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Me and a couple of mates out just before the lock down replacing one madness with another seems along time ago now My mate getting used to his DRZ he picked up that week ? The last time we went out this was me the new rear tyre helped this time We had a great day until my mate dropped his DRZ doing a steep hill climb and broke his clutch lever, I'd given him a lecture about being prepared for our trail rides and luckily he has a nice big bag on the back of his bike full of tools or so i thought all that was in there was the important stuff tobacco, papers, phone and wallet so made him think he had to ride it home without a clutch for a few miles before bodging the spare lever i had for my bike on his hope he's learnt a lesson but i'm not holding my breath ?

I've still got everything from the max bikes era i find it really difficult to sell stuff but added this to the collection in 2016

I still have the XR400, it has been taken apart, painted and put back together. Runs great and has had the suspension adjusted slightly for less bouncy riding. I hardly ever ride it though, but since it costs me hardly anything, looks great now, and will probably be the last bike to roam the earth once the zombies take over, I'll keep it unless I have nowhere to put it. Looking great on a scorching hot summer ride: I had an R1150GS for two years before I got the 1200, loved it's handling and looks, even the lazy torquey engine. It had been imported from Hong Kong, probably had a billion miles, and although looking great was very troublesome. Here I am, proudly posing next to it about to board a Ferry to Morocco, feeling like Indiana Jones: And here it is, still looking great about half an hour before breaking down in the middle of Morocco: Broken down, waiting for a two truck for 6 hours, having a good time: And this is what a sunset looks like, in the Atlas, when you're stranded by the side of the road:

He knows that no-one will like them on principle. ?

Hope this isn't becoming tiring, but the weather is amazing now, the bike is clean and ready to go in the garage, and I have nowhere to go and nothing else to do. So, October 2018 and there was a big storm here, lots of damage all over the coast. After a few weeks without touching the bike, it's now a Friday, I'm about to go from Porto (North) to Azambuja (Center/South) to go home for the weekend, with a brief stop to visit a client halfway through. I get on the road, brief stop to check some emails and client calls me to cancel my meeting. Day is already lost and I'm suddenly on the road with nothing to do, so instead of taking the 2 hour motorway ride home I take the coastal road less traveled, it's a part of the country I'm rarely on. If you feel like checking it out on a map, this covers the coast about 20kms south of Aveiro to around Nazaré. First storm damage, this is a pristine tarmac road I am on: Although all the branches and wet leaves are quite slippery, we are only about 3 or 4 km from the beach so I decide to carry on and ride through, only to come to this: Well, guess it's time to turn back... Another route ... Few more kms and I finally get to the shore Not one to take the good road Arriving at Figueira da Foz, where I'll stop for a spot of lunch (spot of lunch! sounding british here) Meal was not worthy of picture, but the place was nice Going inland after lunch, and I come across some more storm damage, there's miles and miles of this Eventually I get away from the coast, and start to head for the hills, and explore some hills that I always checked from the motorway but never really been at Porto de Mós, it's got a lovely castle / palace with green roofs Here's a nice Passat with the castle behind it I am then going through the valley on the right of this picture, on the other side of the town Looking back at it Then things took a little turn, as I ventured off-road the track proved to be too steep and slippery, and as I was turning back I dropped the bike with the wheels up the trail and the bars down the trail, had to pivot it on the engine to pick it up and turn it back. Since I hit a rock with my shin, I decided to take a little rest. It's a pretty place, Serra d'Aire e Candeeiros: Heading home: I'll post another report about another ride to the same place, only with better pictures, I think. Trying to see where the dirt road that i crashed in led to.

So, July last year and it's hot in Ribatejo, I didn't feel like going for a long ride so decided to test the R1200 off-road properly. Took the windshield off, and went for a bimble around some of the local sandy dirt roads and farm tracks I had gotten to explore already on the XR. With the Heidenaus on it's quite a capable bike, although it doesn't like sand nor mud. Between the two I prefer sand, and there is really not much chance of mud in July here. Passing through a local farm with horses, they got scared so I didn't stop next to them. Using my old phone for pictures here, it struggled with light, dark, dust, basically everything Us Late lunch snack by the Tejo river The beast, back home, I love it Now for something different, I had company over for dinner, and started to cook early. Hope this isn't too Martha Stewart for you, but a man should cook something. Had some chicken bit marinating on olive oil and spices, and proceeded to put some heat into them. A couple of onions, thickly cut As soon as the onions soften a bit, throw some white wine and water on it, Let it boil for a bit, then close and put heat on minimum After a while, stir it a little, and let it on low heat till it reduces more. About 45 minutes later, job jobbed, enjoy. Boom:

Great to be back and hear whats been happening with the other MB regulars.

So, almost to the day one year ago and I wasn't stuck at home, was enjoying a lovely weekend at home and feeling like riding the bike, got on google maps and found a random spot with a lake of sorts, with not many main roads around, so went for it. Eventually found that I couldn't get to it via tarmac, which made it fun. Last km or so to get to the lake was like this, which didn't make me happy at all as it was wet under the trees and these aren't really good tires for off-roading. But it was worth it Going away, this is my kind of off-roading, dry and easy going: Continued to Lavre, where I stopped briefly to look at my navigation Brief stop at what looked like an abandoned hotel, but turns out it was just half abandoned, lovely place full of character, though. Heading to Montemor o Novo, starting to get a little glimpse of Alentejo's open views I was cruising along this road, just enjoying myself, and something weird caught my eye, but surely it couldn't be... So I stopped, turned back, can you see it? It's a fucking Zebra Turns out I was going past some sort of petting farm / zoo Enjoying some nice riding, and a short stop getting a few meters away from the tarmac for privacy Stopped for lunch, looking for some nice typical local food but the result was a very disappointing codfish with cream, wasn't even worth a picture, and I do love my food pictures. After lunch, before heading back home, stopped by a small dam Mora is a lovely town, one of my favorite stops for a coffee when heading out Before arriving home, stopped on my favorite place just a couple of kms from home, for some refreshing ice cold beer and some green beans tempura. Overal a great 250 or something km roundtrip of relaxing slow rolling roads. Finito!

This is my current bike..not an ounce of pink in sight!

finally sold the transalp after 17yrs and 140000km and switched up to this a couple of yrs ago.

Just a pic of the trusty Himalayan out and about on the local trails. It’s ideal for south east Spain.

On a trip across the mountains to Benidorm with a pillion I came a cropper on a very steep descent on a gravel road and yes I now hate ABS, and yes I will buy new tyres and yes I did cry a bit, However luckily only minimal damage to both humans and machine and we did manage to continue to our destination. There is an article on here about heavy dual sport bikes what I will say is "When is a bike too heavy for off road use?" When you can't pick the dam thing up ...!

I don't suppose you remember, but on July 2012 I posted a report in which, riding the XR in the woods, I found an abandoned puppy and took him home. He was barely one month old, very sick and had a serious case of scabies, left to die in a heatwave. This is him after a couple of weeks at home: And this is him now, spoiled and 8 years old, having survived serious liver surgery last year: He's the man! ?

one of life's simple pleasures was taking a motorcycle turd and polishing it to my liking, and it's been a while since I had the bug in a big way. Mostly because we moved and bought a house that has been an ongoing project since we moved in and is still demanding some work, but here in the lesser 48 the project bike market is much larger than in Alaska and it's finally game on! Picked up this ummmm, BSA as it is recorded on the title, with several tubs of various bike parts, mostly from a Honda CM400 it appears. The motor is the same as the CM400 I rescued many years ago and that we still have, it's now pretty the spare bike. I've always had a desire to build a chopper, and here is the start!

I've been meaning to strip the rear end off this bike since i bought it in 2010 but only now getting around to it. No play at all in the linkage but not long after i bought the bike i noticed the rear end creaking when getting on and off the bike then it stopped and i forgot about it. As i suspected one of the bearings is seized along with the bolt and another badly corroded bearing. As usual its the most difficult bolt to get at that has seized. Had to strip the swing arm off to get at it and the centre stand has to come off to take the bolt out if it hadn't seized which is a bit of a problem as that's whats holding the bike up but since i'm cutting the bolt it can stay on for now First job is to drill the head off the bolt luckily i had some long cobalt drill bits i bought for a different job a few years ago and long they need to be I started with a small bit and worked my way up to 10mm as that is what diameter the bolt is Didn't take long and the head is off, i had to put a maul grip on the thread the other end to stop the bolt from turning once the head came off so i could drill a bit deeper on the bolt shaft Next was to cut the thread off this would have been a real problem if it wasn't for this little air powered reciprocating saw fitted with a cut down cobalt hacksaw blade, i bought it years ago to cut the swing arm spindle off a scrap XR400 i bought for spares. It took a while but it went through OK Once all cut i used a tyre lever to pry the linkage out And shes out I was quite surprised how good the condition of the rest of the bolts were for a 26 year old bike So the bike was left like this while waiting for parts to arrive

See my post!!!

Don't mind Tym, he's just being himself

Yes on everyone else's posts but not Pete's

No idea what you mean. I don't know what you lot are on about chicken and onions not mixing, almost caramelized onions mix with every kind of meat or vegetable. Anyway, I had no complaints, so there!

Cheers my fellow 2-Wheel Junkies.... good to see some familiar old names.?

Hi Pete Was in the hospital for a couple of days. I picked a perfect time to fill up my kidney's with stones too big to piss out. Not a great time to have to go to a hospital. Now I have to quarantine for 14 days before I can go out again.

The rest of the suspension parts were waiting for me when i got home from work last Wednesday thought i'd get it all together that night but forgot i need a new chain slider for the swing arm ordered a genuine one from rugged roads so waiting for that before i put the swing arm on The new bolt i got to replace the one i cut off is a bit awkward to put in as you need to take off the centre stand and to get that off you need to take off the exhaust but i managed to do it by removing the one sleeve on the side the bolt goes in from. Which was a pain to put back in with the springs attached but really didn't want to take the exhaust off or the centre stand springs While waiting for the parts to arrive i made this bracket to stiffen up the back end as it bounces about with the weight of the scottoiler touring reservoir on there. The threaded holes were already in the frame not sure what they were for but were perfect to mount this

The bearing and seal insertion tool i made worked great Bearings pushed in equally each side And now for the seal Everything has now been painted waiting for it to dry and once the collars and bolt arrive from Honda i can reassemble everything

That unfortunately is not my thing, i try but get bored so easily ?

I have taken the Harley apart to fix a few bits and pieces, replace the stereo and give it a good clean, apparently the rims are chrome, who knew? I need to get a headlight retaining ring, the original one has been chewed up since I got the bike, I have new plug leads to go on, full service, a few other small things that I have left until now.

Damn shame those pushbikes are dangerous ?

@boboneleg ? @Renegade ?

Hi Scott, good to see you here ?

Coming back from Yorkshire a couple of years ago it was 30c me and Specs got stuck in traffic around Oswestry area i think, It was difficult filtering on the bikes with all the gear on Alan suggested we head west a bit before we turned south again which sounded like a good idea but his "a bit" was 30 miles i thought i was going to die of heat exhaustion it wasn't nice. hot weather for me is only enjoyably from the shade in a beer garden ?

Great to see you here Scott.

I'd just like to say it was a party in my own home with the wife and kids very important to state at this time ?

Scott, welcome buddy!

No mate, that CRF belongs to another fella down here.

He is never going to be left to forget that LOL

No Excuse™ for Team Green® Abuse!! You wouldnt get away with this on FaceButt! Waaa i need a safe space! lol

2016, every year Mt Washington closes the auto road down and just let's motorcycles up ! This is on the way down...

Loaded on the way to the UK and back, I don't travel light

After the spill the first thing my missus said " is Angela OK?" not worried about me just our friend who was on the back at the time, my wife Lorni who is a nurse gave me a complete check up when I got home now I have to admit this is the second wee accident I have had in two years I was riding home along the A21 on my XJ900 on my way back from Lakeside Harley with a couple of gaskets that I needed for servicing my old Springer when the Zafira in front of me just stopped...no brake lights just stopped I hit the brakes but ran into the back of him broke the screen and front mudguard I rode her home but she didn't feel right yep forks were bent, what had happened was the car in front of the Zafira stopped dead the driver an older gentleman had got blinded by the sunlight the Zafira ran into the back of him before he knew what had happened hence no brake lights. After that I told the wife that was enough and I sold all the bikes and trailers that I had, but once we got over here in Sunny Spain well it had to be done? managed nearly 7000 miles last year will be lucky to see 700 this year.

Nice christian name! Sounds good to me! Now all we need to see is a big dowry! Did i get poet of the day yet? lol

Oh jeez, how do i put in a profile pic again? Ya KNOW, i really doubt i can fix my klr....lol Nice to see old faces!

I had a GS1150 like yours Pedro but not for long, I called it 'the Barge'. It was the worst bike I ever owned, I got shot of it after about 4 months. It's in the background here.......

Fucking XT, embarrassing moments. I now hand over the XR every time I have the chance just to see people go through the same as me back then. Thanks, guys. Thanks for the welcome.

Oh shut the fuck up you whining old cunt.

That was a while ago now, I was on my Varadero. I think I have seen you at Peterborough since then, but that may be out of order, I get confused easily.

That and the baying crowd with pitchforks threatening to burn you at the stake for being ginger.

Keeps the seat lubricated so I don't get friction burns.

I bought this Last June, waited 3 months for Yamaha to supply it and now with lockdown I can't ride it ?