Tango

I'm not a brand snob, I just like things that do the job well. Price doesn't really come into it, except I normally look out for stuff I like when it's on sale. I don't think I've paid full price for any of my gear!

I can see the pyrenees from my village, Rob. I'm planning on heading across to explore.

Top box solidarity! That's what I like to see!

Neck tubes, or Buffs. I never ride without one now and have a small collection of my favourites. Swapped to the autumn/spring one today as it's pretty cold in the mornings at the moment.

My last 2 lids have been Bell M5X because I found that they fit me perfectly. I've tried lids from other manufacturers and many of them don't fit properly or are tight across the temples, which results in a blinding headache within an hours riding. The sizing seems to vary depending on the manufacturer and I'm normally a large, but I've found that with some the large is too big and the medium too tight. So, to an extent, the brand for me is important.

You seem to have a bit of a thing about hair, Pete?

When I think back that my first bike jacket was a Belstaff, because it was cheap and reasonable quality. Look at them now!

I'm a fan of Lomo and Kreiga bags for the bike. Lomo in particular are well made for the price.

What you can't see in the picture I posted today is all the stuff crammed into my top box that I was transferring to the new house.

Is there a brand of motorcycle gear that you always seem to go back to and why? Held gloves are the brand that I always find fit me the best. And most of them don't have that annoying seam that runs up the thumb and digs into it on the throttle hand. They seem to wear pretty good too.

Top box................just sayin'.

BikerDown were always on the lookout for old lids for use in their training.

The nut job who murdered the two women was convicted on dna evidence, but his defence was arguing that the evidence could have been flawed by the presence of the two coppers at the crime scene. The prosecution managed to convince the court that they didn't get close enough to the bodies to contaminate them with their own dna, but it could easily gone the other way and that nut job could have been freed to do the same again! Hopefully the court will give them substantial prison time!

One of my ex's cousins joined the Met. She'd always dreamed of joining and worked really hard to get in. Wasn't long before she was on sick leave for stress because of her treatment by other officers. The father of a girl I know was the officer who got his hand blown off by an explosive device at Catford police station many years back. Don't know if any of you remember that incident? He's a decent bloke, but obviously wasn't able to continue his career after that incident.

From what I've seen here so far there are 3 types of brits living here: 1 - home-from-home, living in brit areas, such as Dordogneshire, Normandy or Prevence. Mixing mainly with other brits, but generally in the "system" and paying their taxes. These tend to be the upper-middle and upper class sorts. 2 - away-from-it-all, these are brits that don't come into any particular class. They buy a place in the middle of nowhere with a vast tract of land around them and generally avoid people, full stop. They moved to France because they could buy the property and land for peanuts. Generally in the "system". 3 - escapees, those that moved to France to enjoy the way of life here. Again, they don't tend to fall into any particular class. They tend to live in places that are not overrun with other brits and usually live in typical housing. Always in the "system". OK, sweeping generalisations, which @MooN will probably put me right on, but from looking at various Facebook groups, that's my impression.

I used to visit the Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr, right in the middle of the Gurnos estate! I mentioned to one of the guys in the hospital about the ice cream vans going round all day, even in the middle of winter. "They're not selling ice-creams, it's drugs!" Apparently one of the security guys at the hospital kept getting his small motorbike stolen from the hospital and then found trashed with the ignition hot wired and the steering lock smashed. In the end he left the keys in the bike and a note asking the joyriders to bring it back when they'd finished with it. Apparently it worked. His bike would go missing during the day, but was always back in its parking spot at the end of the day!

It seems like tipping is not a French thing either, but I always do it anyway.

Me.

And I still say not!

It's called hair, @Buckster, some of us old'uns still have our own!

Lol. I'm in a country where they're still taking Covid-19 seriously, so the only way that I can remember carrying a face mask with me is to stuff it in my shirt pocket.