Last week I experienced a puncture on the motorbike for the first time (in ten years of riding). Flashing red lights on the dash was the first I knew about it as the bike, riding slowly in town, did not feel any different and it showed me the pressure dropping quickly: first 2.2 bar then under 2 and heading rapidly downwards. I am thankful this happened not at high speed, not in the middle of nowhere, not in a foreign country, but about half a mile from Sainsbury’s petrol station on Coldhams Lane – complete with its free airline. A huge sharp stone was responsible and once removed a loud hissing told me that a repair should be attempted. Never having used it before, I could not get my tubeless repair kit to work and called out the emergency service that I get free with my bike insurance. To cut a long story short an efficient and reassuring man with recovery van from SOS Motorcycles) arrived and plugged the puncture, talking me through how to do it (thankyou!). Next time I will have a more serious attempt to fix it myself.

It was a quick and uneventful ride back to the garage.

Yesterday I returned and took the bike for a longer spin and all seemed well. I wonder how safe it is to ride with this repair – how fast and for how long before I splash out on a new tyre.
It was a bit of a meandering ride and started a bit late, but also a chance to experiment with the helmet mic which seems to pick up so much wind noise. Judge for yourself whether it is any good. Among other Cambridgeshire villages, I rode through Soham, the site of the terrible murders in the early 2000s. It is such a small place. It must have had a huge impact on everyone who lived there as the story unfolded.

To change the subject, having resisted the un-aerodynamic GoPros for a long time, the GoPro Hero 7 cameras have caught my fancy. The trick would be how to mount them in an unobtrusive way.

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