FT204

Happy New Year!
And here's something to addle your fuzzy New Year heads...

"As I sit huddled in front of my laptop in my thermals, two woolly jumpers, a beany hat, scarf and 'Scrooge' fingerless gloves, the UK is just coming out of its first fortnight of winter trauma. Councils are whining about running out of road salt, commuters are complaining about trains delayed because of the wrong kind of snow, and students are keeping warm by setting light to riot vans. There's more snow and sub-zero temperatures forecast and it's not even Christmas yet...

They're not ideal conditions for riding motorcycles, and readers in Australia, South Africa and the southern and south-western states of the US will be smug and toasty as they hack around in the sunshine, but there's no excuse for British readers to feel down in the mouth and grumpy. Well, no more than normal.
Winter is, traditionally, the time for us to be spending time in the shed, garage or workshop, although when temperatures are hitting minus ten and below all over the British Isles, it's no wonder that people would rather be sat in front of the fire / telly / lapdancer than be in a bitterly cold workshop, fingertips freezing to any bare metal surface and losing the feeling from their extremities.
Ironically, it does seem, at this point in time, that the 2010-2011 winter is the time when we should all be pulling our fingers out to build some really special bikes for the 2011 riding season, as there's a number of events that are crying out for some extra-special trick builds..."

Read the rest of this Fighting Talk in the new issue, out now!