¡InvictaMoto!

If only.... If it wasn't for Covid-19. Today we would be heading along the Mediterranean coast with our destination of Lucca.  Our hotel just outside the city walls. The Hotel Stipino.  Our home for three nights and the chance for the car to cool down! Ready for a few days sightseeing in Pisa and Florence and letting the train take the strain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucca 

If only.... If it wasn't for Covid-19. We would have been up early to have breakfast and get over to the station to pick up the Train des Merveilles for a day on the train up into the mountains towards Italy. Luckily, I had waited before buying tickets. So no refund necessary.

I had to rearrange some of the garage to get the Kettle out. The Rocket was first to move out. Problem number one was that for some reason the bike was in gear. Stuck in gear to be precise. Which one without any battery to light up the gear indicator I had no idea. Finding neutral took nearly an hour. Rocking it backwards and forwards. With the clutch in I was able to drag it out into the sunlight and back onto the mainstand.  With the clutch out it was hard to see if the engine would turn over. I couldn't tug it out hard enough in gear to push the engine over.  I still have the plugs out to reduce compression.  A few pix were taken before I went back in to hunt through the packing cases of bits. I was looking for the wheel and the old barrel /pistons. Sadly the wheel is a rear one and not the front I had hoped. So it looks like a front wheel rebuild is on the list. I found a spare centre downpipe and a brand new rad hose still in its wrapping. Both went in the box of bit...

This has to go ahead now. Otherwise what I have spent over the last 12 to 18 months is going to have been wasted. Today these centre pipe rubber seals arrived today. These came from Franco's on the Harrow Road in North West London. It used to be Derek Loan Motorcycles, and then the London Suzuki Centre. In the early 70's I worked across the road at what was then the Willesden Data Centre for Barclays Bank. I was only there a few months before moving to the data centre on Tottenham Court Road. Franco's has some stock that isn't always available at other dealers.

This time the three of us to dog friendly Mount Ephraim Gardens near Faversham. On the 2 for 1 entry scheme with BBC Gardeners World on £7 entry for both of us and Reggie went in free of course. A nice walk round and of course a coffee and chocolate gateau.  The same family have lived here for over 300 years. Amazing.

If only.... If it wasn't for Covid-19. Today we would be travelling from Cuneo in Italy, down through the Alps to Nice. Our hotel for two nights is the Durante. City centre with included parking! Hotel Durante, Nice The reason is not to visit Nice itself, but we are intending on going on " Train des Merveilles " up through the Alps on less accessible and scenic routes.

This is an app that the NHS and health authorities promote for active life. The idea is to do a minimum of 10 minutes of brisk walking a day. It will help you lose weight and be fitter. Today 46 mins... We did it at work last summer and had teams across all departments of the Council.  I gave up as when walking with some others the app registered about a quarter of everyone else's activity. Even when walking side by side for two miles.

The Motorcycle Action Group has expressed outrage at the lack of consideration for motorcyclists in the latest review of the Highway Code announced today.  The consultation - entitled “Review of  The Highway Code to improve road safety for cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders” - makes no reference to the statistically most at-risk vulnerable road user group. The consultation on proposed alterations to the Highway Code was published on the 28th July and is open for responses until 27th October 2020.  The consultation website page states that the consultation is “seeking views on proposed changes to The Highway Code to improve safety for vulnerable road users, particularly the groups of: cyclists, pedestrians, horse riders” MAG’s Director of Campaigns & Political Engagement, Colin Brown, said: “This is a shocking demonstration of the lack of care for the welfare of the most vulnerable road user group on the roads.  As motorcyclists, we have to face the accusation...

After years and years the old DSC-P200 finally gave up the ghost. The mode selection wheel finally went wrong again, and the "fix" I found on the internet to reset the camera with the battery removed didn't work. This little metal bodied camera is perfect for slipping into the pocket of a jacket on a walk or out on a ride on the cycle or the motorcycle. It's quite tough and the lens pulls back into cover and it also has a viewfinder as well as a screen at the back. It became impossible to take any photos.  Enter eBay.  And £8.75 inc postage later a "new" one was delivered by the postman. It has a slight dent in the front but once I had transferred the battery and my multi card memory to it worked perfectly.  I just had to transfer the wrist strap as well. That probably took the longest. It came with a flat battery and so swapping it for the one in the "old" camera had it up an running. I gave it a try in the garden to see what ...

If only.... If it wasn't for Covid-19.......... Today should have been the day we crossed the Alps from France to Italy with our stay at the  Best Western Plus Royal Superga Hotel in Cuneo. It is actually a very short day, 85 miles,  but the route from  L'Argentière-la-Bessée, covers a good few alpine passes including the Vars and Larche. We did this area way back in the 00's on the GS.

Trailer booked for August 5th in the afternoon until Friday 7th in the morning.  Called this morning and paid two days rental and the £100 refundable deposit. John Page Trailers Now I need to pin my brother, Neill, down to coming on the trip with me.  MyRouteApp makes the trip to Phil's at 3h 40m but that will be calculated at speed limit speeds. With a trailer the limit is reduced. So 8 days before collecting it.

If only.... If it wasn't for Covid-19 I toiled over this overnight stop and originally we would have been overnighting in Annecy. However, I wanted to go over some of the alpine passes into Italy and then down on the Italian side of the border. So I chose a night at the Hotel La Gare in    LʼArgentière-la-Bessée. This is across the border in    Hautes-Alpes, department 05. Hotel de la Gare Today would have been about 250 miles but much of it on mountain roads and over some of the highest passes in the French Alps. 

Today's delivery was the new battery. A Motobatt and in the same bright yellow case that I have come to covet. The one in the Rocket was a disappointing black. So nearly all ready to take up to Phil. This one  ordered from Tayna  as a Google search found them the cheapest inc delivery. Every penny counts  I was going to put it in the bike but decided I'll take the old one out for the tip and leave the battery cradle empty.

Tracking and tracing more about Timothy shows that he was killed in or around Le Pilly during the Battle of La Bassée. https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/219480-le-pilly-dead-royal-irish-regiment/ https://wartimememoriesproject.com/greatwar/allied/battalion.php?pid=6341 http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/army/regiments-and-corps/the-british-infantry-regiments-of-1914-1918/royal-irish-regiment/ https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/the-battle-of-le-pilly-1.1962035 https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/1560105/TIMOTHY%20O'LEARY/ https://astreetnearyou.org/person/1560105/Private-Timothy-O'leary

The last game of the covid-19 affected Premier League season. As expected Watford were fighting for their lives..Although no one would have guessed they'd wait until 3-0 down. From coasting Arsenal found themselves lucky to come out winners. Emi Martinez once again making enough saves to ensure an Arsenal victory 3-2. Aubameyang missed out on the Golden Boot by one goal. We finished 8th in the table. The lowest since 1994/5.  Our last game next Saturday. The FA Cup final at Wembley against Chelsea.

If only.... If it wasn't for Covid-19 we would be in France and for our first night on the holiday I had booked us into a Kyriad hotel in Nuits St Georges.  As we are in the car we could easily knock off some higher mileages and with the Emovis tag in the window, we can easily go through the tolls without any hassles. I chose a chain hotel for the first night as we would be on the road a long time and a hotel that was easy to find, and has a restaurant onsite would be most welcome. May well have used the pool!! But of course.  We are still very much up to our necks in the Covid-19 pandemic and so we had to cancel the whole shooting match!

As a historic vehicle there's no need to tax the bike and it is MoT exempt. It does have to be in roadworthy condition.  However, everyone needs insurance.  Currently it has theft cover as a non-runner. There's no need currently with it not able to be ridden on the road to have any third party liability. So with it soon to be back on the road, it needs on-road insurance. Firstly I did the Meerkat shuffle. Comparethemarket.com , and got a quote for £68 fully comp from the RAC. I prefer not to pay any excess as all companies enforce some on you.  Then to Footman-James classic insurance - £142 fully comp. GULP!! Both with a 3000 mile limit per year. I might tweak the Meerkat offer and see what the increased mileage is before the price goes up I then did the Go Compare   comparison site and came up with this one. Includes breakdown and legal. Tempting?

I have a date to get the bike up to Phil.  AUGUST 6TH . I now need to chase the trailer guy to make sure I can have it later on the 5th to get it home ready to load the bike and get on the road early on the 6th. The satnav reckons about 3.5 hours in total each way. A long day in the car. Hopefully my brother will be able to come with me. I have given him the date. He has commitments on other days in the week.

Definitely at the top of the list when thinking about the cycle parts. Front brakes especially. Not the best even when new or rebuilt. They had new seals and pistons back in the heady old days of the late 90's before the Wasserbüffel Club trip in 1999. Even then on some of the downhills in the Alps and Dolomites it seemed simply putting my feet down would have been as good. So with all that in mind I have new caliper rebuild kits on order. These include the o-rings and gaiters for the bolts, as well as seals and pistons.  I already have pads in stock and a master cylinder rebuild kit was ordered from GT Reiner long ago.

The current tyres are made by Cheng-Shin. They are definitely budget tyres. They went on as I needed a new set before a trip and the shop only had these in the right sizes. The Kettle's wheels are in inches and a lot of modern tyres are metric sizes. The Cheng-Shins are sized in inches. After a decade or more they showed little or no wear. At the moment, to the touch,  they are still very "hard".  Whether this is due to the materials and construction I have no idea. But it is very spooky that they haven't gone flat.  Maybe inside the inner tubes have perished and the nylon outer is simply holding the bike up! I am sure that once it comes back that it will be time to replace them. There are a few choices and I have been looking online for advice and information. The fitment is in inches. Front of 3.25-19 and rear, 4.00-18. Let's see what prices we can get on different makes. Some links: https://www.tyres-pneus-online.co.uk/motorcycle-tyre-find-by-motorcycle/suzuki/...

I have been asked this several times. Why? One reason is that I bought the bike in May 1984 and I want to get it running again.  Whilst it is a non-runner it is worth a bit in parts but not really that much.  As a runner with a newly rebuilt engine, especially, a new crank, it is worth way more.  As a 64yo rider I have maybe ten more years riding and less as a touring motorcyclist. So keeping one bike for less riding seems a good idea. I currently have the Rocket III as my main bike. But with a contracting scope for riding, it would make sense to keep the classic bike and let the modern bike go. To do that. I need the GT to be running. Reliable runner at that. One where I can go out to the garage and pull the bike out, switch on, press the button and to go anywhere I want, when I want. This is why this project got off the ground. If the bike looks okay. Then that's a plus.

My combined walking/cycling target for July has been achieved with a week to go. I set the target of 100 miles.

Low priority at the moment. Given that a newly rebuilt Kettle will eventually become "Old Paul's" main bike at some stage in the future, I might need luggage. I still have the Swagman panniers I used in the 90's. They have done sterling service over the years. I bought them before a holiday trip in the late 80's and they went with me to Czech in 1992.  Here they are in 2001 carrying our stuff for the weekend to Ostend for the St Nick's Rally. In the garage is also a set of Craven Comet panniers. They used to be fitted to my GS1000G back in 1981.  These have QD fittings so that they could be removed when not needed. It's a bit cumbersome and used dzus  fasteners and a lock to secure them. Craven are being made again for classic bikes and even for modern Triumph twins. Maybe I might move in that direction.  Whether the "new" Craven makers could make a rack and mount for a GT? And maybe replicate the pannier rail and QD plate? Is a question fo...

This weekend should be the game where the Arsenal confirm their Top Six position and a place in next season's Europa League. But. It ain't gonna happen. Too many shit performances epitomised by defeats away at Brighton and Aston Villa mean that at best this season to finish 8th will be all we can acheive. This is the worst finish to a Premier League season since 1994/95, when we finished 12th. Watford will be fighting for their Premier League status. Thanks to us losing at Villa in midweek and their inability to win games they dropped into the Bottom Three aka The Drop Zone. The ideal storm for us to fuck up and finish 10th.

Today was planned to be a rest day. E g. A day where nothing much gets done. No trips planned. In the end Claire had her first post-lockdown hairdresser's appointment and so I drove her into town.  We parked in Waitrose about 1.30pm and I took Reggie "Two Toms" Snoop-Dogg for a walk. The plan was to go along the canal, across the golf course, and get a relaxed coffee on the seafront. Almost achieved. No coffee cart there.  No Rio's ice-cream either!  So we walked back to the car and drove home via Aldi. I bought a couple of 55p iced coffee drinks and some stuff for lunch. Superb the coffees are too.  So today's walk not so long. It's always slow going with a dog that seemingly likes to sniff every leaf and blade of grass and then pee on 50% of it... 

Once I get the bike out of the garage I can give it a good going over to see the state of the chromed parts. A Kettle has a lot of those from both mudguards, to the exhausts, headlamp bowl and smaller items like the clock bases and the airbox side panels.  I can see that I am going to be overwhelmed with Autosol jobs.  Mine also has a Rickman rack fitted, and that's chrome as well. Onto this is the Givi mount to fit the Givi E45 box. The Givi box is the only one left from a set of two E45 and two E45 boxes. My former partner had one of the big boxes and both the small ones on her XJ900F. I kept one. It has been used extensively on all my bikes since the mid 90's. Rubbing my hands over it reveals some rust but hopefully this will clean up from the surface with elbow grease and metal polish.  I already have the speedo and rev counter bases rechromed and never fitted. I was lucky to get a load of parts for next to nothing a few years ago and have them to fall back on. Also i...

Today we pre-booked to go to Bodiam Castle. It's a National Trust site just across the county border in East Sussex. As it is dog friendly, Reggie came with us. Once parked we had a walk around the grounds and a coffee and NT shortbread biscuit.  Reggie was well behaved apart from chasing one of the ducks that came too close. We mapped the walk. No walking on water today ... Where to tomorrow?

Day 1 Today we decided to leave Reggie at home and go to enjoy a dog-free morning in Folkestone. Ostensibly to visit Dockers Baker y to buy some bread. Dockers is what I think current speech is an artisan baker. With the loaves safely in the car we had a walk along the Harbour Arm. There wasn't much open and once we passed the bars and food outlets we turned around. It was good to see that the Triennial Seagull is back on display and restored back to its original condition. It made its appearance as a visitor information centre back in Triennial 1. We stopped for a coffee at the Harbour Coffee Co . Socially distanced of course.  Plenty of seating with views out to sea. In a day like today France was very visible. With a lunch baguette we needed something to put on it. We decided on seafood. This meant crossing to the other side of the harbour.  From the Google map of the walk it looks as though we walked on water.  In fact we went across the old railway v...

Once the motor is fixed it will need some electric power to get it to start. The current Motobatt although looking nice and clean is about six or seven years old and totally flat. So whilst I am assembling parts to add to the box I might as well get a new battery and fit it. Another Motobatt? Why not. I have one in the Rocket and had one in the 1150GS. Never a complaint when you need to crank over a big engine. The bike is also fitted with a Lucas RITA ignition from way back in the 80's. It works well and as it doesn't have contact breakers it doesn't need adjusting. Hopefully Phil will be happy to fit it back in to the fixed engine.

Who would have thought on an afternoon ride I would get to lean the Rocket over further than Mark Marquez, the MotoGP World Champion does week in week out, lap after lap!!! Yep. Truly unbelievable. And of course bollocks.  The Yamaha My Ride app was running and in the same pocket as every other time. How it got my usual 20° or thereabouts totally wrong,  I have no idea. Anyway, today up through Hythe, Sene Valley up to Alkham Valley to Whitfield. Fuelled up at Tesco and then down the A2 to the Duke of Yorks, down past Dover Castle and back home up the A20 and then off to the Battle of Britain Memorial but it was closed so I went past without stopping. Down through Folkestone and the coast home. No photos today. Only My Ride. And that's it for today.

1. Check on getting a trailer. 2. Check with Phil when he can accept it. 3. Get Kettle out of garage for cleaning. 4. Check when my brother can come with me as shotgun. 5. Locate barrels and matched pistons in crate in garage  6. Gather all the bits together. And then we might be ready to rock and roll. The sooner it goes away the sooner it comes back I expect. Once it's out in the open air I can see what needs doing paintwise and get it cleaned up. The front wheel looks like the spokes are rusty so another job that will need doing. Maybe? The tyres feel very hard. Whether this is simply air or they are rock solid Cheng-Shin rubber/nylon. I don't expect to ride the bike back and so tyres can be sorted later on.

Went inside for a wedding on Friday. There's a lot of wood panelling and names of mayors etc going back about 400 years 

Another month has passed.  Another month with no refund from TravelUp. What we have had is slightly different bullshit email. Instead of telling us how hard they are working, as they usually do. They have now a bright idea where we can write to our MP to get the Government involved. Looks like we are no nearer getting out money back. It's only £332!. 

After losing to the same team twice, 3-0 on both occasions earlier in the season, and gathering a history of losing to them, another game wasn't at the top of the list of winnable games. After last weekend's defensive errors that let (hated and rightly so) neighbours Spurs beat us to go to what must be an unassailable lead above us to ensure that they finish the season above us again, and then the amazing turn around against Liverpool to win 2-1 from 1-0 down, it was still not encouraging to be playing Manchester City. City fresh from their win against UEFA in the fair play trials so their Champions League ban was overturned,. As expected the early skirmishes were all City. Probing and trying to get their passing game together.  Arteta the Arsenal manager formerly the apprentice to Guardiola at City, setting his tactivs to get a foothold in the game, and try and stay tight at the back.  Amazingly the centre back pairing of Mustafi and Luiz managed to keep th...

William Devall. 7th Battalion Kings Shropshire Light Infantry. Wounded in the assault on Bazentin Ridge on July 14th 1916. Died of his wounds on the 16th.

Amazing. No one could have expected Arsenal to beaght the new Premier League Champions. Especially after they took the lead. Then two personnel errors let Arsenal equalise and then take the leased. Two games left. All in our own to win bouth.

During a meeting with MAG Northern Ireland on 2nd July 2020, the Northern Ireland Department for Infrastructure accepted that wire rope crash barriers, whilst effective for larger vehicles, pose a hazard to motorcyclists' safety. This is welcomed by the Motorcycle Action Group. Motorcycle Action Group UK’s Northern Ireland Representative, Martyn Boyd, and MAG UK Director, Ian Churchlow, recently had a positive meeting with NI's Dept. for Infrastructure (DfI) officials. The meeting was held specifically to discuss MAG’s concerns about the continued use of wire rope style crash barriers on the trunk road network across the province. The meeting with infrastructure procurement and roads engineering officials Stephen Bradshaw and Stephen Hughes was positive, enlightening for both sides and very helpfully facilitated by Kellie Armstrong, Chief Whip of the Alliance Party, and Rachael Woods of the Green Party of Northern Ireland and Chair of the All Party Group on Climate Cha...

I have so many different ones and so this one won't get bought.

Motorcycle theft data accuracy is questionable, according to MAG.  The Motorcycle Action Group has pointed to serious concerns with the accuracy and consistency of motorcycle theft data.  The data was received via Freedom of Information applications to the UK’s 45 territorial police forces. The annual report looks at motorcycle theft for the year 2019.  MAG compiled responses to Freedom of Information requests from all but six UK police forces.  The report ranks the theft issue in terms of thefts per thousand registered motorcycles in each area. MAG uses FOI data combined with the published numbers of registered motorcycles in each force area. The results: London ranks last.  The Metropolitan and City of London forces are further behind solving the bike theft issue than any other police force.   Not only that, but the gap is getting bigger.   The theft rate for London is almost twice that for the next worst police force area. ...