Improvement? or Liability?

Both bike and car manufacturers are guilty.

They 'improve' vehicles all the time, but to my mind, the vehicles are not necessarily better for it.
Take the Honda range. Honda get a good idea and produce a motorcycle that's the best there is at the time - easy to ride, great fun, and with as much power as you realistically need on today's roads.
Then they 'improve' it, and what you end up with is a bike that, yes, is superior technically, but nowhere near as much fun to ride.
They did it with the VFR750. An absolutly brilliant bike to ride. Until they turned it into the VFR800. Superior technically - and as bland as f***.
The Honda Hornet, probably my favourite bike of all time, was fast, at times a little unstable, indisputably quirky, and responsible for thousands of insane grins on riders' faces.
This is now replaced by the CB650F, which for my sins, I bought.

It certainly outperforms the old Hornet in most respects, but I find it bland and uninspiring.

But my biggest gripe is with technical advancement. They are gradually whittling away at the skills required to drive or ride these modern vehicles. It started with indicators - no longer did you have to learn how to manage a motorcycle with one hand whilst using the other to signal your intentions. Then came electric start, ABS etc. etc. Now you no longer have to know how to pull a bike back on compression and deliver that swift sharp jab to get it going, and your bike makes decisions for you as to whether you're braking too hard or not. When I started riding, if you made a mistake and fell over, you learned damned quick never to make the same mistake again, and by doing so, you gained a greater knowledge of the physics involved in riding a bike, and an acute awareness of road conditions etc.

I can hear you all now yelling safety, safety............yes, I'll grant you that but.................

We now are looking at cars that drive themselves, bikes that can't topple over, and where will it all end? My concern is, vehicles can fail mechanically, electrically, electronically and if we're all relying on our vehicles to perform for us, what happens when something goes wrong? Who will have the knowledge and skill to cope with an emergency situation?

Now the use of satnavs is set to become part of the driving test. It has been shown more than once that people rely on their satnavs at the expense of correctly reading road signs. There's an inherent danger in too much technology, it seems to me.

Book review - Company of Liars - Karen Maitland

I've been a bit lax lately with doing book reviews. It's not that I haven't been reading, quite the opposite in fact. It's more that what I've been reading would have very limited appeal to the folks who read this blog.

Enough! Back to this tome. This is a book which is hard to categorise. Set during the plague of 1349, which decimated the English population, it's part historical novel, part fantasy. It resembles, in its concept, The Canterbury Tales, in as much as it concerns a group of people thrown together by circumstance, and each with a tale to tell.

Whereas the travellers in Marlowe's book join forces with the intention of a pilgrimage to Canterbury, and they pass their time be story-telling, these nine travellers are all trying to escape the plague which is quickly working its' way up from the South of England.

As they journey on, the reasons for their travelling begin to be revealed, by the help of a fey girl who reads runes. The stories that emerge often prove that back then, people were no different to people now in a lot of respects.

The stories are sometimes gruesome, often sad. Death and sorrow stalk their journey. Told from the point of view of Camelot, a seller of holy relics, the book ends with a totally unforseen twist - unforseen, but hinted at during one encounter.

It's well written and fast paced, and to be honest, I found it difficult to put down, reading it cover to cover in just 3 days, even though it is a tome of over 500 pages.

Well worth seeking out
5/5

This new bike of mine....

Some people will know that, for reasons beyond my control, I had to part with my last Hornet a year ago. I've spent a year riding a CB500 (actually a nice bike - for an A2 licence holder)
For the past 3 months, I've been the owner of a CB650F

Hmmmm..........................it sure as hell ain't a Hornet

It's a good bike, it's competent, handles well, has better fuel consumption (typically 60-65 mpg). I like the looks..............so why don't I like the bike?

Simply that - it ain't a Hornet.

I don't get that buzz when I push it out of the garage in the morning.
I don't get that ear-to-ear grin when I'm chucking it through the twisties.

It's a Honda, it's a brilliant bike. It's reliable. It does what it says on the tin

It's souless AND IT AIN'T A HORNET