What do you do in the down time?
 

I'm sure you guys have some great suggestions of what to do when traveling and for some reason or another you have to wait. We have all done it. How do you fight boredom? Read a book, find a musical instrument?:clap:

write
 

write - diary, blog, whine to yourself or your ma, write a poem, create somethin on paper. i like writing, both at the time and at the re-reading.
otherwise, just hang out.
or talk to locals.
or eat fruit.
or do some exercise.
or... here's one... maintain, inspect, or clean your motorcycle!

can't remember being bored on the road.

cheers,
andy.

MMMMmmm
 

check out the local alcohol!:innocent:
these thing's have to be tried so that you can leave messages of advise to other travellers on the hubb! apart from that the local food,talent and do the bike. i know the bike should be first but.........
i'm thinking of a reason........

books, bike maintenance, women and alcohol - though not nessecarily in that order!

Go overlanding on older Italian bikes, 'downtime' is great for carrying out the punishing routine servicing!!

When stuck in England I like to annoy people by posting my worthless opinion all over the interweb and preaching the virtues of the Cagiva Elefant in the hope that their market value will go up and I can sell one.

Did I mention what a great bike the Elefant is?? Lighter than a pushbike, faster than a fireblade and more reliable than Big Ben!! Great value for money too, especially if they look like someone rode it into a wall...

Boredom
 

I usually find myself being bored whilst riding ON the bike (the bits inbetween riding usually being filled up with partying, staring, eating, terrorising travel partners, etc. etc.) so have come up with a personal challenge:

Whilst riding, without slowing down, try and remove one glove (without it flying down the road), then unzip your tank bag, then fiddle about to find your packet of chewing gum, THEN open the packet, unwrap a chewy, place it in your mouth (experiment with putting it in from underneath the helmet, or via the visor bit), pack everything away, put glove back on.

The process of perfecting your technique is BRILLIANT for dispelling boredom including a) losing your glove b) losing the contents of your tank bag c) getting chewing gum stuck in your chin strap and your hair.

Eat.

You have to do that sometime .. so it may as well occupy the boring space bits. If you know it is going to be a long while - sleep.

Read.
Drink beer.
Snog.
Sew badges onto ones clothing.
Read some more.
Travel several hundred miles in the opposite direction to the one you're heading to find a great bookshop and stock up so you can read a bit more.
Find that oil/petrol leak.
Fix said oil/petrol leak.
Drink more beer.:thumbup1:

Wow, even the girl bikers have beards :thumbup1:

Having a beard is part of the entry requirements.

Downtime proved a real bummer for me travelling alone, my suggestion: don't travel alone. At least you can argue and disagree with someone (thus wasting time) if you had company.

I found writing my thoughts in my diary, working out mileage out, route planning and (if i had a good book) reading helped.

Inventing games for yourself was another thing, .....oh and trying to decypher the remanding lyrics to whatever song you were singing to yourself whilst riding. Am I the only person who gets Helmet Song? I first got it a few years back when I started riding, I had the song by Moby stuck in my head. I am not a Moby fan, so it was as much as a surprise to me that whenever I got on my bike I was singing the song "Natural Blues" to myself.... more like 1 line from the song. Ever since I get one liners jump into my helmet and I spend the whole journey repeating it to myself.

Do a bit of writing, photo-editing, grow beard, think up excuses for not servicing bike...

Mainly though I read 'classics'. You know, the kind of books you know you ought to read but never get round to it. When you are travelling and can only have one or two books with you it means you are forced to read the 'classic' at some point! I very rarely regret taking a classic with me. As a result of this I am the only person I know who has successfully read 'The Seven Pillars of Wisdom' by T.E. Lawrence, although many have tried. And, once I'd got into it I really enjoyed it!

Matt :)

Why?
 

Why is it that I can only ever remember one line from a song when I'm on the bike? I'm the guy who tells the kids "music today is crap - it's just one line repeated ad nauseum". Then I get on the bike and find myself singing one line, repeated ad nauseum!

I really enjoyed 7 Pillars. I went and found the unedited copy even. Lawrence did interesting things.

henryuk has some great ideas with riding old Italian bikes. Right now I'm drinking cheap beers in a hotel while sending emails back and forth to Australia and the US trying to figure out how to get my old POS Eye-talian bike shipped from Melbourne to Delhi. I showed up and can't find my license plate. That was the most important thing to bring outside my anti-seizure drugs. I hope I left it in my sister's car. Dang time zones.

India is great.