SLOW, SLOW, QUICKQUICK
Roger Bibbings in RC209 hopes readers will respond with tales of bimbling. Our esteemed editor disagrees and describes it as ‘selfindulgence’. I would suggest that classic bikers often bimble. Very different from their old working life and ride to work hacks. I have been back in the saddle for fifteen years. One summer evening I bimbled off from Portsmouth and found myself at Finchdean. I remembered the old Idsworth scramble track, and sat there for a while enjoying Castrol R-infused memories. I also remembered we were nearly out of milk, and bought some on the way home. The bimble then turned into an essential trip, as my wife would not have enjoyed her evening cup of Earl Grey without it.
I suggest that the polar opposite of ‘to bimble’ is ‘to mer’. One of my old chums in the 1960s who owned a lovely Rocket Gold Star replica coined this phrase, a shortened version of ‘to hammer’. Always fast and always with a predetermined destination, usually involving coffee and a juke box! Colin Wood’ member I’m definitely a ‘mer’ type rider. In fact, one of the unexpected benefits of working half my week at the local medical centre is… commuting again! An excellent opportunity to ride some fine country roads, to and fro. I’d actually missed it after almost 25 years of working in our home office. Rowena