Pedro

Nothing wrong with the bike, it's a mix of family stuff and my conscience, fear, and work getting annoying right at the wrong time.

It's with profound disappointment I'm not going, all this shit and hype and it's not happening. I'm now going to sulk for a while

That's not my take on god, though. My views on god are not certain and do vary according to what day it is, but mostly I believe that we do have values that take hold of us and make us feel guilty for doing shitty things and push us to do good things, regardless of god and a higher power and more according to what we feel as individual humans. I sometimes (rarely) feel there might be a higher being (an entity, not dictator), and on those days I will either feel curious about it, or angry and in need of having serious words with whatever. My feelings when entering holy buildings do exist though, regardless of what my brain thinks.

What a cool tree! To a smaller degree, I share an uneasiness with holy places with your friend. I can go into a curb for a service, a funeral or whatever, and feel normal and welcome, but there's something wrong when I go into a church or a cathedral by myself as a tourist just to look at the building and I feel I shouldn't be there. Maybe god doesn't like that I'm there unsupervised.

For the record, here, the BMW dealership where I bought my bike would charge me only 20 to 30€ more to sell and fit the same pair of 300€ Heidenaus my tire shop did. That’s with new valves and balancing. I have used another BMW dealership out of convenience, and the same difference applies, I know some people cry for every euro but to me that’s very reasonable.

Should he take it to a barber? I take mine to my mechanic or to a tire shop I’ve used for ages, they do bikes, cars, vans and trucks, alignment there works for anything from a 3 ton Iveco to an F3 racecar 140 km does seem like a lot to me, I do 30

My favourite when I used to drive an illegal car, was to go for a blast when FCPorto was playing the Champions, or any FCPorto vs. SLBenfica match, or a Portugal vs. anyone in the quarters forward. Yours is going to be golden to stretch the legs on that Suzuki, tells the rozzers you were late to watch the funeral on the tele if a fine ever arrives in the mail. Portugal just announced 3 days mourning to the Queen, too, a sentiment rather than people not working, but a nice gesture I think.

True story, every forklift driver gets addicted to this and race around the warehouse when not carrying something. Then they get on their diesel Corsa to go home with a broken heart. I should really buy another bike while they’re still proper, though!

Was pretty great, basically you get a salted codfish piece, half grill it, tear it apart a bit and put it inside a clay pot with a lot of garlic and olive oil over the coals, closed for a while, and serve it with plain potatoes. Thinly cut raw onion slices are an option, I go for them always.

Watching my brother grill some codfish

No, I meant how far away to go to have them replaced, like distance from home to your usual tire shop.

How many km do you ride to have your tires replaced, usually?

Thank you, that’s very kind. I ‘ll see what I can do Bob

Loosing pressure overnight between end of day and morning might just be the difference in ambient temperature cooling the tire enough that air inside doesn’t expand as much as when you measured it after a day of warmth. Did you check if they would go back up at the end of the day? Check them the day after at the time and ambient temperature you’ll ride. Cold temperatures in tires means ambient temperatures before you ride.

We’re getting scattered strong showers all over, but some areas are so dry or burned that water needs a long time to start hidrating the ground, otherwise it flows right over and just causes floods. Considering last month’s fires some rivers will be contaminated with ash saturated waters now. This is all according to plan though, rains through this week and maybe a bit of next one, and then a second summer comes to provide me with a sunny trip.

56, I'll be 56 Whose twisted mind came up with this thread?

Starting a ride report weeks in advance the actual thing takes place is not my style at all, I hate all the hype. However, this is more of a declaration of intentions so that I have no excuse to cower out at the last moment quoting some excuse. I have been making tiny preparations over the last few months, just to get myself in the mood. Stuff like renewing my passport, buying a phone that can manage using Moroccan data while keeping my Portuguese number active for (pretending to) work, buying a fender extender to protect the rear shock from rocks, buying a half tinted visor because the dark one is deadly at night and days get shorter in October, buying tires two months in advance, etc ... all that seems like over preparation but in fact was just me trying feel a little more in control by solving stuff when in fact I'm honestly plain scared about what I'm going to face riding out of that boat in Tangier. I've gone to the ridicule of freezing a couple of things at home, so that I have something nice and warm ready for when I return in the dark. My plan is to visit some familiar places and mix that with a bit of adventure, maybe see new places maybe a little more off the beaten path. Mountain passes are what I look forward the most regarding motorcycling, more so when they're heading to the wide open desert heat and herds of camels, in this case it's the easy familiar places that really amp up my anxiety, places where I proposed marriage and was happy, and where my heart broke and I contemplated darkness. Not sure if it's the happy places or the sad one that will challenge me. I'll be doing it alone at my own pace because that's how I deal with stuff, and because in a weird way I can't help but scratch wounds, you know it'll hurt but can't stop yourself from doing it. Today I booked a ferry ticket for the 29th September, a few things were starting to make me doubt going and finding an easy reasonable excuse for staying home working instead, so I bought the ticket and posted this so I'll be too embarrassed to not go at the last moment All that's left now is give the bike a small service, like an oil change and air filter change, and put the new tires on, and hopefully I'll be good to go. I say hopefully because I'm not really up for fixing anything on it, it's never needed anything so here's to that! My mum's 70th birthday is on the 27th, so on the 28th I'll ride to my place, pack everything nice and tidy and get in the mindset, have a nice sleep and on the 29th set off to catch a ferry that's leaving at an unreasonable 15:00 from Tarifa, since it's an adventure I'll probably miss that boat and call an hour earlier to change the ticket to one at 19:00 All in all, it'll be a grand time filled with extreme emotions, a perfectly reliable bike, twisty mountain passes shared with overloaded trucks, smells of spices wafting through street markets, and dusty boots.

I like that, it's like a food based music videoclip I purposely took that picture for you and a couple other forum members

That looks like a proper road, almost shame it’s so perfectly maintained

Or, it can be like this

No, it’s fucking freezing … to me. Here at home it does go below zero a few nights per year. If it’s dry it’s great motorcycling weather, though, this was on Christmas day:

It is, but at the end of the morning it starts to get a little warm. Max today is 32 or 33, but it feels maybe warmer, this is one of Portugal's warmest areas, though.

Rode up to my favourite cafe, just now posting while enjoying the coffee. Will not lunch as there’s a birthday party here and fucking lisbonners are turning this into a metropolis Rode a little dirt road for a bit, and stopped to let a tractor get away since I couldn’t pass it and there was nowhere for him to let me squeeze by

Great idea, I’ll do it outside my place, it’s a quiet street and I need the entertainment. Also people are really tight soI bet someone is going home for tools to get it!