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Kinda cold here today, so i picked a peck of peppers intent on pickling peppers.

3 months ago I visited the abandoned Spanish village of Retamalejo. You may remember that it was the day that I ended up with heatstroke because the heat came down really early......it actually reached 43C. In fact my hands were shaking so much I couldn't even hold the camera steady......and I was only able to see a fraction of what was there. Because it's actually the biggest abandoned village that I've visited! Well now the heat isn't a problem, I've got a much better camera, and a bike that's far better suited to this sort of stuff. Yes, I'm still old and fucked......but you can't have everything can you? So this is Retamalejo Remastered......and I really went through the place in some depth today. There's a vid walkthrough, along with lots of pics of shit that's falling down....and lots of pics of shit that's already fallen down Just a warning to Casuals......don't attempt shit like this yourself because it could well lead to Death and Dismemberment! And of course I'm sure you don't need me to tell you this is Dark Motorcycling!

It took us 50 years to get rid of him this is a video of the welsh when he left

I dodged the showers today, this road reminded me of France........

I decided to get out inbetween the showers this morning for a couple of hours . My destination was Cotswold aiport with a hope of catching a glimpse of the last of the British Airways 747's which landed there a couple of weeks ago as their final resting place. I was a bit dissapointed as I couldn't get into the airport but I managed to get a couple of decent shots from the main road, if you look closely you'll see that the engines have been stripped from them already.....

Found this interesting bit of fungus today, I believe it is a Hare's Foot Inkcap, and no @Pedro I don't think you can eat it. ?

Next year they're gonna race lawn mowers....

Showed up in Spain, everyone left, ghostville

@Sir Fallsalot......Ren actually threw a party in Cardiff......and never invited me!

So weird seeing those bikes with small front wheels. Amazing riding to be sliding them on the brakes into corners.

After some encouragement from a few folks with great taste in motorcycle photography ? I have decided to pull my previous submission of Bagheera's orange belly and I'm going with this scenic shot from this weekend. ?

Our morning walk was a bit frosty today but so lovely! ?

Probably Sustrans expanding their ambitions.

Tomorrow evening I’ll start the vote, submit your entries by then!

I have no problem with two bikes on a picture, but the vote is only for the one.

Late 1987 i think...is that a long time ago? Oh and paris smelled like diesel and you stepped in dog chit everywhere.

I've been to several races there - it's a nice track but the facilities are kinda shitty.

Not easy here either Clive.....I'm having to wear a jumper now!

No idea Fred! They were originally places for farm workers to live......so the farmers may have owned them. But I'm not sure what active farms are still left there now.

Nice one Pete ? Do you know if anyone owns these places

More Dark Motorcycling to finish off the weekend!

No need to delete, I'll just consider the last submission.

I love roads like that. ? There are a lot back east in Canada, but not so much out west.

Had a serious session with the physio this morning which did my arm some good so I thought I'd better cancel that out straight away by going riding this afternoon out towards Chablis and Tonnerre first leaft home about 3 ish. Almost caught the curvature of the earth here, or what would be the curvature if it wasn't actually flat of course... 9/10ths cloud cover but not cold, about 16c I think. Chablis Vinyards going golden, shame the light was so poor a horsey farm for Pete and in a small village "Massangis" I nearly missed this but Tigger said "Oh! Tymmeh's Tomos!" But it wasn't, it's Motobecane from 1974 ( i think) and there's another one the other side I spent an hour or so here, this guy doesn't really sell them, he does them up. the motobecane will do about 70kph he reckons and last year he rode it down to the Millau viaduct and back with some mates on similar machines, that would be a hoot! in the vice in his workshop/ front room was the motor from a 1959 Solex his whole workshop looked like it had slipped out of the 60,s and today; The light was fading fast but when he said he used to ride big bikes and still had a Thruxton and a Velocette in the garage out the back I just had to have a peek and was confused to find only one bike... 'turns out to be a Velocette Venom Thruxton (which I didn't know even existed, I thought only triumph did a "thruxton") from 1967 if I remember right. gorgeous machine... but he rather i didn't take pics of it as it's worth quite a lot of money apparently. I still had an hour or so to ride home and it was nearly dark so I didn't take any more pics and got home around 7. My arm now hurts like hell, but it was worth it.

I think you can only have one submission, but you can change it. I just changed mine. Deleted the first post and posted again! ?

And ironically I can't post it on Social Media because I was there illegally. The location in question was an old Railway Tunnel.......no trains have gone through there for 36 years now! And it's in a very remote location! @Max GSSR told me nobody ever goes there so it would be fine.......however I came across 3 hikers at the end of the tunnel! Played the lost Tourist card so all fine......but to keep the charade going I obviously had to turn back and didn't get as many pics as I wanted! So here you go......this really is Dark Motorcycling!

That's bloody excellent Pete,I would definitely ride that if I was nearby

Love Laguna Seca!

When i was out on the bike last i didn't realise i was so close to some dark motorcycling that would blow your mind?. I was doing a bit of googling about something else and this info was in the results, i was only a few hundred yards from it where i stood and new nothing of it. Next time I'm out i shall see if i can find it and if its still accessible

I had an email in work off one of our suppliers last week saying the galvanised steel strut we use has gone up in price 9% due to a shortage of steel

I'd be fine Fred! I have an unlimited supply of track suit bottoms!

Copper, brass and lead are in big demand StateSide™ Sir'

I'm waiting for @Pedro to clarify Fred! He's got his hands full at the moment apparently.......

The bike should have no problem with heated grips and as far as suffering goes, i found heated grips made the difference between staying out riding for the day or turning around to go home after a few hours

Temperatures dipped down below freezing last night and there was word of snow in the hills. So after waiting for the ice to melt on our bikes we set off and had some fun. I almost dropped it when it got really snowy and the mud under the snow becomes very slippery, but managed to stayed vertical. ?. Then we found this awesome spot in the sun with a view. Good spot to let my fingers defrost... ?

Bruce will be happy he can now go shopping nude as clothes are now classed as non essential items

It's just a link Rog!

It's a Via Verde (Greenway) now.......no motor vehicles! But I took a wrong turning and ended up in there by accident! We've all done it!

I did, for a short while, that’s how I learned I like them.

Its special flood plain sand, you see their granual size does not allow for "clumping" on surfaces, unlike the slime you find in the furrows of England.

I was referring to the bike being carried there and not ridden the evidence being the dirt its sat on and clean tyres

I might push the envelope and try polishing too ?

Best thing......just stick to cleaning like I do!

I know how to do it but I’m getting a proper bike guru to do it as I really don’t want to balls it up. ?

Well, the mystery has been solved. It’s been helicoiled before with a metric insert as you would expect but it seems the sump plug is an imperial sized one. That was bound to give way at some point so just glad I got it home. Repair in hand along with preparation for matriculation onto Spanish plates.