InvictaMoto's On The Road Again!

I like to keep the blogs separate and as such have far too many on the go at once. Occasionally there will be a crossover. I have a blog I share with Claire about our trips to Spain. We have been going once a year for quite a few years. I am always envious of the riders out there enjoying the Mediterranean climate. They are dressed for summer almost all year round. No waterproofs!!!! A few years ago I was there when I took my ex-partners bike to her in Murcia. In Northern Europe it was cold and wet in February. In the Huerta of Murcia it was dry. The locals were dressed in thick coats but the foreigners were in t-shirts!   I parked up at the University waiting for her to finish her class. Teaching not a student. The givi box open.  "What is that?" says scooter guy next to me. He was dressed in a suit and normal shoes. Only a suede helmet like horse riders on his head to show any biker action!  "Waterproof trousers" I say. He laughs. "You won't need those un...

And so the plan keeps changing. The trip is 169 days away (as I write) but I have been refining the plan to cover for all eventualities. In fact by the time we actually go, we might well be on Plan K (sic). The longest days in the saddle will be the run from Kent to Poole to catch the boat to Santander (and the one in the other direction!) plus the Santander to Avila ride. From Avila, everything will be "local" almost. Once night there and then move on to Toledo. In Avila I have a normal hotel booked, but might look about for one with parking. The current option, has street parking. Once we decided to have the extra day leave from work, and I booked the boat back to UK, it freed up two more Spanish days and nights. I had already planned two nights to "do" Madrid. I then added a second night in Toledo although in doing so made a cock up. I cancelled the two nights in Madrid on booking.com - the benefit of free cancellation - and then booked a second night in Toled...

We were up early so we could call in at the post office to collect some packages for Claire that we missed on Saturday. With the cruise dialled in at 70mph we ran down to Dover for the ferry. Some 90 minutes after setting out of Dover the P&O ferry was docking in Calais. It took a long time to disembark and that was maybe when it started to go wrong. Although I had set the TomTom for the square in Saint-Omer a look at the map on my phone showed a quicker route that meant staying on the A26 a little longer. A misjudgement saw us go to the wrong junction! We were miles away when our reservation at the restaurant was imminent. Claire emailed them to say we were not going to make it as we didn't have the phone number. The TomTom showed that we were 30 minutes away from the destination. We pulled off into a Routier, usually good food a decent prices.  This one was terrible. The smoking ban seemed to have not reached their ears so we had a coffee and left. ...

The fourth game in a row for me. Testing the panoramic viewer on my camera phone and then the selfie camera. Wearing the 70's replica shirt i got for Christmas. A win for the Arsenal at the Emirates against a very weak Sunderland side, 4-1.

And now there is a Plan B. I had originally intended to come back by ferry from Spain on the LD Lines ferry to Poole.  As the boat arrives about 7pm, by the time the unload and then load the passengers heading back home it is about 1030pm, meaning it arrives back in UK about 1130pm on Monday. With Claire's workmate off that week I didn't book it. A bit of discussion and the holiday was okayed and so I have booked it, cancelling the two hotels in France. That leaves two extra nights in Spain. I cancelled the Madrid hotel and added another night in Toledo, then booked Madrid again for two nights.  One more to book. Now I am looking at where that will be. Segovia for the famous aqueduct or Burgos. Plenty of time! 

Going through a box I came across this pennant. Given to me by Czech friend Ivan Benda. Sadly, the club no longer seems to meet.

Official Poster

You may have heard about the death of Jade Clark, a 16-year-old who was killed when she was hit by Brian Hampton, on the A31 while on her moped travelling to work in February 2013. Banned for drink-driving at the time, Hampton not only didn't stop, but he then attempted to cover up his involvement by having his car repaired and lying to his family. He was sentenced to six years in prison – two for causing Jade's death by careless driving and four years for perverting the course of justice. He has now decided to appeal his sentence because he thinks it too severe. MAG thinks he should be locked up and the key thrown away. This petition was created by Robert Parker when he heard the news. So far it has just over a thousand signatures which is not enough. It needs 10,000 to get noticed; and 100,000 to get to the point where it can't be ignored. I would like to see it get that 100,000 signatures. Every signature counts. You'll find it at http://epetitio...

Not another plan but an additional bit of the plan that has started to come into play.  Once we leave Madrid it will be Friday morning and we have four days of the holiday left including the bank holiday. The distance to Calais is something in the region of 1500kms so with a proviso that we have a day at home before we go back to work... Three days to ride back. So two nights in France, one across the border near Dax and another around Tours. In all it will be about 300 miles a day. Seems a lot but we have done France before and well, the idea is to visit places in Spain. Had the LD Lines ferry been a better fit for the return I would have done that although I might still investigate French motorail for a return trip from Biarritz.

Had a few minutes at lunch time to have a look a rough idea of where to go to take in a few of the tourist spots. And here it is.  The ferry will dock in Santander around 7pm, so even with the long (sunny?) days it is still a stretch to get far, so I have booked a hotel in the city around a mile from the port. Hardly time for Dora to warm up. That gives us the evening to have a look around and get something to eat. Day 1 - Saturday at sea. Day 2 - At sea arrive Santander.  Overnight hotel. Day 3 - set off for Avila. The walled city is about 230 miles away, and in the months before we go, I'll look for things en route to stop and look at. Day 4 - a short run to Toledo. One of the old Moorish capitals. I stayed here years ago at the Parador, but it is across the gorge from the city and a long trek around. Here I have booked a hotel in the middle. Day 5/6 - Madrid. Two nights here in the centre where we can get to the Prado etc. Day 7 - set off for home.  It's a fair trek so...

The return. Since we were in Spain last year I have been looking at another trip, and a trip on the bike.  So it comes together for this year. We won't be able to get down to the south in a week, but we will be able to visit the cities in the north where there are many things to see.   Spain in August should have decent weather, even in the north! At the moment I have stuck out a leg and booked us on the LD Lines ferry from Poole to Santander. No return as yet.   Including the BH at the end of the holiday we have a total of  10 days. The first two will be taken up with the ride to Poole and the ferry crossing. It's 26 hours. LD Lines was quite a bit cheaper than Brittany Ferries and no doubt we'll find out why!  The cost includes a cabin and I booked an outside one. So we'll be able to watch the sea go by.  So in reality we have 5 days to look at things before we have think about riding back. The reason I didn't book a return trip with LD was that their fer...

I was up bright and early for the run. Partly because it had been raining hard and the wind had been trying to blow the roof off the house for most of the night. Plus I was lucky enough to find a dead weight of the Hilly, the cat, sitting on my chest. I decided that although it had stopped raining and it wasn't forecasted for the day, that I would wear Kevlar jeans and Held waterproofs. The Held's also keep the wind off. The ride up the M20, M25 and then the A2 to the Blackwall Tunnel was easier than a working day, 50 minutes from home to the tunnel.  I decided to go as thought to work, but then from Old Street take the Ring Road around to the A40M to Hanger Lane and take a right onto the North Circular. It was just after 1030 as I pulled into the famous Ace Cafe London car-park.  As you can see from the first pic there weren't that many bikes.... those that were seemed, by noon, to be on the run. I had been there in the early 80's when it was still a t...

We have just got through the wettest January on record. And now the first week of February hasn't been any improvement. Wet, wet, wet! It was sunny as I prepared to set off for Laguna to have Dora's ECM replaced but by the time I had hauled her out of the garage it was spitting and the wind had got up. Once I had filled the tank, I had a very windy ride back home, taking in the flooded Old London Road. It was so good I did it twice.

So, Day 2. From the hotel, bellies full of breakfast we set off for: Australian Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villers%E2%80%93Bretonneux_Australian_National_Memorial Corbie. Military Extension Cemetery - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corbie Red Baron - http://somme98th.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/plan-b-red-baron.html Péronne - http://en.historial.org/ Souvenir Francaise Rancourt - http://www.visit-somme.com/somme_tourisme/decouvrez/grande_guerre/chapelle_du_souvenir_francais

Having the new ECM fitted a Laguna Triumph tomorrow. She's booked in for 0930 so I am hoping the wind and rain will have eased off enough to get there in one piece! We have been lucky with the flooding around here. And not having a mount for my video camera (not waterproof) means the floods I went through last week went unrecorded. My brother has a Go-Pro I'd like to try. There must be a Ram Mount that will utilise the mount I use for the TomTom? I digress! Hopefully the new ECM will solve the weird starting problem.

It's so much easier to look online, choose your size and clickety-click a few days later they arrive. But, after a wardrobe malfunction this evening when bent over tying my shoe laces, the job is more urgent. Nothing can compare to the tedium of shopping for trousers/jeans in the yoof and fashion conscious tosser emporiums that used to be shops where you could dash in and out with your purchase.  A purchase that fitted.  A purchase that didn't need to be accompanied by musak or the latest drivel from the "top forty", some of it so dreadful and banal they now call it the "Hot 100".  So tomorrow is another humiliating experience on the horizon.

Insignia Not the most economical use for a car. Drive to the station every day and leave it parked up. Still. Could be worse. Might be using the scooter in this freezing miserable weather.

When I bought Döra, I became a member of the Riders Association of Triumph - RAT. This is something along the lines of HOG (Harley Owners Group), where the meetings are based at their dealers. Somewhere owners can come together and enjoy social activities. We tried something like it with Suzuki for the Suzuki Owners Club, but the mentality of the big-S dealers was somewhat lacking. "Open one evening a week?"/"Open the shop on a Sunday?" were two of the incredulous sounding responses from the dealer base. Anyway, I digress. RAT. The local branch is run out of Laguna Triumph in Ashford and is where I bought Döra last year. I've not been to anything yet as most things are evenings and I simply don't get home in time for 7pm starts, whether in the shop, or the pub across the road. But, when my brother, Neill, forwarded on an email that his local branch had sent out, also Laguna but based at the Maidstone shop, with an invitation to members to sign up for a trip ...

More details to follow......

With only a week to go before the Fred Hill Run, and Döra's trip to Laguna Triumph to have the ECM replaced, I needed to get out and give her a run. After about seven weeks  the garage, I dug her out. She started first prod on the button. It was sunny as I set off but after the wettest January on record I don't have high expectations. I did a kind of figure eight around the area including London Road where the water was running off the fields and across the entire width of the roadway. I took one pic of Döra by the tiger at the entrance to Port Lympne. Tigers The second picture was taken at the top of London Road above the water works! London Road It looks like someone failed to make the bend as the road signs are leaning quite a lot!

The new car.   After a couple of test drives of cars I liked the look of, and a look at some I liked but discarded once I had seen them, I bought a Vauxhall Insignia. I wanted something that will last a while and so wanted relatively low mileage, added to economy as well. So I chose the diesel engined model, plumping for a 2011 registered SRi CDTi 2.0 litre model. I looked at a few but this one has only 24200 on the clock, is a colour I liked and was at the price level I wanted to pay. Insurance until September 17th when my current policy expires was an additional £45 of which £15 was admin fee. At Home  In Hythe  In Hythe