InvictaMoto's On The Road Again!

I have been looking at the Cardo "Scala" Bluetooth headsets that are being advertised on the Net and that Ian, a Kent Centre SOC member, has a similar solution on his helmet. I can't afford a set any time soon as the Zegas have to be paid for (!) as well as the Isle of Man trip next week. I might drop into Infinity as they are listed as suppliers but I didn't see them when I was there a few weeks ago to collect the C2. I'm just concerned how they fit to the helmet as it claims there's no glue or screws involved. The price does seem to have come down a bit and they are now about £65 for each or as a set of two, called a Teamset, you can save a couple of quid. Another option is Interbike and this one is nearer £149 per set. I think this is the one that Ian has. Whilst these would solve the problem of communicating with my passenger and also give us both the ability to answer our phones, I have an older GPS that has wired output. I have had the Quest for over tw...

Since the helmet came back from Oxprod after they repaired the top vent, the forehead lining has been slipping when I am wearing it. There are two plastic bolt heads that are presumably where the liner is fitted to the outer shell. To hold the forehead liner, a band of padded material in reality, in place there are two round Velcro pads, coincidentally the same diameter as the bolts head. These are glued one side to the bolt head and the other is the "male" type of Velcro, and it's these bits that move. The first time it looked as though I wore a wig and the glue had run. Luckily I am a baldy-man but the line of glue looked bad! I have some Velcro I can use from the lot I used to hold the ear speaker for the GPS in place. And that's another job. I still need to ease the ear space so that the speaker fits a little less closely to my ear. I might lose some of the volume but the edges still rub on the ridge of my ear!

It seemed like a good idea at the time. To go to the zoo park up the road in Lympne. It was raining on and off and the car-park was pretty full when we arrived in the afternoon and by the time we came out three hours later, there were two cars; ours and one other. In the dry and perhaps even warm, the park would be great, but as it rained the entire time we were there, only the gorillas put on much of a show. The park's main work in conservation is with gorillas and black rhino. At least we got to see them! The gorilla family in the "Palace of the Apes" were hunting through straw bales for snacks and we were told that the dominant male, a big silver back, has six wives and loads of kids. His life looks ideal as he does nothing but lie about all day, eat and have sex. Lucky bugger. Mother and a baby pictured above. I took this through the thick glass! The park is set in a few acres, okay a lot of acres, and a lot of it on the hillside below Lympne towards the marsh on the ...

Thank goodness the weather was good over the weekend, Saturday especially. We had to go up to Suffolk to see Claire's Dad, Victor, in his new home. We expected the traffic to be awful and so planned to take the bike. Not only is it more economical on the bike but we could sneak past any traffic. In the end the weather was good and there traffic was quite light. A consequence of the cup-final? The Garmin, Doris, gave us a route that once on the Essex side of the Dartford Tunnel would take us up the A12, to Chelmsford, round the ring road and off to Braintree (didn't see any evidence of it as the drivers were the most moronic I've seen in ages!!) and then towards Haverhill and off right to Clare. By the time we were close to Braintree the yellow light came on and the last bar on the fuel gauge disappeared and as we were wondering how much fuel was left a Tesco hove into view. Odometer showing over 186 miles and I squeezed almost eighteen and half litres in the tank. The sceni...

At last the accommodation is sorted and I have maps to both places. It takes a bit of the strain off me and now I can start to think about having a holiday. I've also had a look on Streetmap to get the GPS locations, except that the coverage of the Isle of Man is crap as best! The other thing to think about is the BMW Club meeting at Baldrine on the 7th June. The thread on the BMW Club forum has started to take off and hopefully there will be a good turnout. Not bad considering I have been working with a zero budget since I volunteered to act as organiser. I'll report here ASAP.

Have started to get the jitters about the first accommodation on the Island. I'm very careful to file all the bookings I make and thi sone seems to be a bit of a problem I have the notepad where I wrote down the address I was given but can't find the telephone number! Sh*t! In the end I was browsing on the 'net on the TT Website's forum and have seen another one, better placed for race week in Onchan. It will mean losing the deposit I paid the Ballaugh peple but beggers can't be chosers. I've dropped Sara Everest a note asking her to get in touch. Two weeks to go and I still have no idea where to go! Update: Someone suggested looking on the TT Homestay pages and bingo! An email address.

What a demoralising experience it really is to travel into London everyday by train. The alternatives? Ride the bike. Been there, done that and I may well have the sodding t-shirt. Although with the change back to wet weather in May, sodden may be more apt. Get a job nearer home? BTDTGTTS too. Not an option. In Kent we are near London, have London prices but low wages. So for now it's grin and bear it.

I wrote this when I only had one blog and before I started to have one just for travel. http://invictamoto.blogspot.co.uk/2007/05/giverny.html

The weekend was in fact just a night away and with Claire’s hairdressing appointment earlier than previously thought it meant we could have lunch before the booked Shuttle train on Saturday. I had planned routes to the Campanile at Evreux and also from there to Giverny. Claire is less trusting of “Doris” than I am and insisted we take a paper map as well. Not having been to Normandy for years and years meant I didn’t have one, so we left a little early and a stopped in the terminal building to buy one. On the approach there were signs to say that there were delays of up to 30 minutes following an “earlier incident”. On the auto check-in I chose to go on an earlier train and off we went. In the terminal building they started to call our train s we walked in and I saw the display change from wait to boarding on the monitors. We hurried round and joined the queue of cars, strangely, not sent to a lane of our own, as is the “norm” on the Shuttle, but in the line of cars. Knowing we’d get s...

The weekend was in fact just a night away and with Claire’s hairdressing appointment earlier than previously thought it meant we could have lunch before the booked Shuttle train on Saturday. I had planned routes to the Campanile at Evreux and also from there to Giverny. Claire is less trusting of “Doris” than I am and insisted we take a paper map as well. Not having been to Normandy for years and years meant I didn’t have one, so we left a little early and a stopped in the terminal building to buy one. On the approach there were signs to say that there were delays of up to 30 minutes following an “earlier incident”. On the auto check-in I chose to go on an earlier train and off we went. In the terminal building they started to call our train as we walked in and I saw the display change from wait to boarding on the monitors. We hurried round and joined the queue of cars, strangely, not sent to a lane of our own, as is the “norm” on the Shuttle, but in the line of cars. Knowing we’d get ...

The first trip with the Zegas fitted was a one night stay in France. It was a chance to see how easy it was to fit the panniers and how easy they come off. Plus a chance to use the expensive, but rather nice looking Zega-Bag inner bags. Apart from the weather taking a complete change between Friday morning and Saturdau morning, from summy and warm to cold and miserable the trip was a great success. See "Giverny for May Day Weekend" posting.

After a rather strange exchange of emails with TT Germany where they directed me to TT UK despite ordering for delivery in Germany I had a call from Claire that Rudy has called from Germany to say a Touratech package would be on the overnight truck tonight. Now need to check that we can get up to Lympne and recover them to use them for the trip to France this weekend!

The Bank Holiday weekend is on us again. It doesn’t seem more than a few days since we had Easter off. What to do at the weekend was governed by the Arsenal and Chelsea game in Sky Sports 1. In the end could I stand the strain of watching our footballing side play against the new Watford style of the Billionaire’s Toy Team? Nah. Record it on Sky Plus and if we win, then I’ll watch it. Lose and forget it. The alternative was a Kent Centre run to Sammy Miller’s Museum in the New Forest. An early start and late back. Claire didn’t want to go and so I had decided to go on my own. I’m away next week on the Welsh National Rally, a bike rally, not a Nurnberg style gathering of Plaid Cymru. So when Claire said she fancied getting away I had to have a look. Firstly having a look at a day in the UK. Then I thought how appalling the traffic always is making it a misery to be out in the car. So bike then? The misery compounded as the weekenders in their cars will be bumping into each other all ove...

Okay, I know that it was an extravagance, but the Zega-Bags look so good! I showed the pic on the TT website to Claire and she liked the look of them so I ordered them on 25th April. I had been expecting them by now as I am sure the website said that they would be despatched in 24 to 48 hours. I'll email TT Germany later and see where they are.

The ride home from London was so much quieter with the C2 rather than the Caberg. I've noticed that there is still a lot of glare despite wearing my Reactions glasses and so the C2's sunshade is ideal. It could do with being a little longer so it extends further down, but it does the job. The main wonder is how long it will take to "give". It is quite tight and feels that it is part of my head rather than a bucket covering it! Later this week, I need to work on the ear recess enlargement to get the GPS speaker in place.... Watch this space.