¡InvictaMoto!

As the project moves along it would be nice to see a bit more traffic for the blog.  It's updated as soon as something happens in the build. Today the engine has been finished and is almost ready to be slung back into the frame. If you have a moment or two, click on the link and see where we are now. https://projectkettlerenaissance.blogspot.com/

The air filter looks to have been at the foot of a river embedded in muck.  New one on order. Just the foam part.  Whilst I was on ebay (and hopefully  getting cash  back from Topcashback UK) I ordered a pair of the decals for each side of the engine.

The engine is almost completed now.  Isn't that a sight for sore eyes!  

Here we are again watching Oldham away at Bradford City. A fortnight again latics won with relative ease in the EFL Trophy, but today is a different kettle of fish.  This game means something.  A chance to win and get through to the third round when the Premier League and Championship clubs are in the draw. A chance to earn some big gate money at one of the giants of English football. More later when the game is done. 10 mins - Bradford penalty. 1-0 18 mins - Oldham equaliser.  McAleny from 25 yards, top corner. 1-1 Half-Time 1-1. Oldham have hit the bar with a header from McAleny and the keeper make a few saves to keep Bradford in it. 47 mins - Oldham ahead through Rowe, 25 yards top corner. 1-2 Full-Time 1-2.

Maybe getting a little ahead of myself but with the engine almost ready to go back in the frame and the carbs done a few weeks ago, we need to be thinking about tyres. The wheels have been cleaned, chromed and fitted with new stainless spokes.  So now we need tyres, inner tubes and rim tape. I had looked at either Bridgestone BT45 or the Metzeler equivalent.   In the past I had Continental tyres fitted and they didn't inspire any confidence when the road was a little wet.  They are supposed to be great all rounders but I found them a little prone to follow cracks in the road and any over banding proved slippery when wet. Phil suggested BT46 as the BT45 has been replaced for the 2020 riding season.  I had a look to see if anyone had them in stock still, as it might have saved me a few bob. In the end  I couldn't get both front and rear.  Oddly, the BT45 rear was more expensive than the newer variant. So we have opted for th...

I couldn't resist. I have nowhere to stitch or iron-on it to but it I am sure it will go on a sweatshirt or hoodie to wear when out on the Kettle.

This one I won't be watching on iFollow tonight.  Maybe as it is Barrow's first match against Oldham n the Football League after 48 years!  They were relegated from the League so long ago it must be hard for Latics fans to remember the last time they met in the League. But at £10 a time I can't afford to watch every game.  Hopefully, Latics will win and move up the table. Fingers crossed.

After twenty years Suzuki have finally won the championship on the premier class of motorcycle racing with Joan Mir taking the number one plate. Joan Mir - 2020 World Champion It seems so long ago when Kenny Roberts Jr won whilst we were still in the two-stroke era. Kenny Roberts Jr - 2000 World Champion Those of us that are primarily  Suzuki owners and riders have waited so long for this day! Congratulations Joan. https://bikes.suzuki.co.uk/news/joan-mir-blog-what-its-like-to-be-world-champion/

Dr Phil has started the rebuild. Pistons and rings on order. Accent electronic ignition. With Accent electronic ignition in place

It's 2.45pm and I have just got back from walking the dog. Shall I watch on iFollow or not? It takes that long for the Dell Inspiron 17 3000 to boot up and Chrome to stop "Not Responding" I might well give up. It's now 2.55pm and I have paid and the screen shows the ground at Exeter.  Unlike some "supporters" I will buy iFollow from.Oldham not from Exeter. Some of these people are twats. 11 mins. Exeter score. Good save from Lawlor. Free shot to score. 1-0 21 mins. Blackwood equalises with crisp shot after Keillor Dunne dummy. 1-1 32 mins. Rowe free kick into top left corner from 35 yards. 1-2 Half-time 1-2. latics lead with two superb goals. So in the second half Latics have have to stand up and fight for the win. Will they do it? Back to the wall stuff for most of the half. We have had two good chances to extend the lead but didn't.   PHEW!!

This is the first time I went on my own for a couple of years.   Previously my ex-wife had come with me on trip son the bike to the likes of Assen and the Isle of Man for the TT. Unfortunately, by this time we had separated and so it was solo Paul on this trip. This would have been on the GS1000G I think. On the way up I was tailed for miles by a couple on a Yamaha of some kind, I think an XS750. They had bought the bike with Krauser luggage fitted and the pannier lids were covered in plastic sheet so their stickers could be saved. After all these years I can't remember their names. We had lunch together and in the end stayed together for the weekend. In those days we'd camp in one of the fields around the circuit.  The farmers cleared the fields of livestock, usually cattle, and we'd erect tents around the cow pats!  To get there meant the ride of death as the people that had arrived first lined the access roads and filled with copious amounts of be...

A couple of days ago I saw a post from the organisers on Facebook, and I replied to agree that with the pandemic, and the England lockdown starting on November 5th, that a mass run on the 8th would be counter productive and possibly illegal.  I lamented that unlike the Ride to the Wall organisation that the RoR hadn't made wristbands this year with the 2020 struck through like 2020 . They replied to say watch this space. Today they announced patches available via PayPal which suits me. Another £5 gone to charity today! https ://www.paypal.com/instantcommerce/checkout/7LQ56FZPS8KKJ

 https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/get-involved/bobby-moore-fund/football-shirt-friday Charity donations coming in fast and furious at this time of year. This is one I have tried to get going at work before to raise money.  But sadly, it has been deemed not appropriate for the workplace. Where I work there are few members of the public, and I am sure that most that would have seen us would have been happy that we were doing something for CHARITY! After all, our site is a school used for educating adults and fellow LA workers. In the end it was just a few of us.

Wow! Rather them than me. Now I know why I am a tarmac rider. I hate gravel. Even when I was a GS and Explorer owner/rider I tried to avoid it wherever I went. Especially when two-up and coming across it round a bend!!! On this episode both of them have taken a tumble and the Rivian rolled back with no parking brake.   On top of that the altitude is causing problems. Taylor on the support team suffering and then by the end of the episode Ewan McGregor starting to go down.

I know. I bet you didn't have a clue it was happening today did you? I didn't until I saw it was publicised on Twitter. And why would you? It's not that important. Who cares anything about men's health problems? The number of men that commit suicide every year? No one gives a fuck.  Right? Except some of us do.  https://ukmensday.org.uk/ I forgot about it as this year I decided not to do Movember .  I already have a beard and a mustache and decided that rather than shave them off I'd look for some random (non celebrity) guy or team and donate to his fund raising.  I have done Movember since 2012 with a year off for Decembeard and have raised a few £'s for the charity.  This time my money goes elsewhere. So  https://uk.movember.com/donate/details?teamId=2385488  got my money for 2020. Raising awareness of men's health and mental health is the responsibility of all men. Not just those guys that have fallen foul of ca...

Watching Episode3 -  Some scenery and banter. But too much hassle with the bikes and the range and difficulty charging the buggers. Episode 4 was better with more riding and getting charged. Choosing to do this trip with electric was always going to be a challenge  especially in remoter areas, but it does take over the programme a lot. I have thoroughly enjoyed every episode so far.  No doubt Mr Armchair_adventurer would have preferred it was done on a low budget with no support, and filmed on a ten year old Sony camcorder, but that's not what this is all about.

MAG receives confirmation that motorcycles are ‘not in scope’ for 2030 end of sale of petrol and diesel vehicles. The Government has announced that The UK will end the sale of petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030.  The Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) has received confirmation from the Department for Transport (DfT) that the sale of petrol motorcycles is not in scope of today’s announcement. The Government today (18th November 2020) formally announced a Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution.   Included in the plan is the announcement that the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans in the UK will end by 2030. This is ten years earlier than planned. The position on motorcycles is not mentioned in the announcement.  MAG therefore contacted the DfT for clarification.  We received confirmation that motorcycles are not in scope of today’s announcement regarding the ending of sale of petrol and diesel cars and vans. Th...

What good news!  I renewed mine last year but Claire's is tomorrow. Taken from  https://www.gov.uk/renew-driving-licence "If your licence expires between 1 February and 31 December 2020 Your driving licence or entitlement to drive in the UK will be automatically extended for 11 months. This is because of coronavirus (COVID-19). The extension will start from the date your licence is due to expire. You will not get a new licence as part of the automatic extension. You'll only get a new licence when you renew it. You can renew your licence online at any time before the extension ends." Be careful to only use the link above. Google are happy to put rip-off artists above the government pages on their search and no doubt get paid. To renew online on the official page is £14.  Some of these arsehole scum companies charge £60 upwards.

What a pity you can't setup labels in the way that you can setup "blog Archive" to save space on the sidebar? Making it into a drop down menu so that visitors could look see would be better than a long string or cloud of labels!

Way back about five or six years ago I bought an action cam.  It was a cheap Chinese copy of a far more expensive piece of kit.  It was a pain to set up as it had a small screen on the back.  In the end I used the Ram mount that the gps goes on and all was well. Except the movies taken with it were really boring. There was no way to turn off the sound so all the "action" was accompanied by the rush of the wind.  Plus they were boring in any case. So it was put away in a drawer and to this day that version has never seen the light of day.  I might drop it off at the charity shop. Someone might want a small camera the size of a large box of matches. Some years later enter Denver AC5000W. Another cheap and cheerful version of the same basic camera design.  This one though has bluetooth so can connect to an app on a smart phone. Easier to setup but the results were just as boring and the rush of the wind was just the same. Social media is full of these vids and...

One of the side effects of the UK deciding to leave the EU, the so called "Brexit", means that one of the many hassles is that our UK driving licences won't be accepted to drive in the remaining 27 EU countries. Oddly, my UK driving licence is accepted in the US, a country some 3000 miles away from Europe.  On all my trips to the US, to NY, Arizona and Florida, my photo card licence has been accepted at all the different hire car reservations desks.  But to drive/ride in the EU from January 1st 2020 we had to purchase an International Driving Permit. And so I did. As someone that voted "remain" in the referendum on the UK remaining or leaving the EU back in 2016, even I think that this is another example of the pettiness of the EU.  The EU licence directives have been enshrined in UK law. We also have the one of the lowest casualty rates for roads in Europe. So the penalty can't be that we are bad drivers and so putting a barrier to our drivers isn't jus...

This is taken directly from the TfL website:  https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/ultra-low-emission-zone . I'll enjoy dipping in and out with my 1977 two-stroke GT750A... A historic vehicle!!!! 😉 Historic vehicles You can apply to stop paying vehicle tax if your vehicle was built more than 40 years ago. This date moves forward on a 40-year rolling system. For example, when the ULEZ launched in April 2019, vehicles built before 1979 were eligible to apply for historic vehicle tax class. All vehicles that have a historic vehicle tax class will be exempt from the ULEZ. This tax class excludes any vehicle used commercially (for example, coffee vans or street food vans). In line with the existing LEZ discount all vehicles constructed before 1 January 1973 will be exempt from the ULEZ, regardless of commercial use or otherwise. If your vehicle meets the above criteria but is registered outside the UK, you are also exempt, but will need to register with us before travelling in the zone.

Maybe it was misplaced optimism  that after a good showing away at Bradford City in the Papa John's EFL Trophy in the week, that we have improved enough to beat Scunthorpe at home. It was misplaced. Despite some encouraging signs early on, the game was pretty scrappy. Scunthorpe hadn't won on the road since January. Whether it was a coincidence but that was also at Boundary Park! Scunny's first following what was a definite offside. The ball played forward, their player offside but a corner was given after a last ditch tackle from Hamer. It wasn't cleared and their centre back, Bedeau, was first to react to score. From then on it was Oldham chasing the game and the inevitable break saw the offside player from the first goal, Van Veen,  score with a shot from way outside the box.   Another loss and the euphoria bubble from midweek burst!

Changing the name of the blog to reflect less motorcycling and more sport (football/soccer) and biker related political stuff (MAG) didn't generate much interest or debate.  So we are going back to "On the Road Again". When planning a trip for the bike or the car, I have been seduced since I bought my first Garmin Quest satellite navigation system (or GPS) to using the internet to create and upload routes.  But there is something about a paper map that I don't think can be beaten.  Maybe I am strange but I do love the feel of a paper map, Michelin especially.  Simply taking it out of the bag fresh from the shop. Looking at it. Feeling it. Then opening it to look at the places it is showing.  The colours of the roads and in Michelin's case, looking for the green lined roads. The roads that are scenic rather than just transport. My latest Michelin map is "519 Burgundy". The orange cover, never opened since it left the printers.  Heaven. Why "519 Burgu...

Finally arrived. Less the £75 cancellation fee. If it had been me cancelling because I didn't want to go, all very fair. But it's a ripoff when it was forced and the airline cancelled on me. Travel-Up have seen the last of my money.

The Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) has published new analysis of  vulnerable road user (VRU) casualties.  The report opens the way for a  fresh perspective on VRU road safety. Motorcyclists, pedal cyclists, horse riders or handlers and pedestrians are defined as vulnerable road users. This is because they are not protected by a vehicle body.  They can also be harder for other drivers to see on the road. MAG starts from the premise that motorcyclists - like all other road users - do not set out to cause injury, nor to be injured.  Collisions happen when errors are made.  Reducing errors and opportunity for errors will reduce casualties.  The work carried out by MAG looks at trends in the statistics over the five years 2015 – 2019. Colin Brown, the report author, said: “MAG is keen to look at whether the safety of VRUs is improving or getting worse. This analysis looks at regional and local authority levels and...

The Coalition of Motorcycling Organisations (COMO) has examined  legislation and guidance for the new lockdown in England.  If you are  not required to self-isolate, the rules do permit riding alone or with  one other individual. You are still subject to the social distancing  rules and other measures. Many riders have been asking whether riding alone is allowed under the  new lockdown rules.  Government has clearly stated that riding as  essential travel is allowed.  We looked into rules on riding for leisure  and mental well-being which are not so clear. We have studied both the legislation and the guidance and have concluded  that the rules do permit riding for pleasure, alone or with a mate. You can ride for recreation on public roads so long as you are: •       on your own •       with one person from another household, or •       with the people you live with (your ho...

It's over! In the end the combined October and November (to the 10th) mileage recorded on my phone by Huawei Health was 140.7 miles. In total I raised £85. Not a huge sum but more than I would have donated by simply buying some poppies. Thanks to everyone that donated and hopefully, there is time for some of you other readers to login to my page and donate. As I have said before the minimum donation is £2 and by unticking a box later on you can avoid the JustGiving payment too. The £2 is only about US $2.60 or €2.22. All the updates and the donation page are here:  https://mypoppyrun.britishlegion.org.uk/fundraising/MyPoppyRun2020-PaulDevall Thanks everyone.

I checked my email about 7pm and saw I had won a free iFollow ticket courtesy of EFL Trophy sponsors Papa John's. I hadn't intended watching the game but never turn down a free offer! I am glad I did. Although my first team I ever supported when I was 4yo and before my brother was born - I have a long distance love affair. For the best part of 30 years I have been going to away games in the South and East of England.  Although in a previous relationship I went to games in Oldham when staying in Congleton in Cheshire.  On one occasion as I no longer have the Oldham accent I used to have as a kid,  I wasn't allowed to buy a ticket for the home end and had to go in as visitor. The away team that day was Wimbledon FC. Anyway, I digress. A superb game. Both sides had played in the FA Cup at the weekend. Bradford had beaten non-league Tonbridge Angels 7-0. Latics had made heavy weather of the game at Hampton and Richmond Borough finally winning 3-2. In two weeks they will meet ...

Okay as previously posted I have set this as a target for next year. The Rally/Treffen is at the end of the school half-term weekend in London. The rally entry price includes camping.  I have not camped for many years and a brief look at tents on Amazon and eBay shows that a small one/two person tent could be had for about £30 to £35.  And one that is as easy (!) to put up as an umbrella. But, with my various medical conditions I am afraid camping is not for me.  So I had a look around on booking.com for somewhere like a B&B or hotel within easy reach of the rally site. There is a rally ticket price that includes all the events but not camping and the rider has to book their own hotel. According to Google maps there is a hotel on the same road as the rally site and is 350 metres away.  So I booked it with the free cancellation option. Het Spijkerhuys is going to cost about €70 a night with no breakfast.  I don't have to pay until 17th May and I have free can...

With "My Poppy Run" challenge  coming to an end this evening at midnight, I decided  that despite being off work sick, I needed to get some fresh  air.   We are very lucky that across the road from where we live is the Royal Military Canal .  It was built back in the Napoleonic  Era. We live on what is the south side of the canal towards the sea.  As our houses have only been here since about 1999 they were built  almost 200 years after the canal.   For the millennium the old brick built bridge was removed and a newer one put a little nearer our road.  It makes it easier to cross for walkers and cyclists. It is the only bridge between West Hythe to the west and Hythe in the east.   On the ridge, called The Roughs, overlooking the canal is the Hythe Sound Mirror . There used to be two and one fell down as the ground shifted under it.  My first photograph shows it located near the top of the ridge. Just to the...