InvictaMoto's On The Road Again!

From the Conference Room , originally uploaded by Invicta Moto .

I finally got round to replacing one of the missing bungs and then noticed this one had gone AWOL ass well.... GS bits , originally uploaded by Invicta Moto . GS bits , originally uploaded by Invicta Moto . Then this is the original one that went misisng some time ago. GS bits , originally uploaded by Invicta Moto . GS bits , originally uploaded by Invicta Moto .

I have finalised my route with Tyre and then opened it in Garmin Mapsource. The plan is to go Thursday morning and take a more relaxed ride up island hopping across Zeeland, and staying in a B&B on the island to the south of Rotterdam. Steve H will join us there in the evening. I just hope we have weather like last year.

Had the MoT done as usual. Sailed through again. Now costs over £29 to have it done.

Maybe the service needed to have come before the long run to Wootton Bassett yesterday? The bike ran pretty well even so but I needed it to have its annual service. After 66000 miles I tend to have it serviced when I can afford it and when I think it is about time to get it done. More often than not I take it to Neil Harrison aka Steptoe in Kingston upon Thames (or pretty close!). It's a long run round the M25 from my house and then with his loan bike I make the trip back up to Islington for work. Today the M25 was worse than I have ever experienced it. Ebbing and floing, then stopping dead for no apparent reason! In the end my ETA at Neil's was 0900, and it was about 0910. The final leg from the M25 past Chessington World of Adventures (it used to be Chessington Zoo in my day!!) is a nightmare of 30mph nanny state speed limits and cameras. Neil loaned me a G-regd K100 and it was a bit of getting used to. Especially as it has no left mirror. It is amazing how you come to rely o...

Check the link for the full tale. March 14th - Afghan Heroes Run (InvictaMoto)

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...

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. This was taken of 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. 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, supported by...

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 Zega inner bags into the Touratech Zega 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...

The trials and tribulations of outdated consumer electronics is one that nearly everyone in the world must have! There's a dilemma. Muddle through or dump it and buy the latest bit of kit? I have owned the Garmin Quest sat-nav for the best part of 5 years. Soon after I bought it Garmin announced the Quest 2. It was supposed to be a step forward with post code location searches etc. Instead it was a bit of a white elephant, slow and cumbersome. I have two problems with my Quest. 1) The maps are getting to be out of date. I last bought an upgrade in 2007 and since then I suppose there have been a few miles of roads built in Europe that my Quest doesn't know about. The problem is that from January 2010 the map updates have been withdrawn. I emailed and asked if I could at least upgrade to the 2009 maps as that would be an improvement (and dosh for them!). They replied to say that they couldn't do that as it is in fact the Unlock Codes that have been withdrawn. So I guess...