A Day In The Life
I’m one of many people who work in order to pay the bills, not because I love to work! Weather permitting, I use my ZZR600 to make the short journey of about 14 miles, and the following is a brief account of a typical ride, and why it makes the prospect of a day at the grindstone that much more bearable!
I bought my bike as an insurance write off. It was cheap and tatty and I named it Yasser because it’s pig ugly but means business. I know it’s not the most fashionable bike on the road, but I love it. Mechanically, it’s great – it’s kept outside and the only maintenance I carry out is put petrol in it and spray on some chain lube when I remember, which was twice in the past 6 months. When it gets too dirty I ride it in heavy rain – that usually does the trick! Despite this lack of care, Yasser always starts on the button, and (touch wood) has never broken down.
As you have probably guessed, I am a female rider. I am also middle aged (middle age being anything between 25 and 55 years old!), and consider myself a careful and faintly nervous rider. I was quite surprised - and proud of myself a couple of weeks ago when I looked down to see the speedometer nudging past 100mph when overtaking on the Uckfield bypass.
Anyway, my journey begins in Fletching, a lovely little village in East Sussex. I usually leave home just after 7a.m. and head onto the A272. This is my favourite part of the journey as there’s very little traffic and on a bike, you can appreciate all the fresh, clean early morning smells.
My route takes me through Buxted and Hadlow Down, via the Uckfield bypass. Unfortunately, this route is also favoured by the 40mph brigade – these people should be banned from the roads between the hours of 7-9am and 4-6pm. In fact they should be banned from driving full stop, as they rigidly stick to 40mph whether the limit is 60 or 30mph… Don’t they understand they would fail if they did that on test today? However, these people are much more easily passed on a bike than by car, and I really enjoy overtaking – so does my bike!
It always makes me smile hugely when proper bikers nod at me when they pass – as I said, I’m a cautious middle aged rider. I have to laugh at the bike snobs though – usually large men with beards, riding Harleys. They never nod at anyone riding anything that isn’t covered in shiny American chrome! I have nothing against Harleys, except that I couldn’t be bothered with all the cleaning involved – do the Harley blokes do this themselves or do they get their women to do it? Also they’re generally quite slow, but I suppose at least they don’t get done for speeding. My point is, I nod to anything I pass on 2 wheels, even if it hasn’t got an engine. Just because I don’t like what someone is riding, doesn’t mean I can’t still be friendly.
There’s always a guy on a blue bike (how female is that!) who I pass on the road going through Buxted, and someone on a red bike who rides really fast along the Eastbourne road and it makes my day when they acknowledge me - which they always do.
The route I take is very straightforward, but it’s weird how you develop a sixth sense when you’re riding. I seem to know before I can see the driver that it’s someone with white hair and a flat cap, and therefore is likely to pull out of that junction just as I’m approaching. So far, I’ve not had ‘an off’ and I put this down to the fact that I ride slowly (by slowly I certainly don’t mean below the speed limits, just slowly compared to most other bikers), and always assume that car drivers haven’t seen me.
Just after Cross in Hand, there’s usually a queue of traffic waiting to turn off towards Eastbourne. I can always tell the car drivers who are bike aware as they kindly pull over to let me filter past. It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes a car will pull out slightly, deliberately closing that gap so I can’t get through. I suppose these sad muppets think that if they have to wait in traffic so should I.
When I see the distinctive green polo shirts of the school kids as I approach Heathfield, I start thinking about my day ahead, and begin the countdown until I’ll be on my way home again! I have to slow right down as I approach the school gates in case there are any kids hanging around – it wouldn’t look too good for a school teacher to hit one on the way in…
It’s a bit of a faff having to change out of my bike gear into sensible teacher’s garb, but worth each one of the two minutes it takes!
I don’t know if the students have noticed, but I’m always in a better mood during lessons when I’ve come in on the bike! Periodically through the day I glance out of a school window to check my bike is still there and get an instant lift when I see it. Then, looking back to the classroom, I know that it’s only a matter of a few hours till Yasser will take me away from all this!
Dr. Sarah Leaney. Science teacher at Heathfield Community College.