InvictaMoto's On The Road Again!

Only 11 days and a few hours to holiday time. Yippee. Me, Claire and the GS taking a well earned break to Germany and Austria. Plans are so far : 11th – Norfolk Line to Dunkerque. Overnight at YH in Oostduinkerke Belgium. Hopefully meet friends John & INge for dinner and few beers. 12th – Ride across Belgium and Germany to Mercure hotel near Bad Homburg. 13th – Southeast across Germany to Salzburg where we’ll stay two nights in the YH there. 15th – Salzkammergut and three nights in Bad Aussee. 18th – On the Road Again – Grossglockner and over night in Heiligenblut right at the top! 19th – Across the top of the Dolomites, 11 passes including the Stelvio ending in Sta Maria YH in Switzerland 20th – Short 160 mile or so run across Switzerland to Stein am Rhein and the YH there, and a chance to check out the scenery on the way and also the Rheinfalls. 21st – Back on the road and a reasonable day in the saddle through Germany to St Goar and another YH. Two nights eating bratwurst and dr...

Not so dramatic, after waxing lyrical for ages about my Joe Rocket (JR) jacket and the evangelical style of letting everyone I see know about it, Claire bought one. Not JR but a British made RST Vento Jacket. This jacket is made of slightly more cordura and less mesh than the JR and is fitted with full armour in shoulders, elbows and back using Knox armour. For £70 it looks very good value for money. It's not waterproof (like the JR) but comes with a rather natty looking "vest" style sleeveless insert. We'll see how it performs on our holiday! The pic is taken from a website. Despite showing it in a few different colour combinations, Powerhouse in Ashford only had it in black, and it does look good. Real biker colour!

After a lot of messing about and phoning and emailing the IoM I managed to get two three day reservations on the Island.  The first was a recommendation from one of the places I phoned and is at Ballaugh . I took and address and sent a deposit to them ages ago. I should really check my cheque book as I've not had a receipt from the lady I spoke to, nor a reply to my letter asking for directions.  The Cronk at Ballaugh seems too vague! The second place is at Foxdale. They did send a receipt and a nice map. Gulp!

Thanks Den for all the good times at Arsenal.

The Battle of the Somme began in the early hours of the 1st July 1916. "The Big Push" that would throw the German Army back towards Belgium from the line running across Picardy. The offensive started with a huge bombardment to drive the enemy back from his forward trenches and cut the miles and miles of barbed wire that lay across no mans land. A partly successful barrage left many of the brave men that climbed out of their trenches that morning with nowhere to go and they were mowed down before reaching their objective. At that time, the reserve and the next group of troops to move towards the line were still arriving. They moved by night so that air recon couldn't pin them down. My Uncle William was 26. Although born and bred in South London he found himself a private in the 7th Battalion Kings Shropshire Light Infantry. They arrived on the Ancre River near Corbié on the 12/13th July. On the 13th, they moved into the line and then were to assault Bazentin Ridge. Once ag...

The Battle of the Somme began in the early hours of the 1st July 1916. "The Big Push" that would throw the German Army back towards Belgium from the line running across Picardy. The offensive started with a huge bombardment to drive the enemy back from his forward trenches and cut the miles and miles of barbed wire that lay across no mans land. A partly successful barrage left many of the brave men that climbed out of their trenches that morning with nowhere to go and they were mowed down before reaching their objective. At that time, the reserve and the next group of troops to move towards the line were still arriving. They moved by night so that air recon couldn't pin them down. My Uncle William was 26. Although born and bred in South London he found himself a private in the 7th Battalion Kings Shropshire Light Infantry. They arrived on the Ancre River near Corbié on the 12/13th July. On the 13th, they moved into the line and then were to assault Bazentin Ridge. Once ag...

The Battle of the Somme began in the early hours of the 1st July 1916. "The Big Push" that would throw the German Army back towards Belgium from the line running across Picardy. The offensive started with a huge bombardment to drive the enemy back from his forward trenches and cut the miles and miles of barbed wire that lay across no mans land. A partly successful barrage left many of the brave men that climbed out of their trenches that morning with nowhere to go and they were mowed down before reaching their objective. At that time, the reserve and the next group of troops to move towards the line were still arriving. They moved by night so that air recon couldn't pin them down. My Uncle William was 26. Although born and bred in South London he found himself a private in the 7th Battalion Kings Shropshire Light Infantry. They arrived on the Ancre River near Corbié on the 12/13th July. On the 13th, they moved into the line and then were to assault Bazentin Ridge. Once ag...

Here goes.... an attempt at a ride report.... Choosing the dates of the MiniTour® for July 1st was a slight miscalculation, or a lack of forethought – 90th Anniversary of the Battle of the Somme? But, in the end the ladies of the party didn’t want to do any “war” things on this trip and so we avoided the wars of the 20th Century. Instead of 20th century wars we opted for the earlier conflicts in the 14th and 15th centuries, namely Crécy and Agincourt. Crécy was our Saturday stop en route for the hotel in Abbeville. The group consisted of 8 people on 4 bikes. Two of the riders had never ridden abroad despite years of riding experience and came equipped with a Pan European (Ian & Amanda) and a Blackbird (Simon & Debbie), with Claire and me on the GS. The fourth was Nigel with wife Jane on a Suzuki GSX600. Doris (my Quest) ably navigating us across the forest at Crécy to the badly signposted battlefield. Talk of underwhelming. Okay, so the French lost but thi...

Here goes.... an attempt at a ride report.... Choosing the dates of the MiniTour® for July 1st was a slight miscalculation, or a lack of forethought – 90th Anniversary of the Battle of the Somme? But, in the end the ladies of the party didn’t want to do any “war” things on this trip and so we avoided the wars of the 20th Century. Instead of 20th century wars we opted for the earlier conflicts in the 14th and 15th centuries, namely Crécy and Agincourt. Crécy was our Saturday stop en route for the hotel in Abbeville. The group consisted of 8 people on 4 bikes. Two of the riders had never ridden abroad despite years of riding experience and came equipped with a Pan European (Ian & Amanda) and a Blackbird (Simon & Debbie), with Claire and me on the GS. The fourth was Nigel with wife Jane on a Suzuki GSX600. Doris (my Quest) ably navigating us across the forest at Crécy to the badly signposted battlefield. Talk of underwhelming. Okay, so the French lost but this is quite appalling. ...

Over the years I have owned a few different style bikes from the GT750 that I still own, to grand tourers like the Cavalcade to bikes with off road pretensions and many roadsters in between. My current bike is a BMW R1150GS. I’ve had it for three and a half years and of all the bikes (with the exception of the Cavalcade and Katana 1000) it’s the one I really don’t want to sell… if only they still made them.