Snow Fun

Blog Date - 18 January 2013

It's here, the snow is here in the Bolton area.  In fact if the BBC weather is to be believed we should be just on the edge of it, I'll watch the news later and see if the rest of the UK's getting it worse.  It looks pretty and I remember as a child this could be one of the most exciting events of the year!  Now as a bitter, twisted, cynical and curmudgeonly adult all I think about it not being able to ride the bike and the hassle/danger of driving.

I see on twitter a few folk bitching about how poorly prepared we are in the UK.  In Norway and Canada they get 20 foot drifts, a month of snow and frozen lakes, yet they continue just fine!  Hmmmm.  We get a few days and grind to a halt.  But that's the point, that's exactly the point.  If we KNEW we were to get a month of snow and ice EVERY  year we would prepare and cope just like our frozen friends.  We'd have snow snowploughs, ice tyres, 4 by 4's and even sidecar outfits for the most determined motorcyclists.  But we don't, we typically get a few days here, maybe a few more days there.

How many of those bitching have winter tyres fitted?  How many of them have their own stash of grit?  Who'd be prepared to splash out on a snow blower to clear the driveway and roads outside their home?  Not many, not for just a few days a year.  Our frozen friends do.  They also pay more taxes to fund the services the authorities provide to keep their country moving.  We'd soon start bitching if income tax went up to finance more snowploughs and gritters that only get used 5 times a year.

So shuddup and enjoy it!  Leave the bike at home, only use the car if you must, get your boots on, wrap up warm and go for a walk!  The snow covers all the litter, the cracked pavements, the dirty streets and the manky gardens.  For a day everything is coated in a crisp fresh clean white layer and even my home town looks quite lovely.  That's what I'm going to do.  Later I'm going to see if I can manufacture some makeshift stabilisers for the 125 using old pipe and 2 shopping trolley casters.  

If any kids pass by with stabilisers on their bike...SNOWTIME!!

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