Tango

All the "brits in France " Facebook groups are buzzing with this today. Obviously people that were planning on heading back to the UK to visit relatives for Christmas are a bit fucked now! Just as well we knocked the idea on the head because this was pretty much on the cards.

One of mine was the Triumph Speed Four. A real frankenstein of a bike. Based on the TT600, but trying to be a smaller Speed Triple. It didn't have much going for it in the looks department, but a 600cc 4-inline 100bhp engine in a 170kg bike, it went pretty good. Fully adjustable suspension and some pretty good brakes, so it handled and stopped well too. I had a lairy orange one for a while, hence my Tango forum name, and it was only the clip-on bars that I just couldn't live with and it had to be revved to get it really interesting. This was Mandy's one, which her daughter still has.

OK, another one to ponder and discuss. Which bikes do you think are fugly (only their mother could love them ), but are actually pretty decent bikes (looks aside)?

Nice one, Rich. I had a mate who did clubman racing back in the mid/late 70's. He had this frankenstein bike with a Greaves engine in it. He never won any races, but none of us could keep up with him out on the road!

I don't know why, but the Triumph X75 Hurricane has always appealed to me.

OK, so which bike, in your opinion, is/was the best looking? Forget about performance, handling, reliability, just the bike that you find the most aesthetically pleasing?

The trouble is that insurance companies are just lazy and will likely put it down as 50/50 to avoid them actually having to do any work!

I've had a dashcam in my cars for quite a few years now. The police took my dashcam once, when I witnessed a double fatality crash to use the footage as evidence. Even that didn't look so bad on the dashcam, but it was horrific without the distorted view of the camera.

She was on the main road and he pulled out in front of her from a side road, so I can't see what his argument is! The wide angle on these dashcams make things look farther away than they actually are, so she was closer to the junction when he pulled out than it looks. Yep, being bikers you'd be more prepared for that to happen and would probably have adjusted your speed and road position already, but she did well really. If she'd gone straight into the side of him things could have been a lot worse.

I'd have @MooN Tiger 800 or maybe @boboneleg T7. Sorry @Buckster but the Harley really doesn't do it for me and yeah, I know that I've only got a CB500X!

She has to get out of the car at her works security barrier every morning and walk around to swipe her badge and then run back round and get back into the car when the barrier opens! We got a tag for the motorway tolls though. Even got an armband to use it when I'm on the bike if I need to use the toll roads.

Mandy still has her RHD car, but there are times when a LHD would be safer. We'll change the car eventually.

I nominate @Slowlycatchymonkey, our resident healthcare advisor and Spanish gravel trap explorer! Always entertaining.

I used to drink with some of the guys in the dodgy pub that people tended to leave alone, so we rarely got involved in any of the trouble.

There was a pub in the town that I lived in my teens/early 20's that used to have the police vans parked outside every Friday and Saturday night in readiness! The brewery closed it for a couple of months, knocked it all into one bar, carpeted it all and put nice seats in and renamed it to try to change its image............a complete waste of time and money! It was as bad as ever, but putting a pool table in there had just given people weapons to use during the usual weekend brawls!