Coldgunner

Yeah I was utterly baffled as I tested the indicators before bringing the car home, they worked fine just a dead dash. Not gonna investigate it further as so far its no happened again.

2009 Mondeo, so probably very similar. Its quite a pleasant car to drive, it has the 2.0 turbo diesel and is a bit of a barge. But it really eats up the miles. Although its an auto, so not to my personal liking.

Bit of an awkward situation these past couple of weeks. Mum has been having issues with balance, dizziness etc for a few weeks and we've made the conscious decision as a family to ban her from driving in the meantime. We think we know why she's been getting these issues, she's been getting confused between two different, but very similar looking drugs for her diabetes, which we've hopefully resolved, but are giving her a couple of weeks to ensure she doesn't have a bad turn again. She's been very complicit and I've been taking her to places when she needs to go. I'm very confident that she'll be ok to drive again soon, but I'm glad she's temporaily handed in her keys. She's got doctors appointments coming up so hopefully after that we can be confident she can drive again. She still got her license but we felt as a family that she's best not driving till she's feeling better. We've not notified DVLA as we know she'll be back to normal soon. We have discussed the possibility that she may need to surrender her license eventually due to her eyesight. Its not nice to have to do but its for her safety, but she's been co-operative and if she needs anything one of us will go get it or drive her to get it. She's been driving for 50 years and not had a single accident in all that time. She's a very good driver in fact. She will get better now the mixup with the medication was found and her sugars should balance, but we're keeping an eye on things. This all came to a head when her car dashboard wasn't powering up when trying to leave Tesco and she had a hyper, getting herself into a right state. I had to go rescue her and drive the car back home without the dash working (indicators/lights etc were fine). None of the fuses had blown, and reconnecting the battery didn't help either. You know how I fixed it in the end? Thumped the top of the dashboard! Something is/was loose, but the problem hasn't come back.

Managed to squeeze a quick few miles before the heavens opened today, no photo's but did a couple of laps of the village. Even if I get 20 mins in at most, that's still better than 0 mins. What I like about the local roundy roundy routes is I don't need to bother taking much in the way of spares or tools. I'm generally <1hr walk from either mine or my mums. Waiting to see what the weather is like in the morning, looks like rain but might chance it.

Part of my plans also includes what's en-route too. For example, if I'm passing towns and villages there's nearly always a shop of cafe for bits. Double points if its a pub of course! My worry is parts or tools that I need and can't get.

Yeah, I've got an electric pump I shove in my bag that I forgot to mention and that's also true about food, I often forget but a couple of snacks is a good idea.

The guys who do longer (several hours) rides, what's your essential kit? I've been thinking about what I should be carrying and gotten this far, of course helmet goes without saying: Water (got 2 bottle cages fitted and 2 bottles) Spare inner tube Puncture repair kit Lights Multitool Phone Open ear headphones (I say open ear as I use bone conducting ones to allow me to hear traffic/surroundings). Power bank Coat (if rain is expected) GoPro (for lols) I'm trying to rationalise really what's necessary and what isn't. I know that if I'm not too far from home I can phone someone to come rescue me if needed. Am I overthinking what I need? If I'm just going local I'll pretty much carry only a multitool, phone and Open ear headphones. There's the temptation to drag along my DSLR but figured my phone is fine for any photography. Got a few mates up for a weekender next year and if we co-ordinate we can share some resources. Though not sure if we're roughing it or booking hotels.

TBH, when I saw the figures were cardboard cut-outs I thought "what a load of cheap sh..." Then I remembered that's perfectly on brand for Ivor! Of course they would be cardboard cutouts!!

I've honestly never seen that or heard of it happening to anyone on a bike. Genuinely quite surprised.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think a distinction is made between having "had a few" and being "actively" drunk while on a bike? i.e. if you're riding after a few pints safely, then you've got nothing to worry about. If you're drunk and causing an obvious danger to yourself/others, you'd get pulled?

I'm very good at limiting myself to one, to stay well within the limit (and my limit). Thankfully my friends understand and don't push me. I've even had non-alcoholic beer occasionally. The key is to plan ahead, if I'm heading into town knowing I want a drink, the car stays at home. Simple as that. At least living in a city, there's plenty of options for Taxi's and buses. I believe drink driving is more common in the stix from what I'm told. I think a huge part of that is the lack of public transport or taxi's willing to travel.

There was some 'interesting' opinions of drink driving back in the 60's. TBH I don't think our current rules are all that bad, it allows a little flexibility and for the vast majority of people a bottle of light beer isn't going to do much to impact their ability. https://www.bbc.co.uk/videos/cjqepvx4vn9o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_tqQYmgMQg

I stick to the old adage that you can't get caught speeding, if you don't speed. I'm not slow by any stretch, but I don't get intimidated by tailgaters and pricks. Never such as had a ticket, any points or anything. Clean license that I'm rather proud of. That said, the villages that go from 30 to 20 to 30 to 20 can get in the bin.

Agreed, sometimes I find I need a rest from railways. I always come back to them but sometimes I'm fatigued.

I'm completely unmotivated to get anything out to run. Went to my 16mm club at the weekend but didn't take anything to run myself, just couldn't be bothered.