One of the downsides of spring riding is the eternal question mark over what my insurer’s position is on accidents while sneezing. This is hay fever season, and the UK weather is consistently variable to boot, so there is a relatively strong possibility, in spring, that if I have an accident, it will be while I am sneezing. I suspect my insurer would call this an Act Of God, which is Insurance for Not Covered. I’d cross my fingers, but, well, that would just make riding harder, and thus make accidents even more likely.
Another downside is the tendency of the first reasonable weather and the longer, lighter evenings to rouse that most worrying of creatures - the occasional driver - from hibernation. These are the people who, while they own a car, don’t habitually drive. In fact, they drive so seldom that they forget how, in between times, basic things like indicating, lane discipline, and the highway code go. They forget that the road is not a train carriage, nothing runs on rails and other road users have a) existence and b) rights.
They also forget how to park. Now, I grant you, this can help a bike out, sometimes, because while cars will curse you for using a parking space (not that there are alternatives), they do so less when someone else has parked so badly they wouldn’t be able to fit in the first place. Of course, the concern in those cases is whether the Occasional Driver who has parked so badly will be sufficiently competent to extricate himself without damaging your bike. The trick is to park so as to minimise the odds, but these things are never guaranteed.
