Posted on June 3rd, 2008 by ray.
Categories: General Blog.

I’m back in a car, so I’m officially a “cager” again.

For the last few weeks we’ve just had the Focus as we sold the Honda Civic off, so I’ve been using my bike to get to work and back on. This was great for dodging the traffic jams, however a bit of a pain as it’s not really feasible to go to the gym on the way to work (I would need to take a change of work clothes, as well as my laptop and gym kit - whereas in a car I just drive in my gym kit and leave the lappy in the boot) and also it’s allot nicer in a car when there’s the typical British summer weather of dull skies and rain.

I always hear the “oh yeah, fair weather biker!” comments, but I freely admit to that. When I was younger I was out in all weather mainly as I never had a choice as the bike was all I had - however I really don’t see the point going out in the rain when you have a nice warm car instead. What’s it supposed to prove? That I can get wet? My bike is now a toy, not a commuting vehicle. I really don’t see the enjoyment tiding in the rain anyway as there’s going to be diesel and other crap washed in the roads, traction is going to be crap, your tyres will stay cold and the attention span and awareness that is already dangerously low in many ‘cagers’ is even worse in the rain where they can’t see properly from their windows steaming or wipers going manically or they’re nodding off from having their car heaters on too warm.

Saying that though, I won’t let the British weather spoil an lready planned event, such as the ride-out this weekend.

We picked up another Ford on Friday though (a Fiesta) to replace the old Civic, so now we can both tootle about in a car and my bike can stay for when I want to ride it rather than when I have to. As the bike is 20 years old, it’s dirt cheap to insure and run so not really any extra financial burden having a “third vehicle”

I still need to do more work on the bike, but due to the expense I’m postponing the replacement parts. I do need to finish the bodywork off though, but I have everything I need to do that and have already started. Just need to finish off the fibreglass repairs/re-enforcements and then finish filling the tank and sanding it all down (thanks to my black & decker mouse!). After that I’ll prime it all and somewhere I have a can of satin black spray paint to get it a half decent colour. It won’t be perfect, but good enough - and if I was really a perfectionist then there’s allot more I’d be doing.

As long as it rides well and doesn’t look too bad, then I’ll be happy.

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