why I have an ER6 as well as the Hayabusa.

If the bus lane up Old Norwich road was open a 50cc scooter would have been perfect!  If the bus lane down London Road was opened up, a second bike would not be needed.

But the ER6 is a big bike without being as lovely as the Hayabusa.  It doesn’t have its brakes or let’s face it, its go.  It’s not as comfortable on a long ride and it doesn’t have the storage.  So I should lose the ER6… mmm.

It’s summer and I am doing more journeys with the bike.  Despite being showery, there haven’t really been any no bike days this summer in Suffolk.  But using the bike can lead to the “I wouldn’t trust myself on a bike like yours” conversations.

My bike doesn’t have ABS but it is a joy in the wet but more importantly it’s joy when taking part in a parade.

Indeed, my son and I took part in the Framlingham Gala, one of the bikes from Suffolk Advanced Motorcyclists (SAM), leading the parade on the 4th June.

This was a lovely experience although I was really pleased I had taken part in SAM’s dexterity and control days: this was definitely at walking pace and I hadn’t had any practice doing that with a pillion rider before.

The other great thing was wearing the flip-top helmet – while my son waved flags, I could smile and say hi to the crowd.

The picture doesn’t show Nigel’s red Triumph ST giving a red, white and blue front row 🙂

I remember learning to ride my motorcycle back in 2006 and all the literature on motorcycle accidents and how dangerous it was to be a rider. Then you pass your test and get your first big bike which you slowly and naturally develop your skills.  But that doesn’t really prepare you for riding long distances, coping with rush hour traffic or taking part in a parade.  You learn, but every ride is a learning experience.

The two things I always recall when riding are: I am in control of the bike and I have so many more options available to me than I would in a car.

Doing advanced riding has taught me what some of the, perhaps obvious, options are available to me on the bike.

If someone hasn’t seen me, and is pulling out to turn right in front of me, is sounding my horn the best option? Will that help or is the fact that the car behind me is 200 yards away mean I can just slow down or stop?  Should I go round their behind or the front (slowing down or speeding up)?

There’s no right or wrong answer, but the bike has options. When this recently happened to me, I did prevent the accident by sounding the horn but I had two other plans up my sleeve!

Having advanced riding techniques at my finger tips doesn’t mean I don’t make mistakes but it has equipped me with knowing how to get the most of the visibility I have on the bike and the available power (both to go and stop). That has certainly helped me get the most of my bikes.

Of course, taking part in a parade, everyone can see you and the horn and lights are a way of saying hi.

I’ve been a type 1 diabetic for a long time – I was diagnosed in the Silver Jubilee year, so do the math!

Figures matter: my life is spent watching blood sugar results and ensuring they fall between the magic 4-8mmol/l (72-144mg/dl) to give me a great chance of not developing serious complications from diabetes.  That doesn’t reduce the risk completely, just makes the risk as small as humanly possible.

When I was a little girl, a diet very much like the Atkins diet was prescribed to type 1s: low in carbohydrates high in protein, moderately high in fat.  Of course the 80s saw that evolve into the f-plan diet – high carbohydrates paired with high fibre – if high in fibre, the carbohydrates didn’t count.  Not great for the average diabetic – high doses of insulin required over long periods.

I’ve just been told that my cholesterol is high at 6.4mmol/l (I’m guessing 117mg/dl), so reduce diary (not difficult, I avoid fatty diary like the plague) and fried food.  Eat fish, not red meat.

Oh joy!

Two and a half years ago I took a snap shot of how our surfing habits had changed in the first two years of the recession.

Well. news hit two months ago of Yahoo losing the third spot – and obviously that was to youTube – Japanese Yahoo has also disappeared along with MSN.

But the real shot for me is the climb of Baidu replacing Wikipedia in the fifth spot.  Really Mr Wales, is this what the pleas have achieved?  Are people are going back to the traditional search engines?

There’s also the world’s favourite merchant on the number 10 spot replacing blogger.

Times, they are a changing…

If all is going well, there’s nothing unusual going on, diabetes can be  straightforward.

The continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion device (an insulin pump to you and me) makes this easier by stripping out the least configurable and predictable part of insulin replacement therapy – the long acting insulin.

Instead, your body receives a closer match to its needs by dripping, often tiny, amounts of short acting insulin through a temporary cannula.

Everything is geared so that the diabetic receives the insulin it needs regardless of whether or what they eat.

Obviously, diabetics need to eat: for this extra bolus of carbohydrate, a matching dose of insulin must be given.  “Simples”.  Well, actually there are many options, including a split bolus.  And the simple calculations then become much more complicated.

Over the first couple of weeks of pump therapy the diabetic needs to work out the appropriate doses.  This is often achieved by using charts and keeping records.

Or you work out your ratios (I love the Insulin Pumpers pages for this: these pages were a great help in getting my pump set up).  Work out your ratios, multiply them in your head and you have a basis for the levels of insulin doses and carbohydrate in-take.

This is great but let’s face it, the carbohydrate ratio is most useful when you’re hypo and mental arithmetic it’s your strong suit at that moment!  Or treating an under-bolus following a work meal!

So I wrote a set of tools (now available for android phones and tablets at Google’s Play Store) to help do the sums and provide alternatives.  I did these on the web so I have access to the tools where-ever I was in the world and whatever device I had to hand.  There’s a small charge for the work on publishing the app but further usage is free.

Please, let me know what you think.

I wrote the original pump tools back in 2002 as a JavaScript calculator.  As I moved into web service development, I ported the crude calculations library to a Java bean interface to a set of libraries.  I put a jsp front end to collect data from the user.

This is great and one of the reasons I got a domain for my site: I can book mark these pages and use them on any device that has a browser.  I use a simple CSS schema to present the information well but keep costs down – there are no graphics on these pages either – typical download size is less than 7kB.

So how did I port this app – I didn’t.  Android allows you to link to content on the web, so that’s what my app is.  First time round, this took two days and the majority of that was spent scripting and testing and improving the user interface (hopefully).  Now I now what I’m doing, publishing an application should take much less time :-).

Ideally, the pump tools would work off your phone without the need for an internet connection.  How am I going to do that and allow the small footprint it currently enjoys?

 Many of our earliest written records focused on economic transactions and approved histories.

Personal records didn’t begin to be treasured until paper and school made such enterprises easy, perhaps the best known diary and letters were kept by Samuel Pepys in 17th century London.

Letters were being sent between individuals during these times: often to make arrangements or to make agreements in business but also the personal correspondence between family and friends.  The penny post in 1840 made this as easy possible but the first postal service in the UK relied on the receiver paying the delivery service… unwanted mail just didn’t get get revenue hence wasn’t an issue.

When the telegraph came in the 19th century, many heralded that as the end of the humble letter.  But many still sent personal letters well beyond the introduction of the telephone.  Email did end many business letters but having invaded the work place, many do not wish to use email outside of work hours, especially for short messages.  Text messages seem to fill the personal gap – dedicated, personal and easy to send.

The film, the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, featured a major contender to the personal correspondence: the blog.  As Judy Dench’s character leaves England and her family for India, she doesn’t promise to write or email but they can follow her on her blog.

And blog she does, providing her audience with an entry a day – that’s a lot of paper and stamps.  Like a postal letter, the response is not required though it is always welcome.

The killer of the personal letter was not email, it’s going to be the blog.