From Newsgroup: uk.rec.motorcycles

Into central London and back.

It's been a while since I've done that. GS is a pretty good bike to do
it on, at least without the panniers on.

I left around 11am, hoping for a reduced amount of traffic. Indeed there
was, I don't think I've ever seen so much tarmac between cars on the M4
or in town.

Pretty much no filtering to be done anymore, it's just wall to wall
speed cameras, rear facing, many of them average. That bit's not fun.

Crazy low limits in places and tons of 20mph as well.

It was a nice day though and definitely still more enjoyable than the train/tube or car.

Couldn't find any street parking near where I was going (Nepal embassy
in Kensington), so I parked in an NCP. Stupid ANPR system, no actual
people around and I couldn't get the barrier to lift so I rode around it.

A bit trickier to get out again but ultimately I ended up not paying.

One more piece of paperwork done towards The Big Adventure, fewerless
than 10 weeks to go.
--
/Simon
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From Newsgroup: uk.rec.motorcycles

Simon Wilson <siwilson@nodamnspamn.hotmail.com> wrote:

Into central London and back.

[snip]

Couldn't find any street parking near where I was going (Nepal embassy
in Kensington), so I parked in an NCP. Stupid ANPR system, no actual
people around and I couldn't get the barrier to lift so I rode around it.

A bit trickier to get out again but ultimately I ended up not paying.

I confess (maybe this should be on fesshole) to using a handy hunk
of metal at a certain car park I frequented to trigger the inductive
loop sensor for the ticket machine at the entrance so I could exit a
couple of minutes later showing I had just briefly entered and exited.
Nowadays with cameras everywhere it probably wouldn't work, but in
1980 ANPR was nothing less than science fiction.

One more piece of paperwork done towards The Big Adventure, fewerless
than 10 weeks to go.

Envious.

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From Newsgroup: uk.rec.motorcycles

Simon Wilson <siwilson@nodamnspamn.hotmail.com> wrote in news:mff774Fmdn3U1@mid.individual.net:

Into central London and back.

It's been a while since I've done that. GS is a pretty good bike to do
it on, at least without the panniers on.

I left around 11am, hoping for a reduced amount of traffic. Indeed
there was, I don't think I've ever seen so much tarmac between cars on
the M4 or in town.

Pretty much no filtering to be done anymore, it's just wall to wall
speed cameras, rear facing, many of them average. That bit's not fun.

Crazy low limits in places and tons of 20mph as well.

It was a nice day though and definitely still more enjoyable than the train/tube or car.

Couldn't find any street parking near where I was going (Nepal embassy
in Kensington), so I parked in an NCP. Stupid ANPR system, no actual
people around and I couldn't get the barrier to lift so I rode around
it.

A bit trickier to get out again but ultimately I ended up not paying.

One more piece of paperwork done towards The Big Adventure, fewerless
than 10 weeks to go.

you did well to ride to London on a GS, park for a while and ride home
on said GS

I rode around a toll barrier in Spain in May. The scanner did not
register my toll tag. Set off loads of alarms but didn't get arrested
during the rest of the trip. Still no letter through the post demanding payment.

Hopefully NCP will be the same ...



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From Newsgroup: uk.rec.motorcycles

On 05/08/2025 23:07, wessie wrote:

you did well to ride to London on a GS, park for a while and ride home
on said GS

Yeah, there was a vid doing the rounds recently of a GS being pushed away.

It would have been a little tricky in this case as there was a steep,
tight helter-skelter route to get in and out, and multiple full width barriers.
--
/Simon
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From Newsgroup: uk.rec.motorcycles

On 05/08/2025 21:17, Simon Wilson wrote:

Couldn't find any street parking near where I was going (Nepal embassy
in Kensington), so I parked in an NCP. Stupid ANPR system, no actual
people around and I couldn't get the barrier to lift so I rode around it.

A bit trickier to get out again but ultimately I ended up not paying.

A car park that I often use in Newcastle[0] claims that motorcycles
should pay -u3 for any length stay, but have deliberately fitted barriers
that allow motorcycles to bypass them. The security guards don't seem to
mind, as long as leave the bike somewhere that's not causing an
obstruction. I can't imagine anyone ever pays.


[0] I'm slightly more paranoid about parking directly outside the office
these days. I'd got more confident about it again recently, then there
was an attempted theft a couple of weeks ago, so I'm avoiding it again.
--
Eddie eddie@deguello.org
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