InvictaMoto's On The Road Again!

I had hoped this day would never arrive. I've become a fair weather biker – an FWB! After years of riding to work in all weathers, daily dodging the cars on the M1 to commute to London for a 14-year stretch, with only the snow to get me on the train, I have become that armchair biker. The bloke I used to laugh at. Now I am he! On Saturday we had to go to Suffolk to visit my sister-in-laws. "Let's go by bike,” she said. "Okay as long as it's not p*ssing down" I said. It wasn't. As I looked out at the frost on the car windscreen, a voice inside me said, "She'll be cold and miserable". The outer voice said that it was going to be cold and we should go by car. The outer voice hiding my new found status as a fair weather biker ! I guess if you've always been a FWB you won’t understand. You can’t understand the feeling of loss that accompanies the downgrading of your biker status. No longer one of the hardy-bys, the guys that laugh in the fac...

The Welsh National Rally is a good weekend away riding some excellent (and some awful tiddley) roads in Wales whilst trying to get to checkpoints and answer questions, a sort of treasure hunt, with the need to get some planning done a week or so before starting out. In 2006 only Dave Clarke and I went from thee Kent Centre, and we met Friday after work near Oxford and rode across near to Wales to stay at a Travelodge. On the Travelodge website there are some good offers for some of their motels with some at 50% off. Sadly not the one we stopped at in 06! But a few within reasonable range of the start point in Castle Caereinion in Powys. After the rally I decided to stay locally, well in Birmingham, as I had the last game ever at Highbury the day after, but Dave rode home to Kent. So who is up for it from the Kent Centre? A weekend away, some great roads… Click here to see the organiser's flyer. Here for update - On the Road Again: Welsh National Rally - May 12th 2007 Part 2

Trussed up like a chicken, or rather a pork(er) joint, I waddled across to the garage to get the GS out for a short run up to London for the Arsenal home game with the Scousers, aka Liverpool FC. The weather forecast was for cold and blustery. So it was in bright sunshine that I set off complete with thermal undershirt, rugby shirt and thick jumper. I also decided to give my Nitro N700 helmet a day out. When I don’t need the GPS headset, it is quieter than the Caberg J1S, and more restful. I bought it a few years ago and it had an outing and promptly fell of the seat on a trip to Ypres and the paint got damaged on the chin, apart from that it shows no other damage, but there’s always a suspicion, isn’t there? Time seemed to be slipping away as I was stuck at 25mph on the lanes getting to the A20. A succession of pensioners wrapped up in their coats and hats despite, no doubt, having the heating on at full pelt in their 51-reg Protons or Daihatsus! I took the A20, as once again I needed...

The IMTC is in fact the International Motorcyclists Tour Club, founded in 1932 and still going strong. The club membership across the UK is about 450 and is very active in the north. It is smaller and less "organised" in the South East and we have only recently started to meet on a semi-regular basis. The group that we are building locally are pretty close and democratic. There are no Limited company "rules" to follow and no rigid organisation. The IMTC lives purely for touring. There is a certain amount of fuddy-duddyness in the Club, and as the membership gets older we need to work out how to start getting younger riders to join. Not too young but perhaps 40's!!! For more information you can go to the IMTC website and see about joining. If you live in the South East and want to have a look before shelling out the membership fee feel free to contact us . I am looking into getting some webspace for us on the main site, take a look here and see if I have sucee...

As a replacement for the weekend we cancelled for May Day 2007, we have come up with this as a cunning plan. Currently the diary is free for this weekend and rather than the well worn path to nearby France or South Dover as we still call it here in the Kingdom of Kent, we have decided to turn left on arrival at the European bridgehead and go to the Netherlands. Gouda to be more precise. The weekend begins with an early morning crossing to France with your own choice of conveyance, Shuttle or Ferry and the ride across to Holland via Bruges and the new Tunnel under the Schelde near Antwerp. Although in fine touring tradition members are able to make their own way to the Campanile Hotel in Gouda . I can provide a GPS location for anyone that wants to have it. If you have a Garmin Quest the Campanile is already in the system on Mapsource City Select V7. To keep costs below that of the average GDP of an African country we have chosen a budget hotel. The room rate is for B&B and is €77 ...

The BMW Club Committee have given the green light to the Club having a meeting on the Isle of Man during the Centenary TT in June 2007. I have already booked the Liverpool Arms, Baldrine between Onchan and Laxey for the morning of the 7th June 2007 - Thursday. I thought it was best to have it on a day when there was no racing. What I now need are volunteers to assist on the day and in the run up to the event. I have a small budget to spend on publicising it here and abroad. If you want to volunteer or have some ideas on where and how to publicise the event please email me