Nearly there !

Little Bro and I are so very nearly off on our first road trip.  Bikes have been fettled, camping gear checked and re-proofed and the weather even looks encouraging.  Assuming the status quo continues the fun begins on Friday 25th May.

The plan is to travel from Hampshire to the far Southwest coast of Wales via Symonds Yat for lunch on Friday.  After that we will travel up the coast to Aberystwyth, inland through Snowdonia and back home.  As kids we spent many happy holidays around this wonderful countryside.

Russ is planning to take the VFR800 and I will, of course, be riding Jessica but without the Old Dragon, sadly.  Apparently camping isn’t civilised behaviour !

I’m hoping to take lots of pictures and keep the blog up to date as we go.  It should be huge fun and we are both looking forwards to the trip immensely. We hope to meet fellow bikers as we go so if see a red Suzuki and a yellow Honda along the way, give us a wave.

Well it’s been a while.  Life has got very busy lately and with the weather the way it has been the opportunities for the Old Dragon and I to get out have been severely limited.  For my sins I have also been doing some work on the Ulysses UK website.  Hopefully there will be a new version up and running soon.

Anyway, more work has been done on Jessica all brought on by a planned 4 day trip around Wales at the end of the month with my little brother.  The rear suspension was stripped done to re-grease pivot points etc etc which revealed that the seals on the shock absorber were on their way out.  Strangely I have been finding the rear end a little bouncy around corners recently so it wasn’t that much of a shock, no pun intended !  Fortunately a cost effective used item in very good condition was sourced from a breakers yard and one worn out spacer in the linkage was found at Pro-Bike in Newbury.  The end result being a bike that handles considerably better and sailed through it’s MOT.  The only thing left to do now is to fit a 12v socket to charge a phone from and run a sat-nav and we will be ready to go.

On the subject of the MOT, I found a wonderful workshop that, if you’re in the area, you really should know about.  2 Brothers Motorcycles are fantastic guys.  I had heard rumour they were good but the reality is even better than I had been lead to believe.  These are proper bikers with a real love for bikes and utterly nice guys as well.  Please, support them if you can.

So, after much chipping away of firegum (2 weeks worth on and off) the downpipes were liberated.  Much time was spent making sure nothing had disappeared into the cylinders, there was a clean surface for the new gaskets to sit against etc etc, you know what I’m talking about.

Everything is back together along with a gorgeous new can as well….and it sounds great.  If you need a new can have a look at Delkevic.

Following on from my last post I can confirm that the last person to remove the down-pipes from my bike did indeed reassemble it using Firegum instead of exhaust gaskets.  It has taken me an entire day to get just one of the four free.

One of my pet hates is bodging.  It’s just so easy to do things properly.  A job that should have taken mere hours is going to take me days simply because some muppet couldn’t be bothered to get real exhaust gaskets and do the job properly.  Strangely it would have been easier to put it together again had it been done right as well.

So, for the sake of my sanity, the general well being of your health and so as you don’t offend me beyond endurance

JUST DO IT RIGHT !

As an old engineer I’ve always known that the simplest jobs are the ones that cause you the most trouble so why is it I’m surprised today.

I have need to remove the exhaust from Jessica.  A simple job I hear you say and usually I would agree whole heartedly.  However, today it’s turned into a real show stopper.  The first indication that all was not well was when the silencer came away easily but a small pile of rusty particles appeared on the drive beneath the bike.  A quick look reveals the collar that the link pipe slots into has rotted at the point where it joins the collector. Bizarrely the bit outside of that is spotless !

So, the header pipes have to come off to allow a new collar to be welded on…easy….no.  Now I can’t get the downpipes to come away from the cylinder head, aaaargh.  With a bit of luck WD40 and a few hour to soak will solve the problem.

This is unashamed plagerism here.  The below is copied directly from the e-petition page but this is such an important matter for all bikers and road users in general that it’s best explained in its original form.  Please sign the petition, you never know when you might need it.

Return VAT on Air Ambulance fuel payments.

Responsible department: Her Majesty’s Treasury

The Air Ambulance Service is forced to meet rising fuel prices year on year including VAT.

The Air Ambulance Service have saved successive governments millions and millions of pounds funded by charitable donations given by the general public to run what has proven to be an essential service.

Whilst the Lifeboat Service has been exempt from VAT on fuel costs since 1977, a similar privilege has not been afforded to the Air Ambulance Service;

We call on the government to have an urgent review of this situation and in doing so
We call on the government to return in the form of grants to Air Ambulance Service providers all the future VAT which the Treasury collects from them so that the Air Ambulance Service is in practice exempt from paying VAT in the same way as the Lifeboat Service.

Link to Petition

As mentioned in the last post, I’ve become a bit of a riders rights evangelist.  Having subscribed to the MAG activists email list and written a few letters to MEPs, and received the generally condescending replies, I have become convinced that MAG is an essential organisation if we are to protect our pastime.  So I’ve taken the plunge and shelled out the £25 to join.

It appears that the EU Commission is intent on legislating the motorcyclist off the roads.  So far as I can see the measures being proposed will have very little impact on the accident statistics and are centered around addressing the symptoms rather than changing the attitudes at the root of the issue.

Now, I don’t want to sound as if I’m anti car, I’m not, in fact far from it.  I’m fortunate enough to have a job that comes with a car and old enough to know the wisdom of opting for the car over the bike in adverse conditions.  I drive a car over 30,000 miles every year and have done for the last 20 years.  However, as a motorcyclist as well and a car driver of over 30 years experience I have observed a drastic downward slide in driving standards.  So few car drivers pay the attention our busy roads need these days.  Consequently motorcyclists get forgotten or ignored and hence the increase in accidents.  Even the DfT studies show 70% of accidents involving motorcyclists are caused by car driver errors.

I for one will not lie down and let politicians legislate me off the road and neither should you.  If MAG, FEMA and other such lobbying organisations are going to keep up the pressure then they need our pennies.  Join up today and help protect the future of motorcycling.

It’s just coming up to a year since I returned to biking and a time to reflect on the consequences.

My re-emergence into the sunlight is still a source of great pleasure.  I’ve ridden through all sorts of weather to all sorts of places and enjoyed every moment.  The Old Dragon and I finally, after 25 years together, have a common interest.  In fact I have trouble getting out on my own now.  For my sins I have a high pressure career that makes way to many demands on my time and energy but the bike has provided me with the most wonderful distraction and saved my sanity.

An added benefit has been that the standard of both my riding and driving has improved.  Biking definitely makes you more aware of the hazards out there.  Senses are heightened, observation improved and awareness of other road users brought right to the forefront.  This, however, has become a mixed blessing.  I find myself now becoming a bit of a driving standards evangelist and picking arguments on the subject.  I’m a staunch defender of riders rights and have even been harassing MEP’s over the proposed legislation being discussed by the European Commission not to mention participating in protest rides.

On the other hand I have joined the Ulysses Club UK, signed up again to help at the Brackley Festival of Motorcycling, am intending to join MAG and have met many many fantastic people.  I even have a new adopted brother as a result.

If 2012 continues in the same vein I’m going to have the best year imaginable.  Let the good times roll.

What a great Christmas Holiday this has been.  Last year I missed it all with a nasty case of the flu so I was very much looking forward to this year and it didn’t disappoint.  Christmas day and the New Year weekend were spent with family with the New Year particularly being a terrific time.

On the biking front the weather stayed generally pretty good in Southern England and we managed to get out a couple of times.  The Old Dragon and I got out to Loomies again (it’s becoming a bit of a habit that one) with a great ride down through Winchester and then back via Alton and Basingstoke.  Today I managed a trip out on my own.  The sun was shining, the roads dry and little traffic in evidence…bar a lot of fellow bikers.  It was bloody cold though !  Aren’t heated grips wonderful.

Now it’s time to look forwards to another great year.  Let’s hope it’s a good one for all.  Happy New Year.

Before I sign-off just a quick mention for a few people who have made the last year special: my little brother Russ; sister in law Charly; Holloway; PC Mac; Uncle Frank; Sean; Val and all the other Ulysses club UK members and of course The Old Dragon.  Thanks one & all, you know why.

Monday 21st an early start in the fog and a great day in prospect.  I haven’t been to the bike show before and am really quite excited about this trip.  The fact that it’s getting towards the back end of the year, we’ve just got through a ridiculously busy period and the prospect of a day off work helps too.  There were some cracking bikes on show.  Favourites being the Victory Cross Country Tour, Triumph 1200 Explorer and the Moto Guzzi Stelvio.  I was, as you would expect, just like a kid in a candy shop.  I feel there is a need for more than one bike these days.  I like to ride decent distances so comfort and weather protection is pretty important these days.  Hence the Victory and the Moto Guzzi have such great appeal.  I suppose they are variations on a theme really but both offer very different experiences.  If only the bank account would stand it…we live in hope.