Flies in your Teeth

Wheels for Amelia

2012-01-20T09:03:00.001Z

The wheels for my new custom bike 'Amelia' have arrived and look gorgeous....

Book Update

2012-01-17T13:27:00.000Z

Having been very busy with writing my book recently, I haven't done much in the way of putting much on my own blog, or commenting on others. I have been lurking though and reading many blogs, just not commenting.

That will remain the case for a while, while I press on with getting the book finished. I have now written 24 out of 33 of its chapters, so good progress has been made.

I am sorting and editing the photos that will be included in the book as I go, and my Cousins partner, Helen, has been editing my words on a chapter-by-chapter basis.

I hope to finish writing by the end of April, with the final editing and book layout completed by say June, printing done in say August, making the book available from about 1st October. That’s the target, anyway!

I haven't forgotten my promise for those that commented on my blog before or during my tour of America!

Hitler wants a Harley for Sturgis.

2012-01-14T17:14:00.002Z

With apologies to my German speaking friends.... but it is very funny....

A Bikers New Year’s Resolution - The 15x30 list.

2012-01-06T12:12:00.000Z

I have been riding bikes for some time and have covered a fair few miles in the past few years, all safely, without incident. That makes me a competent rider, right?

No, of course it doesn't.

There is one particular aspect to my motorcycling that I have not been happy with for a while and my New Year's Resolution is designed to correct this, but I need your help, my readers.

The issue I need to put right is my motorcycle pre-ride checks. The problem is, I rarely do any, preferring instead to just jump on the bike and start riding as soon as possible. In my years of riding I have given this topic almost a complete lack of attention which has resulted in the fact that I struggle to think of what it is I should be doing and that is where I need your help.

I would like to use a list of pre-ride checks that actually makes sense, and that I can print out and pin to the wall of my garage as a reminder. I have looked on the web and found quite a few lists, but these are either incomplete, exceesively detailed, or are simply wrong. Some don't make sense about how often the checks should be done. In short, I can't find one that works for me.

I have therefore used what I have read on the internet and created my own checklist, but I would like a few others to review it and suggest any necessary changes or additions. I will then collate any and all comments, modify the list and hopefully this will become a useful list that not only I can use, but others if they want to. I will publish the final amended checklist on my blog for anyone to copy and use.

To make it obvious what checks should be undertaken when, the top part of my list shows what checks should be made at the start of every riding day. These are the absolute must-do safety checks that should happen every time you ride.

The second part of the list contains all other checks. In this second part, the higher the item is on the list, the more often it should be done.

I would be happy if you would let me know what you think and please pass it on to as many other bikers as you wish, so that we get as much useful input as possible.

Part One. Checks you should make at the start of every riding day....

1. Before you move your bike, look underneath for any leaked oil or coolant. In fact learn to do this every time you approach your bike.

2. Check all lights are working correctly. This must include

high / low beam headlight

rear tail light

turn signals / indicators

brake light (check operation from both front and rear brake levers)

3. Check the horn is working

4. Rotate and look at the front and back tyres (tires) for protruding nails, stones caught in the tread, or any obvious damage

5. Quick check of front and back tyres pressures (as very few people will check the air pressure every riding day with a gauge, at least do a test by kicking the tyres)

6. Check brake operation, front and rear.

7. Pull on the levers and push on the rear brake lever (with your hand) to check they have a smooth and properley adjusted operation, with no catching. Ensure correct position of the levers when released.

8. Check the throttle operates smoothly, with no catching. Ensure the throttle snaps closed when released

9. Take a walk around the bike to visually check nothing appears loose or out of place.

10. Check the fuel level, and if applicable make sure the fuel tap is in the correct position.

11. Check all caps (oil filler, coolant, brake fluid etc) are tight.

12. Check mirror positioning.

13. Ensure you can see properly through windshield, visor, googles, glasses, sunglasses etc.

14. Ensure you have something on you with your emergency contact details.

15. Don't forget your helmet!

Note, some people say it is better to check these things at the end of every riding day, to ensure your bike is ready the next time you use it. Before or after doesn't matter, so just do what suits you.

Part Two. Frequent checks (the nearer the top, the more frequently they should be done). Clearly different types of motorcycle will have different checks to be performed, so this list has been made as general as possible to suit most types of bike....

1. Check tyre (tire) pressures are correct level, using an accurate gauge.

2. Check tyre wear is within safe limits and there is no excessive tread wear across the tyre width. If you know how and if your tyres have them, check the wear indicators.

3. Inspect the wheels for loose spokes or cracks in cast wheels. Check the axle fixings are not loose.

4. Ensure the wheels spin freely.

5. Ensure brake and clutch lever retaining bolts are tight.

6. Ensure the mirror fixings are tight.

7. Check headlight beam alignment and there is no condensation inside the unit.

8. Check main engine oil level and (because it is easy to remember when you are checking the oil) also check any under-engine oil drain plugs are tight.

9. If you can, check the battery power level.

10. If applicable, check the bikes coolant level.

11. Check the operation of steering. Ensure no cables are preventing full steering movement or that any cable are catching / rubbing.

12. Check operation of front suspension / forks. Ensure there are no excessive fork oil leaks.

13. Check rear suspension operation.

14. Check throttle, clutch and brake cables do not bind when the steering is turned.

15. Check the final drive chain (or belt) tension for excessive play / movement. If you adjust the chain tension, ensure the rear axle nuts are properley tightened.

16. Check the chain sprocket for excessive wear / hooking.

17. Lubricate the final drive chain.

18. Check tyres for cracks.

19. Check brake pad wear if you can.

20. Check brake fluid level, check brake hoses for leaks, ensure all fixings and bolts on the brakes are tight, from the levers all the way to the brakes themselves.

21. Inspect the fuel delivery system, pipes etc for any signs of fuel leaks and check fixings are tight.

22. Look at battery condition, battery fluid levels (if applicable), all battery conections are tight, and the battery is adequately fixed in place.

23. Check operation and integrity of centre stand and / or side stand. If applicable, check the electrical cut out still works if the side stand is down.

24. Check gearbox oil level (if applicable).

25. Comprehensive look at all fixings, bolts, screws are tight. Must include seat fixings, handlebar fixings, pannier and rack fixings (if applicable). Look to see everything is tight.

26. Check wiring is not pinching or fraying

27. Check the drain plug in the final drive shaft is tight. Check any seals for leaks.

28. Check hoses for damage or leaks.

29. Look to see if any frame / swing arm paint is lifting or peeling which may indicate cracking.

30. Check the view in the mirrors to ensure you look cool.

Plans for 2012 Bike Trips

2012-01-02T08:49:00.000Z

2012 will see two international motorcycle trips for me. Well, two and a half trips really.

In February, I will be travelling to Cuba, for a nine day organised motorcycle tour of the island. Three of us are going from the UK, myself, Paul Leeson and Ian Solley of 7 Ages Custom Motorcycles.

I am looking forward to seeing this island republic set in the Caribbean. Gladly, we don't need to do much in the way of organisation, as it will largely be done for us. We will be renting bikes out there.

Just 90 miles from the USA, Cuba is set in the past. That is one of the great things about Cuba where the word 'modernisation' probably doesn't exist. We certainly want to see this old-fashioned aspect of Cuban life, especially the old American cars that have been fixed up over the years to keep them running. I don't smoke, but I suspect some Cuban cigars might make their way back to England for my friends and family.

This is the route we are expecting to take.... click on the map for a better view.....

In June a small group of us are going to the Harley-Davidson rally in Portugal. Here is a video promoting the rally....

Those going to Portugal are Ian Solley (remember he and I went to Croatia together)....

Paul Rose (you might remember he rode with me in Maine and Spain)....

and my eldest son, Charlie (yet to take his bike test)....

We will be taking the 24 hour ferry from the UK to northern Spain and then riding the route below through Spain and Portugal. This will be about a 2,000 mile round trip....

Finally, the trip that counts only as half a trip, is to the H-D Euro Rally in St Tropez in southern France. The reason it is only half a trip? Shhhhhhh. We are going by car and having a bike shipped there on the back of a truck. Don't tell anyone! There is a good reason for this - Jackie and I will be delivering our car back to Spain the timing fits perfectly with the rally. So, we will stop on the way in St Tropez for the few days of the rally and then continue our journey south all the way down to Spain.

2011 Moto-Blogging Awards. And the award goes to....

2011-12-22T16:52:00.000Z

Another blogging year is coming to an end.

I have enjoyed reading many people’s motorcycle related blogs again this year, so much in fact that that I have decided announce the 'Flies in your Teeth 2011 Moto-Blogging Awards'. Sort of like the Oscars for Motorcycle Blogging, but not really.

These are just for fun, carry no prizes and the judge’s decision is final !!!!

If you are not mentioned, then that is probably due to my bad memory.

So, in no particular order......

The blogger that made me laugh the most in 2011. Jack Riepe of Twisted Roads. Keep it up Jack.

With all of his food pictures, the blogger that constantly made me feel hungry, Bobskoot of Wet Coast Scootin, with a special mention also for Lucky on his Pizza Crusade

The person with the coolest blog name. Brady from Behind Bars.

The blogger that gets more exercise than most and makes me feel guilty for not doing more myself, is bluekat, who writes about bluekat’s journeys be they by bicycle, kayak, on foot, or on a motorcycle.

The blogger that makes me feel cold, due to his Polar Bear rides. Chris (where's that snow?) Luhman of Everyday Riding. Brrrrr!

The bloggers that are nearly always on the road. Donna and Stu, who are hauling it around while they take a 5th.

For posting pictures that make me want to travel half way around the world to ride on another island. Roger, aka Raftnn, who has All Things Rogey.

A blogger that doesn't post often, but when he does, I always read it. The Arizona Harley Dude.

The blogger that has finally seen sense and bought a Harley-Davidson. And she takes great photos too.... . Sonja. who has (re-)discovered motorcycle riding.

The blogger that I want to meet on the salt. George was originally from Mozambique, now living in the USA, who writes about Riding the USA.

Canajun, who is the Ottawan blogger On Two Wheels that has a happy humidor.

My favourite blogging couple. Troubadour and Trobairitz

The blogger that I so want to pass his IAM qualification. Geoff, who shares his confessions here.

The blogger with a great balance between ride reports and life in general, motoroz who isn't just an ordinary biker.

The blogger that does the best interviews. Stephanie, the Iowa Harley Girl.

The top sidecar blogger (and the blogger with the most names). Dom/Redleg/Charlie6. of Redlegs rides.

The most technical blogger and Chapter photographer. Axel, of Road King UK.

The blogger that took the most inspiring trip in 2011. V-Star Lady. What a great adventure she had, riding her V-Star.

The terrific writer that often makes me sit back and think about what he has written, FLHX Dave from the Road Grits Cafe. He also makes great coffee!

The fun-loving brand-loyal blogger. BeemerGirl, who has the Love of a Motorbike.

A new biking blogger that enjoys sharing as he learns. Circle Blue who has Twists and Leanings.

The blogger that moved from a warm place to a cold one, that used to write about exercise, but now mainly writes about riding his BMW, Richard.

The blogger with attitude who says what she thinks. mq01 from over at Ms M's Place.

The blogger that I learn from, irondad, The Intrepid Commuter.

The blogger with the coolest custom motorcycles. Ian Solley, of 7 Ages Custom Motorcycles.

The blogger with the most impressive beard, WooleyBugger of Wooley’s Rants and Sonic Cleaning.

A very keen moto-blogger, who writes about riding her Scooter experiences, Princess Scooterpie.

The blogger that disappeared for a while and then came back. Baron.

The blogger that is on the mend. Jimbo, who will hopefully soon be back to Premeditated Scootin'.

The blogger with many years of biking experience, Doug, who has spent more than Forty Years On Two Wheels.

Plus of course, all other bloggers that I have failed to mention.

and finally, my favourite blogger that doesn't even write a blog. Mrs France.

Thank you all for your terrific blogs and I look forward to reading more about you and your adventures in the year ahead.

It only leaves me to wish you all a Happy Christmas and a terrific New Year. I hope you all have many great rides in 2012.

I need your help - what cars are these?

2011-12-19T13:20:00.001Z

When I was on my ride through the USA last year, I saw and photographed two cars. I want to refer to these in my book about the trip but I am afraid I don't know what they are. Does anyone out there know?

I believe the lighter car might be a Chevrolet Impala, but I am not certain and I don't have a clue what the green car is. I will be very grateful for any information!

It won’t look like this for long....

2011-12-15T17:54:00.001Z

The design stage of my new custom bike is progressing well and should be finished within a week or so.

I am not going to give anything away about what it might eventually look like, but there are some pictures below showing what the donor bike currently looks like.

So, what will we be keeping from the existing bike? Just two things. The engine and the frame. A whole bunch of spare parts will be going on eBay soon!

The completed bike should be ready by the middle of April, so I will keep you posted!

How and Why did you get into Motorbikes?

2011-11-30T10:07:00.001Z

I have read a few motorcycling blogs recently that I haven't seen before. With almost all of them, I was left wondering how the authors of those blogs initially got into biking, and why?

This wondering has got the better of me, so I thought I would ask.

Keen to set the ball rolling, I have set out below my reasons. I would like to know your reasons, so if you want to participate in this, then write something on your own blog about 'How and Why I got into Motorbikes'. Then, so we can keep track of the responses, please add a comment to this post, with a link to your own post.

Here is my biking background....

I can remember that when I was really young, maybe at around the age of four, that my Father had a motorbike with a sidecar. Rather frustratingly, that is all I can remember of this.

At about the age of 13, I was taken to some motorcycle races and I really enjoyed these. I went for a couple of seasons and at the time, it was the Yamaha's and Suzuki's that prevailed and I watched the end of the Norton racing decline. Racers like Giacomo Agostini, Barry Sheene and Kenny Roberts dominated and produced exciting racing.

Money was short in our family as my wonderful mother was raising us four kids on her own. My father had died when I was 11 years old and as the eldest boy, I felt the need to start working as soon as possible to help out financially. I was sixteen when I left school and got my first job, full time. The only form of transport I could afford was a pedal cycle and I rode that 13 miles to work and 13 miles home again each day. This kept me fit and I was as thin as a rake back then!

At 17, continuing to ride a bicycle was becoming impractical in all seasons, so I decided to buy a small motorbike (a Honda C90) as a necessity to travel to and from work. I bought a small motorbike because it was the only form of vehicle I could afford and I rode that bike along with its two replacements every day for about five years, in all weathers. Really good gloves and waterproofs were unusual and cost way too much for my limited budget, so I used to suffer really badly with the cold. Riding in snow is not much fun if you have to because it is the only way to get to work.

Like many others, marriage and children put an end to my early motorcycling days and it wasn't until many years later that I bought my next bike. Early for a meeting in London, I had about 45 minutes to waste, so I went to see a nearby Harley-Davidson dealer. I admired the shiny gleaming machines so much that I arranged to rent a Road King for a weekend. Within an hour of riding the bike, I had decided to buy one. Returning the rental bike saw me ordering one for myself. That was six years ago and since then, I have thoroughly enjoyed my re-introduction to biking. I guess I am a born-again biker!

What's your story?

Protest Ride

2011-11-25T19:15:00.000Z

I don’t often protest. In fact, I cannot remember ever joining a public protest.

I did last Tuesday though because it was about something that I care a lot about – motorbikes!

The European Parliament makes laws that affect all of Europe and sometimes these laws are just plain stupid. It was becoming clear that the law makers were considering draft proposals that could mean home maintenance and the fitting of non-standard parts on motorbikes would not be allowed. If passed, this anti-biking legislation could severely restrict what for some is a common practice. Imagine not being able to modify, say, a Harley-Davidson with different exhaust pipes, or not being able to change the shocks on your sports bike, not being able to maintain the chain, brakes or doing the tuning on your own bike yourself. This proposed legislation is clearly a nonsense, and we needed to do something about this.

Motorcycle News, the weekly UK biking newspaper, had organised a protest ride at the centre of the European Parliament, in Brussels, Belgium. Previous protest rides had taken place in various UK locations, but while these had helped to consolidate feelings in this country, they lacked impact where it really mattered, in Brussels. I was able to attend, so at 4.30am on Tuesday morning my alarm clock rattled me awake and after making coffee for the ride, I hit the road at 5.00am on my way to Belguim.

The ride to the coast at Folkestone was in the dark the whole way. Worse, it was 98 miles of fog that meant keeping the speed down while having to crack on in order to get the bike onto the right Channel Tunnel train to France. I just made it in time and drank my previously made coffee while waiting in line to board the train....

I recognised a fellow rider in the train as we journeyed under the sea and five of us agreed to ride together to Brussels. Stopping for fuel and supplies replenishment, we pressed on riding through France and soon crossed the border into Belgium. Arriving in Brussels caused some confusion as at the last minute, the assembly point was changed and after struggling to find it for a while, we eventually arrived in good time.

A midweek protest ride in late November in another country that meant you would have to take your bike abroad, was never going to attract huge numbers, but we were pleased to see between 150 and 200 bikes had made the journey from the UK.

Me in Brussels with the Leading ladies....

Brief speeches were made by MCN’s Steve Farrell, Motorcycle Action Group’s Ian Mutch, British Motorcyclist’s Federation’s Chris Hodder and MP Mike Weatherley. Red Dwarf actor Danny John-Jules was also there. This is Ian Mutch talking to the assembled bikers.....

The bikes start the protest ride....

I have to say the Belgium police were fantastic. They lead the ride in their vehicles and at every junction and traffic light on the 5 mile route around the city, police stopped all traffic and waved the bikes through.

Here is MCN’s video of the protest....

The bikes arriving outside the European Parliament....

Marta Andreasen, a supportive MEP, talking to some of the bikers....

The bikes rode back to the assembly point before setting off back to the UK. All of the police motorcyclists and those in vans and other vehicles also went back to the assembly area as well. As they left, the protesting bikers spontaneously applauded the police for the great job they had done. The police smiled, waved back and blew their horns in recognition – an unusual and great moment.

The journey back to Calais and the train was uneventful and we arrived in time to get the planned train. I arrived back home at about 8pm having completed 476 miles on the trip.

I will keep you posted regarding what happens with the proposed legislation. Let’s hope these meddling politicians change their minds!

Survey about the future of motorcycles

2011-11-23T14:03:00.001Z

I was contacted recently to complete a survey about the future of motorcycles, especially in respect of drive trains. Part of some research by Triumph Motorcyles, the survey is about people’s expectations of new motorbikes, so that it can help Triumph to specify the next generation of bikes.

Tim, the guy doing the survey said “This is an opportunity to let your opinions reach the people who actually make the big decision on future motorcycle models so please make the most of it! We would appreciate it if you could forward this on to as many other fellow riders as possible.”

If you want to take part in this anonymous survey, here is the link.

Feel free to re-post this on your own blog.

For those that don't know how do it manually

2011-11-19T08:44:00.001Z

I recently changed the name of my blog and some of you have noticed the link from you own blog back to mine is still called USA Tour on a Harley-Davidson.

I assumed that these links back to my blog would automatically update to the new name somehow, but they don’t. You have to change it manually on your own blog and I have noticed that many of you have already done that in your own blog so the link to mine reads correctly. Thank you for doing that.

If you don’t know how to do make this change manually, here is how you do that, assuming you are using Blogger....

You know where you add a new link to your blog list? That is also where you change the name of a blog on your list

It is in your dashboard (which is also called Design, depending on which version of Blogger you are using), go there and click on ‘Layout’ (which again depending on the version of Blogger, may be in a drop-down menu) and this takes you to how you have laid out the various elements of your own blog page. On that layout page, find whatever you have called your blog list – some may call it, ‘The Blogs I Read’, ‘Blogs of Interest’, or something like that. Click on edit and that takes you to where you add new blogs to that list.

Next to the names of the existing blogs, you can edit or remove the existing blogs on your list. Find ‘USA Tour on a Harley-Davidson’ and rename it to “Flies in your Teeth”. Then click on Save to close the box and then it’s all done.

Many have already done this, so try it. I will be checking up on you to see if you have successfully changed the name!

We went to lay a wreath

2011-11-17T10:12:00.001Z

Each year on Remembrance Sunday, the H-D dealer I use, Warr’s, organises a ride out to honour the war dead.

I had never been before, so I thought it about time I did.

That was last Sunday and we were blessed with a warm and sunny autumn day. About 35 bikes had arrived at Warr’s for the ride. As usual with most H-D ride outs, there was the obligatory pre-ride safety briefing beforehand and unlike the last ride out, I was there in plenty of time to get a cup of coffee and to listen to the briefing before we left.

If you have never been on a H-D ride out before, it is an impressive sight. By some standards, this was not a large gathering, but 35 Harley-Davidsons riding along any road is an impressive sight and it turns many heads. Lead by Scottie, we rumbled through the busy roads of south-west London and some waved to about the same number of scooters heading in the other direction as they rode into the capital for what was probably a scooter meeting of some sort. The familiar smell of two-stroke engine exhaust wafted through the air, reminding some of us of our earlier riding years.

Soon, we reached the leafy scenic lanes of Surrey and encountered some slippery steep downhill roads that needed more attention than usual. I was riding three bikes back behind a guy I didn’t recognise and he was being more careful than most as he made his way through the twisting winding roads and his slightly slower pace meant we were falling back from the main group a little, not that this mattered. It wasn’t until later I discovered he had only taken his bike test three weeks earlier and this was one of his first long-ish rides, so my full admiration goes to him!

We stopped for a break and a coffee at a place called Forest Green and re-assembled for the traditional two minutes of silence at exactly 11am to remember those that gave the ultimate sacrifice for their fellow countrymen. We bowed our heads and stood still as a mark of respect of those soldiers from around the world that fought on behalf of others.

11am is the time chosen in many parts of the world to remember the war dead as it was the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" of 1918 that the Armistice signed between the Allies and Germany at Compiègne in France, took effect to formally cease the hostilities of World War I. Remembrance Sunday has of course gone on to remember the war dead from all wars, not only WWI.

The ride continued to Elstead where there is a small war memorial and we laid a wreath. Our group of 35 or so were from many different nationalities as so it was appropriate that a few words were said that we should remember the dead from all countries.

Nearby is the Mill at Elstead, a pub and restaurant , where we stopped for lunch of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. Marvelous!

Wikipedia tells me that Elstead Mill, was occupied by Oliver Cromwell’s ‘roundhead’ army during the English Civil War of 1642-1651, but subsequently burnt down. The present structure is therefore thought to date back to the 17th century. The river flows through the mill at can be seen from inside the building.

We broke up as a group and made our own way back from there and as I rode, I thought about what a good day it had been. I promised myself I would go on the same Warr’s ride next year. After arriving home, it didn’t take me long to fall asleep on the sofa....

Time for a Change

2011-11-14T22:19:00.001Z

When I started this blog, I gave it a very specific name to reflect the tour of the USA I was about to undertake. Now that that trip is well and truly over, the title long longer fits, so it is time for a change.

I hope you like the new title.

The Seven Day Challenge

2011-11-10T23:06:00.001Z

Trobairitz threw down a challenge to fellow Bloggers.

“If you had unlimited funds and could have one bike for every day of the week, what bikes would you choose? Please do a blog post listing which bike you would choose for which day of the week and why”.

As a biking Blogger, how could I resist this? The simple answer is, I couldn’t. Here is my list....

Monday

I would have to start the week with what is probably the bike that started this bug of motorcycling for me. As a kid, I used to go watch motorcycling at a race circuit called Brands Hatch and the single rider that made the most impression on me was Barry Sheene. I idolised this guy with his outstanding riding style, long hair, good looks and a seemingly endless supply of beautiful women by his side. The bike I remember watching him ride the most and the bike he won his two 500cc World Championships on was a Heron-Suzuki like the one in the picture below. I would love to own this bike and would ride it every Monday in honour of my early-age hero, Barry Sheene....

Tuesday

On a Tuesday, I would like to pay homage to a guy called Larry Desmedt. Like many, he became interested in motorcycles at an early age. His early life was full of trouble and after being convicted of bank robbery and spending time in prison, he turned his life around by concentrating on building motorcycles. Indian Larry as he became known crafted some of the most beautiful custom motorcycles the world has ever seen. Larger than life itself, Indian Larry was a true master of building bikes. His talents are sorely missed by all in the custom bike industry. This is one of his wonderful bikes, which I would love to own and would cherish every Tuesday....

Wednesday

On a Wednesday, I would look to the past and want to ride a Brough Superior SS100. Just 3048 Superiors were made between 1919 to 1940 and about 1000 still exist today. Each individual SS100 bike was test ridden to more than 100mph before delivery. Lawrence of Arabia owned seven of these bikes and died from injuries sustained while crashing one, and one of the doctors attending him was so affected by the incident he began a long study of what he saw as the unnecessary loss of life by motorcycle riders. His research led to the use of crash helmets. I have seen four Brough Superiors in one collection and I would definately want one as part of my seven day rides....

Thursday

By Thursday, I would want to move away from nostalgia and have some fun. I have never owned a dirt bike, but I would want one. I don’t know much about them and have no preference regarding which make or model, so I chose one at random from the web. I am sure one of my biking buddies would teach me the finer points of riding one....

Friday

Each Friday, I would look at my bikes and wonder what to ride just before the weekend. Because it carried me around the USA without complaint or problem, I would have to keep my 2006 Harley-Davidson Road King called the Leading Ladies and ride this bike each Friday to celebrate that once in a lifetime ride of 20,000 miles in such a great country....

Saturday

Saturday is a day to ride and be seen, so having an eye catching bike would be my Saturday choice. For me, it would have to be a custom bike and I would want to combine a classic bike from the past with the modern styling of today. I have admired the work of California based bike builder Matt Hotch and last year he produced a custom bike with a Vincent Black Shadow engine. The bike is a stunning collaboration of old and new and I can see myself cruising through London on the bike on a Saturday evening. How cool is this bike.....

Sunday

I have saved the best until last, for this bike combines my two true motorcycling loves – touring and customs. It is a bike that will allow me to go touring on a true custom bike. The trouble is, I cannot show you a picture yet, because building it has only just started. You will have to wait until the Spring to see what it looks like....

Okay, that is only six bikes really, so here goes with my seventh, until my new custom tourer is ready. I would go for the MV Augusta F4 Corse because it is the sexiest bike I think I have ever seen. This is pure art....

Great idea, Trob!

Is winter a problem for bikers? I love it.

2011-11-09T20:31:00.003Z

For those of us in more northerly places, the onset of winter normally brings the blues. The weather we have enjoyed in the summer and autumn slips away and the rain, cold and even snow and frost appear. 　Once the clocks go back and darkness falls ridiculously early, we tend to put our bikes away until the spring. 　We tend to miss our motorcycling passion and a mild form of depression normally sets in.

Not for me!

I love this time of year!

That is because It is around now I am planning my rides for the following year. This is what I have planned so far....

10 days riding around Cuba in February. 　I cannot wait to see all the old cars and motorbikes in this very unusual country.

In May, I will be returning to St. Tropez for the Harley-Davidson Euro Festival. Jackie and I will be driving in a car (our Cobra) on our way to take the car all the way back to southern Spain from London and we will be stopping in St. Tropez in southern France on the way. I will be shipping a bike to St. Tropez to use while we are there.

In June, four of us will be getting. Ferry from England to northern Spain and the riding our custom bikes about 900 miles to Cascais in southern Portugal for the main H-D European Rally, then back again. 　My son Charlie will be joining us on that ride along with friends Paul (who joined me for part of my USA tour last year) and Ian who I went to Croatia with.

At some stage I want to ride to St. Petersburg in Russia, but that might have to wait until 2013.

Planning these trips is great fun and keeps me sane at this time of year. It does however drive Jackie a little crazy as our office is often covered in maps and books and other stuff needed for road trip planning.

Is anyone else planning for next year already?

My son gets a cool bike

2011-11-04T17:55:00.001Z

My eldest son, Charles (or Charlie as he likes to be called) used to ride small motorbikes, but as he never took his motorcycle test, these were limited in size to under 125cc. He stopped riding them a few years ago and has recently shown a revived new interest in bikes.

I recently told him that it would be good if he could come on some rides with me, but this would mean having to take his bike test in order to get a decent sized bike. I made him the rather rash promise that if he took and passed his test, he could ride to Portugal with a few of us next year. He said he would and so far has completed two of the four required parts of the test....

Part 1 – CBT or Compulsory Basic Training. This comprises the basic elements you need to master riding a motorbike. He took this course last week.
Part 2 – The Theory Test. A multiple choice question and answer paper covering the law, safety, road signs, plus a hazard perception test. Charlie took and passed this earlier this week.
Part 3 – Practical Riding Test (module 1) – Off Road. This tests your bike handling skills.
Part 4 – Practical Riding Test (module 2) – On Road. The road riding element of the test.

He is hoping to take both of the practical riding tests by the end of next week. That will then see him getting a full bike licence and he will then be able to ride any bike.

However, the imminent passing of his motorcycle test presented me with a problem. If Charlie was to ride to Portugal next year, what bike would he ride? Was I prepared to let him take one of my bikes? Hmmn. Maybe. Maybe not. We are of course talking either of my precious Leading Ladies, or gulp, my red custom bike, Tradewinds.

We could rent a bike, but most rental companies require you to be at least 25 years old and have been riding for at least 12 months. Hmmmn. He would meet neither of these requirements.

The third and most likely option was to buy him a bike. That would also prevent him from needing to ask to borrow one of mine. So, I started looking and found a perfect bike for him. A neat looking, customised bobber with a fair degree of style at a reasonable price. A saw it on the Facebook page of a Michael Noble, who runs the customisation side of Guildford Harley-Davidson. He wasn’t selling it himself, but a friend of his was, but when I called the next day, the bike had been sold just 30 minutes earlier.

Disappointed in missing such a perfect bike for Charlie, two days later I looked on e-Bay and found the very same bike for sale. A dealer had bought it and was re-selling it. I went to see them straight away and after test-riding it, I bought the bike. So, my son is now the proud owner of a very nice Bobber.... As you can see from the first picture, he looks great sitting on the bike and it suits him very well.....

Cool bike, huh?

It is a Harley-Davidson Sportster XLH1200 BOBBER 1200cc, from 1988 (the same year Charlie was born) that has done just 24000 miles. It is green and white and is tastefully Bobbed in traditional 60/70's style, with new whitewalls, new rear shocks, a new battery, new paintwork, keystone bars, a white solo seat and grips, wrapped pipes and is very clean in great condition for a 24 years old bike. I could only spot a couple of small, easiy fixed problems.

All he has to do now is pass his bike test! If he doesn’t pass, I will keep the bike for myself !!

Good luck, Charlie!

Birthday? Let’s go to Las Vegas!!

2011-11-03T01:11:00.000Z

Jackie and I just got back from a quick trip to the USA. It was her birthday and on the day before, her daughter’s birthday, so where could we go for a joint birthday celebration? Why, Las Vegas of course!

As it was a family holiday with Jackie and myself, son Jeremy, daughter Mish and her husband Des, along with their son Talon, we rented a house in south Las Vegas and treated ourselves to a week of fun and Oh Boy, did we have some fun!

Never having been to Vegas before, Jeremy seemed to enjoy himself mixing with the locals....

We rented a 1959 Cadillac Convertible, which sadly after just 24 hours developed a huge gas leak. It was great fun driving it around for that first day, although, well lets be polite and just say it was well worn....

I didn’t realise kitty litter was a fantastic way of soaking up leaking fuel! There was so much fuel coming out of the car, the gas station called the fire service!

The house we rented had a putting green in the yard....

Jackie watching the majestic fountains at the Bellagio...

I adore these fountains and could stand there and watch them for hours. Instead, I took a video of one of the shows.....

The Paris hotel, seen from the Bellagio.....

Caesars Palace is a spectacular hotel inside, especially the shopping areas....

Curved escalators, an engineering wonder (as in, I wonder how they work)....

What is this a picture of?.....

I hope you said a parking garage, or something similar. Actually it isn’t, it is a model car shop....

Me, standing in front of the famous Las Vegas sign, holding a headlight that I collected for a pal of mine (you cannot buy these LED headlights in the UK)....

Hoover Dam, with a shadow of the new bridge we were standing on....

We went to see a classic car collection at the Imperial Palace Hotel. I fell in love with this 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible. Some of the cars were for sale and this Bel Air was in immaculate condition although the $145,000 price tag turned as many heads as the car....

Do you remember the film American Graffiti? Richard Dreyfuss played a young guy who fell in love with a mysterious blonde driving a white Ford Thunderbird. Here is a 1957 T-Bird that was for sale at the car collection. I was VERY tempted to buy this car.... it was a truly beautiful car....

Mish wanted to go zip lining on her birthday, so we trooped off to the Nevada mountains and went to Bootleg Canyon. The zip lining was bloody marvellous! Here is a short video....

Of course the main event of the trip was Jackie’s and Mish’s birthdays. Happy birthday girls!.....

We crammed a lot into a week’s trip and I think it is fair to say, everyone had a great time. Now, were shall we go next year....?

Protest Ride in Brussels

2011-11-01T08:09:00.000Z

Many of my biker buddies will have heard of the crazy European Union draft proposals that could mean home maintenance and the fitting of non-standard parts on motorbikes would not be allowed. 　If passed, this anti-biking legislation could severely restrict what for some is a common practice. 　Imagine not being able to modify, say, a Harley-Davidson with different exhaust pipes, or not being able to change the shocks on your sports bike, not being able to maintain the chain, brakes or doing the tuning on your own bike yourself. 　One interpretation of the draft could mean you might not even be allowed to change a tyre! 　This proposed legislation is clearly a nonsense, and we need to do something about this.

On Tuesday 22nd November, there is a protest ride and demonstration against these proposals right at the heart of the EU beurocrats, in Brussels. 　This is being organised by Motorcycle News. 　I will be going on my bike via the channel tunnel, making the two hour ride to Brussels from Calais and taking part. 　Then getting the Channel Tunnel train back later that day. 　Anyone from the UK want to join me? It will mean a very early start!

If not, then please sign the electronic petition to stop this bullshit. 　This can be found at ..... epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/16322

100,000 and counting!

2011-10-27T15:31:00.000+01:00

Wow.

I just noticed the counter on my blog has clicked over the 100,000 hits mark.

When I started this little blog I wondered if anyone would read my stuff. It is just about a guy travelling on a motorbike.

Many thanks to all of you that have taken to time to look at my blog and sometimes write a comment about it. Without my readers, it wouldn’t be worthwhile doing, so a BIG THANKS to you!

Adventure before Dementia

2011-10-17T08:25:00.000+01:00

It was very foggy on Sunday morning when I awoke.

I was looking forward to joining the Chelsea and Fulham Harley Owners Group on their 'Last Gasp' ride out to the south coast. There might not be many other days this year for a long-ish ride, so I wanted to go if possible.

Hmmmnn, the thermometer showed just 4 degrees C (39F) but the forecast showed it would brighten up later. I thought of the song by The Clash, ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go?’

If I went, I would need to wrap up to keep warm in the first part of the ride, but that would mean being too hot later. I am going on a long trip next year on my red custom bike so I wanted to take that on this days HOG ride in order to get used to riding it long distances once again, but that meant I wouldn't have anywhere to stow my gear later if I took off my cold weather riding clothes.

My decision was to go, so I tucked into a bowl of porridge, brushed my teeth, threw an extra tee shirt on and got the red bike out of the garage.

Starting the bike was a bit of an issue due to the amount of moisture in the air which meant the two huge carbs were sucking fog into the engine. It was still early and I am sure my sleeping neighbours didn't appreciate me having to crank the engine a number of times before it burst into life, with the full force of the big twin cutting through the still cold air and shattering the morning silence. I tried to ride away as quickly and as quietly as possible, but of course, those things are not mutually compatible.

I nursed a spluttering bike through the country lanes, avoiding those stupid geese from the big house that are allowed to wander freely on the road. George and Mildred as I call them, really do not like the sound of my red bike and as they often do, they charged towards me in a frantic attack to try to scare away this noisy beast that dares to come near them.

I turned onto the motorway which resulted in two things, one good and one bad. To my relief, the spluttering stopped as the engine of the bike got hotter. To my frustration, I realised the jeans I was wearing, the thin gloves and the lightweight jacket were in no way going to stop Jack Frost from attacking me. Shit, it was cold and as ever in those conditions, it was a toss-up whether to ride fast to get there quicker but definitely colder, or slow down for a longer but slightly warmer journey. I looked at my watch and realised I was late and didn't have a choice. I opened the throttle more and the 110 inch / 1800cc engine blasted me forward faster as Jack did his work.

Thirty-three cold miles later, and after stopping to fill up with fuel, I rolled late into the London based Harley-Davidson dealer, Warrs. I was greeted by a grinning Rob Warr, who repeated the often-heard mantra "No brief, no ride". I know Rob well and have ridden with him plenty of times, including in more than one country. Knowing he was joking, I ignored his comment and sought out a warming cup of coffee instead. "Too late Gary, the coffee has all gone and we are leaving in a minute". I turned around and saw about fifty bikes, their riders pulling on helmets and gloves. I groaned inwardly with the realisation I would set off with the group on a seventy mile ride without a customary warming drink first.

I enjoy these Sunday morning ride-outs. They happen about once a month and other commitments mean that I usually manage to join about two or three a year. When I go on my own rides that I plan myself, that planning is done in a lot of detail although I acknowledge this is it as a trait that some find peculiar. I think I enjoy these Warrs ride outs because I don't have to do any planning at all. As we set out and fifty Harley's were thundering through the streets of west London, it occurred to me that I wasn't even sure where we were going! I was pretty sure we were going to be heading south towards the coast somewhere, but I was happy just to tag along.

The route was mainly on back roads, little travelled by many others on a Sunday morning. We took in Box Hill, the A272, Bluebell Railway country and we crested the South Downs to be treated with glorious views of the English Channel, glistening in the October sunshine.

Box Hill is different today than when I used to go there as a young boy on a family outing. I remember my Father driving us up the hill and admiring the splendid views of the English countryside from the top. Today, we rode into the car park at the bottom of the hill which is one of southern England's most popular biker meeting places. Our fifty Harley's created quite an entrance.

When surrounded by so many bikes in a car park, I usually spend time walking around to see what is there. Today was different as I had one important mission to accomplish - getting a coffee plus a bacon and egg sandwich. Yum.

Our ride leader for the day, Andrew Papas, guided us with ease along his pre-planned route and we arrived at our destination of the Roedean Cafe overlooking the sea. The sun had burned the fog away and it had warmed up significantly by the time we were drinking our afternoon tea as we watched boats slipping in and out of the marina below us at the bottom of the cliffs.

I did chuckle at a patch I saw on a fellow rider. It sort of sums up how I feel about me motorcycling at this point in my life. Whilst I hopefully have some time to go before this particular syndrome might strike, the slogan on the patch fits well with my current frame of mind. "Adventure Before Dementia" reflects the fact that my motorcycling is an adventure I want to enjoy while I can. Who knows what the future might hold and so being in my early fifties now, I want to make the most of whatever opportunities I can. Travelling on my bike is a big part of that.

At the Roedean Cafe, many including myself didn't want to hang around for too long though. A long 100 mile ride home faced many of us and we wanted to get back before the temperature plummeted. There was just time to ride into Brighton and to snap a picture of its pier.

Back roads were mainly abandoned for the homeward ride, which I regretted. Fast roads get you there quicker but are boring and on my custom bike, make my back ache. By the time I got home, it was quite sore from sitting in the same leaning-slightly-forward position for so long.

Overall, a really enjoyable ride of just over 200 miles. It didn't take me long to fall asleep on the sofa!

Blogging from an iPad

2011-10-13T08:30:00.000+01:00

I have discovered that yes, it is possible to write and publish posts on a blog using just an iPad plus a camera. The post below this one (about Vincent's and Velocette's) was created entirely on my new iPad 2, but I have to say it wasn't easy as I had to do many things considerably differently than with a normal blog post from a computer and had to find a few work-arounds.

The good news is it does mean that blogging while on the road is possible if you want to leave your laptop behind. It would be a mistake however to think it is easy, because it it not.

I use Blogger so what I have written here won't apply to all systems, but for those of you thinking about getting and using an iPad for use with Blogger, then this post is for you.

The first thing you need to think about is how to get the photos from your camera onto the iPad. There are no standard cable connections on the iPad, so you need to buy an iPad camera connection kit.

The two parts of the connection kit allow you to either connect your cameras USB cable or SD card to the iPad. I used the SD card connector and it was easy to move the pictures I wanted from the SD card onto the iPad.

Easy so far, but it was about to become more challenging.

There are two ways of using the Blogger software on an iPad. First by using the iPad's web browser, Safari, to connect to Blogger. Or second, to use the Blogger iPhone App. Your will note I have said iPhone App for as yet there is no Blogger iPad App.

First I tried the main version of Blogger using Safari on my iPad and it worked reasonably well, but I couldn't work out how to incorporate pictures. On a laptop I would simply browse the relevant drive and select the picture I want. But an iPad doesn't work like that so another solution is needed. I had seen that within Blogger you can link to a picture already on the web, usually on a photo uploading site like Photobucket, Picasa or Flickr. I already had a Picasa account, so I tried that. I couldn't get it to work and in fact I couldn't get anything to work to import my pictures into the normal web version of Blogger using Safari on my iPad. That was really dissapointing.

So, I turned to the iPhone App version of Blogger to see how well that works. For uploading pictures, it was easy. Sort of. The really good thing is you can upload them directly from your iPad without the need to go through a third-party photo uploading site. The bad news is the pictures are added to the bottom of your post but you cannot see them until you publish, which is completely ridiculous. So, I could easily upload the pictures using the Blogger iPhone App, but couldn't see them....

Okay, there is a way around that. I imported each of my photos I wanted to use in the post I was creating into Blogger using the iPhone App, saved that as a draft, shut down the iPhone version of Blooger, then switched back to Safari and re-opened the web version of Blogger. Opening the previously created draft, I was then able to incorporate my words and the post was nearly ready to publish. There was however one further problem - I could now see the photos I had previously included, but those photos were not in the correct position (all at the bottom of the post) and were all too large as when I imported them via the iPhone App, there was no facility to sort them into order, or to resize them. I therefore had to move the pictures around and resize them, but only by using HTML code which I am not very good at, but learning fast. It is not possible to use the 'compose' view in Blogger on an iPad like it is when using Blogger online a normal computer, so HTML is the only option you have.

It was no doubt a challenge to create the post on the iPad, but at least I worked out it could be done. It took way longer than it would normally have taken me, but it would probably become much quicker as I got more used to doing it.

What is really needed is a much better App, written specifically for iPad, that includes all the features available to normal computer users. I can't believe that will take long to be launched and in the meantime, I will continue to use the work-arounds needed to solve the current problems.

Vincents and Velocettes at the Ace Cafe

2011-10-11T10:46:00.000+01:00

A few of us were meant to go to to the Brightona bike meeting, but our plans were spoiled by the uncooperative weather. Early Sunday morning saw heavy rain and we just didn't feel like starting out on a 100+ mile journey when it was raining cats and dogs.

My friend Alex was keen however to get some miles put on his brand-new BMWK1600GT which was just a week old. We decided therefore to ride down to the Ace Cafe where the was a Vincent and Velocette day being held, and then on to the London Motorcycle Museum.

Waiting until the rain had passed, we set out on wet roads, with Both of us being careful - Alex was riding his new bike for the first time in the wet and I was on my red custom bike, which is not the best bike to ride on wet roads!

I did like the look of Alex's new bike....

We used both fast roads and slow, given the bikes a good workout in different conditions. The BMW was a class act at speed and obviously handled very well. It is a wide bike to ride in traffic though and lane-splitting the stationary vehicles!

Like most bikers, I love looking at old bikes, especially those that are in excellent condition. There were a few examples of great-looking Vincents and Velocettes sitting in front of the Ace....

This Vincent was a dream bike....

Beautiful engineering on the Vincent....

What a lovely pair....

And for the sidecar fans, you can drool over this.... Wouldn't it be wonderful riding this on winding country roads....

A great few hours riding and we stayed dry!

To Flickr or not to Flickr?

2011-10-09T21:01:00.000+01:00

I seem to have been very busy recently doing, well, a wide variety of things, mainly un-related to motorcycling. Sure, I have been travelling a little, but without a motorbike. I have been helping one of my sons move into a flat and helping another with his ideas for starting a bicycle business. I have been writing my book again and my third son has been helping me with creating the maps for that. My brother and his wife have been over to see us from Switzerland, so there have been some family get-togethers. I have recently booked two motorcycle trips for next year, one predictable and the other not (which will be the subject of a separate post).

Jackie and I were meant to go to Germany to meet up with some previous work colleagues, but that had to be cancelled due to a death in my family – an Aunt that I was quite close to.

I had put off looking at and dealing with a substantial amount of paperwork and I just had to tackle it. Boring, essential, but way too time-consuming for me.

All of these things has meant I have been neglecting my own and others’ blogs recently, but I intend to begin to put that right, starting now.

I would like to ask for some advice please. Does anyone out there reading this use an iPad for their blogging?

Due to no longer wanting to carry a laptop with me on my bike trips, I have recently succumbed to the delights (jury is still out on that one) of an iPad and I am testing how to use it for my blog posts when on the road. I can see how to do most of this, but I am struggling with one aspect and it is that I want some advice on. I use Blogger and I am not going to change from that – it works for me and I follow the adage ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. The trouble is when adding pictures to a blog post, you have to specify the location of the picture file on your computer and well, as far as I can see, you cannot do that on an iPad. So, I have looked at the other way of adding a photo to your post and that is by linking to a picture already on the web. I have never used this method, but it looks as if I will need to do so. I believe I will need to upload my photos first to something like Flickr and then link to them there.

Okay, here is the advice part....

Have I got it right about uploading to something like Flickr and then linking to the photo on there?

If I have, is Flickr the best system to use, or do my wise readers have a better solution? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

148 Bikers In A Movie Theatre....

2011-09-25T22:10:00.000+01:00

You’ve Gotta Love This.....

It was posted on YouTube just 3 days ago.

It has had nearly a million hits. Thanks to Ian for finding it....

London 2012 Olympics

2011-09-17T19:05:00.000+01:00

Some of my readers may know that I spent a good few years working on the London 2012 Olympics.

Back in 2004, I was asked to develop the strategy for how all of the venues, facilities and infrastructure needed for the London Games would be constructed. This was used as part of London’s bid to be the Host City for the Games and even though it played just a small part in convincing the International Olympic Committee to award the Games to London, I was immensely proud that my team and I helped bring the Games to my city.

I continued to work on the London 2012 Olympic Games and developed that previous strategy into the detailed plans that showed how everything would be done, at what time, the logistics needed, how the construction would take place, how and when the venues would be completed, how the test sports events would take place and all the other things needed to deliver the facilities in time.

When all the plans had been developed and the full construction team were clear about what needed to be done and how, it was time for me to leave the project in the hands of the delivery teams and I moved onto helping the Russian Government with their preparations for the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi 2014.

I am a Londoner and very proud of my city. Working on the London 2012 Olympic Games was without a doubt the pinnacle of my career and made me even more proud. After I left the project I kept up-to-date with how the construction was progressing and occasionally went back to see how the construction was progressing.

One of these such visits back to the Olympic Park was very recently, I went to see all of the completed venues. It was very rewarding to see that the construction had followed the plans I had developed years earlier. I enjoyed seeing the venues and of course a few photos were taken....

My friend Paul and I in the new Velodrome.... at 42 degrees, the banking of the track is very steep....

The two of us standing on the 10m diving board in the iconic Aquatics Centre....

The two of us standing in one of the doorways of the basketball venue. The doors have to be this high to accommodate the very tall basketball players....

I loved seeing how well the venues have been constructed. I am looking forward to the evening of Friday 27th July 2012 when Jackie and I will be sitting in the Olympic Stadium waiting for the Opening Ceremony to start. Fantastic!

Cool Old BMW

2011-09-11T12:56:00.000+01:00

BMW lovers may know what this bike is. I saw it this morning here in Spain. It says 1968 on the licence plate.

All I know is, it looks very cool and is in great condition....

This is soooo funny!

2011-08-31T00:08:00.000+01:00

Okay, it has nothing to do with bikes whatsoever, but try to watch this and not laugh.....

Tour Maps

2011-08-24T20:54:00.000+01:00

I have said it before, but I love maps. They guide you to places, they take you along roads you wouldn’t otherwise know were there, let alone find.

Studying a map and then making decisions about where to ride on a trip can be very rewarding and for some, this planning gives a foretaste of what is to come – the ride itself.

I enjoy seeing on peoples blogs, the routes that other people take, but I have one plea – please make them bigger so we can see the context. Very often the map is so zoomed in, we can see the detail, but we have no idea where in the particular country the route is. If needed, make two maps, some general and one detailed, and add them both to your blogs.

I have recently added to the bottom of my blog some big scale maps showing the overall routes I have taken on some of my recent rides. Will others do the same?

Electric Motorcycles? I was shocked, but not literally.

2011-08-20T11:15:00.000+01:00

Probably like me, you have at some point wondered what the future of motorcycling will be when the world can no longer afford the remaining petrol, or gas. It will be horrible, right? No longer will we be able to enjoy the wind rushing past us, the throaty sound of our engines, nor the feeling of exhilaration as we power around those bends. It will be a sad day when the freedom our bikes give us, will be gone.

The future can only be weak electric bikes with no character or potentially dangerous hydrogen-powered future craft. Ho hum.

At least, that’s what I thought.

WRONG!

I have just returned from a couple of weeks on holiday with the American side of my family (many of you will know that my wife Jackie is American) and this year we rented a house in Santa Cruz, California. While there, we did all the good touristy things like go to the boardwalk, rode the train at Roaring Camp and saw the Mystery Spot. But, I hadn’t been on a bike for a couple of weeks, so I took a look at the web to find something motorbike related I could go see.

I found an electric bike company based there called Zero Motorcycles, so I gave them a call and went to meetthem, and to go for a test ride.

With an idea that was formed in a Santa Cruz garage, the firm is now one of the world’s leading electric bike manufacturers. Zero saw that there was only one way for people to be convinced about their bikes. To use their own words “Since 2006, when the first prototypes were produced, Zero has invited motorcyclists to go for a ride. Some things are better experienced than explained”. I liked this approach and so after a quick tour of their facilities in hills of Santa Cruz, I went for a ride on an electric bike, for the first time.

I rode this S model....

I was given a quick explanation of the bikes controls and then Zero’s Service Manager, Matt Feinstein and I headed out for a test ride. It takes just a few minutes to get used to the bike. There are essentially just three main controls – throttle, front brake and rear brake, which are all pretty much the same as on a petrol-engined bike. There is no clutch, but one long gear, so no gear lever either for your left foot. It is pretty much twist and go, and oh boy, does it go!

Two things immediately struck me. The bike is almost totally silent and wow, it is just like riding a “normal” bike. The only noise you can hear is the wind, some tire noise and a slight noise from the electric motor, but the latter is very quiet indeed. The bike handled very well, the brakes were good and acceleration was a lot better than I thought it would be. Sure, it doesn’t have the initial grunt and low-down torque normally associated with bikes, but it wasn’t that far off. The bike handled just like any other and within just a few minutes, Matt had lead me down a section of freeway to get an idea of the speed (we were doing 70 mph) and then onto a twisty road to see how the machine handled the bends, which was very good indeed. Overall, I was surprised by just how good this bike was. We arrived back at the Zero premises and I had a huge grin on my face – it had been a blast!

Zero make a range of seven bikes... The Zero S, which was the street bike I rode, for normal urban street riding.....

The Zero DS, a street bike with on/off road capabilities, with longer suspension travel, slightly wider tires....

The Zero XU, which is more like a city commuter bike, including a removable power pack, so it can be charged in an apartment. This bike would be very easy for a complete novice to ride....

Then four dirt bikes, the first being the Zero X....

Then the same bike, but in street legal mode, with lights etc....

The bigger and more tuned Zero MX....

Finally, the same MX bike, but with lights etc making it street legal....

I found this Zero Motorcycles promotional video on the web.....

Range is obviously important on any bike and especially so on today’s electric bikes. The Zero street bikes do about 43 miles (of simulated urban riding) before needing to be charged, the commuter bike gets about 25 miles and the dirt bikes about 30-60 minutes of riding depending on how hard you twist the throttle. Speeds are just under 70 mph for the street bikes, 51 mph for the commuter bike and 53-57 mph for the dirt bikes. Batteries in all the bikes are Li-ion technology and the cost to charge the bikes is very cheap at $0.48 for the street bikes and $0.21 for the others.

I was told the cost of the bikes is between $7,500 for the smaller bikes to about $10,000 for the bigger versions.

For all electric bikes, the future is about improving the range and getting the battery charge times down. The launch of the Zero 2012 models will see street bikes with a range of about 100 miles, which isn’t too far away from some traditional engined bikes now. Present day charge times are about 4 hours for street bikes and 2 hours for the dirt bikes, which Zero hope to get down to about 40 minutes. That will make using future generation bikes as a replacement for petrol-engined bikes very possible, as a street bike with a 100 mile range that can be recharged in 40 minutes while eating lunch very realistic.

Thanks must go to Matt for taking me out for a ride and telling me about the company and the bikes, at short notice. He did a great job. This is Matt....

A couple of pictures of the Zero facilities. They were careful not to let me see the R&D department....

Finally, in the reception area was a Zero electric racing bike, which was entered into the TTX GP series for electric powered bikes....

Zero Motorcycles have an expanding dealer network. If you want to take a ride on one of these bikes yourself, check out their website.

Before I went to see Zero, I was worried about the future of motorcycling. What I found pleasantly shocked me.

I left there with the knowledge that the future of motorcycling would actually be quite good.

Spain - The Final Frontier. Plus, Police use Scooters?

2011-08-12T17:25:00.004+01:00

Concluding our trip in Spain, Paul and I soon reached the northern coast of Spain and prepared to get on board a ferry to take us back to the UK. The last few miles soon raced by as we went through the mountains to get to Bilbao, where the ferry port is located.

Before we arrived there, we had some terrific roads to ride on, set in spectacular scenery. We passed a lake with a very low water level....

We took roads that twisted through gaps in the mountains....

Here we had stopped to fix the GoPro video camera to my Harley-Davidson Road King while Paul checked his e-mails....

The gorge we rode through was very twisty and great fun. We came out the other end with big grins on our faces!....

Stopping for lunch on the northern coast of Spain, we had an exceptional view....

We stayed the night in Hondarribia, which is right on the frontier between Spain and France. This was the view from the hotel, with Spain on this side of the river and France on the other. One could say, the final frontier we saw....

Hondarribia is in the Basque country in northern Spain and this region is an Autonomous Community within Spain. It has its own language and this is immediately noticeable with road signs being very different from the majority of Spain. We stayed once again in a Parador hotel which was a converted from a 10th century fortress castle. The hotel has thankfully retained many of the castle’s original features, including one wall left in its original rubble condition....

A main dining room....

A massive stone staircase....

The bar area....

Paul and I walked into the main part of the town which being a Friday, was packed with many families, friends and groups all out enjoying the evening and the start of the weekend. The atmosphere was terrific and very laid back. We noticed this scooter, which very unusually, was a police bike! I have never seen a scooter like this before....

The next day, our ferry didn’t leave until the evening, so the two of us took a ride into France, to the town of Biarritz. Being on the Atlantic Ocean, the waves are often good enough for surfing, in a pretty spectacular setting....

More views along the coast as we made our way to the ferry....

In Bilbao, we went to see the famous Guggenheim Museum, a contemporary art museum designed by Frank Gehry. The building is known as one of the most important pieces of modern architecture in the world and it is easy to see why....

We didn’t go inside the museum, for it was the building we came to see.

Interesting public art outside the museum....

A final shot of the two of us on this trip....

And one of our bikes, which had performed tirelessly and without fault....

On the way to the ferry, we had to cross a river by a ‘flying transporter bridge’. Capable of carrying just 6 cars (or 5 cars and our two bikes) the bridge is not really a bridge at all, but a cable car that you drive into, slung beneath a tall steel structure across the river. This picture is looking back at the structure....

Paul, sitting on his bike paying the bridge attendant for the crossing....

From our ferry leaving Spain....

It was on the ferry that I discovered I had left my laptop behind in the last hotel we stayed at and a quick phone call confirmed it had been found in my room, where I had left it. It was a relatively easy job to get it couriered back to me in London.

As the ferry arrived back in Portsmouth on the south coast of England, we saw a passenger-carrying hovercraft and we passed a huge aircraft carrier, moored in the navy dockyard....

Paul and I had enjoyed an excellent motorbike tour of Spain. We had seen a great deal of the country, mainly from back-roads. It is a huge and fascinating place, full of history and character. We had travelled 2,659 miles / 4,279 kms and learned much of the way of life in many parts of Spain that the tourists rarely see. We had seen glorious weather and had only been rained on for about 30 seconds, just before leaving England.

As ever, Paul is a tremendous riding partner and we cheerfully waved each other farewell as we headed back to our own homes and our wives late on a Sunday night.

A few pointers about motorcycle touring in Spain....

The roads are of a very good quality
Beware of people walking on the roads, where very often there are no pavements / sidewalks
Away from the motorways and the main roads, there is almost no traffic
Away from the motorways, there are very few places to stay the night. Hotels and campsites are few and far between, so book ahead.
Away from motorways and especially on the back-roads, take every opportunity to fill up with fuel, especially on Sundays. Fuel filling is nearly always done by an attendant.
Beware of the lunchtime drinking culture, even by drivers. While we didn’t experience any problems at all, we did see many drivers (including truck rivers) drinking alcohol in the cafes and bars we stopped in for lunch
It can get very hot in July and August. Drink a lot and wear sun screen
Few restaurants serve dinner at night before 2030. Many don’t open until then.
Plan your motorbike ride to pass through mountain areas. The roads there are fantastic!
Away from the coast, very few people speak anything but Spanish, but this is okay. Learn 10 Spanish words and everyone will try to help you!

This Blew Me Away....

2011-08-07T02:41:00.000+01:00

Just occasionally you find something that completely blows you away.

Depending on what you are like, that might be a painting, a beautiful woman or man, a sunset, a landscape or just about anything that is stunning.

In the final few days of our motorcycle trip across Spain, Paul and I found a city called Ávila that was truly amazing because of the medieval wall built around it.

At the top of a nearby hill, we climbed off our bikes and just stood and looked at the amazing sight of the city before us. It blew me away....

(if you have never double-clicked on a blog photo before, now is the time)......

A short un-edited video overlooking the city....

The medieval wall surrounds the whole city and is about 40 feet or 12 metres high. There are 88 of the semi-circular towers built into the wall....

Ávila dates back to the 5th century BC, when it was inhabited by The Vettones who were one of the pre-Roman Celtic peoples of the Iberian Peninsula. The main wall surrounding the city was started in 1090.

The city also contains a high number of Roman and Gothic churches, one of which is extraordinary. The main Cathedral took 300 years to build between the 12th and 15th centuries. It contains a mixture of designs, reflecting the change in styles over the period of it's construction. This is the main entrance facade....

Just inside the entrance is a wooden model of the Cathedral, which was helpful to get an overview of the complex shape and sizes of its various parts....

The symmetry of the stone ceilings cannot fail to impress....

The scale of the interior is very impressive....

There is a stone screen that divides one part of the Cathedral from the main altar. The carving on the screen is exquisite and took 12 stonemasons five years to complete....

A book of songs, from the 5th century....

Ávila is a truly amazing place and we walked around the myriad of small narrow streets just looking at the incredible buildings and places to see. What a place this is....

Even though we returned from Spain a few weeks ago, I wanted to include a couple of final posts of that trip. I am so behind in my blogging!

Amy Winehouse

2011-07-30T08:15:00.000+01:00

Rarely does someone really strike you with the sound of their voice. Amy Winehouse was one of those people. The way she sang was simply wonderful.

It was with considerable sadness, but not much surprise, that I learned of her death a week ago. I was on the ferry returning from Spain when I heard the news. I didn’t have any affinity with Amy herself and it was clear some time ago that she had pressed the self-destruct button, but I did feel a loss for the music the world would now not be able to hear – the music she had yet to make.

I was in London yesterday and I realised I was very close to where Amy Winehouse lived, so I went and took a look at her house, the flowers and tributes.

Sadly, I think the empty booze bottles containing flowers speak volumes about her life.

Rest In Peace Amy.

Riding North Through Spain

2011-07-22T08:23:00.001+01:00

Paul and I are now well into riding back through Spain, this time northbound, heading back home. We are about halfway and enjoying our ride as much as we did on the outward leg.

This is the white mountain town of Casares, which is not too far from my house in Sotogrande. It is amazing the way the houses are perched on the hillside. The houses have small windows and are white to reflect the sun to keep the temperature low inside. There is no air-conditioning here!....

The road from Casares to Ronda was magnificent and as good to ride as any we have seen on our trip. Fast bends, fast straights, slow hairpin bends and glorious views – this road had them all.

Even though it is only a hundred miles or so from Sotogrande, I have never been to Ronda before and I didn’t know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised as it seemed busy with many interesting places to go see. They would have to wait for another day as Paul and I didn’t have time to explore much when we went through, but we did stop to have a look at the dramatic bridge that crosses the canyon that runs through the town. Here we parked the bikes just at the edge of the bridge. In Spain it seems you can park a motorbike just about anywhere....

The bridge itself. Not a great photo due to the harsh sunlight and the deep shadows, but just look at the scale of this stone bridge. Check out the person standing on the bridge, top left, so get an idea of the height of the bridge. The bridge is 390 feet tall, or 120m. Construction started in 1751 and wait for it... took 42 years to complete! To build something as dramatic as this must have drawn people from miles around just to see what back then, would have been a wonder to behold....

A horse drawn carriage, no doubt carrying tourists, is driven over the bridge....

We ended the day staying in another Parador, this time in Antequera. We left early to get as far as we could in the cool of the morning and were rewarded with a splendid sunrise....

I forgot to mention something that happened on the journey south through Spain. One morning, we left our hotel very early and riding through the mountains we were stopped by the “Guardia Civil” who are the federal military-status police force. Amongst many other areas, they are responsible for all highway patrol matters and often make random stops of vehicles to check all the paperwork is in order. Two surprising things happened. First, the two Guardia Civil guys saluted us as we stopped our bikes. I have heard they did this and it was good to see it. Then after checking our papers (in Spain you are required to carry all vehicle papers, insurance details etc) and seeing all was in order, they chatted to us for a while in good English and advised the bike-to-bike radios we were using are illegal in Spain. We had no idea about this and they asked Paul to unplug his before we rode off. It seemed to us that maybe there was a possibility they were wrong and using the radio is no more distracting than speaking to another person, say, in the same car you are driving. I will try to find out more and post what I discover.

Paul admiring the view of a mist covered mountain....

Even in a foreign language, don’t you just love signs like this?....

Talking of foreign languages, there was one translation on a menu that made us laugh. At one restaurant, we were given an English version of the menu. At the beginning of each section of the menu was a food-related quote, one of which was the following by Quevedo.... “What are you thinking, my friend, what do you think about me? For you stuff me with turkeys and hens, dessert in suppositories, purgatives and medicines”. Something was not quite right with the translation, I think, but it did make us laugh!

We stopped at a place called Guadalope for something to eat and sat in the town square, opposite the monastery. The huge carvings in the sandstone external walls were remarkable and ornate....

The carving is exquisite and measures about five feet by four....

It was very dark inside the monastery so taking hand-held pictures was very challenging. This is of the wall above the altar....

Returning to the bikes which we had no option to park in the sun, this is what greeted us. It was a little warm!....

Occasionally when riding along, you see something that you cannot understand what it is. Paul and I saw the top of this structure and had to go check it out. It is an amazing new cantilevered bridge being constructed just outside the city of Talavera de la Reina. I am sure this will become an iconic structure after the road it carries is opened....

The Leading Ladies, in front of Mombeltran Castle....

Just above the castle is an impressive road that climbs steeply up a mountain. This is the view looking back down....

We made our way to a city called Avila for the night. That city is so impressive, it deserves a post all of its own, but you, my dear readers, will have to wait for that....

Messing About In Boats and the Virgen del Carmen

2011-07-19T22:12:00.002+01:00

One of the benefits of riding to Spain is that my wife Jackie and Paul's wife Sarah were able to fly down and we all got to spend a week together in Sotogrande in southern Spain. The flight from London is about 2.5 hours, and the drive to the house is a short one of just about an hour. Of course, Sarah flew with their son, Jack, who must be one of the most happy babies I have ever seen. He enjoyed the flight and didn’t disturb the other passengers!

Having had great weather all the way through Spain on our ride, we were lucky that the weather continued to be terrific and we basked in glorious sunshine for the week.

We are really lucky that our house is next to the water and we have a small boat that we just love messing about in. But first, the five of us headed out in a larger boat that belongs to a friend and we went along the coast to Puerto Banus, a well known port along this stretch of the coast. This is Jack looking rather worried about his first boat trip, sitting between Jackie and Sarah just as we were getting ready to leave....

Jack still looking worried....

He soon cheered up however when we let him drive the boat!....

On the way, we were spotted by some Dolphins that decided to play in our wake....

Puerto Banus and some of the boats moored there....

Jackie and Sarah relaxing while Jack in between them gets down to some serious relaxing!....

Jack waking up, being cuddled by Jackie....

We had a wander around the marina and had a good lunch before heading back to Sotogrande. Paul was obviously tired as he was asleep on the back of the boat.....

On another day we went into the local mountains by train to a small town called Benaojan where we had a leisurely lunch. The train arrives near the restaurant at around 1pm and doesn’t leave again until 4.40pm, so there is ample time to eat! Here we are at the restaurant....

In trying to match one certain blogger who often posts pictures of his food, here is the salad I ate as a first course. It was delicious!....

Young Jack, taking it easy after lunch....

Jack again, being fed by yours truly....

The second part of this blog post is about a Spanish Festival, called Virgen del Carmen. The virgin icons of the church in Spain are very important and one of these is the Virgen del Carmen who has been adopted as the patron Saint of the sea. On 16th July each year her revered statue is taken from the local church and paraded through the streets and down to the sea. In some towns, the statue is then taken onto a heavily decorated boat and accompanied by other boats, taken for a trip on the sea. Such a festival happens in Sotogrande and we decided to see the parade and join in the flotilla. It was quite a sight!

Here are Jackie and me on our way to see the procession, with the picture courtesy of Paul....

At the front of the procession were three small girls in fancy Spanish costumes....

The procession making its way alongside the port....

The Virgen del Carmen statue, held aloft by the people of Sotogrande....

The parade is accompanied by fireworks. Not just any fireworks, but the loudest fireworks I have ever heard. Next comes the crazy part. The boats that will make up the flotilla assemble on the water and jostle for position to get a good view of the statue. Having so many boats in one place all moving could produce quite a few insurance claims, but remarkable, we didn’t see any of the boats collide. There were some close calls however....

The boat carrying the statue is the white one, in the middle of this picture....

This short video shows the boats following the boat with the statue. Large boats, small boats, overloaded boats and even jet-skis join in....

I cannot believe how many guys were in the small boat on the left....

The flotilla moves out on the sea, with the Rock of Gibraltar in the background....

The boats against the setting sun, thankfully all going in the same direction....

Being Spain, little regard is taken of health and safety. It is actually quite refreshing to see these kids enjoying themselves. Yes I know they might fall in. Yes I know they should have life jackets on....

It was great fun. As the final picture below shows, it looks absolute chaos, but everyone was being very sensible....

I love messing about in boats!

The Sierra Nevada Mountains (in Spain)

2011-07-18T07:52:00.000+01:00

I was looking forward to the ride on day 4 of our ride across Spain as we were to cross the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Having ridden across the mountains of the same name in California, I wanted to complete the set and ride both ranges in different continents.

We knew we had a long days riding so leaving early was a must. We skipped breakfast and continued our journey south. Paul riding around a bend with a spectacular background....

The view of the lake near Hornos, north-east of Granada....

Fantastic bends, just inviting you to take them at speed....

The dam that forms Lake Negratin....

The water behind the dam is very clean and clear and the fish make the most of the food thrown in by the passing tourists stopping to look at the dam. I think these were about 12 - 15 inches long....

The lake is surrounded by trees and this makes the views even more special as you catch a glimpse of the turquoise water....

Not as tall as there US counterparts, the mountains in the Spanish Sierra Nevada only rarely reach above the tree line....

A haze was in the air, making a clear view of the mountains impossible....

Looking down on one of the small towns in the mountains....

Mile after mile of Olive trees, for which Spain is famous....

Rounding one bend, a fire was blazing away on the hillside. It looked like the grass between the olive trees was on fire, but it was also catching some of the trees....

What is it about signs like this that make motorcyclists stop and take a picture?....

2,000 metres or 6,500 feet is not spectacularly high, but it had provided some terrific roads to get up to that point.

Another of the mountain villages....

I love the roads in the foreground of this picture, crossing from side to side in a long ride down the hill to get into the village....

Many of the bends have their sides protected by these stone blocks....

We rode 317 miles in the mountains today, which was quite tough. By the time we found our hotel in the town of Berchules, we were very tired. It was all we could do to eat at the hotel of get to bed early. I slept very well that night.

The following morning we had a 184 mile ride, mainly along the coast, to get to my house in Sotogrande, in southern Spain. We had ridden 1259 miles from Pauls house near London to my house in Spain. We were greeted by my wife Jackie, who had flown down the day before, and that afternoon Paul drove to Malaga Airport to meet his wife Sarah and son Jack. We were to spend 5 days relaxing with our wives before heading out on the road again.

Running On Empty

2011-07-17T08:56:00.001+01:00

Before we left the splendour of Siguenza, Paul bade farewell to a new buddy who had spent years hanging around the reception of the hotel....

Our next main day of riding was on faster roads to the east side of Madrid and still keeping off the motorways, we found fast roads with many bends. These were good long fast bends where sticking to the speed limit is very difficult. We rode along the side on one hill, where the road was cut into its slope, overlooking a valley. This was the sort of road with almost no vehicles, where you could see no cars were coming in the other direction and the bends are just sooooo inviting that flipping the bike right and left for bend after bend, where riding the wrong side of the road is perfectly safe, allowing the bends to be taken even faster than normal. It was just fantastic. We stopped and looked back at the valley and the road on the left....

The weather continues to be incredible and being in the sun all day with an open-faced helmet means sun protection is essential.

Towns and villages are few and far between in this part of the country. The houses are nearly always painted white to reflect the heat of the sun as a way of keeping the non air-conditioned houses cool. This one was perched atop a hill....

Paul, in his ATGATT.... phew it was hot for all this gear....

We found one road in a canyon of about 1.5 miles long. It was so good, we rode it four times. The road surface was brand new with no bumps and changed in elevation to reflect the natural contours of the land. The road reminded us of a car slot-racing game called Scalextric and it was such a joy to ride this road, we did it four times! I fixed the video camera to my bike to record this terrific road, but sadly I could not open the file on my computer, so am not able to include it here.

Nearby, we stopped and admired the view of another canyon called Mirador Del Cararizuelo....

Another white village, set amongst the hills....

My Road King has a fuel range of anywhere between 130 and about 190 miles. I had noticed I was getting low on fuel and after estimating how much I had left and comparing this to my GPS / Sat Nav information about likely petrol stations, we realised we were in trouble and would have to divert off our planned route, just to find fuel. We could see the nearest fuel (if it was open) was about 35 miles away and I had already done 160 miles since I last filled up. This was going to be close! We rode as conservatively as possible and I even coasted down a long hill about 4 miles to save fuel. Keeping the revs low and riding really slowly I made the most out of the tiny amount of fuel left in the tank. I was certainly running on empty. Twice the engine spluttered and stopped when braking but luckily restarted and we made it to the petrol station with 197 miles showing since I last filled the bike up. Luckily it was open! Phew!!

One of the places we stopped to look at along the way....

A lake near where we stopped for fuel....

I cannot remember where this was, but we had to stop to look down into the impressive canyon and the wonderful coloured water in its river. There were a few people swimming in the river....

A strange shaped top to the hill....

We rode 284 miles on this day. Another great days riding.

Head For The Hills!

2011-07-14T22:38:00.000+01:00

I am way behind with my blogging, so am trying to catch up and post about the journey Paul and I are taking through Spain.

Riding here is so easy. We are mainly keeping away from bigger cities and are taking as many back roads as possible, where the traffic is very light. We are of course riding on the wrong side of the road, which means the right, but it is surprising how quickly we have got used to that and rarely think about it. Like in many countries, the roads here are generally straight when the land is flat and only become more interesting in areas of hills and mountains. So, for our journey south through Spain, that is where we headed – for the hills! We did under-estimate the amount of time it would take to ride some of these roads. While 350 – 500 miles a day are possible when on motorways and large straight roads, we have been riding on very twisty roads and managing between 150-300 miles after riding all day.

On day 3 of this trip we clocked up just 191 miles.

The route we chose gave us a few surprises and undoubtedly that is one of the great benefits of touring – you just don’t know what you might find. For example, we went through a town called Santa Cruz, a timely co-incidence as I loved what I saw in Santa Cruz in California when I was there last year, so much that I will be back there in August....

We took an unplanned detour and found a dam-formed lake that we didn’t expect. This is Lake Ezquiza just to the east of Burgos....

Our route planning was relatively easy – we chose to ride on the roads marked green on the Michelin Maps Series I prefer to use, and this means they are scenic, and invariably located in the hills. Motorways are generally dull and provide almost nothing interesting to see, so we avoid them whenever we can. You really get to see what a country or area is like on the smaller roads.

When in the remote parts of Spain, towns are cities are few and far between. The towns are small and you stop for refreshments at tiny bars / restaurants, many family run. This was the case in Pineda, where we were the only customers at 11 am....

While people speak English at the majority of the coastal tourist locations, few speak anything but Spanish in the central and more remote parts of Spain. Neither Paul or I speak anything than just a few words of Spanish, but with a gestures, pointing and speaking very simply, enough basic communications are possible and we can get by. Most of the staff working at hotel receptions thankfully do speak English.

One of the benefits of heading for the hills is this is generally where the better scenery is. In northern Spain the mountains are not huge or very tall, but they can still be spectacular....

After having a good breakfast at the Parador we stayed at last night, we didn’t need a big lunch. In Spain, many bars serve ‘Tapas’ which are small dishes often cooked on the premises. With our poor Spanish, it is often fun trying to guess what the food is and ordering dishes by pointing and guessing what they might be. It always seem to work as we have never gone hungry! Paul and I headed for the main square in one mid-sized town and enjoyed just resting from the midday sun as we ate Tapas and drank....

This was the view of a church we had as we ate....

History is everywhere in Spain. The buildings are generally very old and have many stories to tell. This is a castle built on top of a hill. We of course had to stop for pictures....

As we neared Sigüenza we were stunned by the view of the town where we would spend the night. The castle atop the hill, was originally built in the fifth century, converted to a Bishop’s Palace in 1123, fell into disuse in the 1800’s and a restoration began in 1964 when the castle was turned into a Parador Hotel....

While the castle may seem a grand place to stay, the room rates are not at all unreasonable and no more than would be paid for, say a modern chain hotel in a large city.

This is the inner courtyard....

Some of the castle walls and the gateway entrance....

Paul and I had rooms on the upper floor that had a balcony, facing into the courtyard....

From high on the hill where the castle was, we walked down into the town to take a look around. First we went to see the Cathedral. It looks only moderate from outside....

But, when you walk inside, your eyes feast upon such majestic beauty....

The magnificent vaulted brick roof....

We sat in the town square and had a drink. It was a very hot evening....

We were very lucky, as we had no idea that at the time we were there, a medieval festival was taking place in the town and in the grounds of the castle. We had arrived on the opening evening of the festival and stalls were being set up in the streets to sell medieval related wares....

Back at the castle....

We were very surprised to first hear and then see, 55 Harley-Davidsons enter the courtyard of the castle....

This was a Chapter from Toulouse in France on a week-long outing to northern Spain....

Paul and I walked back into the town to see what was involved in a medieval festival. There was food, band playing music from centuries ago, a band walking through the streets, sword-fighting demonstrations and even people dressed as monks cooking on the barbeques....

It was an excellent evening and one that I would thoroughly recommend, should anyone reading this be in northern Spain at this time of year.

On The Road Again.... Spain

2011-07-08T06:23:00.002+01:00

My regular readers will remember my good friend, Paul, joined me for the first two weeks of my tour of the USA last year. Yesterday morning, the two of us set out on a 2700 mile road trip heading for southern Spain.

We started out early and tried to dodge the rain which we did all the way to just outside Portsmouth where we were to catch the ferry to northern Spain. We chatted to five young guys who had bought old Honda C70 or C00, aka Cubs and were planning to ride them 800 miles back to England across northern Spain and France. They were a funny bunch of guys who had tried to make the small bikes look as cool as possible with stickers and even some fake fur. I am sure they were going to have a blast!

We left the ferry terminal and headed past the Naval Dockyard where ferries rub shoulders with hi-tech navy ships....

This is HMS Victory, best known for being Lord Nelson’s flagship that lead the British fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar...

Paul on the back of the ferry as we made our way to Santander in Spain. The journey took 23.5 hours....

We have planned to do the journey south in 4.5 days, stay at my house where my wife Jackie, Pauls wife Sarah and their son Jack will join us for 5 days, then Paul and I will ride back in 5 days. This is our route....

This morning we arrived in northern Spain and we did about 150 miles today to arrive at a very old town called Santo Domingo de la Calzada, in the Rioja region where the famous wine is made.

This picture was taken on quiet back road in farming country....

Northern Spain has quite a few mountains and hills. Some of the views today were spectacular....

A Medieval Castle built on the rocks of a hillside....

The monastery at Oña, built in 1640....

The Leading Ladies in front of Puente de Frias, a 12th century stone bridge....

The same bridge, looking upstream....

Just beyond Frias is a church set against a spectacular over-hanging cliff. Paul is on the slender bridge over the river....

This goat appeared out of a cave in the cliff to stare at us....

Stopping for a coffee at a petrol station we were befriended by a very short guy who had an unusual motorbike. He enjoyed showing it to us and unbelievably it has a tiny 40cc Ducati engine....

We are staying in hotels known as Paradores, which according to Wikipedia were founded by Alfonso XIII of Spain as a means to promote tourism in Spain. A profitable state-run enterprise, the hotels are often in castles, palaces, fortresses, convents, monasteries and other historic buildings. This Parador was built in the 12th century in the middle of this historic town and sits opposite the Cathedral....

There was a funeral taking place in the Cathedral soon after we checked into the Parador....

We ate in the hotel. Respecting the common practice of some bloggers, I took a picture of my food. This was a white asparagus salad....

The town square after dinner....

The two of us in front of the main tower in the town....

Overall a very successful first two days to the trip. Tomorrow we ride further south to near the capital Madrid. It chilly at times today in the mountains and hills, but it should get considerably hotter as we ride further south. Let’s see!

Car Porn

2011-07-05T06:34:00.003+01:00

Definition: Any type of media which exhibits particularly excessive depictions of cars.

I know this is a blog about motorcycles, but as I really enjoyed something a few days ago relating mainly to cars, I am going to let it sneak onto here.

Okay, deep breath and look at some cars.... and planes .... and girls..... and okay, a few bikes too......

For the past few years I have wanted to go to what is (mainly) a car event called the Goodwood Festival of Speed. This however has not been possible as I either have something else planned, been away, forgot, or some other reason has prevented me from attending. That was until last Friday and what can I say, but WOW! With my cousins Dean and Mark, we went to the Goodwood FOS for the first time, and loved it.

This is an event that lasts three days and is essentially a celebration of speed, featuring historic motor racing vehicles from about 1910 onwards and is held in the grounds of Goodwood House, West Sussex, England. The main focus of the event is on cars, but there are motorbikes there as well taking part. About 150,000 people attend over the three days.

To give you an idea of how important the event is, this is a sculpture next to the historic Goodwood House. It is a permanent metal sculpture depicting a car. Look very closely and see how small the people standing next to the sculpture look. It is enormous!

What is unusual about the Goodwood Festival of Speed is the fact that the vehicle displays are MOVING. This is not just a static exhibition of vehicles all neatly parked in rows, but doing what they were designed to do – drive on a track. It is so much better to see, hear, smell and feel the vehicles moving rather than just look at them stationary.

The track is just over a mile long and climbs up a hill. There is also a rally stage track, set in the forest at the top of the hill.

The vehicles taking part are worked on in a tented paddock area that you are able to walk through, look at the cars and talk to the mechanics and drivers. This allows you to see the vehicles close up as well as running on the track. A few photos from the paddock area....

This is the Team Renault tent, stuffed full of F1 racing cars....

A Williams F1 car....

A McLaren-Mercedes MP4-23 F1 car from the 2008 season, less it’s wheels....

From 1983, this is one of my favourite cars, a Lotus-Renault 94T. The John Player Special livery was around for many years and was hugely well known for the black cars with gold writing....

A stunning Lotus, in the classic green and yellow that brings back so many boyhood memories. This is a 1963 Lotus-Climax 25, 1.5 litre V8....

Racing cars are very temperamental and preparing them to run in a cramped space must be very challenging....

Some of the cars are just pure art and sex, all rolled into one glorious shape, ready for the eye to behold....

There were probably 80 bikes at the FOS. This is an Italian Gileria....

Shaws Harley-Davidson recently built this custom bike based on a Night Train. Roland Sands, the American racer was at Goodwood to ride this bike....

No racing event would be complete without some eye candy....

We had bought Grandstand seats, allowing us to move freely throughout the course and sit in any of the grandstands. This is the view of one of the main seating areas with the main Goodwood House opposite....

There were many different categories of cars entered. This is a 1986 Ford RS 200 rally car....

The classics warrant the same amount of attention from the spectators as any other of the car categories....

A 1931 Duesenberg ‘Cummins Diesel Special’. Built by Clessie Cummins, this was the first diesel car to race at Indy. It qualified last at Indy in 1932 but finished 13th after running the 500 mile race non-stop. This is being driven by Eddie Cheever....

1965 Lotus-Ford 4.2 litre V8 on track. The noise this car made was wonderful....

The cars go past so regularly it is difficult to work out what they all are. I have no idea what this is....

This 1957 Kurtis Kraft-Offenhauser was driven by the legendary Fangio at Indy in 1958....

A 1951 4.1 litre but only 4 cylinder (just imagine the size of the pistons) Stevens-Offenhauser ‘Jim Robbins Special’....

This next car is very unusual as it has a gas turbine engine. It is a Lotus-Pratt & Whitney 56 STP Special, built in 1968 and has 4-wheel drive to cope with the huge amount of torque the car develops. It sounded just like a jet plane....

I love the cars from this era. This is a Lotus-Cosworth 49B. This was the actual car that Graham Hill won the 1968 Formula 1 World Title with ....

There were many Indy cars running on the track. This is a 1985 2.6 litre turbocharged March-Cosworth 85C being driven by Emerson Fittipaldi....

A Lotus-Cosworth from 1981....

Not sure, but I think this is a Marlboro McLaren-Honda, from around 1990 or 1991....

A Williams-Renault FW14B from 1992....

The March-Cosworth, on track....

No car event would be complete without a Ferrari. This one is last years F1 Ferrari F10 2.4 litre V8. It was wonderful to see it at Goodwood....

Probably my favourite car at the whole event, this is the McLaren-Mercedes MP4-23 that Lewis Hamilton won the 2008 F1 World Championship with. The noise it made was just music....

Another classic contemporary racing car, the 2005 Red Bull-Cosworth RB1 being driven by Mark Webber....

This is Mark Webber, just before his drive....

As well as running the racing cars on the track, other events take place there. I don’t know his name, but this is a guy breaking the world distance record for two-wheeled driving in a car....

Stunt bikes as too....

My cousins Dean and Mark. Mark is on a month long visit back in the UK from New Zealand where he lives. It was great to spend time with them both....

The Red Arrows is the aerobatics display team of the Royal Air Force and they performed a terrific display to entertain the crowds during a break from the driving....

We wandered around the huge static display area, where there was far too much to see in just one day. This is the bonnet piece on a classic Alvis....

A fun-looking scooter....

Yours truly, astride a Norton Bonneville....

One of the Krazy Kustoms bikes. I can’t imagine why I took a picture of this bike....

A huge display of two-wheel riding was taking place, with many different types of bikes being used....

Dougie Lampkin, seven times World Trials Champion, showing off his skills....

I am not sure I would want to try this....

There were even BMX bikes. What these guys could do was amazing....

What the heck?????? This has a proper number plate, so can be driven on the road....

As if that wasn’t enough to take in during just one day, we then went to check out the rally cars. This was loud, fast, scary and very dusty....

Finally, my Cousin Dean taking a picture....

What a fantastic day we had. I will certainly be going back to the Goodwood Festival Of Speed many times in the future and I intend to stay for more than just one day next time!

Garmin Zumo 660 Motorcycle GPS / Sat Nav Review

2011-07-02T12:25:00.000+01:00

I bought my Garmin Zumo 660 eighteen months ago and after riding with it for 21,000 miles on my tour of the USA and using it extensively across Europe on tours in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia and Spain, I feel it is time I presented my thoughts on how well it performs.

Overall, some aspects of the Zumo are really good and beat the competition hands down, but sadly in other areas, it is simply dreadful. It is a real shame that what could be a fantastic device is ruined by some aspects that should be a lot better than they actually are.

I have looked at and evaluated the Garmin Zumo 660 in ten key areas and given my brief thoughts on each area below. I have scored the performance of the Zumo out of five, with the scoring system being as follows.

1 = Unacceptable
2 = Poor
3 = Reasonable
4 = Good
5 = Excellent

Looks / quality / feel. Points awarded = 5. When you first open the box and pick up the unit, it looks and feels just how it should. The build quality looks very good and the unit looks superb.

User manual. Points awarded = 1. When I first received the Zumo I briefly wrote about my first impressions of it on this blog. I wrote that there was no manual in the box. Finding it online was very difficult and needing a copy, I eventually found one and had to print one myself on my home printer. This was not a great start to my Garmin experience.

Mounting the device. Points awarded = 5. This was very easy and the mounts look good. After thousands of miles using the unit, the mount has worked superbly.

Loading the mapping software. Points awarded = 1. One of the really great things about the Garmin Zumo 660 is the ability to do your route planning on a computer and then transfer those routes to the unit. Being able to do this planning on a computer rather than on the unit itself is a huge benefit, if like me, your trips are long and complex with many places you want to stop and see. However, getting to the point where you can do this is an absolute nightmare. In order to prevent copying of the maps from computer to computer and unit to unit, they have locking codes. Unlocking the maps by entering these codes should be straightforward, but it turned out to be one of the most complex things I think I have ever had to do with any software, ever. Due to the lack of any clear instructions on how to unlock the maps, I had to call Garmin Support twice before I could even get the maps to work. This is completely unacceptable and very nearly caused me to abandon the Zumo before I had even used it once.

Route planning on a PC. Points awarded = 3. The fact that route planning can be done on a computer is perhaps the best feature about this GPS / Sat Nav. For my 21,000 ride in the USA, having to do the route planning on the unit itself would have been a nightmare and this is where Garmin have the competition beaten hands down. This in itself is probably the best reason to use a Garmin Zumo. You can use just about any GPS / Sat Nav for simple journeys where there is a single destination, but for anything more complex, you need something different where route planning on a PC is possible and the Zumo is great for this. However, I have only awarded 3 points for this and that is because the software itself, called Mapsource, is distinctly average. It is clunky to use, not at all intuitive and I am surprised that Garmin still supply it. Compared with modern, well developed software, Mapsource seems out-of-date and not at all user friendly.

Device route calculation. Points awarded = 4.5. In most circumstances, the route calculation the unit carries out seems to be very good. Okay, the unit does take a long time to find the satellites when first turned on, but that is just a little frustration compared to how well the calculation seems to happen. The calcuation is fast too, including both working out the route when first entered and recalculation if you take a different road to the one the unit expects you to. My only slight reservation is when in the USA and riding with my friend Paul, we had identical units, with identical map software loaded (the exact same version) and identical custom routes planned, but the two units calculated different routes. We never got to the bottom of this, but it did seem very odd.

Use while riding. Points awarded = 5. I cannot fault the operation of the unit in any way. The screen is bright and clear. Use even when wearing riding gloves in excellent and the options and features all worked fantastically well.

Reliability. Points awarded = 3. Almost all of the time I have used a Zumo, the reliability has been fantastic. However, occasionally, the unit will turn off for no reason. Most of the time this isn’t a problem, but on two occasions, I couldn’t turn it back on. One of these times, the problem was solved by removing and replacing the battery, but the other time was much worse, needing a telephone call to Garmin support to fix the problem, plus my laptop to download a fix. If I hadn’t had my laptop with me, the problem could not have been fixed. This turning off problem seems to have gone away, presumably solved by one of the software upgrades I have done with Garmin support (Garmin have to talk you through these, they don’t happen automatically).

Value for money. Points awarded = 2. The Zumo isn’t cheap, but there is a much worse roblem that means you may end up spending much more money than you need to because of Garmin’s policies. This has happened to me twice now. When you buy a new Zumo you get the maps for the country you are in on a disc. If you buy it in the USA, you get the North America Maps and if you but it in the UK, you get the European maps. However, if you buy additional maps (like I have) there are three ways of doing this and two of them will lead to problems if you want to plan your routes on a computer. DO NOT BUT NEW MAPS BY DOWNLAODING THEM AND DO NOT BUY THEM ON A DATA CARD, because with either route, you cannot use those maps for route planning and you will have to buy exactly the same maps again in order to be able to use them in the Mapsource software. ONLY buy them on a disc! Shockingly, Garmin do not make this clear and when you telephone them to complain, they say it is your problem and you bought the maps on the wrong media.

The CD version of the maps can be used for both the route planning and it can be transferred to your unit, but by downloading or buying the maps on an SD card, you can only use the maps in the unit itself. This is dreadful bad practice and Garmin should hang their heads in shame due to it. There is another reason why I have awarded only 2 points in this category and this relates to me needing to replace my Garmin unit. I failed to properly fix my unit in its mount and the unit fell of my bike at 70mph and was smashed in the process. This was totally my fault, but what happened next also appalled me. I purchased a new unit and tried to use my existing maps in my new unit, only to be told by Garmin this is not possible. They fix the use of the maps to a particular unit and even in my case, where my unit was broken, I could not transfer my existing maps to the new unit. I therefore have perfectly usable maps that are registered to my Garmin account that I cannot use. This is nothing short of a rip off and again Garmin should hang their heads in shame. My view is, don’t expect to be treated fairly by Garmin as this will not happen.

Customer service. Points awarded = 2. I have mixed views about the Garmin customer service. They have a call centre in the UK and if you have a problem, don’t even bother trying to call them as all of the times I have tried it, I found them to be totally useless and on a number of occasions, I knew more about their product than they did. On another occasion, they simply referred me back to the Garmin website to get the help they couldn’t provide. However, Garmin customer support in the USA is much, much better and I have always had a really good experience when I telephone them. I now am happy to pay for an international telephone call from Europe to the USA because they are so much better.

That was until recently, when I ran across another of Garmin’s policies regarding maps. It is a complex issue, but essentially Garmin told me to buy new maps to replace the ones I couldn’t use when I broke my existing unit when it fell from the bike. Having been burned by Garmin before, I specifically asked how I should buy a new European map so that I could use it both for route planning and on my new unit. They told me to download the maps and I did so, only to find I could use these only on the unit and not on my laptop for route planning. After a huge amount of argument, they accepted they were wrong and said they would send the maps in the correct format (on a CD) but they would only post to an address in the USA and they don’t have the capability to send a package to Europe!!! I provided them with a USA address form where the CD could be forwarded, but the CD never arrived and despite trying to contact Garmin a few times by e-mail, they are not responding. The Garmin customer service therefore ranges from excellent at times, to appalling. Sadly it is most often appalling.

Conclusion. Overall points awarded = 3. The average score from all of the categories above is just 3 points. Despite having a potentially fantastic product, my overall experience of the Garmin Zumo 660 is no better than reasonable. For the long trips I often make on my motorbike, the Zumo is still the best product I have found, but I use it reluctantly and will swop to another manufacturer as soon as something better comes along. Or Garmin coud just fix the many problems they have and change into a really great organisation. Garmin really must do better.

The First Time on a Bike. How about 304 Miles?

2011-06-25T19:56:00.000+01:00

I think 304 miles is not too bad for an eleven year old, on the back of a bike for the first time. Here is the story of how that happened.

Last week, I was in the Seattle area to collect my step-grandson, Talon, and bring him back to the UK to spend a few weeks with Jackie and I. He has been to London a few times before to see us with his parents, but at eleven years old, to do it on your own must be more fun because he didn’t mind leaving them at home at all.

The only direct flight between London-Seattle-London is British Airways and something rare happened. I got upgraded on the flight out from economy to premium economy and the two of us were upgraded to business class on the flight to London. So an eleven year old boy, gets to sleep in an airplane bed on the way to London for a few weeks. Not a bad start, I would say!

So Talon is here in London and we have been going out to see places just about every day.

A few days ago I met up with friend Ian Solley and he asked if I wanted to join him on the HOG Meridian Chapter ride called HogsLegs, in France and Belgium. I said yes and asked Talon if he wanted to come along as well. It was only going to be a single days ride, so not a problem for a young man that hadn’t been on a motorbike before. We rode down to near Ian’s house the evening before so we could be within striking distance of the Channel Tunnel as we had to get the bike and ourselves on the train very early the next morning.

We woke early at 5am and met Ian and two of his friends Paul and Simon and the five of us blasted down to Folkestone on four Harley’s where we boarded the train to Calais in France....

You stay with your bike (or car) as the train goes through the tunnel....

The train takes just 35 minutes to travel under the sea and we arrived in France to a glorious sunny day, making our way to a local petrol station where the riders of 50-ish bikes met and received the usual safety briefing before setting off....

Warrs Harley-Davidson have two dealerships. One is in Chelsea in London where I bought my Road King and they have another in Mottingham in South London. The Meridian Chapter is based out of the Mottingham dealership.

The ride through France and Belgium is a gentle one, and perfect for just riding and admiring the view, with a few friends. We did about 130 miles in the two countries, stopping for morning coffee in Beruges where Ian set off on a conquest to buy cheese and wine.

We arrived in the town of Veurne in Belgium where we stopped for lunch in the town square, a picturesque quiet place, where the people of the historic town were enjoying a peaceful leisurely lunch....

That was of course, until 50 Harley-Davidsons turned up and part-filled the town square with gleaming bikes....

After lunch we wandered around the town, trying to find an elusive bottle of excellent wine. We found a good-looking wine shop, that was sadly closed, but I liked the scooter sitting outside....

At the appointed hour, the riders began to re-assemble in the square, ready to resume our ride in Belgium....

Talon next to the Leading ladies....

The ride culminated at a place called the Bikers Loft, a bar, hotel, museum and gathering place for motorcyclists. Some of our group were going to stay the night in the sparse surroundings of the hotel, but our smaller group left early, hoping to catch a train back under the sea at a reasonable hour. We rode alongside Belgium canals, which were straight but contained few cars. Reaching the French border, we resorted to using the motorway, for a blast back to Calais and the tunnel.

On getting back to the UK, Talon and I had further to go than the others and pretty soon, they would have been home, while we carried on a long loop around London on the M25, the last hour of which was in the rain.

We arrived home late-ish, having done 304 miles in one day. Tired. Wet. Cold. But, with big smiles on our faces. Especially Talon.

Meeting Bob and Sonja, part 2

2011-06-22T18:34:00.000+01:00

By now, I had seen a lot of the sights of Vancouver and Bob had been a terrific guide to this first-time-in-Vancouver tourist. We made our way to Bobs house where I met his wife of 42 years, Yvonne. I had previously read about Bob and Yvonne visiting a night market and I asked if we could go there before going out to dinner. They kindly agreed, so we loaded into a car and made our way to the Richmond Night Market. It was quite a place.

A long time ago, in celebration of Bob’s pink crocs, I bought myself some and posted just one picture on my own blog of me wearing these. They were only just in view and only one person noticed them. That one person back in April last year was of course...Bob. Here is that picture....

Of course, I couldn’t travel to see Bob without my own Pink Crocs, so I bought them all the way from London as a surprise. Maybe it’s just as well a certain immigration officer didn’t ask to see in the saddlebags of the Harley I was riding!

It was only right that I wore the crocs that evening and so, here are Bob and myself near the entrance to the night market....

The market was busy and with more people arriving all the time we were there, it was going to be almost impossible to move around freely pretty soon....

Here are Bob and Yvonne, in the crowd. Without realising it, we had all worn pink....

Even though we were soon to go to dinner, we couldn’t resist getting a small snack as we walked along all of the stalls preparing, cooking and selling food....

I guess it was inevitable, but here is Bob with food again....

Bob and Yvonne on our second tour of the food stalls....

One of the features of the night market was a stage had been set up and (mainly) children were singing Karaoke. Some were good, but most were applauded for their enthusiasm, not their good singing voices! It must be a popular thing to do, as the crowd watching them was a reasonable size....

I had hoped that Sonja, of Two-Wheelers Revisited would be able to join Bob and myself for the riding we had done during the day, but work pressures and a recently re-injured knee meant that she wasn’t able to make it. I was delighted however that Sonja and her husband, Roland, were able to come along to dinner that night. Yvonne had chosen a restaurant in Richmond and we had a plentiful and wide ranging meal of Sushi and other Asian delights. I wouldn’t have known what half the items were on the menu, so I was grateful that Yvonne selected for us.

We chatted about recent trips and football (real football, not American Football) and we all had a great time. It turned out that through reading her blog, I knew Sonja better than her husband, but Roland and I had plenty in common, having had similar aspects to our work backgrounds.

I should have taken more pictures that night, but took just one, of Yvonne, Bob, Roland and Sonja as we left the restaurant. Apologies for it being slightly out-of-focus....

After the events of the day, walking around the market and dinner, I had a excellent night’s sleep at Bob and Yvonne’s house!

While at the Asian Mall the previous day, I saw a peculiar looking fruit called a ‘Durian’. Large and spikey, I had never seen one before and Bob advised that Yvonne liked to eat these, so I bought one. We decided to taste it and so wielding a small axe to break through the formidable husk, Mrs Skoot attacked the beast to reveal its contents....

To prevent injury from any wayward axe blows, the two men watched whilst wearing protective crocs!

The task of breaking into the fruit wasn’t as hard as it looked it might be and I was warned the smell puts many people off eating it, but I gave it a try and could hardly smell it at all. Durian has an odd texture and taste, but I can understand why it is known in some Asian countries as ‘The King of Fruits”....

It was Sunday morning and we had heard that the main border crossing near Vancouver would be.... wait for it.... closed for most of the day to accommodate a once-a-year Girl Guide event called “Hands Across the Border” where Canadian and American Guides have a party at the border crossing!

We listened to the radio station that gave reports of border crossings and suspected that as the day went on, the alternative and smaller crossing points would get busier and busier. We decided to leave early and Bob accompanied me to the next available nearest crossing which we when we looked, Bob estimated it would have about a two to three hour wait time in the very long queue that had developed. We travelled further east by about 40 miles to get to the next crossing where luckily, the queue ws nowhere near as long and we got across in about 10 minutes....

Bob in the queue....

I was pleased that Bob was able to join me for the day and we rode south back into the USA. One of the places we went to was Edison, where we took pictures in front of the western-looking Longhorn Saloon.

Bob taking pictures....

We stopped for lunch at LA Conner and sat on the deck overlooking the river. Being a Sunday, there were many motorbikes out and about and it seemed half of them were in LA Conner. Bob ate a sirloin sandwich and I went for good old ‘fish and chips’. There were far too many chips, but I couldn’t resist them. By the time we finished eating I felt way too full.

One thing I have learnt being with Bob for a couple of days is that like quite a few people, he carries a camera almost everywhere. But, unlike most people, Bob uses his camera almost everywhere! He has an seemingly unstoppable appetite for taking pictures and his blog posts are full of the type of detail that comes with being a very active and interesting person. I watched him in action in La Conner, walking around, taking pictures....

Bob wrote on his blog about the trip to La Conner, but we agreed not to mention the two of us meeting for a few days, deciding to wait to see if anybody worked out that my encounter with the immigration officer was actually at the border into Canada. In turn, Bob wrote about La Conner, didn’t mention me being there, but did include a photo with me included in that post, but I don’t think anybody spotted this.

When I compare what I have written here about LA Conner and then compare that to Bob's post about the same place, my words seem weak and feeble compared to the fantastic way that Bob wrote about it. Click here to see what I mean.

Meeting Bob was a real pleasure that met all of my expectations of the man, and more. He gave up a couple of days to ride with me, show me around, entertain and educate me. Bob, it was a real privilege to meet you my friend. Many sincere thanks for a fantastic time.

One last photo before we parted, with Bob heading back north to Vancouver and I headed south back towards Seattle....