Tango

Heathen!

Here there's little tolerance for speeding, 5% from what I've seen. The fine and points depend largely on the speed limit and how much over the limit. From what I can find so far is that, if the limit is greater than 50kph, then anything less than 20kph over the limit would be €68 fine and 1 point deducted. If it's only 1 point, then it's reinstated after 6 months unless you commit another offence in that time. So, just a waiting game now! I'm fairly certain that I wasn't more than 20kph over the limit.

Fully expecting a speeding ticket to arrive in the post. We popped out in the car on Saturday morning to the supermarket. On the way there, just out of our village is a short stretch of dual carriageway, where the speed limit rises from 90kph to 110kph. Normally I'm well within the limit, but on Saturday there were a couple of cars fucking about in front of me and an HGV just a bit ahead of them, so I pushed the speed up to about 120-130kph, just to get past them all before the end of the dual section. I was just getting past the truck, coming out of a long right-hander and I spotted a car ahead parked at the side of the road under some trees. Then spotted 2 figures dressed all in black stood by the car. I was already off the gas by this time, slowing for the 90kph limit, but saw that one of them had a hand-held speed gun! So, I don't know where he picked me up, but I could have been 20kph over the limit, depending on when he saw me. So, it's a waiting game now to see if we get an envelope through the post! If I do get something through I'll have to exchange my UK license for a French one, so that the points can be deducted, which is even more hassle! It would be my first points since 1983!

From my experience it ran quite hot. The fan would turn on and off all the time at speeds less than 40mph in the summer and that's an English summer, so at 30C+ over here I think that it would be on all the time. Otherwise it would be quite suited to the roads here, however, I think that my license wouldn't last as long!

The CB500X is a good little bike, but it's short of a few bhp for me and it's quite top-heavy for a not-very-heavy bike. I guess that's proof that a 30 min test ride is really not sufficient to make a good assessment of a bikes suitability. I would still have had my Speed Triple if I'd not moved over here, but my priorities for a bike have changed now, so I'd probably not get another.

When I was on holiday there I bought a luchador mask back for my youngest son as a joke......he loves it! He's 25 and it appeals to his sense of humour!

The old fellah that lived opposite our old house had a Tuono 1000 until he was in his mid 70's. Unfortunately his eyesight got so bad that he can't drive anymore.

I saw a documentary about that incident, it was absolutely shocking!

Ours is for E10, too!! Diesel is a bit cheaper.

Yes, sometimes you cannot put a price on something, the cost is not a factor in the benefit it gives. I had an R90/7 back in the day.

Not much has changed then. Still large amount of money missing from the donations made to the Grenfell appeal I think as well!

Back in my youth I had a mate that told me and the others that he was going to give up drinking beer when it got to 50p a pint! How we all laughed! Well, I think that after a budget beer did hit 50p a pint, so he stopped drinking...........for a whole week! Obviously we ripped the piss out of him when he came back to the pub! But, unleaded has hit €1.63/litre at our local supermarket and I'd not be surprised to see it hit €2/litre by Christmas. My bike seems to have settled at 3.1L/100km, so I'm not too worried, but I'm guessing that some will be starting to feel the pinch. The government is even talking about issuing fuel vouchers for people on low incomes! Car engine sizes seem to be getting smaller, so I expect that there will be a move from the bike manufacturers to reduce the number of higher capacity bikes?

With gas prices going up the way they are at the moment do you not notice the difference between your fill-ups? If 1000cc+ bikes disappeared from the market, would that have a big effect on you?

Is that what attracted you to the bike in the first place, Pete?

Watching fuel prices rising almost daily got me wondering about the future of high capacity/High powered bikes. The new Honda NT1100 "only" puts out 100bhp, which is being met with disgust from the motorcycle press from what I've seen so far. But is this a move by Honda to start really working on managing their range of bikes for the future. Focusing more on fuel consumption and stepping away from the BHP "arms race"? I also saw that Kawasaki's business plan is to go all electric by 2035. What's your thoughts and is there a cut-off point with fuel prices where you'd seriously think about getting a bike based on its consumption figures rather than any other aspect?

Why the font used is so important!

We had been out for a bike ride and stopped off at our usual burger van for a coffee and the lady in there told us that she'd just heard that Marco Simoncelli had been killed. Couldn't believe it.

Possibly.

A lot of people that I know in the UK, including my mum and eldest son, have had real stinking colds. It seems to be doing the rounds at the moment. Seems like the winter norovirus is starting to appear in significant numbers here now.

Yeah, his stuff is iconic.

We still have to mask up when going into shops or cafés, etc. I do it automatically now, don't even think about it anymore.

The Shuttle Challenger disaster. I heard it on the car radio as I was driving round the M25 near Lakeside. It was odd too, because I very rarely listened to the radio in the car as I mainly listened to cassettes back then. I just decided that I'd put the radio on that day.