10 things we hate about biking
Motorcycling is great, but it can also be incredibly annoying. Here are ten subjects of biking we like to avoid
British weather
Snow in April and sunburn in November? Oh yes. If the forecast says rain, you don’t bother making any plans and end up spending the day tightening your chain while the rest of the nation goes lobster in a freak heat wave. If the forecast says sun you get just far away enough from your house to guarantee that you will be utterly soaked when the inevitable cyclone comes through. That’s a full seven hours’ of cleaning buggered up in two minutes. Obviously you didn’t bring any waterproofs this morning and now you can’t feel your fingers because it’s 6 degrees and dropping
Biker meets
The whole point of having a bike is to get out there and ride the bloody thing, be individual, improve your skills and feel like you can do whatever you want, whenever you feel like it. You know this, so why are you drawn like a moth to a flame to your local bike meet? As you arrive that there’ll be 20 riders with the same bike as you, except theirs are all better finished and you’ll never be able to afford the Akrapovic system he’s got. Then some random bastard starts jawing off at you about you’re riding all wrong and all you did was pull into the carpark. And you get done for doing 44mph in a 40 zone on the way home.
Being beaten by a car
You might have 160bhp at the wheel, super sticky tyres and fast group stickers plastered across your headlight. But he has four wheel drive, huge brakes, a meeting to get to and 340bhp. All of which add up to a package that will make mincemeat out of you if you cissy around. While you’re hard on the brakes on the way into a roundabout he will be turning up Girls Aloud with one hand and sending rudey texts to his secretary with the other, all the while filling your mirrors and making you look like a numpty. Best let him pass and look down at the other side of the bike for that ‘problem’...
Biker nods
Who nods first, you or him? And who cares anyway? If everyone nodded at everyone then we would all get along a whole lot better. You have to decide whether to nod or not nod depending on what he’s riding and how you’re feeling. He’s riding a bike clearly inferior to yours but you’re feeling kind so give him the sideways head-tilt that’s currently favoured. And he doesn’t nod back – the bastard! Two miles later and you’re still swearing inside your helmet. You will never nod to anyone again.
Disc locks
Helmet on, gloves on, key in, pull away... and fall off. In front of five people. You must either now pretend it didn’t happen or take a bow for being a complete and utter penis. Now you’ve got a broken clutch lever, a smashed mirror and a scratched fairing panel. Oh, and the disc lock’s smashed your front mudguard. Total bill: £586. How could you forget? You could use one of those coiled-string things that attaches to your handlebars to remind you of its presence, but only girls and city wankers need those. When it’s not causing you to topple over it sits like a lump of lead on your side. Then you return to your bike and someone just nicked the cursed thing anyway. Gnrghh!
Continue for the five more biking annoyances
Discuss this story
13 When you get it wrong whilst pretending to be #46, you know the moment as the bikes sliding down the road towards the kurb and lamp post and you’re praying it stops before ‘’’’’’’’ oh shit too late,  looks like I’ll be getting the 2011 model then.
Posted: 08/12/2010 at 21:26
Beaten by a car? once i was on an rxs100 and he was in a wrx subarau, he got away from me after 80mph. had him on the exit of the roundabout tho. oh damn i've just done a #9!
Posted: 14/12/2010 at 14:10
beaten by a car,,,,,,,,,, never in my Hayabusa 1300
Posted: 11/02/2011 at 02:03
Ooohh yes, the old disc lock trick.
Done it twice now. (And now realise why my mudguard had suspiciously broke).
I hate the nobbers who block you from filtering on purpose. That's right, you double chin in front of me, pretending not to look in your mirrors and no doubt will tell your mates that filetering is illegal and dangerous.
Posted: 04/08/2011 at 14:45
Carrying all the crap around when you've arrived. The helmet, the back protector, the gloves, your leather jacket because it's 100 degrees in the shade, and your rain gear because you know it will rain later and there is nowhere on your sportsbike to put it. And if you left it on the bike, it would be stolen.
The alternative is to have a foul top box or hard panniers, but then your bike looks grim and you wouldn't dare take it anywhere for the shame of being seen on it.
Fact is, being dressed correctly for biking means that you are dressed incorrectly and uncomfortably the moment you get off it.
Posted: 17/09/2011 at 11:27
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