David Forster

I have always been happy with the on-screen viewing of photos taken with my Nikon D70, but when printing them out on my ‘photo’ printer, my pictures have always been a little grainy, leading me to worry a bit about whether I ought to upgrade to something with more pixels.

However, I recently had a photo of my (ex) R1 printed out at a local Snappy Snaps outlet. The quality was amazing, and I certainly can’t see any graininess or dithering. I would highly recommend this as a printing option for digital photographers. My photo was printed 12″ x 8″ with no problems at all, and you can even (as I did) pre-process your photos in Photoshop (or your imaging program of choice), write them to a CDRW and take that along to the store instead of just printing straight from your camera’s memory card (as shot).

I was asked by the BMF to take some photos at the Ace Cafe on Sunday, as they had invited some MEPs from the UKIP to a meeting about some new UK biking laws. The mayor of brent and some senior police officers were also there.

I didn’t really like it. I think I lack the confidence to boss people around and arrange them for a photo (maybe this was because they were some quite important people) and as a result I ended up not taking many decent pictures

Luckily there are a few that will do the job and fulfill the brief I was given, but I will give these away for free, rather than charging for my time, as I’m not really happy with them.

In future I think I’ll stick to what I’m good at, sports and architecture photography and the occasional arranged portrait.

I’m picking up my new (second hand) bike this afternoon, a 2004 KTM 640 supermoto. So why am I not excited? Normally I have difficulty sleeping and concentrating on work, but this time it’s just not the same. Normally I take the day off work, but I just went in early today instead. I’m sure it will be a good bike and a lot of fun, but it’s no R1

If you’re moving from Blogger to WordPress and want to import all of your Blogger posts, with comments. Then look no further than here.

I was away at the NEC in Birmingham yesterday for the International Motorcycle and Scooter Show 2005.

To be honest it was a bit disappointing compared to last year. There were a few new bikes on show, most notable for me were Yamaha’s new R6 and Suzuki’s latest GSXR 600 and 750. Kawasaki had their new ZX10 there and I have to say – what does it take for Kawasaki to make a nice looking bike?! Perhaps their particular style just doesn’t appeal to me?

There weren’t many ‘brolly babes’ around either. I get the impression that the manufacturers are increasingly spending all of their budget on the press day and then skimping on the rest of the show. Jay and Cezar from LB was up there for the press day and got some good photos. I was so unimpressed with the show that I came away with just 10 pictures on my camera!
I came away with a new T-shirt (mainly because the one I wore on the way up there got drenched in the rain which somehow found it’s way past the collar of my jacket) and an Alpinestars armoured jackety thing (hard to explain, see picture!).

I have just ‘upgraded’ my blog to use WordPress instead of Blogger.

Blogger is a fine service, but I wanted to use categories from the start and also have custom pages which could be tricky to do. WordPress gives me all these things and more. It was my second choice to Blogger when I started blogging, but after my friend Rob Roy switched recently I decided to follow his example.

For those of you using the RSS feed, you need to update your reader to one of the urls at the bottom of the page.

Well, I think I’ve formulated a good plan for getting back on the road.

Obviously, with two thefts on my 3 year history insuring an R1 is going to be a nightmare, and buying a new R1 just before the winter comes along is also not the greatest idea. Before the R1 got hijacked I was planning on buying a trail/supermoto bike for winter anyway, so I am looking at buying something like a second hand KTM 640 SM, or Suzuki DR-Z400 for the moment. This will get me back on the road, and give me something to commute on, use in bad weather etc. etc. Plus, it will be cheaper to insure and hopefully a lot of fun!

Lot’s of people have said that after getting a supermoto I won’t go back to sports bikes, but I think they underestimate just how much I adored the R1. It was perfect. I can’t even describe what it was about that bike, but there was something. If you ride and love bikes like me, you’ll know what I mean. I can’t quite believe that I actually miss it, but I do, as if it were a live human being. Almost every night I catch myself thinking about what I could have done differently to prevent it from being taken.

Come next spring/summer, I can choose to either upgrade the supermoto to a bigger one if I get hooked on them, or I can keep it and buy another R1 (and keep it locked up too, well away from the city!)

Back at work today after a week off cruising up the Thames from Reading to Oxford, I’ll put some photos up soon. Nice and relaxed, but now I’m back the annoyances of having to deal with the bike theft are rearing their head again. I also have to sort out some kind of transportation for the winter.

It’s my birthday today. On Friday night I nipped home from the Ace Cafe to pick up a bag, and as I was about to leave the house two men attacked me and stole the R1. Here’s the full story as reported on LondonBikers.com.

At around 10.30pm last night, LB member, David was followed home, violently attacked and had his 2005 R1 stolen from outside his house in Greenford, West London. This was just the start of the horrific events that unfolded during the night of Friday 7th October 2005.Out for Friday?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s bike-night, David had to return home unexpectedly to collect something, on the way home, he was aware he was being followed by a bike. He did what any observant rider would do and went the long way round to try and shake them. When it was clear they weren?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t still there, he went home, and then came out a few minutes later to get back on his bike. This was the moment when he was jumped by two males in dark motorcycle clothing, assaulted, held to the ground, choked, and made to hand over the keys to his bike. David struggled and attempted to stop them making off, but succeeded only in lightly injuring one of the aggressors.

Obviously distraught, David phoned the Police, then his friends at the Ace Caf?ɬ©. When the word got round what had happened, a group had formed with the intent of going to the are to look for the bike, as we?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢re all too aware the Police have very little success, or motivation with these matters. The group of six, two with pillions, took off in search of their friends bike. They were unable to find it and stopped off in a pub car-park in the Greenford area to make a phone call to find out more information.

It was then that the group was confronted by a gang that came out of the pub and asked the group what their business was in the area, whereupon they immediately attacked the group, without provocation. The attack was fierce, with carving and other long knives being used. All of group was attacked; a few riders were able to escape on foot or bikes, though at least two of the group were unable to get away and were heavily assaulted, with one of them sustaining three stab wounds, facial lacerations, and the other also sustaining significant facial injuries after being attacked with a broken bottle. Bikes were also damaged.

It?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s since been found that the two incidents were unrelated, with the possibility of the pub gang confusing the bike group with rival drug-dealers as it?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s also come to light that the pub is a known drug-dealers haunt. Obviously we?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢re completely shocked that David was victim to such a violent attack and our condolences are with him at this time for the loss of his bike and the ordeal he?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s gone through.

Our thoughts also go out to those involved in the pub attack and wish all the best to the two people seriously injured. One of them was LB member Matt, and the other Sparky from the AWOL group. We strongly recommend that all riders in the London area display vigilance and ensure that they?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢re not followed home, especially by other bikes. If you believe someone is following you, do not go straight home, instead head to the nearest Police station and get help.

If anyone spots a graphite-coloured 2005 model Yamaha R1, registration LK05 EWU, please contact us immediately on 07958 707 983, or contact@londonbikers.com. For a picture of David’s R1, click here.

Anyone who reads this blog, please look out for the bike and be careful when you are riding yourselves.

Just received a call from Norwich Union, the insurance company of the guy that knocked me off my bike on Saturday. He has contacted them and admitted full liability for the accident, and they are going to send an engineer out to assess damage and they will pay for the repairs.I have to say this is a refreshing change. My insurance claims in the past have gone on and on for months, even when the other parties have admitted liability.A big thumbs up to Norwich Union for being both friendly and helpful. It’s a shame that they always seem to be too expensive when quoting for my bike insurance!