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I decided to eschew the tarmac today and adjusted the suspension accordingly. having pretty much run out if ideas within the 10k radius I decided to ride some of the local trails, starting with the GR13 ( staying within 10 km of home) This is actually the first ever trail I rode on the transalp back in 2005 0r 2006 having been inspired by ride reports from, if I remember rightly, Grizz, Gnomad and one or two others on DSUK or maximum bikes. I picked up the GR13 at Champs sur Yonne and took a wrong turn almost immediately, but discovered the way into the village football field back tracked a couple of hundred yards and headed east along the correct trail I'm not very fit and am still learning the tiger off road, so I stopped regularly to think about what I was doing and to catch my breath, also to look at the map ( I use a paper IGN , (O.S. equivalent) for this sort of thing) and actually enjoy the "proper" navigation. as you can see, this is no technical "off road" riding a la Boboneleg or Sirfallsalot, but more or less wellmaintained, dry limestone trails through the vinyards. One of the things I love about riding these trails is that I came across no fences and no gates... at all. Looking out over the river, South East to Vincellottes and directly South through wooded sections above Irancy and back on the open trails across the plateau to drop down the other side back to the river and home. nearly 3 hours in all. Finished at the car wash to get the dust off,

Unashamedly we stopped after 50 kms because it was a sin not to! The atmosphere, the food, the wine, the staff, the views. Had to be done!! many feelings of nostaglia hit hard because Alentejo is were many of my roots are. Nostalgic moments were many, the last one an orange cake exactly like my mothernal grandmother used to make and of course, could not stop some tears. Asked for the recipe and will start making many orange cakes!!

Australia has the right idea, they've banned anyone entering from India including their own citizens. Five year jail sentence if you get caught.

No idea, I've only ever subscribed to a single forum over the years and that was a Vauxhall Vectra one as it meant I could see a lot of the How To stuff and very hand it was as well. On XRV.org it used to be you couldn't sell stuff on there unless you were a subscriber (or even post on that forum) and there was a section with discount codes I think. At some point during my membership of UKGSer forum they switched to a subscription model and now I can't see a lot of the threads including the For Sale section. This is a bit weird because that means paying members only get other paying members making offers on stuff?? But as I only really read it to see the BMW mechanical failures constantly coming up, there is enough content to keep my black heart happy. It's similar to my love of problems pages, love the problems, have no interest in the answers.

Well, our move out here was initiated around 18 months-2 years ago. The headquarters in Montpellier sounded her out about a European role based out of there. I investigated early retirement and she geared up for the move. I retired in August last year and we were investigating places to live out here when she got a call to say that, because of the pandemic and a slowing down of business, there was a headcount freeze and her job offer had to be withdrawn. Anyway, we'd already made our minds up to move over here, so we just went for it. She set herself up as a freelance consultant, but work has been very slow. So, this current job came out of the blue, but fits in nicely, as they pretty much let her write the job spec and dictate her hours. So, yes, Pete.....it's all falling into place nicely now.

Check off friday night cruisin on Main Street U S freaking A!

This one's got it all......Dark Motorcycling, Offroading, and Rugged Individualism! And despite being a Pensioner, I still had no need of a Support Vehicle! Anyway, I decided to follow some of the trails round the area, and this time I wasn't concentrating just on not falling off! I was also concentrating on trying to spot any abandoned shit hidden en-route! And I found something - a large, remote, abandoned country house which was actually part cave. They'd literally dug into the hillside around it to build the caves. To get access I actually had to scale a very steep and slippery bank.......so it wasn't a ride in type of job by any means! When I got to the building (which was huge) it was sealed up tight......I know, cos I tried all the doors. As you do when you come from Swansea! But on walking around the plot I found a cave entrance where the door was open. So it would have been rude not to get in there and investigate! This shit should be on PPV really................

My new favorite parking spot...lol

All i have to do is show up.

I seem to remember that on XRV.org the first wave of subscriptions was to access certain parts of the forum, but I could stil post and read the general stuff, the 2nd wave meant only subscribers could post. I stopped going.

Coming your way soon.......Rugged Individualism and Dark Motorcycling!

She was Sales and Marketing manager at a medical company in the UK before we moved, Pete. The company's European headquarters is in Montpellier. They contacted her a short while back about a technical liason type job, as she used to work in the labs, so, a slight change of direction for her, but she always preferred the more technical jobs anyway.

you've missed the point. a robust business model is not their aim. the only acceptable business model today is " more money, faster" so, once a forum has ( for example) 1000 active members, buy it for 20,000€ ( for aruments sake) impose an annual subscription of, say 25€, if you lose a third of members cos they're too tight fisted to pay for full access to the forum then you rake in 18750€, the first year ( so you lose 6250€ ) but gain what? 10,000€ in advertising? ( i have no idea what that is worth, but if they didn't make a substantial net gain, they wouldn't do it) the second year, the advertising is the same and subscriptions drop bay another third as the site deteriorates, that's still 14,000€, subs + advertising. there are obviously various other accounting manipulations that allow you to pay less tax or lower charges due to the aquisition of a new business or assets being less than a certain number of years old, or employing less than x number of people or whatever, all of which is pure benefit to the parent company. multiply all this by n number of sites aquired and by y number of years it's been happening and you have your big fat dividends for the people who had sufficient money to invest in the first place. they lie to the people they buy the sites from and cheat the people they take subs from ( as they have no interest in maintaining the site after the first 3 years as the investment / profit curve no longer meets their required figures.) but hey, that's acceptable and even normal, they increased profits. oh FFS, now you've got me going too...

So you're sending the missus to work......and then going out riding? Top man Bob!

Pissing it down here! I didn't move all this way for British weather!

Cool ! I'll send the check to the usual address....

Not yet will be looking to take one for a test ride and crap pics will undoubtedly follow

Indian is no joke, I could definitely have an Indian.

I want to make a joke about convicts but reckon it’s better suited to the un pc thread

I've ridden quite a few on them and overall no problems at all but in Brittany we did get shouted at on a few of them. I think it's the usual thing that if you're near a town/city the walkers get pissy whereas out in the country no one worries about it at all.

I've no idea what the rules and regs are on the GR routes Bob, probably differs fron region to region, I just give walkers a wide berth and stop for horses. problem for horses is that if I switch off, the alarm runs its auto diagnostic and emits a crescendo series of beeps... no horses today though, just a couple of walkers.

Excellent Chris. I love some of the GR routes in France although I have been shouted at a couple of times when riding them.

There was a big pool of water at the side of the track later on in the vid Bob! Obviously I kept well away from that!

You're getting very brave in your pensionable age, I mean that's actual off-roading right there. Mind you if there'd been even a hint of dampness it could have all gone tits up

Please! Our involvement was the main reason the forum took off so fast! In fact I'm dismayed we did not receive some of the money from the sale! Ok maybe not. But that's not the only forum I've been on that has died shortly after being sold.

Colours in Motion wheelchairs was bought out after i got my Spazz, the new parent company has just milked the company like a cash cow, and hasnt ever updated the Colours website after 10 years, stupid if it wasnt sad.

Not absolutely sure if they still ask for subscriptions, I seem to have that membership level without paying anything, maybe a left over from being a moderator??

She's pretty desperate to get back to work......I'm not sure if I should take that personally or not?

same here. Annoying thing is that I desperately need to get to mother in laws house to shut the heating down, and get the papers for her car as we can't do anything with it without the paperwork and the longer we leave it the more it's going to cost. I'd go down by bike, so alone, be alone in the house and ride back alone coming witin 2meters of absofucking lutely no one but nope... 10 km limit. I'll be able to go as from monday... which is when I start back to work....

Nail... head. 10km lockdown ends monday, curfew pushed back to 21H00. Obviously I go back to work monday...

The woke generation don't understand iro.... oh for fucks sake.

They would pay extra to be insulted by me.

It's not something that I've ever done......because my thinking is this: Nobody gets inundated with people asking them to make a forum. The owner chooses to do it for whatever reason. So if they've chosen to do it.....should everybody else have to dip in and finance it? It's like you organise a rideout with a bunch of people then expect them to pay for your petrol. As I've said before, I have virtually unlimited resources available to throw into this place. And nobody else is in that position. But even if those resources didn't exist then I'd still carry it myself! Also.....if people have financially contributed to a forum then they have a right to expect something from that. But with no contributions, nobody has a right to expect anything! And I do my best to ensure that I meet that expectation!

Weather looking pretty decent for just riding round the fucking town!

It's doing better than @Renegade then!

They bought XRV.org and it not only went down hill, but the moderators all left shortly afterwards (including me).

No Its only lost 3 teeth it has another 12

I was checking my XR over tonight and can say when things look like this its pretty much fucked

Taking the Himalayan for its first MOT Saturday. Got the Bandit booked in for a full service plus MOT ahead of doing LEJOG, theyre going to stick a dual USB charging point on there and a gear indicator because its so smooth in 5th you could easily be in 4th or 6th and I’ve had enough of it. I was certain it would become clear after Id been riding it a while, its bloody obvious on the other bikes but its just not on this one. Someone I consider to be a good rider said they found the same with their Bandit and ended up fitting one too so I’m not alone in finding it irritating. Love doing stuff to or having stuff done on my bike. Getting something for your bike is the best prezzie in the world, IMO nothing else even comes close

That is a superb picture. Jeez they’re ugly alien beings.

Ex-fly, complete with dust

Yep, XRV.org turned to shit when Dave sold it to Vertical Tossers, so did the KTM UK forum when they did the same thing.

It happens with every forum they buy......I can't figure out how it can be profitable. Yet they keep on buying them up.

I'm having the weight related problems with diabetes. never been that big really but eating food is more of a hobby for me, i like it but i like nothing i should be eating. Just so hard trying to break the habit, If the fridge door had an odometer on it, it would had clocked enough miles to go around the world this week. I know there's fuck all in there for me to eat but that doesn't stop me from looking

I'll admit to not really understanding the terrorist mentality... I imagine because they represent authority, for the same reasons that push moronic fuckwits to throw bottles and stones at ambulance crew or firemen. The worrying thing is that the police stations have been sufficiently securised ( is that a word?) to make the agressors target homes and familys as easier targets.

Shit Free For All might be a better fit

If you apply that analogy to forums then there are some that cost something.....but actually have no value. Now I'm not saying this forum does actually have any value.....but at least people have the peace of mind of knowing it cost them nothing.

Exactly! There's a strict flouncing protocol that has to be observed......leaving without following this protocol is just "buggering off", AWOL.....etc!