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Wednesday and our last day in Kerry. The forecast rain hasn’t arrived. Yesterday we did almost all of the ring of Kerry plus the gap of dunloe and a quite amazing road called the lady way, or something like that. Very narrow and twisting, no passing places and no traffic at all!! Anyway, only place we didn’t go to was Valentia island. Some random photos.

A few years ago, on the Nurburgring, I got turned back for having worn out tires, which was fair enough as even though they were semi slicks, I was sliding all over the place in dry weather. Being back on road tires there was not much of a point in driving fast, so ran into a guy i used to know and he offered a couple of passenger laps in his really fast car, to which I accepted. He bailed and I could only see him getting on track, but since the track was still very empty and the early morning mist rising, I couldn't resist and took my car out for a gentle lap with my brother. Halfway through the track, on the only piece of track with a concrete wall, braked on a big oil spill and went sideways into the wall at 100 or 120kmh. Quite lucky to not hurt my brother who was on the side that went against the wall. The coincidence? That oil spill had been caused by the car I was supposed to be in as a passenger, it had just blown it's engine and dumped a lot of oil downshifting into that corner 30 seconds before.

Whats this ..lets Bully Six day ..... cunts

Closest thing i can think of is a girl i had an affair with when i was living with her cousin 30 years ago walked by me in my town hall right before covid hit after getting elected to something. Big surprise. No we havnt talked no meeting up for tea with her British husband yet.

Ferry was £69 one way same price for both Fishguard and Holyhead crossings. Camping has been around €10 per night. Fuel is only E5 and is €1.55 everything else is directly comparable, Lidl is everywhere and no gaps in shelves here, in fact it reminds me of the good old days of just before we stabbed our selves in the foot thinking we could run faster and further… who cares about bleeding to death anyway…

Nice write up and pics @Specs Sorry I missed it, had tickets (and £50 worth of beer tokens ) heyho theres always next year. Got ticked off with Mark Holmes book before I finished it, there was something wafty and vain about him that I found grating. When they added the Samaritans sign to the ends of the suspension bridge I couldn’t understand why you’d want to put such miserable signs on a great bridge with a lovely view…. doh Then they raised the sides to try n stop the suicidal who travel there from all over jumping (which spoilt the previously unencumbered view), what they dont realise is its not high enough to definitely kill you, it might but then again it might just cripple you instead.. brrrr! The suspension bridge was supposed to have been adorned with glorious golden animals in the arches and topped golden lions but they ran out of money and so its stayed plain The original non suspension bridge design was pretty impressive but the ‘Bristol Bridge Riot’ occurred because some dodgy accounting was trying to be swept under the carpet and they wanted to collect more tax and tolls from everyone to pay for the bridge. I love this excerpt of the write up of the riot at the time- “No steps were taken to reconcile these differing statements, no offer of submitting the trustees’ accounts for scrutiny; but relying on the strong hand, whilst the rentor’s term was as yet unexpired, they, on Saturday, September 28th, set up other gates. Mischief was brewing, it was Saturday night; many men were the worse for beer, others were soon made so; the faggots on the Welsh back lay handy, the sleepy “charlies” looked complacently on as a mob gathered, and from the wood- stacks carried and piled combustibles against the new gates, which were soon burned. Hundreds of curious passengers became on-lookers at the bonfire ; they were increased into a multitude, when the magistrates, attended by a party of the Herefordshire militia, marched up to take possession of the expiring embers.” Pic of what was supposed to have been built until money and rioting was an issue. There endeth the Brizzle history lesson for today

I can’t decide.

If you were you'd be lucky to get a photo in before @XTreme closes it

When I was young I couldn't work out why Hitler was on top of the pops. hang on voting for a strike on a zoom meeting.

I won the meat raffle down the pub once, having to ride home with a frozen leg of lamb and pork joint stuffed down the front my bike jacket wasn't too much fun though!

ok ... well thanks then , much appreciated , only thing i've ever won was a Whitney Houston album when i was about 16

Yep he deserves both accolades... He is the forums equivalent of Katie Hopkins.......spouts some shit, with the occasional word of wisdom.

he was. and, so damned smart. as a puppy, he followed Chris's mom outside one morning to pickup the newspaper. From that day forward, he didnt need to be showed again, just let out. One morning, he didnt return as quickly as he should have. Finally, came running up with a paper in his mouth. Guess he had scoured the neighborhood until he found one in someone else's driveway (paper boy hadnt left one at mom's)

My best friend in school was born the same day as me, and his younger brother had the same birthday as my younger brother. I always thought that was an amazing coincidence. Spent a month in Brazil when I was 19, it was a good month. There I met a few portuguese kids a similar age as me, all from my hometown ... Once in Morocco, documented in my Morocco 2016 ride report, I met the one Portuguese guy I met in Morocco, we got to be friends and travel together, he lived 25km away from my and my parents' home.

One thing I thought of, based on @Tango's experience, was this! You may remember me mentioning the girl that stabbed me in Swansea in 1972? Well in 1997 I was managing a computer superstore in Aylesbury and in walked her brother who was the same age as me! I recognised him straight away......it had been 25 years since I'd seen him last, but apart from normal ageing he hadn't changed at all. Fortunately I'd changed a lot.....from this..... .....to this..... .......so he didn't recognise me. We actually spoke and I disguised my accent as much as possible, so he had no idea who I was. Cos the last thing I wanted was his lunatic sister turning up with a knife again!

All things being equal (or perhaps just Covid free enuf) Ill be picking up the keys on Friday I seemed to have right royally screwed up though, I cant find my driving licence anywhere. Ive taken the day off tomorrow to tear the house apart looking for it but this could be the dampest squib Ive ever presided over. I have another premonition.. hiring a car or motorbikes without a licence will be tricky (impossible), how does she do it we ask? Fuck knows. Ill try and post updates of the unfolding disaster/triumph but I got a feeling I’m gonna be busy ripping the house apart so that Mr Slowlys “Welcome to motorcycling in Spain” doesnt turn into “Welcome to you doing all the driving because your wife is a half wit”

This was a weird one. When I moved from one school to a different 6th form I couldn’t get away from my ‘friends’ fast enough, I didnt have anything more to do with them, even one of my best friends I dumped and ran. Fast forward years and I was a student nurse in Surrey which if you grew up around here at the time was the equivalent of breaking out of prison and finding yourself in Outer Mongolia - nobody left and nobody did anything. After not thinking about her once in those 5 years (it was a friendship of convenience based on surviving the zoo school we went to) I woke up from a weird dream featuring her. Went on my shift and accompanied a patient who was too ill to be transferred without medical cover to X-ray. There in the waiting area sat the friend I had just dreamt about and not seen since school waiting for a scan. Go figure!

If you got a Ducati you need a van for breakdown purposes though Clive! I gotta give it Six......he was way ahead of the curve on that one!

A Suzuki!......no way!.............rather walk.

your the biggest baddest troll ever in the history of the internet ..... and i got roped in on your warning, which i knew was happening... it was planned cause they knew you'd sulk and flounce ...sucker.

There's no need to use language like that, Pete!

is that the girl that stabbed you in the yellow shirt ?

Maybe they’re from the same gene pool?

After our ad hoc late lunch we headed up and over the Conor pass, the view from the top was stunning. and crossed back to the east side of the peninsula over the Caherconlee road- which was especially nadgery with a lot of loose gravel. In fact the road was effectively a river of gravel, which made for some very exciting descents. With just one short stretch that had enough grip to stop and put feet down.

@boboneleg mentioning the Rover P6 that I had in the very early 80's reminded me of a strange coincidence. I still lived in northwest Kent when I had that car. Occasionally I used to go to a pub on a Sunday lunchtime with one of my mates and his girlfriend. The car had a full length Webasto sunroof, which my mates girlfriend used to like standing up in the car looking out of it when it was open on a nice day. I eventually sold the car to finance my XS1100 and my mate split up with his girlfriend. My missus and I used to go to the bike night on a Tuesday evening at a pub not too far from where we lived near Cambridge if we got back from work on time. The pub often had a bbq going on the patio doing burgers or hot-dogs and the bike night was pretty popular, with the carpark rammed with bikes on nice evenings. We were there one bike night a couple of years back, having a look around and a chat with some people we knew when I saw a woman that I thought I recognised. She had a very distinctive limp that looked the same as my mates girlfriend from 30 years ago, caused by a bad bike accident. Eventually I had to go up to her and took a chance of looking a complete fool and said to her "do you remember standing up with your head out of the sunroof of my car many years back?" She looked at me as if I was mad and then laughed "Bob?". She introduced me to her husband and we met up a good few times after that. We went over to their place, which was only about 20 minutes from where we lived a number of times. They had a fair sized garage, where her husband had pretty much every bike he'd ever owned in there. Sadly we lost touch with them a couple of years ago when they moved. It was just such a strange coincidence meeting at a pub miles from where we used to live 30+ years later. Has anything like that happened to anyone else?

If the Covid tests are negative and Spain stays amber

Its more than a little arrogant to assume what we comprehend is everything and not to entertain the possibility of anything else. No-one laughs at the concept of an invisible man in the sky who see’s and knows everything.. oh wait yes they do

Well time to go speccy librarian on this one. 20/20 vision (a measurement which doesnt exist anywhere but America) simply means normal vision. Normal vision which happens to be driving standard vision is not the sharpest vision by a long chalk. Dont get me wrong its a fine level of vision, completely adequate for driving but half the population will have started off with so much better vision than 20/20 What you really want to know is has the vision deteriorated? The answer as you age is likely yes and sometimes drops occur rapidly, too rapidly for your brain to make the compensatory adjustments. This can lead to a loss of confidence in many areas without the person realising why. So um tldr- worth getting them checked again and asking what your previous eye test result were from a few back. If its vision (it may not be, balance and reaction times also slow whether we like it or not) then be fucking nice to yourself, cut yourself some slack, you dont have to maintain the same level of function throughout your life unless youre a Dunlop Kind regards Cursey Nursey

here's is a weird coincidence .....

So nobody here has ever had any weird coincidences? You truly are a bunch of boring bastards!

Seeing Tony's photos in this thread, I know when I'm beaten!

You're trying to out-troll Six now aren't you?

My wife won the post code lottery! Me!...I can't win a argument!.

Van and a Ducati.......na give em a miss...

He's got the Chav bike as well! And let's not forget the Van!

As this is the Weird Coincidence thread......this may be relevant @Tango As you know, I got fitted up because @Six30 was being an annoying cunt over there. I left.....others started asking questions, word went round, people got restricted and banned, and we had an incoming of new members. That was really needed because history shows us that we can't survive with just the longtermers......we must have new blood. That ain't easy considering the power Social Media has.......and I was out of ideas quite frankly. But cometh the hour, cometh the man! In came Six playing the annoying cunt over there, and he was the catalyst that sparked their actions that caused the exodus.....and the rest is history. I tell you what.....he's singlehandedly put us on the map by being an annoying cunt! Is that a weird coincidence or what? He's got my MOTY vote (and obviously TOTY as well) this year. The double has only ever been done once before by Mad Marcel in 2008......could it happen again? I just hope his Handlers over there reward him in an appropriate manner for the difference he's made! What you say @Clive?

Although, posting pictures of you actually out on your bike probably didn't help your cause either!

The truth is now revealed......I always had my suspicions! What you say @Tango?

Most air bases are owned by farmers now and don’t want you on them, the only nuclear bunkers I know of where at RAF Waddington not sure they still have them as the heavy bombers have gone, maybe missile bunkers now, they only fly the drones from there plus shortly the Red arrows, the old Amy barracks are now houses it’s mostly built up now, and as for the town it’s been ruined buy a for ugly university that blocks out the sun.

Faggot- 1. A bundle or bunch, and related senses. a. A bundle of sticks, twigs, or brushwood tied together for use as fuel. See also fire faggot n. at fire n. Welsh Back is an area and road in bristol.

You think I had something to do with this.

Yeh......it's called England!

Probably not, @MooN. Apart from the handling issues I'm finding that it's just a bit underpowered. I think that something like the upcoming Tiger 660 or a Tracer 700 would be more suited to me.

Ditto my neighbour is just the same.

Excellent Tony.......and this has to be a BOTM submission!

Glorious day on the Dingle peninsula. Doing a figure of 8, currently stopped for a late lunch at a garage cum deli before heading over the Conor pass. Dingle itself was a tourist hell. So a very brief pause. Had a look at the Blasket islands and passed the most westerly bar in Europe (apparently) map shows where we were for the photo opportunity.

Top of the morning to ye!! 7am and blue skies, no dew - everything is bone dry. Coffee made and waiting for 8 and the local Lidl to open to go buy breakfast. Croissants and so on. I think we will head for the Dingle peninsula today, zumo tells me it’s a 38 mile ride, so nothing too intense - a very easy and relaxing day in store (famous last words) and see where we end up. view from the tent of the mountains peeping through the trees.