InvictaMoto's On The Road Again!

As I am off for a few weeks over the summer I have decided to have a day on the bike.  My vain attempts to ride the bike more and from MoT to MoT and get more miles under the wheels than last year seem to have been somewhat blunted. So later in August I have planned and booked a trip across to France. Although the ferry is cheaper than the Shuttle it is less convenient.  When the Shuttle isn't plagued by delays and cancellations that is! So. The date will be August 21st. Midweek might have less of a crush! I have planned a route that will take me down the motorway as near as possible to Corbie to visit William Devall and then have lunch.   My plan is to ride back via Bazentin le Grand to see where the KSLI 7th Bn attacked and came a cropper on the undamaged wire. I have chosen a no-toll route back  Out via A26 In - no tolls William Devall

The day was a success. We had told John as little as he needed to know.  John and his Suzuki As I said before he was expecting just me and Neill, that was my subterfuge. Neill was never going. Then Tony Taylor said he'd drive and collect John, but we kept the rest quiet. In the end there were seven of us "Old SOC" members. With more joining the FB group we can do better next time. I didn't get chance to chat about my GT with John and so I need to get cracking on my jobs. And then get back to him. In the end the turnout was: me, Tony Taylor, Mark Powell, Phil Hingert, Dave & Ronnie Hebblethwaite, and of course, John Storrie. Tony took a group photo so sadly not in it! LtoR: Mark, Dave, Ronnie, John, Paul & Phil As above. Tony replaces Phil. The museum is well worth a visit. As a senior citizen I got in for £12.50. The museum covers the entire history of the British Motor industry. Plus a couple of old bikes.  Some sections cover the land speed attempts by MG an...

The weather this week. The UK ground to a halt with record temperatures on Thursday, and then we have had torrential rain, flooding and thunderstorms. The former curtailed my plans on Thursday for a day on the Somme. Too hot and massive queues of holidaymakers trying to get to the port. France even hotter and dryer. I'll have to plan another day later in August once we get back from Devon. The latter meaning a planned ride to Warwickshire has been changed from a bike trip to a car trip.  No one wants to spend six hours in the saddle in pissing rain. What next?

Who knows how long this blog will exist for! I don't have the foggiest idea. The Kettle in question is a Suzuki GT750A. First registered in April 1977.  Some background. Sit down. This might ramble on. I bought it in 1984 from the bike shop in Hanwell near Brentford in West London. It came with some paperwork that showed it had had some engine work done. Allegedly the crankshaft oil seals had been replaced etc. I had other bikes as well. For a while  around this time I had a "Plain Jane" GL1000, and a  GSX1000SZ Katana. So it was a complete surprise when riding home from work a couple of years later that the crankshaft oil seals went phut By then we were moving from Weybridge in Surrey to Newington in Kent. I obtained an exchange crank from Robinson's then in Broadstairs. A local guy in Gillingham was recommended to handle the engine rebuild.  At this stage the cylinder barrel to use in the rebuild was one that I had bought off a fellow member of the SOC committ...

The plan was to ride up to Oxfordshire to visit John Storrie, my old buddy from the Suzuki Owners Club.  We first met about 1980 at a SOC event and after I bought my GT in 1984 we came closer.  Plus. Although written out of history, John and me along with Dave Greenhalgh and Graham Walker saved the SOC, in 1983,  from going tits up. At an EGM to wind up the club we stood up. John took over as Membership Secretary and me as Editor. The plan was to ride up to the motor museum near Warwick and meet John. It was kept a secret from him at first and I tried to get other Old SOCers along as a surprise. Both plans defeated by the weather and people emigrating or sick! After record breaking temps the weather turned wet. Very wet. Thunderstorms. Lightning. Floods! So instead of three hours each way on the bike, I will take the car. Why International? We had hoped that other old buddy David Gearhart may have been over from the US and able to pop in for a few hours. So tomorrow it is...

Most years I choose a charity and have stuck with it for a year. Last year I read about Dogs on the Street . A local charity caring for homeless people and their dogs. I am very jaded when it comes to corporate charities that have been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Or sit on millions rather than using the money "we" have donated. Or worse. The charities with huge staffs and senior staff on six figure salaries. That's six figures to the left of the decimal point. Have a look and  donate . Money going to the cause and not in huge salaries.  No "celebs" or "comedians" trying to appear relevant or reviving flagging careers on a telethon.  Do it!!!!!!!!!!!!

When the Insignia had its MoT in February the test showed that apparently my front brakes were at 80% worn.  I've not had them done in the five years I have owned it so I thought that the remaining 20% should last another year. As we are having a staycation this year with a thousand miles of driving (approx) I decided to get them done. Dropped it off at Fairways in Dymchurch and they are done. I could do them for myself and have done over the years but I'm sure Claire feels safer with it done professionally!    

Phew. The hottest day of the year turned out to not quite beat the UK record although some local records were broken. As a pair of large islands off the coast of Europe we jut out into the North Atlantic. This makes UK and Ireland a temperate climate. Unless we get the Spanish or Moroccan Plume (Google it) we generally get temps in the mid 20's (centigrade) with the occasional hot days. Those inhabitants of places like Arizona probably don't recognise this as hot. So as I was watching the cricket test match on TV, Reggie needed keeping cool. So out came the paddling pool.  Cooling down He loves to stand in it to cool down. Lucky boy.

The Department for Transport (DfT) published its 2019 Road Safety Statement and 2-year action plan on 19th July.  The Motorcycle Action Group has been critical of what it sees as a lack of substance and ambition for motorcyclists' safety. Transport Secretary Chris Grayling described the action plan as "a key milestone in our road safety work".  Including seventy four action points, the DfT describe the document as a major package of measures to reduce the number of people killed and injured on roads.  In the foreword to the report, Road Safety Minister Michael Ellis states that the majority of their work for the next two years and respective actions are focused on the Department's four priority road user groups - Young Road Users, Rural Road Users, Motorcyclists and Older Vulnerable Road Users. The eight specific action points for motorcyclists are: •       Continue to promote the importance of helmets and their correct u...

The run was converted from a run to a poker run and the destination changed.  Instead of along the coast to Capel le Ferne it went only to Dungeness and back towards Sussex. Pepé and I rolled out to meet some other Meldrews, Trevor and Cal. After a bacon baguette and a coffee we heard the column arrive. And I started to take pictures on the Nikon D50. Flickr Album

Jack Be Nimble by Adam Croft My rating: 4 of 5 stars Another Ripper... Another good read for the train to work and back. The Jack character had me fooled. I thought it was the profiler. It goes to show no matter how many mysteries you read and how many movies you can watch, the best ones are where you can't tell whodunit. View all my reviews

First game of the pre-season for me.  Folkestone Invicta at home to Gillingham aka The Gills. The Gills are in EFL League 1. This is the 3rd tier in the English football pyramid. Invicta are in the 7th. The gulf in quality was so much in evidence. Even though the Gills started with a mixture of first team and young players, plus there loans included a lad from Premier League AFC Bournemouth, Invicta had their chances that were sadly squandered.  In the end a scoreline of 4-0 to the visitors wasn't that bad considering the gulf in league positions.

The Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) has expressed anger on discovering that the proposed Heathrow Ultra Low Emission Zone (HULEZ) will include a charge on older motorcycles. Proposals for a charge for more polluting vehicles driving to London's Heathrow Airport terminals were announced in May this year.  Despite the press reports suggesting that the HULEZ would mirror Sadiq Khan's Ultra Low Emissions Zone, there was no readily available information to confirm whether the charge would affect motorcycles. MAG's Director of Communications & Public Affairs, Lembit Opik, commented: "It would seem unlikely to anyone with an ounce of common sense that a charge on road vehicles will do anything to reduce overall emissions in anything approaching a meaningful way when opening an entire new runway at Heathrow Airport.  Despite this, Heathrow seem intent on virtue signalling their way through a consultation on this very idea.  Imagine our disgust...

So my on and off love hate relationship with the Fire 7 continues. I bought it as a Christmas present to myself to replace my ancient Kindle that had decided enough was enough and it refused to charge and when it did, it would no longer connect to the internet to download new books. Generally the Fire has been okay. But. It has a major fault that despite contacting Amazon for assistance is still happening. Not all the time, but enough to be very annoying. I can download a book from my library. I can read it. The next time I want to carry on reading it shows in the folder, but errors saying I don't have the right to read it. I have to delete and re-download. Annoying at home with WiFi but not good sitting on a train to work! The other problem is that the book simply disappears from the downloaded folder and we go through above again. Oddly, re-downloaded books 99% of the time remember where I was when last read! After three occasions this month already I am ...

Specs is short for spectacles not specifications. Gradually I have noticed that at work I have to lean forward ire to be able to work on my laptop. Reading glasses are totally useless as they are set at a distance ideal for reading a book in your hand.  The screen on my laptop is further away than that but not in the range of my distance glass prescription I need for driving and riding. So, £55 invested with Specsavers and hopefully the problem of blurred working will be sorted.

I was up at 8am. The local Royal British Legion Riders group were meeting on the A2 at 8.30am. Too early for me. I was away about 9am after breakfast and although I had the dbpower booster with me it was unused. I did have to reset the TomTom as it had lost the connection to the phone and also to my LS2 headset. Once fixed I was away. The M20 to Maidstone then up to the M2 to stop in at the service station at Cobham to tank up. Another Rocket was there but we had a nod and he was gone.  The rest of the trip alternated between dull and heavy traffic dull. The ever lasting roadworks on the A14 seem to have taken many years. The Spanish seem to build hundred of miles of their motorways in a short time. Eventually I arrived at 1115am. It usually takes less than two hours even with the petrol stop. I signed in and then went for a coffee and a loo visit. Outside again it was time to do my walk  around the assembled bikes and looked to see how many Rockets were there. Quite a few the...

It's tomorrow.  I'll need to get my gear out tonight and make sure that I have the routes in my TomTom.  I have been so often before but the TomTom is great for the stats of the run and in case you need to make some detours where there might be roadworks or other closures. Make sure the Bluetooth kit in my helmet is charged up. My planned stop on the way back to have a look at the wartime NAAFI buildings might need assistance! When connected to my phone it does pick up information and it will try to offer a reroute.  Of course, when I last did this I had no idea what it meant and ignored the offer of a route change. Doh!  As Homer would say. Looks at the moment that I am Billy No-Mates again but that's okay. The weather is supposed to be good and sunny so it looks like an SPF50 day and a hat.  But what to wear?  Which camera to take?   First world problems.

The Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) has revealed its own analysis into the “safety in numbers” concept and, in the process, uncovered some uncomfortable truths. The Motorcycle Action Group has been working on analysis of motorcycle casualty statistics in England.  The purpose of the analysis was to establish evidence for the widely accepted belief that there is a safety in numbers effect applicable to motorcyclists as much as cyclists.  The theory is that higher numbers of cyclists or motorcyclists on the road actually results in reduced risk of collisions due to increased awareness of the vulnerable road users by other road users. MAG’s Director of Campaigns & Political Engagement, Colin Brown explains: “We analysed at a regional and local authority level the proportion of total casualties in comparison with the prevalence of the two vulnerable road user groups in the transport mix, looking at varying levels of modal share in varying locations as well as changes in...

Guilty as Sin by Adam Croft My rating: 4 of 5 stars Where to start? It was like going back to the 70's and the Sweeney. Old time coppers that have no need for the niceties of modern life but get results. If you need to slap the accused about a bit, then don't leave any marks. Jack Reagan would be proud of Culverhouse Women coppers are fluff and Knight seems to smile her way through it all and get the job done as well. That said. Both books 1 & 2 have been a good read and I may download the next one in the series to my Kindle .... depending on how much? I'm a cheapskate. View all my reviews