InvictaMoto's On The Road Again!

The plan had been to include Pegasus Bridge into the main beaches day but as it turned out it's a good job we didn't as Day 2 was pretty full. We had a late breakfast and we set off for the Bridge a little later that anticipated.  The new bridge was open and we had to wait in a long column of traffic waiting for it to close.  I have to admit to being a little underwhelmed by the place. We parked alongside the Gondree cafe with a few other bikes The cafe was full of British tourists having lunch and we had a drink across the road before we decided to move on to Ouisterham. Pegasus Bridge , originally uploaded by  Invicta Moto . Pegasus Bridge , originally uploaded by  Invicta Moto . Read more  here . The weather was a bit chilly and we had a walk through the village near the casino and had lunch! We always have lunch. We had a gentle ride back down to Caen and parked the bike up round the corner from the hotel and went in to change into civvies. Once dressed in o...

These are some additional photographs taken on the Normandy Trip. German bunker at Juno Beach Longues Battery Broken barrel at Longues Battery Destroyed gun at Longues The Sherman Tank looking out to sea above Arromanches Mulberry Harbour at Arromanches Beached section of the Mulberry Harbour. Me and the GS at Bernieres sur Mer by my lovely wife Claire.

Day 2 – The D-Day Beaches Saturday dawned bright and sunny and after breakfast we made sure the SatNav had the route in and we were off out of Caen. Me and Baloo outside the hotel I have to admit that as the basis of the route I used a waypoints file that was posted on the BMW Club forum enhanced from the Major and Mrs Holt’s Pocket Handbook to the D-Day Landing Beaches. If anyone is interested I’ll post the file on the forum once I can get it off the unit, this is the one that I downloaded plus some places they didn’t get to! From Caen centre we headed out past the Castle and towards Ouistreham, better known to the British as a cross channel ferry port. Brittany Ferries run a service from Portsmouth. The first stop was just to the south of Colleville-Montgomery and a bunker, dedicated a national monument to the Suffolk Regiment that took this one codenamed “Hillman” and another just down the road codenamed “Morris”. Hillman was attacked on 6th June 1944 by the 1st Suffolk Regiment, su...

I checked the bike out the night before we were to leave. The tyres were perfect and I had to give her 250ml of 20w/50 to take it back to the full line in the sight glass. Then I checked and double checked the maps and routes were in the Garmin SatNav. On Friday morning all I had to do was load the Touratech bags into the Touratech panniers - German panniers for a German bike! We left home a little late for the Shuttle, but only 3 minutes! We checked in and were given the next train after our booking. A little bit annoyed but that’s the way the Shuttle does it. In front were loads of Harley’s on a trip across for the day. They went off onto the 0820 and we had to make do with the 0843. It left late. Superb. The 50 minute wait at Folkestone makes it as long as the ferry to make the crossing, except of course we have to sit on the floor and no coffee, unlike to ferry! Once on French soil it was evident that the hurricane that had been crossing the Atlantic had arrived. Although it was su...

This road-test was originally published in 1997 on the original SOC Geocities hosted website and transferred over here when Yahoo killed off Geocities. When Suzuki offered to let me have the VZ800 Marauder for a week or two to test, I was very happy to have a 'free' bike for the duration of two big runs to the BMF/ACU National Rally and a Suzuki Owners Club Scotland trip. At the southern entrance to Glen Coe  The only factory custom bike I have ever ridden before was an early Yamaha XS400 back in the early Eighties. It had not endeared me to custom bikes! After a trip to the FIM Rally in the Czech Republic in 1995 with a riding partner on a Suzuki Savage, I had begun to think that although not actually my cup of tea, with real perseverance, these bikes could be more than 'canteen cowboy' outfits. Near Loch Ness So it was with a bit of trepidation that I picked the bike up from Ken Fulton, the SOC's magazine Editor (at the time), who had in turn ...

(Originally written and published on the old Geocities hosted SOC website in 1997)   With the UK Government thinking of ways to force commuters onto public transport on the one hand, soaking the motorist with the other hand - road tolls, commuting into City tolls, increased in Vehicle Excise Duty on top of another hike in petrol tax, the motorcycle couldn't be better placed to provide personal transport when you want it, in a more 'environmentally friendly' way. So when I was offered the latest addition to the Suzuki commuter range, the TU250X, I was actually quite looking forward to trying a bike that might fit the bill for the beleaguered commuter of the future. During my trips to Spain this Spring, I saw quite a few TU's on the streets in Murcia. Although not as popular as the Yamaha SR250, there were significantly more than you'd see in any UK town. The Mediterranean weather is far more attractive for people to consider biking. Most of the ci...

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Ickworth , originally uploaded by Invicta Moto . Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Roadtest originally published on the old Geocities SOC website in 1996!! Author: Paul Devall On the drive down to Crawley, where Suzuki GB is situated, to pick up the Bandit I really didn't know what to expect. I had just read a really praiseworthy test of the bike in 'RiDE' and wondered if I would get the same bike. In the end I got one of that bikes 'brothers'.  When Roger Simmons, the test fleet manager, and former mechanic to the stars of the Heron Suzuki racing teams of the past (remember Barry Sheene, Randy Mamola.....), brought N119 NCD round to the front, it looked very nice. It was the metallic red colour, they call it maroon, that I prefer to Teal Green and Black. After a few instructions about the small quirks on the bike I was then soon able to ride off. Only I'd forgotten my boots at home! I had all the riding gear I needed apart from boots. If you cast your minds back to early July, after a few weeks of summer weather, in southern England...

First impressions Good fit and as they are waterproof I had them over my boots. I see loads of blokes every day with waterproofs tucked into their boots... what happens when (and it will in England!) it rains? Anyway, no tight spots as I cocked a leg over the seat of the GS. The knee armour needed to be pushed into the right place as it seemed to be ideal for the knock-kneed. The hip armour was comfortable. The only concern I had is that with a 32" leg length, that they might be too short when on the bike. They are only supplied in 30" and 32". Whether that is only in fat sizes I can't tell. Once on the M20 and up to cruising speed there was a little flap from the calf area and this may be down to the diameter of the legs and perhaps I need to be a little more ruthless with the Velcro that goes around the bottom of each leg, and tighten it more. From the seating position it is hard to look at your own ankles (!) so I can't say how high they ride up ...

I'm on my third pair of these. It's taken over four years to get through them though. I've been happy with them over all. The price has crept up over the years and so has P&P from the suppliers. I have bought them all from M&P. The first pair gradually met their maker when they started to leak around the crotch, leaving me a little damp. The second pair were better, didn't leak at all, but a moments attention deficit and I ripped the leg on the rear footrest of the bike. After that they leaked rain even with a large elastic band to help stop them flapping. So three weeks ago I bought another pair. Sadly this pair hasn't lasted very long at all. The zip went on the left leg! No problems when I put them on at work. Both zips are what I call "small teeth" rather than the chunky zips and are very easy to jam with the backing getting caught in them. So I take extra care, so was even more pissed off when I got home and the zip had split ...

Paul at Dungeness , originally uploaded by Getzgirl . Taken after a visit to the Sound Mirrors at Denge Marsh. http://www.pashnit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23635

Originally posted on the first ever Suzuki Owners Club website hosted by Yahoo! Geocities. First posted in 1998. When Geocities announced they were closing I saved the source. Running with the Kettles - August 1998 On the face of it, a group of over fifty GT750's, drawn from all the different models from the entire six year reign, might seem a particularly insignificant and sobering thought to the non-believer. But. I BELIEVE! Thanks to some jiggery-pokery by Dave Pitcher, Chairman of the Kettle Club UK and Suzuki Owners Club member, we had a half hour. No. A wonderful half hour of track time to ourselves at the VMCC's "Festival of a 1000 Bikes" on the Sunday of the weekend event. Having a special Kettle-only session meant that we didn't have to put up with the myriad of slow blokes on Z900's and old British rubbish as we had done in Sunday's first session, the 1972-77 Over-500cc 'parade'. Waiting in pit lane I listened into a couple of ot...

No sooner had I found the old roadtests on Geocities, than I find that Yahoo, decent upstanding tosssers that they are, have decided to kill off Geocities free web service after 12 years or so. Geocities was one of the first free hosting service available giving the non-geek user have access to the Internet put up whatever sh*t they felt like. But of course FREE would never be sustainable. Anyway, I saved the source and will try to find a home for them all. I mean I wrote them in 1997!

61000 Miles , originally uploaded by Invicta Moto . Well, it was actually 60999 but I didn't want to stop half a mile down the road on Essex Road when it tripped over! Near enough though. Pic taken in the car-park at work. Nice new black tarmac and whiter that white lines...

Sissinghurst flowers , originally uploaded by Invicta Moto . I thought the bee added to the picture.... so did he (or she) as he didn't fly away.