Thinking of giving up...

[Blapper]

Rant on:

I have been out on t' bike today and am really thinking of giving up riding forever. The road surfaces are lethal - there's barely a corner I can go round without worrying if I'm going to make it through and there are massive potholes every few hundred yards which really make my forks clunk. It really is that bad. Add a handfull of car driving tossers to suck the last bit of joy out of riding. Thankfully my nicely serviced brakes did the business. Almost a stoppy.

Grrr!

Rant off. Sorry.

[Dave-the-rave]

I feel ya mate, it's pretty bad. Try doing what a lot of people are doing...stick your fingers in your ears, sing tra la la la laaa, and hope Theresa May will fix everything including the roads.

[Bibio]

sounds like you need a holiday to scotland m8. its biking heaven up here. a population of around 6million and most of them stay in the central belt between glasgow and edinburgh. pretty much well maintained roads and go past inverness and they are empty. even the borders roads are quiet.

if you can suffer the trudge up through england i can guarantee you will love it.

Originally Posted by Bibio

sounds like you need a holiday to scotland m8. its biking heaven up here. a population of around 6million and most of them stay in the central belt between glasgow and edinburgh. pretty much well maintained roads and go past inverness and they are empty. even the borders roads are quiet.

if you can suffer the trudge up through england i can guarantee you will love it.

Agreed. Have a day out somewhere, how about Beachy Head? Not far from you and some lovely roads and views I hear.

[NTECUK]

Book a track day.

[SV650rules]

Originally Posted by Bibio

sounds like you need a holiday to scotland m8. its biking heaven up here. a population of around 6million and most of them stay in the central belt between glasgow and edinburgh. pretty much well maintained roads and go past inverness and they are empty. even the borders roads are quiet.

if you can suffer the trudge up through england i can guarantee you will love it.

I have driven a car in Scotland quite a few times (but never been there on a motorbike) and you are right the roads are lovely, as is the scenery and the people, and the food (especially seafood) - its just the wee biters that put me off in summer on west side. Once outside the cities Scotland is a bikers paradise, the antidote to English road conditions.

[Dave-the-rave]

Some good suggestions. Much better than keeping the roads in good order.

[Chris_SVS]

Definitely do Scotland. I was over quite a lot the last time I owned a bike ('09/'10/'11) and it's hard to beat, NI has some fantastic roads too and it's only a £40 ferry away

[Blapper]

Yeah, I 'did' Scotland for a week in early May - blistering sunny days - I couldn't believe my luck and it was a week or two before the midges ramped up! I love the highlands, but blimey that's a long way to go to get a decent ride!

France has even better roads but it's full of Frenchies... LOL!

[Red Herring]

If you're looking to ride a bike on quiet smooth roads then the South East probably isn't the best place to try and do so. As you say a lot of the roads down here are starting to show the consequences of the heavy traffic they carry and the lack of investment in them, and that same weight of traffic is also leading to a general dumbing down amongst motorists who just sit in a procession and generally switch off to anything beyond the car at the end of their bonnet.

Personally I regard these "hazards" as just part of the challenge of motorcycling and I don't have the slightest problem riding around potholes, gravel, and frustrated idiots. If you're not prepared to deal with these you either need to move to Spain of restrict yourself to track days, and even then you still come across the odd plonker.......