BMW R1200RT/R1250RT Forum

With the latest UK government advice to avoid "non-essential" travel and contact with others, how is this impacting on you and your motorcycling.

Being retired, means I can do my best to comply with this advice for the benefit of myself & others.

I've paid £35 up front for 1 months BMW Motorrad Insured Warranty to commence on 1st April 2020. Future monthly payments are made by DD on the 25th of the month, first in April. I'm considering firing the bike up then cancelling the DD until further notice. Yes, there will be the usual moratorium of 1 month to re-start the policy but why pay for something I may not use.

Neither of my bikes are currently taxed.

Looks like the "Northern Monkey Meets" will be on hold as well.

With regard to the annual RT meet in July 2020, I booked the "Flex" rate. Who knows where we'll be by then.

I recently volunteered to co-ordinate a local section of the VJMC, their advice has been to follow the government guidelines.
As meetings were to be in a pub, these have been suspended until further notice.

I appreciate there may be more serious issues around the world but this is a motorcycle forum for folks to discuss related issues.

How are you dealing with the current situation.

Hope all is well with you, your families & friends.

I ride for a Blood Bike Group and am also the events and fundraising manager. We will struggle with funding this year, most of our money comes from standing outside Supermarkets, which we are having to put on hold. Providing our service is going to be a struggle, we already have one volunteer in self isolation and one who is having to self isolate for 3 months due to an underlying health condition.


The shift last night took our last job at 5am. Its going to be a very busy time for us, our service running is a priority, but so is the health and wellbeing of our volunteers. I have no idea how this will pan out. Ride safe everyone and keep healthy

Still going out because I need the 'drug'. But I use apps for Esso and BP to pay at the pump, so I don't come into contact with anyone. I have a heart condition so do need to be a bit careful of catching it. But I can't face solitary confinement for months on end. The French are now under threat of fines for stepping out of their houses; just hope we don't need to go that far.

If one person in any household has a persistent cough or fever, everyone living there must stay at home for 14 days

Those people should, if possible, avoid leaving the house "even to buy food or essentials" - but they may leave the house "for exercise and, in that case, at a safe distance from others"

I suppose going out on your bike alone & paying for fuel at the pump would probably comply with the above advice.

Exercise, be that on foot or on a motorcycle is good for mental health & state of mind, perhaps this is being recognised above.

I had booked a trip to Krakow last week to visit Auschwitz (Easyjet, not Bike),cancelled it as they were discouraging foreign visitors. Luckily everything was refundable apart from the plane tickets. Have a bike trip planned to France in May with a friend but I can't see that going ahead, again it's fortunate that Brittany ferries has a reasonable rebooking policy.
Finally, was planning a solo bike trip to Italy late summer but I've given up on that too (unless things change dramatically for the better in the near future).


Regarding work, I retired from the NHS almost 3 years ago but went back to work part time in a specialist nurse/education role. It seems that there's a reasonable chance that I'll be redeployed in the near future to ICU where I spent the majority of my career. However, it'll be interesting because I haven't worked in that clinical environment for over 10 years.


Outside biking and work, my partner's mother has recently moved into a care home due to dementia. They are now on lockdown and have asked for visitors to stay away unless there are exceptional circumstances. Not ideal for the mother in law who is already struggling to remember who her visitors are and relies on family to continually reorientate her.

It's interesting to get a feel for what things are like out there. We are certainly not "stock piling", just buying one or two extras.
The local Tesco store has some bare shelves where you would normally find some of the "essentials".

Back to motorcycling, have a long weekend in Scotland booked for end of May BH. Again not paid anything up front, likely to be cancelled.

Perhaps if I do go out on my bike, have considered taking a flask & a picnic, rather than going to a café.

Social contact via the forum is good too.

I have Speedway GP tickets bought and two days accommodation reserved for July. My plans for another GP in Poland are on hold. I think at the end of the day, I will not get 100% refund for planning ahead,( might not get back anything) but nobody could see this pandemic coming so hard and so fast.

Had emails today from both the local IAM group and a.n.other local MCC suspending all meetings & ride outs ufn.

Even Nationwide BS have asked customers to "think twice" before visiting one of their branches.

Just got an email from my local Baptist Church suspending Sunday Services.

I have posted in Northern Monkeys so i won't say too much on the Virus here.. but i do believe in my opinion, we are over reacting... statistically the nation has only 0,001 percent out of the 50 million inhabitants affected..  puts things into perspective.


We are riders riding our bikes.. simple.. its a fluid situation and guessing isn't fact, its panicking people...what if or what may or when or where... just take the sensible view of being aware of it, and carry on with your lives.


i will!!

Davef1uk wrote: .. statistically the nation has only 0,001 percent out of the 50 million inhabitants affected..  puts things into perspective.

Just out of interest where did you get those figures  from?

Beagle wrote: Just got an email from my local Baptist Church suspending Sunday Services.

Yep, same here. Ours will be trying video services from this week.

Has anyone used this link, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51768274 to see how many confirmed cases there are in your area.

Currently, in Stockton-on-Tees, there are 3 cases, out of a local population of 197,213.

What's it like where you are?

Davef1uk wrote: I have posted in Northern Monkeys so i won't say too much on the Virus here.. but i do believe in my opinion, we are over reacting... statistically the nation has only 0,001 percent out of the 50 million inhabitants affected..  puts things into perspective.


We are riders riding our bikes.. simple.. its a fluid situation and guessing isn't fact, its panicking people...what if or what may or when or where... just take the sensible view of being aware of it, and carry on with your lives.


i will!!

The UK's population is 66 million not 50

David. wrote: Has anyone used this link, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51768274 to see how many confirmed cases there are in your area.

Currently, in Stockton-on-Tees, there are 3 cases, out of a local population of 197,213.

What's it like where you are?

According to the BBC there's 25 confirmed cases in Oxfordshire. However, I'm not sure of what value this figure is in the real world. It mentions in the article that although there's 2000 confirmed (tested) cases in the UK it's estimated that up to 50000 people may have the virus.

Some people may argue that its just guessing the estimated figures but there's some clever bods working this stuff out.


https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/196234/covid19-imperial-researchers-model-likely-impact/