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Or the XT660R, that’ll do the job too.

1984, always garaged, never driven in bad weather...

Diary :- Thurs 7th Meet Wiebde in boat queue. Also veterinary equipment guy. Lots of interesting info. Ex Norwegian army. Biker. Had CBX and sold it! Found Wiebde in campsite. Sun bad on way to site. Some photos from today's travels. Met a German lady on a TransAlp heading up in the same direction. There was a guy delivering vetinary equipment in the queues and on the boat who was good company and full of information. Campsite found for the night and have been fed, watered and forced to drink vodka which in turn caused me to tip soup all over myself. Soup happens! ? Bodø tomorrow and a boat over to the Lofoten Islands in the evening. Waiting for ferry I met Wiebde here, a nurse from Germany heading the same way as me. If anyone follows Nora on YouTube here is her video for the same part of the journey, almost exactly a year after me. Rather better than mine! Crossing the Arctic Circle. That ball thing centre left is the marker. Waiting for another ferry I just had to stop for this. Stop for the night.

Only one bike I'd consider.....

I expect Spain to be similar, in Portugal there are 4 or 5 bikes that hold value well: XT600E or XT660R, DTR125, any version of CBR600, any version BMW GS, Suzuki GSX750R, Hornet 600, any Africa Twin . These, except the Suzuki, were the top sellers of their generation, in a country where minimum wage would be (and is) less than half of the UK, buying a CRB600 was seen as buying a quality item that would last, like buying an oldschool Mercedes of sorts*. *Except the DTR125, all those guys wanted was to put a motocross exhaust and wheelie to high heaven in front of high schools ?

No mum wanted the 5 speed manual , so all the cool in on her!

I should add that some have spent so much money on them it's prob why they don't ride them?

I've got a mate who's got one Fred, very nice bike. They seem to have cured the problems that you got with the KTM 690.

They're shit , I wouldn't bother. Just spend another £4000 on top and you can get a KTM790 ?

I've got a mate who has several bikes in his garage that he's bought but never rides. Not only does he not ride them but he's done zero maintenance either so they're just sat there rotting away. I just don't get it and I've tried to buy one of them off him so I can do a semi-resto job on it but he just refuses my offers. I think he just has them so that he can say, I've got one of those ?

See, everyone thinks you're just a sad twat but sometimes you just surprise people with little gems of coolness. I hope it's not an auto ?

My diary reads :- Tuesday 5th Sept Onwards towards Trondheim. Did Trollstigen in the wind and rain. A shame. Lovely lower down though. Took coast road to the Atlantic road. A lot of it very spectacular. Stopped short of Trondheim and stayed in a hut for 35NK and also had a meal and a beer. Beer not so good. Waiting for the ferry Looking back towards where I'd got off the ferry, on the way up to the top of the Trollstigen. Excuse the quality of the video but it was a godawful day and I didn't stop for many photos. Wind and rain weren't very pleasant, freezing cold and under the circumstances the hairpin bends were 'interesting' when the wind caught me side on. Lower down it warmed up, the sun came out and it was quite pleasant. Then it was the Atlantic Way with it's spectacular bridges. Not so great heading north in the rain. Another few hours and it was a hut for the night. Basic, but warm and dry. The restaurant.

My daily diesel VW Golf, that time. I think I was 21 and my brother 16. We did in again, to Norway but not the Nordkap, in an Astra. Then turned to more track dedicated cars and stuck just to the Nurburgring

Attending a Tanker Safety Course at Warsash some time ago I stayed in a hotel in Cattesfield. This shared a carpark with a pub which was run by an old friend of mine. Long story short, I was woken up in the morning by the manager knocking on the door to ask whether I'd been disturbed during the night. I asked why, and he said that someone had walked into some terrified bloke's room, bollock naked, pissed in his bog, and walked out again. Going into my en suite I found my bath full of puke and a vague memory began to coalesce. I never stayed there again!

I would want none of that except in a warm Range Rover

My present DR650 is an Australian model 2012, I've got all the aussie paperwork with it . Guy was a Brit who worked in the mines near Perth , bought it back to the UK with him when he moved back, I was lucky enough to snap it up when he put it up for sale. Here's the Aussie bike in the foreground with my 1996 UK bike behind............ Once i had them both I began the process of swapping over all the 'adventure' parts onto the Aussie bike...... Once it was all done I put the '96 UK bike back to almost o/e spec and put it up for sale.........

I had a go on my mate's GT250, but he was running it in so I didn't wring it. Never really liked the looks of those Ram Air Suzukis. This amber and black YDS7 though is a thing of beauty. I still think the Japs had bike aesthetics just right in the 70s and it's been hit and miss since then.

It’s a velomobile, pedal powered. I actually know that guy bizarrely.

Where shall we start......... Blocked injectors, unresolved electrical problems and most of all rockers that shat themselves and totalled your engine. These are all things that I've come across from mates who own them. They're a real 'friday afternoon' bike, I have two mates who have put 20,000 miles on theirs with no real problems and I have other mates who have spent £2000 on an engine rebuild after the bike had done less than 9,000 miles.

Yeh.......but at least you had teeth Alan!

No big deal going round without your underpants Fred! @Renegade has gone round without his teeth for 40 fucking years!