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These places don't even show up on Google Maps.......so I don't where I was exactly. I suspect most of this in Murcia! I was out for about four hours with temps around 30C, and still managed not to go beyond my 6 mile limit. If only I had a van! Nevertheless I wobbled off on my gay moped. It was my first run since hitting 70, and I'm pleased to report that I was riding just as badly as I was before I was 70. I went from Granada province, into Almeria, and then into Murcia. When I crossed into Murcia I found an abandoned restaurant! About 15 minutes going cross country I found more ruins! Further along the road there was more...... And then I came across a complete block of abandoned buildings! And I was so glad I had a top box! Cos when you stop is when you really feel the heat! This is the point most of you (especially @Skippy) would bottle it......but I just take it in my stride! Obviously there's been somebody living here at some point! So there we go......something for you lot to aspire to. I'll just mention in passing that I saw Tony the Tools (who's recently moved out of the town) recruiting for his new bike gang on FB......obviously no invite for me. Not that I'd even consider it obviously, because my idea of motorcycling is somewhat different to others. But it just goes to show that the current generation of motorcyclists just can't hack it in the company of Old School Greasers! Tell 'em @Renegade!

this has been a long time coming as it is something that I have been wanting to do for a fair few years now. I originally planned this as a solo trip, but things change and a couple of mates tagged along, one for the whole thing and one ( + wife and dog) for the Normany part but not the "there and back" bit. With unstable spring weather and unsure of my own ability to ride km in a day and still be able or willing to set up a tent in shit weather, I booked what they call a "cyclo tent" in the municipal campsite in Bayeux. It cost me 90 odd € for the 3 nights and as it has é beds and my mate Manu came along Ionly paid half of it . It's a kind of semi rigid tent, and looks like this: ( that's Manu in the pic with his RT1100 The campsite is well organised (but everybody's GPS sends them to the swimming pool and not thecamp site) well maintaine and equipped with new, clean and heated shower / toilet block. t's half an hours ride from any of the invasion beaches and all the main sites, i'd recommend it if you're thinking of going. The ride North from here on wednesday went almost without a hitch, the weather had changed radically for the better and I left home ataround 08h30. I met up with Manu as planned, at a petrol stationjust this side of Joigny on the N6. We then headed eastwards toward Montargis and Orleans, rounding Orleans to the south and then turning northeast towrds Chateaudun where we stopped for lunch. Top Tip for eating rapidly in France: Get to the restaurant by 12h00 at the latest (11:45 is better) cos the french feed from 12 to 2 and the ALL arrive, en masse at 12h00. We got there at 11h45 so were pretty much first in, first served and first out. as we left at 12:45 they were still queuing at the door and more were still arriving. It being a Looooooong weekend, the whole country and his significant other were on the roads (Including, much to my surprise a large number of citroen 2CV, many pulling caravans FFS! I failed to get a picture of this, as I was too busy trying to not fall of my bike from the surprise!) From chateaudun we moved ever north and east, through Nogent le Rotrou, Mortagne au Perche, Sees, Argentan and Falaise (not only famous for the "Falaise Pocket" but also the home of William the conquerer, whos chateau is still visitable (looks like I'm going to have to come back here...) We stopped fro a break and a coffee in Falaise, as I had planned the only autoroute usage of the trip from here to Bayeux, as it would be getting on fot rushhour as we approached Caen at this stage we'd been on the road for nearly 7 hoursand I just wanted to get to the end. From Falaise north, the Autoroute is a "voie rapide" similar the the autoroutes in Britanny so no toll, but with a speed limit of 110kph rather than the 130 of the toll roads, but that's fine as the tiger is probably at hermost comfortable at this speed. The traffic around Caen was bad, and I had to resort to lane splitting with is "tolerated" inFrance and codified but not legally. It isnot something I'm very comfortable with as I never need to filter in the part of the world I live in, but most of the drivers being Parisien, it was surprisingly easy, you just sit on the white line between the two outer lanes and the cars open a passage for you like Moses parting the red sea! My ride plan had us arriving at the campsite at 17:15 and we pulled up at the gate at 17: 14 which had the other couple who were waiting for us accusing me of witchcraft (the french are not good at punctuality, for the most part...) we strolled into Bayeux for a feed that evening, and back along the river Up and out early the next morning wanting to beatthe crowds. We're one month away from the 80th anniversary celebrations and its a bank holiday weekend of 5 days AND the weather is glorious... 1st up; the Merville Battery and museum, you can look it up for specifics. It was aninteresting visit and the information dotted around the site was very instructive and complete. The Dakota parked in front of the Hangar is known as the "SNAFU special" so I had to translate that for all and sundy as it was the only thing not translated on the information boards . Again, we were almost first in, but by the time we laft, the car park was full and there was a 15minute queue at the entrance to the museum. We moved back down the estuary and river to Bénouville and the site of Pegasus Bridge. I believe the first objective of the invasion and the first attack by glider born troops. The 3 glider pilots in question managed to place their machine so perfectly after a 5 mile glide that it is still today considered to be one of the greates feats of airmanship of the war. The original bridge has been replaced, but is still intact and the museum has been built around it They also have built a scale model of one of the Horta gliders used, from the original plans. I was so overawed by the sheer balls of any of the blokes who dared to actually fly inone of them, that i forgot to take any pictures. None of the original gliders have survived intact. This tank did though (built a little moe solidly I think) Iwas intrigued by the graduations painted on the turret. Aparrently it was to enable an exterior spotter to give precise firing directions to the gunner inside. We ate at the restaurant "Les 3 Planeurs" right beside the bridge, good food and reasonably priced. Again, we managed to keep one step ahead of the crowds. By the time we got the "The Grand Bunker" at Ouistreham things were getting crowded. This bunker was a command post with fire direction for the germanshore batteries and was not constructed with the ease of movement of hundreds of tourists inmind... interesting though, and an extensive collection of parephanalia, from an original landing craft to communication equippement and telemetry gear for ranging guns. this is hand canked air filtration system in case of gas attack The rest of the days activities, I had planned to be outdoors, as I struggle to deal with crowds in small spaces, so we moved on to The british memorial at Ver sur Mer and this is where I got the title "Standing with Giants" you canlook that up too https://www.standingwithgiants.co.uk/#:~:text=The 1%2C475 giants reflect the,April 2024 - 31st August 2024. you can see the remains of the Mulberry harbours at Arromanches in the background. moving mong the silouettes, reading the history, the phrase "standing among giants" becomes achingly apt. Having been somewhat subdued by the Ver sur Mer memorial we moved on to Arromanches, cos I wanted to see the remains of the Mulbery harbours, the dog wanted to run on th sand and we all wanted an ice cream or cold beer... or possibly both! The tide was pretty much out so good timing. What with the sun and the sear air and all the rest I slept prety soundly that night. Next day, up and at'em early again tobe amongthe first visitors to the Us cemetery at Colville sur Mer. If I remember correctly, this was the first US military cemetary of the war and is the larges US military Cemetary outside the US with 9433 soldiers buried here and the names of a further 1500 odd names of soldiers lost but not found or identified. As with all such places it is very sobering. The organisation is impressive and clearly top notch. The parking attendant told us they were expecting 10,000 visitors per day leading up to the 80th anniversary with apeak of 12.000 at the weekends and 14 to 15,000 on the -th June. They have car parking for about half that... needless to say, there was a vehicle queue of about 2 miles when we left. we had a quick look at Omaha beach and moved on to the Point du Hoc https://www.abmc.gov/Pointe-du-Hoc some of the bunkers have survived almot unscathed but the ground has beenlaft pretty much as it was in '44 and the depth and size of the craters gives some inkling into the destructive power of a battery of 14 inch naval guns (of the USS texas I believe) The fact that the rangers managed to scale those cliffs, locate the guns (that had beenmoved), take the battery and hold it for tw days untill support arrived, absolutely beggars belief. Grandcamp Maisey for lunch, where Manu's bike managed to punch a hole right throgh the pavement with its side stand and fall over into the road... my helpful comments about just another german making holes in the Normandy villages were, surprisingly, not appreciated... we wpent most of the afternoon at the mairee sorting out damage reports and insurance claims for both pavement and bike. the damage o the bike was, fortuately, only cosmetic and the third member of our party being an insurance agent, obviously helped in avoiding any unneccessary palaver. Having lost a lare part of the afternoon in this manner we sadly had to pass over the museum at Omaha beach, contenting ourselves with a visit to the beach itself, or part of it, but it nowbeing high y=tide there was not much of it to se so we pushed on to St Mere Eglise, with it's iconic 3john Steel" parachutist dummy hangng from the church, as per the film "The Longest Day". The event did effectively happen in real life, though somewhat differently from the film. The village manages to generate 200,000 visitors a year from a rubber dummy and some parachute materiel. It was the only time during the trip that I thought things had been allowed to get a little out of contro and border on the distateful.

the ride home the next day was only eventful insofar as my knee was was so painful that I had to stop every hour and thenevery half hour to walk the pain off. we did a little over 1400km in the 4 days and it was clearly toomuch for my poor failing carcass. I did feed it properly though

Aurora Boreyerarseoff

Met up with 3 mates at 4 Turnings garage this morning at 9:00am. Martin on his R80 with R100 engine and running gear. Chris on his Triumph Scrambler 900, Gary on his 1974 Triumph Bonny, Me and my Shadow on the Hornet. We set off on the A390 through Lostwithiel then on up the A38 and Liskeard by pass. Turned off and went inland to Callington then took the Gunnislake Road turning off to Kitt Hill and then Louis Cafe. Gary lead as his bike was the slowest and he openly admits he can't see much over 70 mph because of the vibes. God only knows why he takes the bloody thing. He has a Ducati Monster and while not as pretty it is a much more capable bike. Course Shadow moaned as we could go fast, traffic and Gary. Not that I ever push to hard but it was slow going. Got there around 9:40 and pretty quiet so we didn’t have a breakfast que. £14 for two sausage baps and two cans of fizz. Twas nice but felt spendy, maybe I am just tight JPS Norton Shadows dream bike WTF this is supposed to be I don’t know but made me smile. After breakfast we headed back to Callington and took the road down to Saltash then on to Carkeel and the back road to Looe. Mooched around Polperro then back to Plynt, Lostwithiel again St Blazey and home. Great day out, loads of bikes and traffic though. Suppose it is bound to happen this time of year. Trip stats Nice new Bullit Very old Sunbeam on a NZ plate. Apparently the owner bought it in NZ on a round the world sailing trip. Road it around NZ stripped and packed it away in his sailing boat and brought it back to Cornwall 50 years ago. Still riding it today. Interesting old chap.

Got out of the house just to ride a bit...

Fess up @busabeast, you dropped the bike taking it out of the van, didn’t you. Carrying bikes in vans isn’t for everyone.

Should we have poll

I tell you now that video card will be corrupted

If I had them, I would have posted a photo of the mirrors, with the message

They're on eBay for £25 right now

Take them to the scrapyard a few years ago someone threw two batteries down the woods behind where i park my car i fished them out and took them and an old bike battery down the scrapyard which was only at the bottom of the woods the were dumped in and had £17 for them, bought myself a breakfast in the van next to the scrappies nothing like a free breakfast. I kept the one off my works van to use as a leisure battery in the marmite wagon when we go away which i forgot to take last time LOL

I’m off to church to pray for forgiveness for what I was planning on saying on the subject.

There are usually dogs involved when @Six30 is out as well.

Just checked how long this set are on and I doubt the rear will last 7000 miles. Still better than most sporty road tires for trailies, and they’ll handle this :

Oh the drama .. ordered some couple of weeks back off eBay , got email saying they are out of stock just before I went away … i can wait ( didn’t say how long , or get a refund ) said give me a refund , hence why I bought some at cmc while away and forgot the fuckers and left em on a wall outside shop … got home today mrs said there is a parcel turned up for you … yup bar ends , not checked yet to see if I got a refund yet … could I be that lucky … to be continued just fitted em

Two bikes and plenty of room , even with the bed there … more van action soon , camping style with the mrs , will take the XT .

My dad finally accepted that, after two severe falls down the stairs, it was time to let the platform chair lift be installed, he’s been using it for a couple of days with great success. Figure I’ll do a ride report on it, with video, one of these days.

not wrong Pete i will always own a leather biker jacket

Amazing report Chris......and this pic is incredible!

Yesterday Not an S, but still cool

I find it difficult to understand how these places are just abandoned like that. On this crowded little island they would be developed into something to rape money out of the populace quick smart.

After talking to the owner I get the feeling it has never been UK registered. I think he may have been riding it illegally for the last 50 years. He didn't say so but he winked when I asked him about the NZ plate. Rugged Individualist

Favorite place to Ski in OR....

You're really just bringing @Six30 his mirrors back, aren´t you? Feeling guilty?

I'm off out! Covering 3 provinces.......all within a 6 mile radius of course!

Good soaking with kerosene...just like new...

I have to give a thumbs up to harley dealer network...not sure if they operate all in the same manner ...but when my ultra water pump let go last year in laconia the bike was on a lift in minutes and being repaired...and it wasn't because they weren't busy...that dealer gave priority to travelers...

Kitt Hill bike meet this morning

What would you have done with it anyway, same as me, I've got 3 car batteries I've recovered I don't know what to do with.

Like me after that cruise

You choose what you prefer. I am using Mitas E07+Dakar. They're very good as a mix tire, they'd be WAY better on those roads than what you're using, while still being comfortable and quiet (no humming like on a proper knobby) on the motorway and smooth when cornering in tarmac, but if you push them properly and go fast they'll get "scruly" like yours do except on tarmac. I might just have found my ideal tire. Plus they aren’t gay tires like @XTreme's tires

It's gonna be epic...

Told you, they won’t forget.

So tomorrow it is Rich ?

Well that's about it ...stop in town when I got back...to see the Harley gang...hanging out at the donut shop....the ride was about 350 km...and a final picture of yours truly...so you'll know it was me riding the bike..

After fueling ...another 40 km to reach the road ...pristine clear water..lots of curves...not a place for are local race rider to be on...

No van? That man is living on the edge!

Wasn't much to see on the way north...stop in the town of campbelton for a coffee...still snow on the ski slope..the steep mountain in the distance is call sugarloaf...and old volcano from long ago..

Lunch breack....

Bought a set of bar end mirrors at cmc’s this morning , left the fuckers on a wall outside the entrance

Reminds me of the time I got a puncture as I rode into Los Angeles after 2400 miles in three days. Nursed it down to the dealers and at first they wanted to book it in, I pointed out I had ridden in from Georgia and would only be there for a couple of days, they promptly dropped everything and did it immediately. There was a guy from Canada waiting who had trailered his bike down who started complaining. The workshop guy told him to shut the fuck up and said real riders got priority.