Today, as Madness so memorably sang, I’ve been driving in my car.

For most people this would be unremarkable, but it was only about the fifth time I have been in the car this year, and the first time I actually drove it. In fact the last time I drove was in December, and that was only to bring it home from the garage after its MOT, which was about a mile away. In the whole of 2024 I drove the car fewer than ten times and the only significant distance was the 120-mile round trip to Essex back in January 2024. So today was a bit of a big deal for me.

The reason for me swapping my two wheels for four, was that Jayne was collecting her now motorbike from the Harley Davidson dealers in East Sussex. We went down together (her driving of course) then she rode back and I brought the car home. Because of a combination of wrist injury, terrible shift patterns and terrible weather, she had not really ridden her old bike since August, so there were two of us on the roads today feeling a bit rusty.

Seeing Jayne on her bike made me more than a bit jealous, so when I reached home I got changed and went out on my bike to meet her in Tonbridge Wells – she had taken a detour to visit her mum, because she is in East Sussex – and then ride home together. It felt like a shame to waste a nice clear day like today.

So how did I find the experience? I did go down some of the same roads on the bike and in the car and it was a lot more comfortable in the car. It was also less stressful because I did not have to keep such a forensic examination of the road surface going. Some of the road surfaces and potholes that are a bit annoying in a car are actually dangerous on a bike. The verdict is that driving was a lot easier but a lot less fun. I can’t remember the last time that driving a car made me smile but half the time I am riding I have a great big grin and an inner voice that keeps saying “I’m riding a fucking motorbike! How did that happen?”. This is probably because I started riding so late in ife.

I don’t actually like Jayne’s bike. Not my sort of thing. But seeing it all new and shiny has made me accelerate my plans to trade up to a bigger bike this year. In fact I am going to go and test ride the new NC750X tomorrow. There is a very good chance that I will order one on the spot…