InvictaMoto's On The Road Again!

A retail opportunity and a plea for help! 'EU Hands off Biking' T-shirts are now available for only £5, so if you want to support the 24th June demo event (and look very smart all summer), please click here http://www.euhandsoffbiking.co.uk/ Shirts are available in 3 sizes for now, Medium, Large and 2XL Postage and packing is £2 for the first one and £1 thereafter if you want to place a multiple order, which is still a bargain, but which brings me to my next point... Do you live within striking distance of Warwick and would you be able to give MAG Central any of your free time to help process the orders and pack the shirts? We'll give you lunch, cups of tea/coffee and undying gratitude, but very little else, it's very much a volunteer opportunity. Interested? Please call the office if you are and ask for Julie 01926 844064 Thanks Paddy -- Paddy Tyson Campaigns Coordinator Motorcycle Action Group http://www.mag-uk.org/ 01926 844064 ____...

Bought this in France. Liked the idea of the Whisky taste. Very nice. Should have bought more, but on the bike I was space limited.

On the way back to our hotel from the Campanile down the street. It looks quite good by night. When we decided to do Le Mans, the F1 here in Alencon was the only hotel at a decent price (budget!!) in the area for a 50 mile range of Le Mans itself.

No photos this time as I used the Canon and the Sony cameras rather than the iPhone. Have to wait until I get home to use the laptop. After breakfast Saturday we took the non-toll route to Le Mans. Woody leading as my TomTom was misbehaving. ( http://invictamoto.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/tomtom.html ) At the track they affix a sticker to the headlamp and give you the other half. On leaving both have to match. They also want to see the biker's log book. French ones are small, our are four pages of A4 and paper. As it is peezing down there is no way I am getting mine out of the topbox! We arrived in time for the Moto2 free session and all three classes qualifying. All the commentary in French. A summary in English at the end is spoken by a guy that learned English in a vacuum. It drizzled all day. Rained hard at times. Almost trench foot. Sunday. Up earlier, same route, same rigmarole to park, same logbook stays in topbox. Found a space near where we were yester...

The Gros Horloge, as the clock is called, is in an area where there are plenty of old buildings. You can see where post 1945 the town rebuilt the areas where it was heavily bombed in the days around D-Day 1944. But many still there in the area near the clock and the cathedral. These interesting ladies adorn the wall of an adjacent building now an optician's shop. Adjacent to the Gros Horloge is this pair of buildings and the narrow alley.

Gros Horloge The day started well. Sunny. Met Woody at the Stop 24 services and fuelled up and the had 3 mile ride tithe Shuttle. The train was packed with bikes all heading one way or another the 250 miles to Le Mans or thereabouts. Our first stop was Rouen for lunch and a look around the old city. The cathedral was being renovated and we were unable to see the statue of Joan of Arc. We did see the old clock down a side street and went to have a look. The final hundred or so miles off toll roads took us in a strange loop when we expected the N138. We arrived at the hotel about 5pm. A quick change and we were out again to the supermarket to buy provisions for Saturday's practice day.

Aaaaarrrgghhhh. Why did I buy a TomTom?  I have only had it three months and it's only it's third trip out and it has gone wrong. It was working on the bike all the way here to Alençon. But when I came to set the route for tomorrow for the run to Le Mans,  it was dead. I thought it may have been simply discharged.  But the problem seems to be when it is turned off it fires up again, so the battery flattens itself, unseen, in the case. I had already logged a call with them for a rattle, some screw loose or something. Now I am one day into the long GP weekend and it is not working.  Fantastic.

Made reasonable progress on off/on drizzle. More later.

Arrived in good time. Loads of bikes ranging from normal blokes to clowns revving the balls off their cock replacements. Paul Devall Sent from my iPhone

Changes are afoot in Europe, as they so often are, which makes it difficult to ensure information stays up to date. Meetings are on-going, both in the UK and in Brussels so I'll try and bring you up to speed without sending you to sleep.   I had another MEP meeting yesterday when it was agreed that a question would be put to the EU Commission in an attempt to discover their justification for some of the EU Type Approval Regulation which has no evidential base. I refer specifically here to the 'anti-tampering' clauses. The European Ombudsman has found that the Commission does have a case to answer on this subject and the UK Government questioned the validity of the claims too, conducting its own assessment of the situation.   Article 18 as the wording in the public domain still states, wishes to impose anti-tampering measures on all new motorcycles. This already exists for mopeds and up to 125cc bikes (known as A1), so, much as we may feel it's unjustifie...

Just put a few extra pounds in the tyres front and rear to take it more towards the loaded fast tour pressures. I usually run 32psi at the front and 36psi at the back but gone to 34/40 for the run to Le Mans. Once back inside the house will switch to battery charge mode to get the camera and TomTom charged for the weekend. Next to sort out clothes. Will be in bike gear most of the time so will need jeans and a few tshirts. Plus caks and socks. Toying with netbook as well as the hotel allegedly has free wifi. Mr Baloo (pic) has been my mascot since 2004 and has brushed up well considering he has been in the beak area for about 8 years now. When they gave him away at a McDonald's they never expected him to last long as a kid's toy.

Last year I bought a pair of cordura waterproof trousers to replace a pair I'd had for two years. They arrived in time for the Welsh National Rally in early May the weather was appalling on the way back from Wales. To make things worse the crotch split. I emailed the shop from my hotel on the way back. They were good and replaced them. For one reason or another I wore them for the first time in April. Luckily it didn't rain. Unluckily, the second time of wearing them, resulted in what crotch syndrome. Soaked through. Can't see where it is getting in but this is so annoying. It's cutting it fine but this pair are less than a year old, so I emailed them to see what happens! Even if they see it my way and replace them they won't be here until after the Le Mans trip. Let's see how it goes.....

Went to Cotswold and passed Kipferl so popped in for lunch.

Claire got this on a visit to the RBL at Aylesford and picked this up.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B000KKNQBK/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_summary?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending