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Following on from the "Fastest" and "Longest" threads...

What is your slowest most gruelling journey, and what is your most embarrassingly short one?

I use to kit up and ride 80 yards to my mates house (I was young then) but it was enough distance to annoy the neighbours and pop a wheelie.

My most gruelling / slow journey was one winter in the 80's.
While I was oblivious at work, it snowed... lots!
I decided to ride home for the fun of it (what a plonker!)
It didnt start well, as the choke knob on my Superdream was frozen up, so I had to nip into work for a cup of hot water. Got the bike started and off I went. 10 minute later and the choke lever was now frozen full on, the bike stalling lots unless I kept the throttle wide open. Fortunately I found a garage with hot water and thawed it out again. 3 hours later I completed the 4 mile journey home, having fallen off more times than I could count (but broke nothing on me or the bike).

Riding in the snow wasnt too bad, but the stopping and starting was a nightmare and the traffic was horrendous. I hadnt thought it through properly, if I had I would have realised that filtering was out of the equation.

The worst was the next day at work when a colleague who lived near me told of his walk home, which was half the time it took me, and he had joined in with a massive snowball fight on the way.

I vowed never again to ride in heavy snow.

Don't ask Ricey about his shortest... he's usually fallen off before the end of his road.

I think one of my worst was the winter of 2001, maybe 2002, again in snow. A guy I worked with had taken his car in for a service and I volunteered to give him a lift home. He lived a couple of miles the other side of me from work, but a pretty straight run.

At that time of day there was no snow.

By 3:30 in the afternoon it was coming down thick and fast. At 4:00 it was laying like a postcard scene. We abandoned ship early to try and beat the traffic. Just like everyone else.

The eight mile (at most) journey took two hours. However it was all good natured, no-one got nasty, the driving (slow as it was) was well-mannered with people letting each other in/out. I think everyone just decided it was going to be one of those journeys and it wasn't to be stressed about. Quite surprising really.

Shortest! about 3 yards, 1980 TT, douglas prom, whilst trying to impress some females sitting on the prom wall, returned to my trusty z650, fired it up, much blipping of throttle(piper exhaust), a quick look round, plenty of space for a quick u turn before that tram is on me, off I go, 2 3rds of a circle later I'm on the floor, the horse drawn tram desperatly trying to stop,eventually the horse ended up straddling my bike I'd only left the steering lock on I can still hear the howls of laughter from those females What a tw@t I was when I was 20.

Steve

5 hrs Belfast to Dublin (100mls) ... on a push bike
3 hrs to do what would normally be a 20min run in a car (snow in the mid 90's) .. .. Completely lost the plot near home when the guy at the front of a queue on a particularly slippery uphill stretch got out and started shoving bits of cardboard under the rear wheels of his front wheel drive car in an apparent effort to gain traction

Anyone remember (was it ) 1981? The big freeze up of all time.
The thaw set in after a week and I was fed up walking to work , must have been at least an hour each way, fired up the MZ ,and it took me well over an hour including dropping it about 4 times
Nigel B

nab 301 wrote: Anyone remember (was it ) 1981? The big freeze up of all time.
Nigel B

Vividly - I was a student in Bristol and it was never more than -9C for three weeks, during which time the bike sat outside the flat - no idea how the battery didn't freeze up.

Fun while it lasted though. Went everywhere in hiking boots. Lit one bar of the gas fire in the flat. Tobogganed down the streets on tea trays borrowed from the kitchens. Someone got back to their first floor flat to find it on the ground floor, along with a few hundred gallons of water. The mains had burst and over loaded the floor. Another mate was snowed in at home, got back after the thaw and the library charged him 3 weeks fines for overdue books.

JamesL wrote:

nab 301 wrote: Anyone remember (was it ) 1981? The big freeze up of all time.
Nigel B

Someone got back to their first floor flat to find it on the ground floor, along with a few hundred gallons of water. The mains had burst and over loaded the floor. .

Yeah, plumbers became millionaires overnight......