As some of you may have read in another thread, I had the bike in the FJ Owners workshop for its 30,000 mile service yesterday. Originally I was expecting to be on my way by about 3 O’clock but it rattled on a bit and I didn’t get on my way until about ten past four and the sun was setting over the Cotswolds.
The journey was to take just over 3 hours taking the motorway route. However factoring in that I was now going to encounter rush hour traffic it was going to take longer. The M5 was busy but flowing freely until I got to the road works at the M42.
The lanes here were a bit narrow so filtering was going to be difficult but the traffic was moving at about 25mph ish so I was happy to sit with it. Tomtom came up with an alternative and faster route which took me off of the M42 and onto the A38. As I pulled off of the motorway the welcome sight of the two golden arches of a McDonalds greeted me. I was ready for a coffee and a quick snack and gave Melanie a call to give her a progress report. Melanie tells me that it’s very wintry at home and starting to snow, not settling “yet†just wet she says.
The A38 is a good fast road that I know well, I was impressed with the lights on the FJR, dipped beam (Philips Blue Vision Moto) was good enough for me to see far enough at 70/80 mph.
Everything was going great and I didn’t see the first flurry of snow until I rounded the last roundabout through Derby on the A38.
I thought it best to slow down a touch as it’s been many; many years since I have rode in snow. It was sleet with a bit of snow thrown in then snow with a bit of sleet.
As I got further north it was proper snow and having to wipe my visor every 10 seconds was a bit of a pain and watching the snow sliding down the visor made me smile, I must be mad I thought.
Anyway I pressed on through alternating rain, sleet, snow. The M18 saw me closer to home, then the A1(M) pressing on to the M62, this is where it got even more scary. I pulled off the A1(M) onto the M62 to find the slip road was ever so slightly white, the snow was starting to settle.
I was happy to tuck in behind an HGV for the last five miles. All the while the snow was getting heavier and the previously fantastic lights were now almost non existent as the snow had formed on the headlights as well as a thick layer of snow on my windscreen. My exit came along soon enough and I said goodbye to the HGV I had been following, I could see the road ahead on the slip road, so being very familiar with this exit I took my best guess and aimed the bike where I thought it should be. Luckily my guess was good and the street lights lead me the rest of the way home. The main roads were just wet, as I turned into my cul-de-sac and onto my drive (this is normally one fluid movement) the snow had settled so I took it very steady got my feet down and inched onto the drive and safely into the garage.
Does this make me an ‘ard roughty toughty biker? Or just mad?
