MooN

surely that front L-plate is not legal?

call him a twat from me mate .

At the request of our two youngest, home from uni or a couple of weeks we have done Christmas at home, just the 5 of us this year. being skint ( as ever) we just did really cheapo gifts this year, but as meny as possible, individually wrapped under the tree so that here was a huge pile of them. I think a pocket knif that the 3 girls clubbed together for and gave to me was the most expensive one on the year. We had beer, wine and nibbles till late last night, did the presents this morning and had a proper Christmas dinner with Poularde Roti, Gratin Dauphinoise, ( that's roast fat chicken and spuds in cream sauce to you along with broccoli, yorkshire pudding and gravy. preceeded by aperitifs and accompanied by a nice local red wine. Now I am doing my best imitation of a beached whale on the sofa...

I have actually very few pics of the bike this year, I've done quite a bit of riding but more often than not in a group this year, as I now work more social hours. I have also done a lot more leading a group as well which also makes photo stops more complicated. I took this one whilst waiting for the others to turn up for our Vosges trip, back in May.

Bah Humbug to all. first white Christmas i can remember, started falling about 7 last night and still on the ground now, about half an inch.

do you do all that yourself?

CF are our main rival here in France ( for quas and ssv) so my info is skewed via our reps, but i do know that we have a number of dealers who have abandoned one or other of the makes we distribute in order to sell CF ( CF put pressure on them to be exclusive CF dealers) who have become rapidly dissillusined with their parts and supply service and asked to come back us… i do know their absolutely all over t’interweb and antisocial media…

My concern with he Chinese bikes is warranty, parts and service. this comes from working in the warranty department of a european importer and distributer of 8 Chinese manufacturers ( Not CF to be fair). People seem to forget that China is a communist dictatorship and the state controls all industry and entreprise ( despite what they would have you believe). I know because I have translated a number of contracts between Chinese suppliers and the compamy I work for and they all clearly lay out exactly who is the sole arbiter in any litigation that should arise... & it ain't the local chamber of commerce... They do not consider themselves beholden to eurpean laws or regulations, and only do so in order to be allowed to sell the machines over here, so you can forget any notions of obligation to supply parts for 10 years, and we currently have 4 suppliers who simply giggle at the idea of 2 years manufactureres garantie. We are oblige to sell with 2 years warranty, but that does not apply to the manufacturer. Look at what has happened to Segway powersports in Canada, the importer went bust so all garanties on machines sold there have become worthless overnight. I think it will be interesting to see what happens with these machines as they become more common and start getting older. There are, allegedly, some Chinese manufactureres who are beginning to chage mentality, CF may be one of them, Idon't know, but at the end of the day, if you have a problem and need legal recourse, you are attempting to sue the Chinese governement. Good luck with that!

I'm on holiday or 10 days and the weather is crap ao I thought I'd come on here and see what you clowns have been up to. It doesn't get any better does it?

only one ride this month and the pic I took doesn't have the bike in it maybe I'll get out this weekend as a last minute job?

we did. but not much and its gone again now

they are sweet looking beasties.

Bank Holiday today (rememberence day in France is on the day , not the nearest sunday) adn bizarrely nice weather, up to 17deg c and blue skies, so, having shovelled a 2nd coat of varnish on the shutter from the kids room and a first coat of rattlecan black on the ironwork for it, I got the bike out and was about to leave when a mate rang asking if I was thinking of riding and if so leaving when? I replied "now" we met up down the road a little way and ended up doing somewhat over 200km in a loop north and east from home. Great afternoon out

got out for an hour on the bike yesterday, nearly home whn i came across 2 "yoofs" on mobylettes ( 50cc bikes) they were busy dismanteling one of the bikes so I stoppe to see if I could help. They'd somehow managed to stripp the threads of the exhaust header fitting to the cylinder. They had a good selection of tools with them, and didn't seem overy phased by the situation. I went and got an assortment of bolts and washers from the nearby hardware store for them and left them to it. As night was falling I did check they had phones to call someone if they couldn't fix it. lovely day for a spin

Ah shit mate, I am so sorry to hear that.