Tango

That's true, mate, I think that there's more restrictions on the way, which could be avoided if everyone just kept going with the mask wearing and distancing for a while longer.

It was actually a bit cooler over there because it's on the Atlantic coast. It was 35C here yesterday, so we went to our local beach. The Med was a nice temperature.

I was away on holiday for a week, Pete. Went across to the coast near Bordeaux. It was heaving with holidaymakers from all over, though! Surprising how many didn't feel the need to wear masks too, although we had to show our vaccination passes to get into any restaurants there.

That's really bad news, mate. None of the vaccines are 100%, but for them both to die from Covid-19 is very worrying. Condolences to all involved.

I had a few installations in London where I was travelling down every day for a couple of weeks, but otherwise it was just for the occasional visit to help out the London engineers. My usual patch was the A14 corridor plus Peterborough and Northampton. I had a lot of kit in Ipswich, so I spent quite a bit of time travelling to and from there.

I gave up driving into London eventually and took the train from the local station. £40 return plus £6 to park the car at the station, but at least I could bung it on expenses. 50 minutes by train or 2.5hrs by car, so that was a win in my book!

Ah, yes.....I'd forgotten that small detail!

It's a big country, Pete.

Are you looking for a project? https://www.leboncoin.fr/motos/2014963690.htm?ac=4051296304

Thanks mate. I hope that you have a good break too.

That's true, but you have to be careful. Prices vary depending on the area. In parts of France you can get a good sized house with acres of land for peanuts, but the problem comes when you want to sell, as many French don't want a load of land to look after, so it can make selling a bit of a problem. I've heard of people having property on the market for several years before managing to sell. Building materials are pretty expensive here too, so buying a do'er upper can become a money pit. But house prices are in general lower here than the UK, but they are on the rise due to people wanting to move out of the cities and get a place with some outside space. It's well worth considering @Six30, but needs a bit or research first.

I hope that you get him back to your place OK. Hopefully a change of scenery will perk him up a bit.

We're going away for a week (without the bikes, unfortunately). Tomorrow could be a long day in the car! Traffic forecasts are looking pretty dire!

Or a modern day version of it? Obviously Triumph have persevered with the Bonneville and Kwak have released the Z900RS, but is there a bike that you wish was still made? Maybe with updated motors or cycle parts. For me it would be the Triumph Thunderbird Sport 900. Maybe updated with the 1050 motor. Otherwise pretty much the same.

Yes, that was a very popular dispatch bike in its day. Used to see them all over London.

None of the vaccines have ever claimed to be 100%, so some people who have been vaccinated will still catch it and become severely ill or die, but the majority will be able to mount an effective immune response to it once vaccinated. That doesn't mean that they can't catch it or become ill, but their immune system now knows how to react to it if or when they catch it. Anyway, some restrictions are being restored down here as the levels are on the rise, which is no surprise due to the massive influx of holidaymakers here at the moment. There's a good percentage of Dutch, Belgian and German cars around, as well as a good many French cars from different departments.

I put ace bars on my RD350 because I didn't really like the original bars, but I thrashed that as much as I could! A mate had a GS750 and I had a few goes on it and was pretty impressed by it. He then got the GS1000 when it came out. That was pretty mind-blowing at the time too. But, compared to modern bikes they are a bit lacking in many departments. Yes, I prefer the looks of many of them, but that doesn't justify the price tag on some of them now, in my opinion.

A mate had a Z1 back in the mid 70's, he sold it quick because he said it kept trying to kill him! Tank slappers, dodgy handling and suicidal brakes! I had an RD350B and I had to change the spark plugs every month because the performance dropped right off otherwise and cleaning the plugs wouldn't get it back.

Classic bikes are big business these days, but where to draw the line? I'm gobsmacked at the prices being asked for some bikes because they're "classic". Do you think that these prices are justified, or is it just old blokes with too much money and rose tinted specs looking for that nostalgia trip?

Yes, it does look good. It goes and handles OK too, apparently. For the price tag I think that Triumph is on to a winner.

The offer on the f750GS has finished now, so if I do it's unlikely to be a new one, Pete. I need to have a sit on the new Trident 660. Seems to have good reviews. But I keep changing my mind about changing the Honda! If it had a few more BHP I probably wouldn't be thinking so much about changing it.

I paid extra for a centre stand on my CB500X. Some bikes can't have them now because of the catalytic converters for the Euro5 take up all the space under the bike.

The world is pretty f*cked up right now, isn't it? I hope that he can get something sorted.

The first anniversary of my early retirement a couple of days ago. Got to say, I don't miss working. Feel for everyone who's life's are unsettled with everything that's going on at the moment. It's a tough time for a lot of people.