MooN

yeah I heard about it a lot too when I had the transalp, that and anodised wheels rotting from the inside out. I never had any problem with it though and it was 26 years old when I sold it, though to be fair I never made a point of looking for problems...

@Grasshopper's Ride I think we just discovered what you would need in order to be deleted from the site...

funny that, I think I was doing about 140km/h by the time I had to brake for that first righ hander...

I don't have a garage Pete and the temperatures all week have been steadily below freezing, the car washes all shut down and there's no point washing it in the dark at home. The only reason thee was an empty spot is coz the car drivers are thick as pigshit and from the end of the queue you can4t see if there's someone in the end bay or not, I hapenned to notice that rotary arm of the pressure washer that you can see above the walls wasn't moving... the gendarmes came past that end before turning in so obviously saw it was empty. They are TDM's. 900's i believe but the back end is adapted specifically to accomodate the Gendarme's equipement ( radio antenna, lights, pole light, fire extinguisher etc.

Mate of mine in Norwich sill navigates by cafes and pubs he was banned from in the late 70's cos he was a biker troublemaker

Sun is out, temps are 5deg c + and the bike is filthy from last weeks foray onto the cruddy winter roads. So, To the car wash we go. It only took me about an hour and a half to ride the 10 minute trip to the wash, but In my defence I took the scenic route I reversed this route Ok I didn't reverse the bike round this route, but the map shows the start and finish the wrong way round and gives it a clockwise direction. I rode it anticlockwise. Clear? to te north of Auxerre the countryside is more open than I normally ride, but that way the surfaces were pretty much dried by sun and wind whereas in the woods where I usually hide it would still be cold and damp. When I eventually got to the jetwash thingy it was bloody heaving, the continually sub zero temperatures we've had for the last few weeks have prevented any car washing activities so I guess I had just had the same idea as everybody else. There was an 8 carr queue for the 4 pressure washer bays and another 6 waiting for the 2 roller wash porticos. after about 2 minutes sat in line I realised that the 4th and farthest was bay had no one in it but that none of the cars could get past the first in line who was so close to bay n03 that he could no longer manouvre for bay 4...whilst I was deciding whether I could jump the queue or not, 2 police bikes came in, rode up alongside the line and straight into bay 4. Beat me to it the bastards was the phrase forming in my mind when I saw one of them walk out of the bay, point at me and wave me on around the queue of cars. As I pulled up behind them ( both their bikes in the bay side by side, the gendarme said to me, " if they're all fucking stupid enough to not work that out then they deserve to wait" A pair of blue liveried TDM's of the Gendarmerie, and a happy Tigrou. 100 od km's and 2 hours by the time I'd mucked about fuelling, taking photo's and hobnobbing with the poilce.

There used to be a Templar "commanderie" in Auxerre and legend has it that one of their mythical treasures is hidden somewhere in the area, there's often some nutter or other trying to find it.

well i you've got a nail gun as well I think Gymwitch has the names of a couple of people she'd like you to "have a word" with...

you really shouldn't be thinking at 3am Tym. it's not good for you.

Sun's just come out here and it's almost 4 degc.

I seem to be having an existential crisis in my reading habits and in some odd spirit of escapism am re reading the books I read as a child which all seem to be pre war or inter war adventure stories. All a little bit "Jeeves and Wooster" but mostly very well written. I haven't got desperate enough to re read my old copies of " Jennings" or " Biggles" but I just finished John Buchan's "The thirty nine steps" and have now started "The riddle of the sands" by Erskine Childers.

mil spec NBC kit. I seem to remember they used to call it " NBC = No Bloody Chance"

maybe manage to get out for a spin on saturday afternoon. The Mrs is workimg all weekend so Im on animal feeding duties...

That's shitty, I hope he's insured, but whatever happens your holidays fucked.

fair comment

the numbers of cases and new cases isn't falling yet here though it has , allegedly, in the UK. When it starts falling here then I'm sure they will follow suit, it's just the timing of everything is fucked up in our particular case.

by car and chunnel if with wife and kids. Car & ferry if I'm on my own. The problem for the wife is that she's recently chenged jobs and is still on her "trial period" when either party can stop the contract with no notice or or specific "fault". Another month and that wouldn't be a problem, but then the kids wouldn't be on holiday...

I'm supposed to be going to the UK on the 21st. In theory, from the 11th feb we won't need to bother with testing before we go, or pre booking tests to be done on day 2 after arrival as we're all full dosed up with electromagnetic, microchip injections from big pharma. However, France is ( so far) not reciprocating, so in order to get BACK into France FROM the UK we would need a negative PCR test 24h before returning. That means that if one of us 5 test positive, we all have to isolate in the uk for at least 7 days. and then retest. ( covid antibodies can remain present in the system for up to one month). this would mean that my wife would likely loose her job, and N01 daughter would fail her 2nd year at Uni as she has an obligatory 2nd year placement the week we are due to arrive home. On top of that, we have nowhere to isolate, the cottage we rent being unavailable the following wek and my parents living in a 3 room flat. A week in a hotel ( if a hotel would accept us with a positive covid test) would cost between 700 and 1000€. As I havn't seen my parents or over 2 years now and Mum is dissapearing slowly into dementia, I will be going alone ( my work schedule can be hugely flexible at this time of year and all an extra week would cost me is a weeks paid holiday. Unless the rules change between now and the 20th. @boboneleg, cancel half the biscuits, I'll probably be on my own...

nobody's posting cos there's sweet F.A. happening anywhere at the moment. weather in Europe is tripe and the US is under a million feet of snow.

Hello, welcome in. feel free to feed the animals.

I had offers from Lancaster and Hull, but that was the year that Thatcher did away with student grants and turned them into student loans. We had no money and I decided I didn't want to start my working life 20 or 30,000£ in debt after 3 or 4 years at Uni so I decide to simply go and do something I enjoyed.

3 a-levels and an AS level mate, end of the upper sixth form I was 19 ( going on 12) in 1990

not sure how the herd would appreciate that, but be good to meet up for a coffe or a beer or summat.

2 hours was about all I was going to get, by the time N0.1 daughter had emptied the fridge into a coldbox and dissapeared off out of it back to uni in Dijon, it was gone 3pm and the temps would drop off again with sunset so I just picked a 100 odd km loop that was already in my phone from a previous ride and just rode it the other way round. mostly smaller back roads and with the weather we've been having they were covered in a film of slime and mud from the fields that made it a little "interesting" in places. Add to that the number of "chasseurs" in the woods with their hi viz camouflage worrying the wildlife into inhabitual daytime action there were moments when I was more than pleased to have an effective ABS system to assist in avoiding a deer and numerous rabbits and hares who seemed intent on escaping the flourescent gun toting nutters by hitching a ride... The light was not strong and failing fast so little point in taking pics. the wildlife, having been politely refused permission to come aboard, didn't hang around long enough for me to get the camera out.