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Just got notified yesterday that I'm gonna be a Great Grandparent this coming October... here's my oldest Grandson's 1st view of his future riding partner...that he already has a bike in the waiting for the little guy...

I also wanna build a tiny cabin or two for visiting bike riders. Plenty of room behind the garages for them and I've always wanted to build one. Something like these:

Packing for the move that begins next week. Entire house contents are boxed up and ready for the movers. We'll be in for a culture shock; moving from one of the wealthiest areas of the USA to one of the poorest. But the riding in Appalachia is great and I'm looking forward to it....

At least this Walking Scar is still 2-Wheelin'...

So on Sunday afternoon I decided to take a run out as the temperature was up to a near Caribbean level of 12c. I headed south into the Scottish Borders to the popular spot of Moffat but other than a sprinkling of power rangers and a few born agains it was quiet. My new exhausts were attracting a lot of admiring looks from the ladies. From there I headed to St Mary's Loch for a bit of cottaging. I was alone in the toilets though so I just took a piss instead. Again there weren't a lot of bikes, I did speak to a Polish couple who were on a Harley Electra Glide and I had a cigar break. Then I headed back using a single track road I wanted to explore. This took me past Megget Reservoir.

After 5 yrs. of not seeing my son...(he's a PMC in Israel) I got wind that he's here in OR currently!....just talked to him for the 1st time in a coupla years...he's in Portland to get his beat-up shoulder operated on (injury from Iraq back in 2011) & process a load of paperwork to get his Top Secret security clearance for a new contract in Germany after he finishes the remaining contract in Israel. Gonna relieve my anxiety a bit as a parent to know he'll be moving up the food chain & outta the field....probably gonna go see him next week...pretty stoked about that!

I saw a few of Fred's girlfriends, it is lambing season to if Fred had been here he would have gone full nonce. I then headed to Talla Reservoir, as usual the scenery was okay. Going off the side of the road would give you a bad day here. I eventually rejoined the main road and headed back to Edinburgh.

Good day out with some mates doing a Geand tour of Devon. Trip Stats. Other stuff

Sunny morning in Bristol ...................

A DBM is a Dago Bumming Midget , Pete was quite fond of them ................ .

So I woke up and my dog is laying on the back patio covered in dirt with a rabbit in his mouth. The rabbit's not bloody, just dirty. My neighbours kids raise blue ribbon rabbits. I instantly knew it was one of theirs. I took the rabbit away from my dog, rushed inside, and washed all the dirt off it before my neighbours could come home. It was stiff but I heard some animals play dead when they are afraid but I couldn't remember which ones. I took it and placed it back in one of the cages in their back yard then I ZOOMED back home. (Don't judge me ) Not 30 minutes later I hear my neighbours screaming so I go out and ask them what's wrong? They tell me their rabbit died three days ago and they buried it but now it's back in the cage. .

Sorted.. get another one in there if I cleared all the shit at end of it

Thanks! Should have loads of great ride reports once I get moved in. The new place has 5+ acres of land and a small shop out back - actually two shops in one. Smaller one to the right will be bikes only and the rest will be welding and woodshop stuff ....

Got 7 inches last night and I'm still sore! Another day in paradise...

Granddaughter rang yesterday "Scoot making a funny noise and won't start!" .....So I nipped over to hers, battery almost totally flat, starter relay just chattering when button is pressed, she also said that when it was running it would only do 25mph!....tried to pull it out of the garage, front brake absolutely seized, charged the battery, stripped the caliper, cleaned and greased it...scoot now starts and does 55mph again, so i thought I would check other things too, oil level fine, air filter clean, tyres!...both down by at least 22psi....... a bucket of wash and wax would be a good thing too.....

Go on then, burn those retinas.

Even though I'm apparently unqualified due to not having foot pegs ...& yet @boboneleg has won w/ his f*ckin' cool Vespa....& @Clive doesn't catch much flack with his scoot entry, which both are pegless... I'm throwing my motorized 2-wheeler in the mix this month regardless of its pedals...

So, two days ago, woke up and swiftly headed out before it got too warm. As I got just down the road I stopped to check I hadn't forgotten my laptop, stopped by the lake and the water level was maxed out, good! Alentejo is the Spring: Alqueva lake on a clear warm spring day. I took my usual dirt road detour next to the lake to check if I could spot Malaquias, the older gentleman I met here last time. His car wasn't in his property but his two big guard dogs were, so I carried on. A couple of hours later, and I'm getting to the Algarvian hills, on the other side is the ocean and my desired lunch destination. I love these roads but sometimes the tarmac is very rough, being municipal managed roads they vary a lot in quality from one spot to the other. My destination, for a plate of clams. Lunch was my only plan, I didn't feel like waiting around a long time to then get into an overpriced hotel in the touristy Algarve, the 25th April is a holiday in Portugal so along with the previous weekend's Easter holiday it was bound to be seen as high season. I pondered riding back home but and rang a friend in Faro and he had no plans for that night, so I took advantage of his hospitality and headed over. On the way to Faro I found this amazing minuscule road that for 7 or 8km is probably the best road in the region: Faro was warm, it got to 29º that afternoon making it the first warm day of the year. The night was pure Algarve in the way the it was very warm with no wind, we went out to dinner and drinks in the town, and got to bed by 4am. In the morning, we rode up to the hills for a goodbye espresso, and we parted ways. Stop to put on my sweater as the temperatures were definitely cooler today, and those clouds were low and no longer felt like summer. Didn't stop until I got to a usual dirt road shortcut, it's very pretty country there so worthy of a scenic stop. And that's it. Hadn't been on the bike for what felt like ages, I was really missing it so these 4 days felt very nice.

Dirty yellow on clean yellow.

I've been back up north, Mrs not been great, but now she is pretty well OK I now have time to myself

A38...M1 junction 23a..... passed East Mids Airport, country road to Donington Park...... just a reverse journey back home, nothing exciting was encountered on the journey there and back, did have a short shower on the way there. Took a few photos, phone camera is crap.

After a coupla days of rain, it finally turned out halfway decent weather-wise....was out havin' a spin on the Mullet & my dad called...so I rolled down to the RV park where I could call him back w/o my full-face lid on.... He got a text from my lad over in Israel...guess he's on a mission in the Golan Hts. near the Syrian border. Dad said he was gonna get back to the Gaza area soon....so I'll definitely be looking forward to hearing from him.

Out for a short ride on the Vespa today . Fully serviced , new MOT and a new pair of tyres from GJB Motorcycles...........

Tires on my m/c trailer were looking pretty ratty, not good enough for the 1,500 miles I need to do next week with some bikes. So off to WalMart to get a new set - they come pre-mounted on trailer rims and are around $160 each. I get some other crap while I'm there, go through the check out line and the lady working there was a complete idiot. Had a hard time ringing stuff up , etc. I pay, get my receipt and go home. At home, I check the receipt; she gave me my other stuff for cheap and didn't even charge me for the rims and tires! I got outta there for $20.16. Normally I'd have said something, but I didn't look until I got home and WalMart is about 45 miles away. So it looks like I got free tires!

had a local ride on the Beta this afternoon, bloody nice to not have to wash tons of mud off it for a change A few photos of the usual lanes you've all seen before but with clear blue sky's and no chem trails fucking Golfers all over the road

The result if @boboneleg & @Buckster had a run-in w/ each other...

Had a trip out to the local Vintage motorcycle club this morning. And one old chap turned in his recently restored MG only done 140 miles since it was finished. Certainly a beautiful thing I can’t imagine it came out of the factory this good.

Trip over to Newquay and Project 83 this evening. Like a warm summers day. with a couple of mates, Andy on his Thruxton and Martyn on his V85TT. Nice to have all modern bikes for a change and not have to wait for the vintage bone shakers. Family parking

Finally got around to sorting out the noisy inner primary bearing. It's not a difficult job but means removing the entire primary, I wanted to inspect the Dark Horse motor sprocket I fitted in place if the old compensator anyway and make sure the old deflector was still in place on the inside of the cover as it has been 1500 miles since I fitted those. The Dark Horse and deflector all looked good, unfortunately one of the starter bolts wouldn't come out, the allen head was buggered. I started drilling it but looking at the head I had an epiphany and sure enough one of my cam driven stud pullers fitted it so it came out nice and easy. At that point I went to get my bearing race puller and after turning the shed upside down I couldn't find it. Last time I used it was ten years ago in Georgia. I started to think maybe it was still over there. So I put the bike away while I figured it out. Found the tools this morning after two minutes of looking, they were under the bed of course. Hopefully get most of it done this evening.

I'll fix it, but nobody really knows what Harley models are called.

Again I had a similar thing with my boys scoot the other day, I noticed the front brake pads were wafer thin. I ordered new but when they came one of the pad pins seized and stripped, so bought a used caliper and fitted that. Only for the boy to tell me the front brakes had been rubbish for weeks. FFS He was shocked how good they were now they actually work. I sometimes wonder if at 21 he would have the sense to come in out of the rain. I did enjoy playing with the ped though, all relatively simple but therapeutic to do.

I’ve been rumbled, Adolf was my dad.

After saying goodbye to the cyclists, I head out to a very pretty part of Serra da Estrela, often ignored by biker tourists. The weather is great and the roads are empty. Stop by a castle and have s look around searching for an espresso, with no luck. It’s a very pretty well fixed up village though. take an unnecessary dirtroad detour, with what turned out to be a nice road just next to it Got up to the peak with very little traffic and didn’t even stop. It snowed last weekend, plus a national holiday on Friday so lots of people up there, I carried on. Going down the mountain I didn’t feel like stopping at all now, it had been a long time off the bike and I was loving it. Carried on south and into the Alentejo always on small roads. Temperatures got high, at over 25, and Spring is springing. From boulders and rock mountains to rolling hills feels like heading South for sure. Found a deal on a room and stopped for the day after a good day on the bike. In time to freshen up and watch the sunset while searching for dinner. Braised pork cheeks with oven cooked rice, it was fantastic.

Yes. I was up there last week and didn't see one that was standing.

Nope...just an update on what my boy's been doing for the last 5 years....he KNOWS what info to tell me & when....had that "Need To Know" basis since he was in Iraq.

There is a strong effort being made to make it look nice, but it is countryside and most urban problems are being kept away. Inside the village at 19:30 all you heard was swallows or nothing at all, I love it! On the other hand, while the seaside was getting rain storms lat saturday, these guys were getting proper snow! My dinner table was taking forever as the tiny restaurant was backed up because the waiter called in sick, so a cycling team who are also my neighbours invited me to sit with them. I had a great time, way better than sitting by myself. Eventually the cyclists finished eating and went to rest, and me and management stayed finishing off some wine. Picture taken with a full table, except myself taking the picture and another two people as the room was tiny and I couldn’t get farther enough : Walking back to the hotel, I was shown around their very impressive van complete with washer and dryer, freezer, 8 bicycle garage and shop, and two seating rows. The GS is cozy in the garage as well, which is nice as it’s cold out. I am a fan of this place, now, and will return. Tomorrow: mountain and heading South.

Found a small oldschool inn to stay in, in a castle town, and went on a walk before dinner: Now waiting for a table. Tomorrow, heading South via the Serra da Estrela.

Bloody love power delivery and a peach to ride , don't like the high exhaust, much prefer my style

Arrived at Skeggy at 2.30, Lincoln ring Road was the usual disaster, 2 miles covered in 30 mins, won't go that way home on Sunday....off too find food now.

Funnily enough I have just come in from checking overs Shadows bike, tyre, pressures, oil, chain all the usual stuff. Then washed and GT85 ed it. Just slipped her a sneaky £10 for fuel as well. So her mother doesn't moan. She is off over St Eval this afternoon to spend the weekend at the boyfriends parents. I am going to lead her over there as she isn't sure exactly how to get there, getting home is easier as she only has to follow the signposts to St Aweful or Bodmin. Found a screw in her back tyre but only about 3 mm into the chunky part of the tyre, lucky catch

A carbed Triumph would be a good choice .......................

Nice one @Clive . Between you and @Saul you make a good emergency response team

A coupla winter shots of Wallowa lake from this year....