So what's the best place to ride your superbike in Greater London...
The flyovers and underpasses around Heathrow Aiport cuz the filth can't fly their helos there! Friday and Saturday nights the velcroed plates come off and the madness begins! But look out for the black Vectra and the vomit green Mondeo, and get ready to bolt when their grilles light up!
The really derranged part: One of our madmen is an off-duty copper!

Not a big fan of city riding in any form myself. The few occasions I've ridden through London I've felt like ending up as a bonnet ornament was all too likely, not to mention it's bloody impossible to figure out where you're going as all the roads seem to insist on sending you round in circles 'til you're dizzy.

I can see the appeal of it though and have had a couple of fun rides up from Box Hill to the Ace in previous summers. You can't half make progress when you're with someone local who knows where they're going.

Too true. I guess cuz I've lived in London all my life, and lived all over it, I've gotten used to the madness and consider it a kind of video game. I always get on the bike thinking, 'Okay, when I get out there, every tin can, lorry and ladder-carrying pedestrian is going to be out to kill me any chance they get.'
It also helps to know a lot of back lanes, curb paths, short-cuts, etc. Filtering also helps but many misery-guts drivers hate it like death and you've got to watch they don't try to take you off with their wing mirror.
But as I said, around Heathrow, they can't use the helos so it's a bloody madhouse. I'm among the milder ones. Some blokes go wheeling past the filth giving them two fingers. Just bloody insanity. Also, every rider I know has bought those clear plastic plate covers that deflect a gatso lens and that helps since England has become a fascist state where the busy bodies think having a camera on every corner and up everyone's thing is a crime solution. Meanwhile, crime goes up and up. Guess it was about the loot, after all!
Funny you mention Box Hill. Some time ago it was a screamer's road. Crowds would actually gather to watch the two wheeled antics.
Sorry to blathering on like this. I'm at work and bored out of my mind...

Hehe fair enough. Box Hill is as tame a meet as you'll ever go to these days, if I remember right someone was hurt a while back and since then there's a pretty big police presence, nothing happens. Thinking about it I can only really think of one meet within a couple of hours of me which is anything other than a picture of calm these days. Shame really as it's always fun to watch guys doing rolling burnouts and pulling 120mph wheelies down busy dual carriageways. :lol:

I'm sure I've heard that those plate covers don't actually work in practice. Any of your mates done any definitive testing? :P

yeah, it's hard to tell really. Some swear by them, others say they "work" only because 80% of gatsos aren't functioning. The other thing is so many gatsos have been destroyed, it appears to be turning into a national sport. The most popular method of destroying the odious yellow or green boxes is to throw an old tyre onto its top, dump in some petrol and set the whole thing alight.
I think the only tried and true plate method is what the hard men do on fri and sat night around heathrow; remove the velcroed plate altogether and force the filth to chase you. I haven't quite had the bottle to try this but it does seem to get the adrenalin flowing from what I've observed. A while back two coppers in an old Ford Orion of all things pulled up next to me while I was fueling up and asked, "Who's that wanker on the black and silver bike that just went by on one bloody wheel?" I just shrugged and said I didn't have a clue. One of them frowned and added, "You tossers all know one another. Tell him we'd like a fucking word."
Anyway, I'm not sure how well the plate covers really do work.
Perhaps the only real solution is to move to Oz. Perfect year round riding weather, endless roads with nothing and nobody on them. Hmm... think I'll start making inquiries...

The few occasions I've ridden through London I've felt like ending up as a bonnet ornament was all too likely, not to mention it's bloody impossible to figure out where you're going as all the roads seem to insist on sending you round in circles till you're dizzy.