Sofia

Lands End John O´Groats is a good thing! Hopefully you will take longer then 13.5 hours like I did! But that yet another story... The UK is a gorgeous place to visit on a bike, so many little places and great history. I MISS the UK so much. Specially now, when everything is so, so green and the lambs are jumping all over!! Stunning.

Well, the UK has lots to see!!! I went round all of it, 1 weekend and 1 bank holiday at a time! In 10 years, only missed Norkolk... So, no excuses, just get up early one Saturday and go!! You come back on Sunday/Monday very tiered and very happy! I actually had a pen to throw at the map and thats where id go! When it started getting full with where I had been, it became difficult... For sure the pen didnt like Norfolk. Never hit that part of the map!

A mix of both, I suspect more places we have been to before, but many new ones to me becsuse Pedro will lead the way to show little roads and hidden places he discouvered by himself. He has a great nose for fiding magical places!

Yes, going with Pedro for a week around Portugal, many pictures for Bike of the month!

Nice of you to notice, I made an effort! Thanks!!

Thank you, always very good to get a compliment!! The bars are from Crazy Iron, a guy in Russia that you can find on Ebay. He makes them on request, so I sent him pictures of my bike and he really matched the color very well. Although the bike is mate, the sub frame is not and they really match it. To be honest if you didn't know bikes, you would think they were always there. Its also good value at 317 euros, considering they are more or less bespoke and shipped from Latvia. Funny fact: ordered them 1 month after the wheel and they arrived 3 days before!! The guy made them somewhere in Russia, took them to Latvia and sent them and they still arrived before the wheel!! Very heavy bars, but not noticeable when riding. https://www.ebay.com/str/crazyironstore

Currently on the look out for a small ( like 250 ) off road type bike to go round the roads around me. Pedro is also helping with that. I dislike anything upright and 21" spoke wheels, not at all my thing, and the modern stuff ( Tigers ) with the "TV screen" at the front does my head in!! I loved the Scrambler 1200, which surprised me a lot, but its like a naked bike on stilts so shouldn´t be so surprised. The same way I do not like sports bikes, although the Firestorm 1000 was very nice and I had a lot of fun on that, its a very soft/mild sports bike. The riding position of my bike is actually very comfortable. There are several factors contributing to my lack of confidence and for sure the type of bike does play a huge part on this equation. but nakeds are the bikes I feel happier on. Saying that, maybe an epiphany will happen and suddenly I accept my advancing years and join the millions and millions happy campers with ADVs, they can´t all be wrong!!

i am sure some people will think I do wheels all the time, but I only did them by mistake!! ?

yes, I am! all round goodness!!

yes they are! the bike will be inpieces before the bars get a dent!!

I do indeed!! Thanks to @Pedro the bike has some very cool protection and Im now a very happy bunny!! Some might argue the bars are over the top, but to us they are cool and Im sure this will become a new trend!! the manufacturer actually match the color from pictures and its like they were always there. Also thanks to Pedro for the pictures, all my best images are Copyright @Pedro!! the bike feels a lot lighter, probably due to the new stearing bearings. Its also much nicer to ride with the new levers from TWM that were recommended by Jack Lilleys and found by Pedro in Porto, thanks again. Im a trully blessed motorcyclist!! Hit his bike and he not only forgives me but finds ways to make my bike better!! Dont have any words left to thank @Pedro . ? so like many times happens in life something that seamed bad, turned out to be a great improvement to the behaviour of the bike! as for me, still not found my confidence back, but it will come!!

its a beautiful country on a bike!

Nice while we are riding... ?

France is a wonderful place to tour on a bike. Gorgeous landscape, nice food, variety and the French, while we are riding, are nice. They love bikes.

tyres are what keeps us in contact with the road and there is nothing more soul destroying then lack of trust in our tyres. I vote for a change! Life is better when we are happy!!

Slowly but surely, you are transforming this forum into "bikes and food" which is simply mega good! Oh, wait, missing the wine!! Must have wine!

It was possibly one of best foods I have ever eaten!!! Really amazing!!

Im not nosy.

Thats a complete level of difficulty! I feel much better now!

1400s??? Are you a Lord? You really are getting better and better!!

Thank God for that!! We already have a trans resident, remember?!

He is not. Too cool to touch, thats what he is!! Its a special kind of coolness unique to him. Now go and be jealous gentleman!! ?

This is what happens when a Defender encounters a School Bus!

Many moons ago, in a time I look back to with great fondness, a friend asked me if I didn't want to visit the most mythical race track, the Nurburgring. The day started at 6.00am in Sunningdale, where I lived, with my new bike that had just finished running in. It was my first big trip Northwards in Europe, I had only gone South before, and was very curious to see what Germany was like. But first there was the ferry to Calais. I dont have sailor's legs, always get sea sick even in the flattest of seas and 1 hour and a bit later came out the other side quizzie but on this side of gross! Later on in my life I did that run of 450 kms Calais-Nurburgring dozens of times, so many I could do it almost with my eyes closed, but on that day everything was new and very exciting. Until we hit Belgium that is, where the driving standards were so annoyingly bad the real hooligan that I can be surfaced and the splitting traffic shenanigans I so loved reached record levels of insanity! Would not do it again, not like that, must have scared so many "Belgiums" going about their business all doing 90 across all lanes of the motorway and blocking the whole thing. One could say they deserved the brown pants I gave them, but... Not very civilized of me, In great contrast with the peace felt as soon as we pass the sign welcoming us into Germany. Its pretty much immediately an unlimited Autobahn which they drive so, so well there is no stress and 200 kms/h feels like half that anywhere else. Good driving makes for a much easier life on the road. I was very much ignorant of the place known as The Green Hell, a name apply given by Jackie Stuart due to its challenging everything really! From the corners, the barriers consisting of thorny bushes, the non existing protection, the mad weather and, of course the trees. Unmovable obstacles that claimed many lives around the racing laps at the time but give it that beautiful, deep, unmistakable green. Like so, so many people I fell in love with that place the moment I arrived. The B&B room backed on to the track and at 7.55am the noise of engines and exhausts was like cocaine for someone like me that absolutely loves motorsport and even more, loves speed. Never had I experienced getting up, opening the window and see a Porsche speed down the track with the determination of a lioness chasing lunch! And the noise.... I was already dazzled with all the sportiness even before arriving at the car park where everyone gathered before going for a lap. Like a child in a candy shop, going from one special thing to the next, 2 or 4 wheels, and feeling the excitement descending and filling me with the nervous desire to ride the track. I was proper ignorant of the track and didn't really consider the size of the lap, 18, 19, 20 kms, who cares, lets just go!! Initially followed my friend, he wanted to take care of me, but he was mega fast, on a K2 GSXR1000 and so eager to spark his titanium knee sliders, I waved him off after km 2 and was happy to enjoy the whole thing on my own. I am a different rider when I go at it alone and it was for sure better for me to do it with my favourite thing in the World at the time, just the 2 of us! The 19 kms went past like a blur of discovery, chaos, danger and sense of achievement. The second lap was even more fun, middle of a day in August, even in Germany, the tarmac gets hot and the tyres gripped enough to let me scrap foot pegs on both sides. Actually surprised me so much I thought I had broken the bike, but it was just the peg feelers loosing their virginity. There were so many bikes, so many. Some so blistering quick they got air in a few places of the track and I was overtaken by one doing just that. I laughed so hard to myself thinking how can I describe to someone what it feels like to be passed by a flying bike! I also encountered a Bus, something very unique to the Tourist Laps at the Ring. That, I have to say, is not fun... Coming round a blind corner and getting up close and personal with the back end of a huge "Senior Tours" Mercedes Bus with three old boys at the window looking backwards amused with the near crashes happening bellow their view point! Still, I lived to tell the story and this was before ABS fitted bikes. The last lap of the day was on the GSXR1000, but I didn't really enjoy going round there on someone else's bike and it felt very odd to my the sport bike thing because I like nakeds. It was already 18.00, the Sun was kissing the trees goodbye and the light was magical. Was so mesmerized with the views, the warmth of a Summer evening, the empty track, the feeling of excitement was replaced by a feeling of almost grace that I only felt 2 or 3 times since. A few years later I was living there, but it didn't turn up to be the fairy tale I thought it was going to be. "When the Gods want to punish you, they give you what you asked for" Around the Ring the landscape is stunning and 2 major rivers pass very close by. The most important is the Rhine, but the most beautiful is the Mosel. It winds its way through wineries and villages with Castles perched on top of hills overlooking the bends of the river and supplying the World with quality wine. Its a very pretty part of Europe really worth a good trip to experience relaxed wine tastings or a nice Kaffee und Kuchen on a terrace, seating under a wine pergola looking at the river and the slow moving barges.