InvictaMoto's On The Road Again!

Once I had finished lunch it was off to walk around and see where all the bikers were..... Usually the city centre is full of them, mostly from the hotels and the really tough souls that camp!  Camp? December? Nutters! It didn't take long to find the "usual" chocolate shop. The same lady works in there was in all the years we have been going to the St Nicks. Since 1985. I bought a few things, some to take to work, some for Christmas and some to eat during the day! Chocs etc Once back at the bike I noticed that my ignition and luggage keys were hanging in the topbox lock! I had been walking about the city centre for well over an hour and it had been there! In London I would have come back to no bike. As it was already 1425 local time so I set off around to the meeting place. Like a ghost town. There is some bike parking near the big church so I went there. A couple of non-local Belgians had arrived. Just as nonplussed as me as to what was going on. The web page definitely ...

It looked very murky as we went parallel to the French coast.  The crossing in the end took just 90 minutes. There seem to be far fewer people on this ferry than on the rival P&O ferries on the same route. This is a good thing. Far less pushing and shoving on the stairs to get to the car decks! Fewer people filling the brasserie and bars. Once ashore I fell into a rhythm with the cruise set on 70mph. I should have changed to kilometres but forgot. I missed the Middelkerke turning and ended up going to Jabbeke and the A10 entry into Ostend. It seemed eerily quiet. Very few bikes. Shit! Wrong date. The rally site has moved to a new venue and I guess that means that fewer bikes are parked in the city. I did a ride-by where we have met St Nick every year I have been since 1985.  Lots of metal fencing and entry forbidden signs. I parked around the corner as it looked more hospitable. There were some other bikes there too. I went to look for a coffee and the chocolate shop we al...

Up early and off to the Port of Dover. Arriving at 0730 it was a little disappointing  to see no bikes there already. As usual the run was advertised well in advance to the Kent Centre and to the Suzuki Owners Club in general.  And as usual - despite moans that nothing gets organised, no one has bothered to turn up. I guess it is easier to moan that get off your arse and come along to events? Outside Dover East I hung about until 0745 and then made my way around to check in. A little after 0801 I was in Lane 149 waiting to board. No other bikes at all in the loading lanes. Jean Sans-Amis/Billy No-Mates obviously!!!! It was about 6.5C when I left home rising to a positively balmy 9C at the port. As usual the  My Ferry  ship is late into its berth on the incoming trip. So not boarding at 0750 as the info boards say! I was first on and rode the length of the ship to the bike racks in the starboard bow. The crew guy had it tied and secured in a minute or so. This is so m...

Fitted the panniers. Gave the lights a buff over.. Tyres good.  Quite mild this time of night. Had to scroll a bit to find that display!! Flashed off a few pix of Döra.... And Bully shows up quite well.

The French are allegedly enforcing the law from years ago whereby bikers are supposed to have four white stickers front, rear and sides of the helmet. I have never bothered but for £1.95 I bought four black stickers that in the light show white. Let's see if Mr Gendarme is impressed. At the back Schuberth decided to put their logo and model in black that reflects white!  

I have this D50 to use. It's not worth much on eBay but it takes pretty reasonable pictures. If only there was a firmware update so that it would take a bigger SD card than the 2GB maximum it currently takes.

The coldest year for the Sinterklaastreffen that I have been to was 1991. Audrey and I went on her XJ900 as I had the DR800 and it wasn't good two up. The XJ was an excellent tourer. Shaft drive and frame mounted fairing. F501OMJ was superb. I later bought one with an H reg. Anyway. By the time we had got into Belgium it was freezing. Firstly my visor iced up, then my glasses. I had to pull them down and peer over the top. Then my eyebrows iced and froze. We stopped and took this shot on the old Olympus OM10 - that I still have! December 6th 1991! Frozen! The visor was a graduated one with a darker tint at the top to help with the sun. The helmet is a Freddie Spencer replica Arai. Changes to British Standards later outlawed lots of tinted visors for use in the UK. Updated. Oops.  Posted this twice!   http://invictamoto.blogspot.com/2007/11/frozen-up.html albeit 6 years apart.

It seems absolutely ages since me and Döra were last out. I had planned to get her out and give her a quick wash and brush up prior to this coming weekrnd's two trips. Sadly with the weather only being a few points above freezing and sunset about 4pm there's so little daylight left to get things done. So Döra sits in the garage waiting for Saturday's trip to Belgium and her first St Nicks Rally.  The plan is an early ferry across to Calais and then a ride along the coast to Ostend. It's only about 60 miles on the other side but it can be very cold.

Maybe when you take up internet dating, total honesty or rather, truthfulness, might not be at the highest place on your checklist. Things like height, weight, hair can all be exaggerated but a picture? I guess you could send an old one. I sent Claire one of me wearing one of these, plus bike gear, and taken in Venice!  That shirt "disappeared". A replica 1970 FA Cup Final shirt. A valued and sadly missed friend... And now thanks to www.camporetro.com I can replace it!!! Haha!!! The new shirt has the numbers 11 on the back,  that mark it as a replica of the shirt worn by Charlie George. The Arsenal hero who scored the winning goal that beat Liverpool at Wembley.  Campo Retro also have the red and white shirt from the same era... Mmmmm? Christmas is coming. 

Lembit Öpik adds passion and power to MAG's Communications and Campaigns Team Former MP Lembit Öpik is renowned for his 'full-on' approach to all he does. Now he's channelling his irrepressible drive to protect and promote two core passions: Liberty and Motorcycling. Lembit joins MAG's newly streamlined team of professionals. Their mission is to take a leading role to stand up to threats to riders' rights and expand the use of motorcycles and scooters in the UK. Lembit's new role as Director of Communications and Public Affairs for the Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) was announced today at the National Motorcycle Show in the NEC. This puts him at the heart of UK motorcycling and the new team at the core of MAG's ...

Movember. Day 17 is over. Mo mo-ney still needed as real-bro has overtaken me to lead by a tenner. http://mobro.co/invictamoto

Today's run out probably added less than 20 miles onto the odometer. A swift run up to the Blue & White Café to meet the other old Codgers that form the Kent Centre of the Suzuki Owners Club. We are a diverse bunch of older men. Many sporting grey hair but we still love getting on the bikes and riding. But probably not too much or too far when it is freezing weather. Last week on the Ring of Red it was cold. This week I swapped ordinary poly cotton t-shirt for a thermal long sleeve shirt and it wasn't as cold.  In fact it was miserable with the kind of invasive drizzle that seems to eek its way through your leathers and chill right to the bones. Nasty.  Give me crisp and dry cold any time. We have been told by the soothsayers of disaster that we will get snow early this year. With two runs over the weekend of Nov 30 and Dec 1 I hope not!!

We had a day trip up to London today. Our first stop was the Field of Remenbrance in the grounds of Westminster Abbey.  We were looking for the regimental badges of our war dead relatives and Claire's Dad, Victor, who served with 5 Commando in Burma. We found the Royal Irish Fusiliers (Charles Devall) and the Kings Shropshire Light Infantry (William Devall) but not the Royal Irish Rifles of Claire's Grand-Uncle Timothy O'Leary. I'll have to check to see what happened to the RIR*** It was very moving and although I didn't expect to see a cross with Devall on it, I had to check. There wasn't. I texted my train buddy Mo and he took us into the Abbey and sorted out the audio guide equipment. I've never been and it's a shame there is no photography allowed. The Tomb of the Unknown Warrior is worth the tribute.      From the Abbey we had a walk up Whitehall to look at the Cenotaph and the tributes from last week. The w...

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We were discussing the things that we used to get up to at school or "funny" things that happened to us or other kids. Most of my tales are from when we lived in Oldham! Pigeons When we were at Chadderton Hall School (we were 8 or 9), we used to keep our bus fare and walk home, stopping at the shop to buy a glass of sarsaparilla (we called sasprilla). One time we got concerned about a bloke that kept locking up pigeons in a shed on the allotment we crossed on the way to the shop. So we unlocked the door and shooed the pigeons out and made sure it was locked again. The next day they were all back, sitting in the dirty shed, so we let them all out again. For the next few days it was the same. We'd let them out and the next day the nasty bloke (so we thought) had captured them again. Then one day we were mid-shoo when a man came up. An angry man... "I know your Dad" he said. And he did. Over his shoulder I saw an angry Dad coming over the allo...

Once having been through the Holt's Pocket Battlefield Guide a few times, I've added a few points of interest to the original plan. We are now officially on Plan B.

I ordered the pocket guide from Amazon, really just to check that the places I had selected were do-able and also to see what else was local for a "fag break" length stop. The places I have chosen are part of the "Big Six". In fact five of them.  The sixth is the Ulster Tower (above) just a short hop from the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing and the recently built visitor centre. Holt's tours are half day, one day and longer suggested  routes. They are also based on Albert as the overnight point, and hence the starting point. Our start point is Calais.... I may re-jig the route to take into account the tank memorial on the Albert to Bapaume road at Pozières, and other of the aforementioned fag break stops. Currently four of the Kent Centre are booked into the hotel and I have advertised the run to the SOC wider audience and to the R1150GS Facebook group. It's a long way off and once it gets into the club magazines it may take off 

It was a bit of a rush but well worth it to be part of another triumph for British Bikers. I was ready to leave as soon as the two minute silence was over. I watched the Queen lay her wreath on the Cenataph and then I was out to where Döra was waiting. Then it was all action to meet my brother, Neill, near Chatham and ride to the rendezvous point at Dartford just south of the QE Bridge tollbooths.  We made it in good time but with maybe not enough to spare had we attempted to go through the Tunnel to the local start point at Thurrock "Lakeside" Services. As the bikes streamed oved the Bridge we could see the red line of their riders and pillions. Most wearing red t-shirts and hoodies,  some with red hi-viz and others even in onesies!  I had started with a red hi-viz but took it off and put on the more comfortable XXXL t-shirt. The hi-viz flapped about at anything over 50mph. We joined the large group and headed to the next rest area at Clacket Lane Many riders did the ent...

And so it is looking more like a mo now... http://mobro.co/invictamoto More sponsorship is needed.  

Bikers coming together to honour the servicemen and women killed and wounded for our freedom The idea is to set off from points around Lobdon's Orbital Motorway and eventually link up to make a poppy ring.  It will take thousands of bikes to achieve  but it is worth a go.  

The smooth top lip at the start of the month. If you want to aid research into cancer that affects men, then my page is http://mobro.co/invictamoto

Things have been very quiet lately. I haven't had much opportunity to get out for a ride and hopefully that will be resolved tomorrow if the weather holds off. Forecasts are for half a month's worth of rain in a weekend; so not looking too clever. On the horizon though are two regular runs I go on. Sadly, they are always the same weekend! So about of a double header!! Firstly,  the Sinterklaastreffen. I have been most years since 1984, missing a few due to being in Czech working or bike breakdowns and last year snow. We used to go for the weekend, but once our favourite (and quirky) hotel, the Polaris,  closed, we started only going over for the day and sometimes, not even joining in the run itself! So what does the St Nicks Rally (as we call it in English) entail? For the day tripper it is an early ferry across to France and then a ride along the coast to Ostend. It's about 60 miles from Calais to the parking up place in Ostend. It is usually either very cold or simply w...