Leaderboard

Very good point, one of the most confusing traffic laws in France. One very irate old French bloke gave me an earful in a small village near Limoges, I don't know exactly what he said but I don't think it was very flattering .

In the UK sorting out admin for my dad. It’s cold, grey and definitely miserable………and that’s not only the weather. On the plus side the pub breakfast was the bollocks!

Just mooching around the show room while they are fitting heated grips to my CB. Loads of bikes here as usual, several sold waiting for their 23 plate. My old Himalayan is in the showroom but no price tag on it yet. I do like the look of the Honda NCT 1100 tourers they have here. I would never buy one but they do look good. Also like the couple of Africa Twins they have as well as a nice Yam XSR.

Not quite…….spent all day running around like a headless chicken for my old man. Spent an hour and a half in the supermarket for him decide he needed 8 toilet rolls, 4 kitchen rolls, a bottle of red wine (had to be from California ), two pairs of rubber gloves, a bottle of bleach and 2 things you hang on the rim of the toilet to stop it stinking………oh and a packet of chocolate digestives. No wonder I need a few beers.

………..and that’s why you and me fit right in Pete. I honestly don’t give a fuck about most things and it keeps me sane.

I like them mate but unfortunately they don't like me and are causing me some health issues. I don't want to change but have been told it would be a good idea for me to do so, not a good idea to ignore the docs advice.

Spain is quite happy to have Cockneys and Swansea Jacks......no standards are too low for this place!

When I worked in the pit I did not mind day & night shifts, but afternoon shift I hated, could not do much in the morning before work, and too late to do most things after the shift, it just seemed to be bed & work.

CMC Clay Cross have similar set up to Damerells, showroom packed, I don't go inside as the prices frighten me.

Spooky, my thought exactly. Good selection too.

Exact-fucking-ly………my missus is fuming! The cost of the flights, car hire and hotel (couldn’t kip at mates place like normal) has cost nearly 900 euros. I won’t be doing it again.

Happened to me couple of times , the better way for me ,( not pulling out on me ) waiting to come out a side road and car stopped on the main road to let me out … I thought what a pleasant bunch you French are , they was obviously locals .

I was wondering when yours would arrive. Looking forward to see how you are going to get on with it.

Oooo Fowlups ups just rang the BSA’s are in their warehouse, they’ve ordered mine to come across and he’ll give me a ring when he’s laid eyes on it, will go see it either Thursday or maybe Saturday (cos that’s when I’m in Brizzle this week), they’ll dpi it and I’ll pick it up next week Annoyingly I have a bastid busy week next week so it’ll probably have to be be Friday but Whoop whoop!

Emailed my Boss today telling him I want to give up overnight working, and asked if I can work evenings and days. Gonna be an interesting week I think.

@Slowlycatchymonkey get her on your trip , you'll all eat for free all week .

I used to hang around Hanks Chop Shop on the Broadway Cardiff that was a proper spit and sawdust place along with the scrap yard type dog/wolf LOL There was nothing they couldn't build there

Personally I miss the old spit and sawdust bike shops we had back in the 70's. Those guys could fix anything with whatever came to hand!

I see @XTreme has been widening his circle of influence.

He needs to retire early, looking at him he’s going for a longer than usual Honda sleep soon

You don't get bike shops like that here.......certainly not in my part of the world. The best I've been to in terms of presentation is Belmonte BMW in Murcia! Full of Chinkies these days!

I was going to say it’s a bit early to be on pints of wife beater

Someones going to knock the misses around or have a good hangover, or both.

Always looks immaculate there.

When I stop polishing it and actually ride it I’ll let you know

Yep and recalcitrant bumpkins

The CB500X one is bad, “bike may be seen ridden by ginger shortarse, leading to uncontrollable laughter”.

Bleddy hell.

beware of this , mainly in villages.... Priorité a droite

Meanwhile in Spain they couldn't give a fuck! And I saw a news report that, unlike the northern European countries, no Brit has ever been deported from Spain for over-staying the 90 days. Seems they couldn't give a fuck about that either! I even know somebody who had residency, left in 2016 and stayed outside Spain for six and a half years. Thereby invalidating his residency. Spain didn't even know that he ever left, his residency was still valid, and I suppose even if they did know they wouldn't give a fuck! Spain is truly the epicentre of not giving a fuck!

Excellent!

The NCT1100 hasn't really taken off, certainly over here.

Stop signs are a good little money earner for the Gendarmes! Make sure you come to a complete stop and count to 3 before moving off again. Some departments have fitted speed cameras in private vehicles as a nice little earner too! So keep a close eye on your speed. A lot of villages and towns are 30kph. Watch roundabouts too. Just because someone is in the righthand lane doesn't mean that they're not going all the way round the roundabout! This has nearly caught me out several times now! Also watch out on righthand bends, as traffic coming the opposite direction often come well over the middle of the road! This has also caused me a few heart stopping moments too. Safe to say that the standard of driving over here hasn't improved in the last 50 years or more!

It's pretty rare outside of villages and towns these days, but there's always exceptions!

I would be careful not to Polish to hard or you will be through the paint and into the plastic.

Looks nice...enjoy..

I thought you were OK with nights Saul?

Brilliant quality vid!

ps @MooN breathalysers and helmet stickers are on the list of things to tell them they dont need to bother with, not a list of things to take

Well that's obvious because they let you in and even let you stay

Further... you DO NOT NEED f'in breathalysers, the rule was never ever applied to motorcycles and was rapidly "abrogée" ( rendered nul) for all vehicles as inapplicable) You are supposed to have a UK sticker ( no Longer GB) and you must effectively have a hi vis vest on the bike which must be worn in an emergency situation ( break down on the road, accident etc) The speed limit Outside a town or village is now 80km/h and NOT 90... EXCEPT for certain main roads in and out of a departement which have gone back up to 90... read the sign posts! ( this has been left to the discretion of the prefects so there are no hard and fast rules about this) I've never heard of being required to carry a 2nd pair of glasses in the vehicle and I have one daughter with glasses who passed her test a couple of years ago and 2 others who both passed their theory test last month. You are NOT required to carry spare bulbs FFS! again this was never applicable to motorcycles and is ignored for cars now as most modern cars need to have the front bumper removed to replace a bulb. If someone at the ferry port tries to sell you beam benders, or breathalysers ( and they will) tell then to fuck off, they're NOT a legal requirement despite what the AA would have you believe and beam benders are not valid for motorcucle headlight beams ( they tried this on me last time I took the ferry) The french police are not morons ( mostly) and if a group of ladies on bikes might draw more attention, the Frenchs are still a little old fashioned in their attitude towards ladies, which I guess has it's upsides as well as its downs... That second updated link to "drive France is much better and up to date. I just read that you are planning on dipping into switzerland. Just a word of warning, whilst in France radar detectors are illegal and radar site warnings based on coordonates or cooperative signalling ( waze, coyote, etc) via sat nav or phone app, these apps are very illegal in switzerland, to the point that the "Coyote" app ( a community based app) issued an advisory warning to actually uninstall the app form your phone before entering switzerland as their uses and even possession is illegal.

Because he can see if the dog in his handlebar basket is putting his paws over his ears or not every time he brakes silly