David Forster

Ordinarily I wouldn’t publish this information but I’m willing to make an exception in this case.

If you ride around North-West London (A40, Hanger Lane, A406, Ace Cafe etc.) be on the lookout for an orange and yellow Toyota Supra, registration JCZ9901 (possibly a trade plate?). This vehicle was involved in a severe road rage incident with myself and two other bikers on Sunday.

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Whilst traveling westbound on the A40 from the Old Oak Road junction, I and Serena filtered up behind the car and, as there was no room to continue filtering, moved into the queue and waited. The driver was behaving very aggressively in the queue, leaving a large space and then accelerating and braking hard up to the next car. When the road became wider again we filtered past, along with another rider and pillion on a ZX9 who had joined us. The car then came alongside me and proceeded to try and squeeze us into the left hand barrier. I wouldn’t give any ground as Serena was on my left hand side and the car then moved back and dropped into the left hand lane, behind us at the next set of lights. When the lights turned green the rider on the ZX9 accelerated away and the car chased, overtook, pulled back in and then braked hard in front of him. The rider sensibly turned into the retail estate to his left. I though that was it…

However, Serena and I came onto the Hanger Lane roundabout and filtered to the front of the queue, where I saw the car was also at the same set of lights. I looked at the driver through his left window and, to my horror, he jumped out of the car and started to come towards me! I looked up and the lights were turning green, so I sped off and Serena followed. The car then came up right behind Serena, leaving only inches of space.

As we came around Hanger Lane, I saw a traffic police car at the next set of lights, and so pulled right up next to the drivers window and caught their attention. I expected the car driver to make a quick exit, but no, he stopped alongside also. I explained to the officer that the car was driving aggressively toward us and he told us all to move into a nearby bus stop to have a chat. I explained to the officer all of the above and he checked the car out. It turns out that the driver had no tax or insurance, and had only had a (British) licence for less than a year! The police moved the car into a side street and took his keys away, but I’d bet money that he was back later with a spare set.

I’m worried that this driver may now have a very aggressive attitude towards other bikers, so please look out for the car in this area and if you see it, I advise you to stay well away from it!

I am Mario.I like to jump around, and would lead a fairly serene and aimless existence if it weren’t for my friends always getting into trouble. I love to help out, even when it puts me at risk. I seem to make friends with people who just can’t stay out of trouble. What Video Game Character Are You?From Owen’s blog

Bought an Arai RX-7 helmet yesterday. It’s the most expensive accessory I’ve bought to date, but I figure that bikes can be replaced but my head can’t!My first impressions are that it fits extremely well (I got the XS, 53-54cms) and is very comfortable. The cheek pads are a little tight, but they will soften up after a couple of weeks use. It’s a bit noisy, but I was used to that with my old HJC helmet and it’s partly because of the great venting system on the Arai.My only grumble is that the visor doesn’t seem to stay up very well. I like to ride with my visor up most of the time so I’ll have to see what I can do about that. I also got a Fog City anti-fog visor insert, which I used before in the old helmet – These work brilliantly for preventing fogging of the visor on cold days and this new one also changes it’s tint according to the light level – so no need to wear uncomfortable sunglasses anymore!

Went to the BMF show on Sunday. It seemed to be quite a bit smaller than in previous years, although all the usual big stands were there. The entrance price was ?Ǭ£14 (?Ǭ£12 for BMF members) which seems a bit too much.

I bought a ‘double bubble’ screen for the R1 from Skidmarx, and fitted it when I got back to the Ace. I’m not quite sure about it yet – the build quality is comparable to the Fabbri screen I used to have on an R6 (which isn’t saying much) and I’m still not convinced about the look. My friend Peter has a Pyramid screen on his bike which seems better so maybe I’ll swap it for one of those later on, or perhaps I’ll get an ‘Airblade’ screen, which is what Virgin Mobile Racing use on their BSB R1s.

I was also looking out for a good deal on an Arai RX7 helmet, but the stands that actually had some were all selling for ?Ǭ£400-?Ǭ£450, which is the retail price so I didn’t bother. Still, despite the lack of goodies purchased it was a good, mostly sunny, day out.

It’s strange, I haven’t really thought about the fact that I only have a few days left at MFI before I move on to another job. Today it sort of hit me and I started to feel quite sad that I was about to leave all the friends I’ve made over the last 5 years. Add that to the anxiety of starting a new job and it’s altogether quite an odd feeling.