Slowlycatchymonkey

Sounds like a fun evening. Doggy sedatives?

What sidecar stuff?

Love it @Grasshopper's Ride Great roads, nice recording

The drummer, THE DRUMMER/! OMG I knew you were a troll.

A representative of the MOGHTY COOOOOOMBE! ps giimmee all ur luvin, all ur hugs n kisses too...

I have pics, one day I may dane to treat you to the episodic disaster that unfolded. Fighting mozzies ay, well good luck, I encountered the Scottish kind just recently on a mobike trip (got pics as well don’t you know ) they are little barstewards.

Wooooah bitch! Duh yeh I fail to post ride reports (probably always will) but you know I actually ride.. year round unlike some..

Cliquey much?

Maybe he was just masked up ahead of his times?

How is no-one mentioning the freaky melty face flesh coloured face statue? The stuff of childhood nightmares. WEIRD!

The joys of sunshine ay

How can they follow you here when youre never here? You never call, you never write, you gave us that fake phone number…

Lol I definitely had some mosquito moments (including meeting the tarmac with my head on a u turn ) but the range a single gear covers on the bandit is enormous so its really nice to tour on, up to 8 hours riding a day with no backache and very little arse ache so I forgive it its sins. Getting it lowered tomorrow by up to 5cm which is a quite a lot, will be interesting to see how that effects the balance. No doubt Ill forget and treat it like its unlowered for some exciting “oh shit” moments

BBQ day today. Eggs benedict for breakfast then BBQ and cocktails later on The new garden furniture is assembled. I’m going full on rainbow to celebrate my love of the quite faulty but marvellous NHS and honestly I just like rainbows, girly ay?! Expect cocktail blurred pics later

I think the pressure you feel on the mod one is crazy, its well known that some perfectly competent riders are destined to fail the moment the gates shut. But you got there in the end and while itll stay with you for a while eventually it just becomes an amusing memory Yer that is a big difference in weight. Quite a jump up but one I reckon you can get to grips with. I’m also a small person, 5’ 4” about 8 1/2 stone (dunno for sure, don’t weigh myself), arms like Kermit, you just have to allow yourself a longer adjustment time and not be too hard on yourself that youre not stacked like a bloke. Ive just done LEJOG and most of the NC500 on my 1250 Bandit which is for me a heavy bike (240kg dry) and top heavy before its even loaded so I completely get where youre coming from. I was on the upper outer edge of what I could handle weight wise which I think is what I’m getting from your posts? In the first 4 days Id decided the fully loaded the bike was definitely too heavy for me and the bike was going to have to go but by day 7/8 I was back in love with it and the necessary muscle had developed so it no longer felt heavy. Suppose what I’m saying is if you like the bike manoeuvre it about manually yourself as much as possible and the muscle/muscle memory will quickly arrive. Mr Slowly got some filthy looks and head shakes from other people when I was incompetently straining to shift my bike about. He said he wanted to shout at them “she doesnt want my help” Which I didnt cos who wants to be the little lady who got a bike thats too big and needs a man to move it for her?!! So its worked out fine I can even move it backwards on uneven ground or a slight incline against me now which 3 weeks ago would have seemed an impossibility. Deep gravel though can fuck right off! I know from the other place youre made from sensible stuff (well without the vodka anyway ) and will soon know whether its a yes I will be able to handle this bike or no its too much to be fun. The way I view it (others far more experienced here may want to correct this) I’m 48, I have limited time being able to manage a heavy powerful bike before something light and less aggressive becomes the order of the day so I’m damn well going to enjoy every crazy brown trouser moment with bigger bikes I can get while I can manage it.

Ah @gymwitch good to hear from you. Congratulations on passing your test. What’s your bikes weight?

Ive heard some ‘interesting’ things about the french police, none of it very inspiring!

Which country has better roads for biking, France or Spain?

Yer Jack Russell aren’t known for their forgiving temperament

This is hard to believe but it’s true. The man who owned the neighbouring farm was a friend since forever, I’ve known him and his sons since I was 16. To say he was a character is an understatement, his ears probably burned often, words like bastard and twat were regularly used by people talking about him. He loved to say what he thought and balls to the consequences. For him the ruder the better and there were a fair few people that hated him. I found him highly entertaining watching him upsetting people’s sensibilities with foul language and pointed observations was quite entertaining. He had fallen out badly on different occasions with his wife (they split up and were divorcing), his son (he was cut off and never spoken to again) and was just about to evict his daughter, her husband and his grandchildren from a farm they were failing to turn a profit on which would leave them homeless. Anyway 2017 while all this bollo was going on he was reportedly working on his own and was crushed to death by his own low loader bucket. The police concluded the dog did it. I kid you not. They decided the dog pushed the lever and brought the bucket down on him, case closed!

Interesting. Ive always fancied visiting this one- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_Grotto,_Margate

Yep that’s a good article. I particularly liked his chemist friend bit ...the concentration riding required would gradually push aside the mess in his mind and shake the problem down to essentials. A solution would appear. And it worked over and over...

82kg it’s excellent the seat height though

@XTreme Mijas is definitely cobbly and you’ve got Mirador San Nicolas, Granada’s most famous viewpoint which I think is in Albaicin. It’s seriously steep narrow and cobbled.. so I’m told, I didn’t attempt it!