Over the last week or so, I've been cutting back my hedges which are up to 4mtrs high & to all 4 sides of the house.
I tape up one of the handle controls so I can use my hedge trimmer with one hand in places - I know the dangers involved but that fact, or any law - would not stop me from doing what I have to do, and I am prepared to accept whatever consequences may come from my actions.
When I take my 6 stone Rhodesian Ridgeback out 7 days a week. he is always off the lead - in fact I never take it with me, but I am 100% in control of the dog where other people or animals are concerned.
When I lived on the Bodmin Moor, I used to regularly ride my 500cc motorsickle in shorts, T shirt and no helmet in the knowledge that I was breaking the law of the land.
I am totally against the ban on smoking in pubs - life-long smokers having to puff away outside like 2nd class citizens - perhaps drinking in pubs should be banned for all the damage that it can (and does) cause in towns and cities the world over.
So no, the wearing of Leathers should not be compulsory IMO.
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I too shudder when I consider the risks I used to take on motorbikes, riding without helmet before they became compulsory and leathers but whilst I have some scars from coming off I hate this nanny state and I see no point in people being forced to wear leathers and just hope that people are sensible enough to look out for themselves.
Just to show the folly of trying to legislate for everything.
Now Wheels said to ban any form of exercise other than running on grass or swimming in a pool. Both under supervision, of course, .......
The only time I ever ended up in hospital with broken bones was swimming in a pool ( under supervision of two lifeguards ) when a guy dived in deep from the side and surfacing again at speed with his head breaking three of my ribs.....a pure accident which resulted in me being off work for six weeks.
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perro I envy you for your 500cc Bodmin experience!
What common sense you have!
I believe everyone should have the right to weigh up the pleasure gained against the risk of harming themselves, in anything they do.
Not being able to feel the wind in my hair resulted in me moving to the Fen!
Not quite the same thing :)
I've had to get up early to post on here this morning as IE is STILL hanging all day despite me reading it is cured and all threads about it being locked:(
Pat
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>>>Not being able to feel the wind in my hair resulted in me moving to the Fen<<<
Ah! you must know Grantchester meadow then Pat ~
www.ukstudentlife.com/Travel/Tours/England/Grantch...m
I would never ride a motorbike on 'the open road' as such, but the area of Bodmin Moor I rode was more or less traffic free most of the time - quite near to the Jamaica Inn.
I'm also not able to access HJ via IE, but no problems with opera at all at all :)
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I certainly do Perro! although I'm a little further North.
I can also use this website perfectly at 03.30 as usual, despite it feezing ALL day yesterday.
Again there is a locked post about it, but with new posts on so I am confused to say the least:(
Just to be 'on topic' there is a lane going deep into the Fen past our house and trips in shorts and no helmet, on a GS1400 are wonderful!!
Pat
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>>>on a GS1400 are wonderful!!<<<
So ... I have this image of you zooming down the lane 'on a shredder'?
www.comparestoreprices.co.uk/garden-shredders/blac...p
(haha!) Some machine though - now I envy you! + the East has had a luvly summer whereas here it has been wet, wet, wet, - good name for a group! and speaking of groups, that's how I came by Grantchester Meadow - the title of a tune by some psychedelic band from back in the mists of time.
I would strongly recommend you download opera Pat, I know the way you feel about it, but it'll just sit there on your desktop, not affecting anything on your computer, you might even grow to like it - like me!
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"......the title of a tune by some psychedelic band from back in the mists of time."
There was a 2005 song called Grantchester Meadow by Candlelight, whoever they may be - but I suspect you're thinking of Pink Floyd.
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>>>but I suspect you're thinking of Pink Floyd.<<<
That's right Dipstick - I've been a BIG fan of said band for over 40 years now and have every album they produced - 50% of the original line-up have died now alas :(
I shall check out Candlelight on youtube :)
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Well, shows how much I know about music post 1969. Grantchester Meadow is the name of the 2005 group, and Candelight is the track.
In case you care.
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Nope! can't find any group by that name Dipstick, I found this though - The mellow tones of a 350 V8 ... now *that's* music!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcwhzP06g_U
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www.amazon.com/Candlelight/dp/B000TPIEEA
Positively psychedelic. Far out man, which is fine if you are a spaced out hippy, chick or otherwise, but not so useful for those of us that are still hep cats. How very square.
Sorry. This is WAY off topic. Please do moderate, daddy-o.
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>>>www.amazon.com/Candlelight/dp/B000TPIEEA<<<
Wow! The background artwork is straight out of 'The Summer of Love'
Getting back to the OP, in 68 i.e before crash helmets became compulsory, I used to wear a sort of corduroy cap just like Donovan used to wear (whoever he is!)
I used to ride a Lambretta GT 200, followed by an SX 200 onto which I fitted a carb off the GP 225 ... it never did run right after that, so I part ex'd it for a Suzuki GT250 followed by a Honda 550/4 followed by a Honda CX500 custom (U.S.)
Personally. I found scooters to be absolutely lethal in wet weather, and its a wonder I'm still here to tell the tale!
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I too started on scooters, a Lambo LD 150 then moved to an Li 150. (after that it was a proper ducati bike)
For the lambo I wore a natty white peaked open faced helmet, with a parka.
The brakes were rubbish, the handling was appalling and the silly little tyres absolutely shocking in the wet. I didn't care i was young and invincible.
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>>> - I've been a BIG fan of said band for over 40 years now and have every album they produced <<<<<
You'll appreciate all 9 parts of Shine On You Crazy Diamond then :)
Absolutely perfect music to drive a lorry to in the wee small hours!
Are we starting a Mods v Rockers twist to this becaus Rockers ( proper bikers!) wear leather, Mods (scooterists) wear Parkas.
I once got lectured at the railway crossing gates in Oakham for riding an Aerial Leader in a yellow kaftan, by a motorbike copper.............he had no sense of fun at all!
Pat
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>>>You'll appreciate all 9 parts of Shine On You Crazy Diamond then<<<
Eh? I make it 2.
I was neither mod nor rock really Pat, I suppose if anything I 'became' a Hippie for a short time, although I still am really (mentally :) ...I remember some awful mustard colour needle cord strides that I cut up and used to flare the leg bottoms of my Levi's, all set off with an army surplus greatcoat (hahaha!)
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>>>I too started on scooters, a Lambo LD 150 then moved to an Li 150<<<
The old LD/LI 150's must be worth a few bob these days!
I had an 'open faced' as well - orange :) + the parka of course.
>>>I didn't care i was young and invincible<<< Shine on! (you crazy diamond)
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Very easy to fall off a scooter when braking in wet weather. I had an LD150 for a while in mid 60's .
I then bought a brand new J125 Starstream on the 'never never 'on which I travelled from South London all over the country, Cornwall and Stratford ( on Avon) and Northumberland . Seriously bum numbing but all I could afford when I was that age...
Now don't laugh but my wet weather gear was ( seriously ) a policemans cape bought from the local surplus stores which smelled to high heaven of vulcanised rubber.
When worn over the army surplus haversack I used to carry my gear in I must have looked like Quasimodo.... or if the wind got under it a large vampire bat .
So I then graduated to bikes and bought a Bonneville for £90 in around 1969 ... but 6 months later it died on the old A1 after pumping its life blood ( oil ) all over my boots and seizing up.
I sold it for spares for £25 to a dealer in Lincoln.Nearly broke my heart losing £65 like that when I suppose I was on around £12 a week.
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Never rode a Vespa, but various Lambrettas. The only scooter I actually owned was a rough Zundapp Bella. 200cc I think. It had an electric starter that always worked, but the gear linkage or box had been abused by a previous owner, making gear selection, or anyway selection of the gear you wanted and no other, a noisy hit-or-miss nightmare, and I didn't improve them. It was supposed to be able to do 70 but fortunately it couldn't.
Scootering did various things as well as freezing your gonads off and making your hands numb. It made them strong and calloused too, and ensured that you never ever had clean nails, not that I often had clean nails anyway or often do to this day. Shuffling paper, let alone grovelling under floorboards and fitting new spotlights in the sitting room, which I have just been doing, make you just as filthy.
The only other activity that changed me physically as much as riding a scooter was being a building labourer. After a couple of months of that my fingers had become sausage-like to my gaze and looked capable of strangling a sheep.
To my horror I began to notice that my responses, attitudes and views were also becoming hulking, insensitive and not all that brilliant. Not sure they have ever recovered.
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changed me physically as much as riding a scooter
Sorry to be boring, but I have just remembered that 20 or 25 years ago I laid a quite large second-hand tongue-and-groove mahogany parquet floor upstairs. Although it felt at the time as if it was killing me quite quickly, by the end of the operation I could get into all sorts of old pairs of jeans and could skip up six flights of stairs like a nipper.
No longer alas. But I've never been as porky again as I was in my thirties, wearing suits and having an expense account.
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>>> let alone grovelling under floorboards and fitting new spotlights in the sitting room,<<<
Were you expecting a visit from the CIA then Lud?
I couldn't place the Zundapp, but I remember it now - sounds more like a motorsickle than a scooter ~
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-or0CjIbrBY
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Last week I was cycling (pedal) home from work when I got knocked off my bike by a pedestrian no less! He decided not to use the two things either side of his nose...
Anyway, I was doing no more than 15mph at the time and now have -
broken toe
badly bruised foot
no skin from shin to kneecap
skint fingers (was wearing gloves)
bruised arm
bruised thigh
broken rib
I am still limping and on 500mg painkillers.
All the above was at 15mph, I just can't believe anyone would consider doing 60mph wearing shorts and t shirt! The thought of sliding across tarmac at that speed.... sends a shiver down my (very painful) back!
But each to their own!
However much as I hate Govt interference, I do believe there are certain rules that have been introduced for all our benefits eg. seat belt, smoking bans etc.
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500mg painkillers.
I thought you sweaties were tough! you wimp.
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I thought you sweaties were tough! you wimp
I never told you how the tarmac faired.......
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But surely we should have the right to chose whether to protect ourselves or not.
Life is boring without risk.
Pat
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Life is boring without risk.
You are right Pat...but there's times when that's acceptable and times when it's not. I know we all have different standards, but surely there has to be a 'norm' in there somewhere.
For example; motorcycle racing is dangerous. I'd liken it to mountaineering, extreme potholing or whatever. If people want to do it and get a rush from, it, good luck to them. If it all goes wrong and the rest of us have to cough up for it in medical care, insurance claims or similar, then to me, that's acceptable.
However, if someone fancies doing the commute to work in the summer on a m/c in shorts and a t-shirt....the I do object to paying for his NHS treatment and insurance claim etc... because IMO that's just plain stupid.
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I mostly wore leathers on a motorcycle, and of course the oblgatory helmet. But on the local "Mountain" I regularly descend at 50mph+ on my bicycle wearing just shorts and jersey and I never bother with a helmet.
No logic in that at all, but I wouldn't do it any other way. And I have a cigarette when I get home.
Viva freedom.
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Tee Hee RR....me too ! I've even been known to get "big air" on my tread-iron or on skis with a stogie clamped in my jaws. Nothing to be proud of I know but............
;-)
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WP, you're absolutely right, but I'm sure the reason there is so little common sense about these days is because everyone has stopped having to think for themselves regarding danger.
If we're allowed to do it then it must be safe, and if we have a High Viz on we're invincible.
Pat
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but I'm sure the reason there is so little common sense about these days is >>because everyone has stopped having to think for themselves regarding danger. If we're allowed to do it then it must be safe and if we have a High Viz on we're invincible.
You are so right.
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Leathers by law? Nooooooooooo!!!!
Objecting to the potential consequences of choices made by someone else (ie riding in shorts or a t shirt) is the begining of the end of everything, as already said.
Making things compulsory can also bring out the law of unintended consequences...
For instance, man in compulsory leathers falls from motor cycle. The accident doesn't hurt him that much, but he winds up in hospital anyway. Why? Because he passed out with heat stroke as a result of being horribly over dressed for the prevailing warm weather.
Or a perhaps more pertinant example, compulsory seatbelts. Yes causualties among vehicle occupants dropped, but if my memory serves didn't pedestrian injuries increase?
So often now people claim rights without acknowledging any responsabilities.
As a motorcyclist I take responsibility for my own scar tissue, which I believe gives me to ride in shorts if I so choose.
Although only down the lane with PDA when the weathers nice ;)
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I rarely ride without at least a proper jacket these days. On the rare occasions when I do nip down to the shop wearing just jeans and T-shirt (NEVER shorts!) I am naturally more aware of my vulnerability and consequently ride in a more cautious manner. I don't do this deliberately it just happens.
Agree totally with Birdie's comments. The safer drivers feel in their own cage, the less likely they are to think of the safety of others; hence my admiration for Clarkson's "sharp spike" theory.
My own pet hate is full-face helmets; I find them restrictive, uncomfortable and claustrophobic, furthermore being a devotee of open-face lids I have no option but to slow down in heavy rain which can only be a good thing.
I have never (despite being a member) understood MAG's obsession with repealing the helmet law though. The only time I ever choose to ride without one is on the thankfully rare occasions when I am in a fellow biker's funeral procession, where the police generally have the good sense and courtesy to turn a blind eye. Even then I feel no compulsion to blast down the road at any high speed sans lid.
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