InvictaMoto's On The Road Again!

A week off work and I did 0 miles. On the bike anyway. Why? Rain. Simple as that. Rain. Lots of it. Flooding in parts of the country.  https://www.timesandstar.co.uk/news/19679625.hands-deck-floods-hit-cockermouth/ We got soaked to the skin when we drove to Sheffield Park Garden on Monday. It never really looked like improving. Today's "Meldrews' 5th Sunday" also fell to rain and high winds. The Met Office and Environment Agency both had "yellow weather" warnings in this area. So no more miles to add to my score for Kilometerfresser!! I set the odometer to Kms to take the photo. I'll have to check what I posted at the end of September and see what I achieved - a mere 127 kms!!! I doubt that November will be any better unless we have some mild and dry days.  Currently I plan to ride on the Ring of Red on the 14th November and that's about it. Up to Thurrock and then round the M25 to maybe Cobham Services.  All in all about 150 miles I thi...

 

The email confirming the amount raised by us walkers was too difficult to format into the blog. So instead I have found the online version and here it is: https://helpforheroesonline.org.uk/1DW2-7HJLL-1DC353D25F62C0CC72DFI93549386881FAA708/cr.aspx

Arrived way too early in London. Doors didn't open until 1830. So I had a coffee using up my syns and the free coffee reward at Costa. I arrived, went through the bag check. The Palladium supposedly a mask wearing site unless eating or drinking. Looks like I was Billy No-Mates as only one with a mask!! My ticket from See had no seat number so I had to go to the box office. The guy gave me an upgrade from the Grand Circle (cheapest seats) to right in the centre of the stalls. Superb view!!! Upgraded view but..... Sadly the empty rows in front remained empty for the two knobends that sat right in front of me!! The support, Ebb, were okay. They seemed to have a decent lead singer/🎸, keyboard and drummer, all female, and an old beardy male bass player.  The other two seemed superfluous!! I never get on with bands where they jig about after two minutes as if they have been jammin' for an hour. Plus all that ridiculous hand "dancing" from the 60's hippy era. Great at W...

Roger Moore. Never bettered in this role from the 1960's. If only they had written his Bond to be like this character. Reruns are being shown on ITV4 channel available on satellite and Freeview.

The Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) asks if new Minister, Trudy Harrison, is a sign of a bright future for riders.  Is her appointment a signal that attitudes towards motorcycling are changing at the  Department for Transport (DfT)?  At a Westminster Hall debate the new minister praised MAG for its lobbying work. Trudy Harrison, MP for Copeland since 2017, has been appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the DfT as part of the September cabinet reshuffle.  Her primary responsibility is decarbonisation of transport.  MAG believes that her appointment signifies a DfT change in attitudes to motorcycling as Trudy is a motorcyclist herself.   In a Westminster Hall debate held on 26th October, Trudy mentioned her delight when her father gave her her first motorcycle at age 16.  She commented: “Dad took me to the garage and unveiled my first motorbike, as I thought, though it was probably a moped—a 50 cc bright blue Honda Camino. I have since had ma...

We can report good news, but the campaign is far from over. Reaction and responses already sent in response to the DfT’s Anti-tampering proposals have undeniably had an impact. Director of Campaigns and Political Engagement, Colin Brown met with DfT officials, along with Craig Carey Clinch (NMC) and Anna Zee (BMF) on 27th October.  It was clear from comments made by the officials that they realise that there is an enormous strength of feeling on this issue. It is certainly not one on which they will be able to push their luck. As expected officials were keen to point out that the intended scope of their proposals is very narrow and that they recognised that there were many unintended consequences that could potentially follow if the voice of riders is not closely considered. The stated aim is to avoid tampering of vehicles in a way that makes them less safe or increases their emissions footprint.  There is also a focus on autonomous vehicles and vulnerabilities to cyber-attack...

The Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) met National Highways Lower Thames Crossing (LTC) leads on 5th October.  MAG now confirms free motorcycle river crossings on the new LTC.  Also access will be possible for riders of 50cc and above bikes on ‘L’ plates. MAG representatives secured the meeting following conflicting comments about access and charges for the Lower Thames Crossing project. Confirmation of the exemption from all charges was confirmed in the meeting which took place on 5th October.   Despite confusion raised in earlier responses to enquiries, the officers were able to say that charges would exactly match those of the Dartford Crossing.  This makes motorcyclists exempt from charges. MAG later received written confirmation from LTC that motorcycle access would allow riders on ‘L’ plates.  Officers at the meeting did need to check the detail before making the below written statement: We are pleased to confirm that motorcyclists on ‘L’ plates, having c...

Want a smart watch but don't want to pay hundreds of pounds for something that will be attractive to street robbers? Then buy a cheap Chinese one from eBay or Amazon. I just have.  Copying Claire! She bought one earlier in the week. Under £25 and it does everything that we want. It tells the time and measures steps and activity. And it looks good. It was a bit of a pig to set up on her OnePlus 5T, but then again everything is.  After some googling we got it working. I ordered one too. It arrived yesterday whilst we were out walking the dog. Setting up on my Honor 9 Lite was child's play.   Blurry pic!! It syncs easily enough and looks quite good. I like hands on my watches and so changed the face from the many free options available. The accompanying app need Android v5 or iOS 9 or above to work. It's easy to download from App Store or Play Store. Time will tell how good it is.

Took the D50 to Sheffield Park Gardens to see how it performed with the autumn colours. Even in the pouring rain it did okay! Today I shot a few in the back garden. Not too shabby!

We set off about 1030 and decided to take the route that the Nissan Navigator chose for us via the motorways and the A22. A pee stop at Clacket Lane for Reggie and so we arrived about 1215.  It was sunny.  Remember that! Once out of the car we headed in to visit the loo ourselves before a coffee and a sit down before setting off around the gardens. All areas are dog friendly and they even have indoor seating in one of the tea rooms where dogs are allowed.  Something that other NT places maybe need to think about? Once we had drunk up we set off to find the autumn colours.  There are plenty.  I took a few photos with the Nikon D50 today. They seem to have come out pretty well. Then the clouds came over and it started to rain!  A drizzle turned into a deluge!  As can be seen on the surface of the lake in the picture below! The rain battering down on the lake! There was even a rainbow at one point! Doubt there's a pot of gold to be found! Once we were sui...

I picked up the Shad panniers last night from the seller at his hotel in Dover. It saved me a long trip to pick them up from him in Hampshire. Luckily he was here locally to go to the "Lord of Lydden" motorcycle racing at Lydden. He  said they have been used once. To be honest they do look new.   They will need the 3P fitting rails and kit. I will have to get that ordered. There is no great hurry as I am unlikely to go anywhere where I will need any extra carrying capacity over the 58 litre Suzuki monokey topbox. I was worried that they might be too wide or look awful on the bike. I had a look on the US V-Strom Forum and found a post on fitting them to an L8 1000. They look to fit closely to the bike. I didn't want them too wide or look like they had a huge gap between the bike and the mount. These look okay to me. I'll not be able to know for real until they are fitted. I suppose I had better get googling for the best deal on the 3P system. Update 4.12pm ...

It's school half-term and I am on holiday.  So we are looking for places to go. Sheffield Park Gardens is a National Trust Estate and is dog friendly. Their busiest period is in the autumn (fall) when the trees are turning and so they have a pre-booking scheme in place.  I have booked for Monday 25th at 1230-1300. This gives us time to decide which route to take to get there and of course, make the 1h40m drive over there. More to follow. Waterproofs and dog towels?

Why not? It's somewhere around 46 years since I last saw Hawkwind. That was at the Civic Hall in Guildford, Surrey. It was before I got married the first time and I went with my then fiancée! 1975 I would think. So with us all getting old I thought why not? I'll be flying solo as Claire not all that enthused and would only go to keep me company. I logged into a few of the ticket seller site, and there seems to be more every day, and found tickets for sale.  With just a week to go I had expected that we would be in the modern world and have e-tickets, but it looks as though I have to wait for a paper ticket in the post. Fingers crossed that they can get one to me! E-ticketing seems to be the easiest way to go about this. I'm sure that most of us now have a smartphone we use everyday and so the paper ticket really needs to be the tick box "yes please" option. Getting there.  Easy enough. High Speed train to London St Pancras and Victoria Line to Oxford Circus and a ...

The charger and the new batteries arrived yesterday. Once I had worked out which way around the batteries fit into it, charging began. It took about two hours with the new batteries and I tried them in the camera. Both came up showing 107 minutes shooting time.  I have the Sony batteries on charge now and see how they do.   With new battery it had gone from 107 to 105 minutes whilst switched off....

Seven weeks of attending fat club at "Slimming Word" in Hythe and I have lost a stone.  That's probably an Olde English measure of weight going back many hundreds of years.  It is the same as 14lbs. It's not as easy as celebs would have you believe. No operations, no stomach bands and no personal trainers required. An average of 2lbs a week. In reality we shouldn't need to have things like Slimming World, but there it is. Something to help eat less junk and be better and healthier. I don't think I have eaten so much veg and salad stuff for years.  

The Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) is delighted to see a progressive  policy for motorcycling in Oxfordshire’s new draft transport plans.  The  transport plan's proposals arise from effective MAG campaign work.  The  Council proposes a transport user hierarchy that places motorcycles  above other motorised modes. The draft was signed off in a cabinet  meeting on 19th October.  The plan will now go out for consultation in  November. Campaigners view the draft Local Transport and Connectivity Plan (LTCP5)  as a significant change in tone by the Council.  In November 2019, MAG’s  Director of Campaigns & Political Engagement, Colin Brown, supported  local councillor John Broad in a meeting with County and City Council  Cabinet  members.  They made the case for motorcycling as a sustainable  transport mode. The campaign attracted publicity when Council papers were published in  early 2020 suggesting ...

I bought one of these some years ago. It has been in the box ever since. I bought it because the seat on the Rocket was good for about 150 miles and after that it was sheer hell. The riding position doesn't allow to much manoeuvre room either.  Maybe it is because I am an overweight fat arse?   I read a few reviews and never got around to fitting it, as I wasn't really going anywhere due to the Covid pandemic and the lockdowns that restricted travel, even motorcycle travel. Being the sort of rider that wants to go somewhere rather than idly riding for the sake of it, my annual mileage shrunk even further. Since the Rocket went to a new owner in the summer and I bought Vera Strom the DL1000 V-Strom, I think I need to revisit this! One of the Amazon reviews is from a guy that posts on the V-Strom forum and it was him on that site that got me thinking  "where did I put it?"!!! Found.  Maybe I need a better filing system than on a chair in the dining room against th...

Good deed of the day - government petition. It doesn't affect me directly as I am unlikely to send my bike on a transporter or in a van to Europe. But it does affect other bikers. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/598889

October 19th 1914 The British Army were fighting to delay the advance of German troops across Belgium and France. Timothy was one of the troops that fought at Le Pilly. At 1500 on the 19th October they advanced across a turnip field. Were isolated during the attack where they captured the village of le Pilly.  They were later surrounded.  In total 177 men were killed and wounded. Others captured. Timothy was one of the former. They fought to the last man and were slaughtered by German artillery.  Here is an article published in 2014 almost on the anniversary of the slaughter in the Irish Times about Le Pilly.    https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/the-battle-of-le-pilly-1.1962035 https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/le-pilly-honours-177-irish-men-killed-in-first-world-war-battle-1.3671010 Timothy has no known burial place and is remembered on the  Le Touret Memorial. Once the pandemic is over we would like to go over and pay our respect...

It's a little over a year since I bought the Cybershot from eBay to replace the old one that I have had for many years and was a bin find. I have used it many times and it works pretty well. Battery life is good. But thinking ahead to trips away as retired older gentleman I decided to get the battery out of the "old" camera and charge that too. The problem currently is that the on-unit charging needs the battery in the camera. Not a problem at home but this requires a kettle lead and the power pack and four feet of cable into the camera. it all takes up space. Another hassle is removing the battery kills the setup. As soon as you put in the new battery you have to set the date and time again.  But undeterred I have hooked it up with the "old" battery, that actually came with the "new" camera but was flat.  I have also ordered a new off-camera charger for this type of battery.  Genuine Sony NP-FR1 lithium batteries are selling on...

Sunday the 17th October 2021.  The Meldrews Sunday Breakfast meet incorporating Ride the World. Didn't happen. Why? The Meldrews part did and that is blogged already.  The Ride the World bit didn't. Why? To complete the challenge to ride to two places on the Overland magazine's challenge, I needed to have the TomTom fully functioning and on the bike.  I had done the groundwork. I had made sure that TomTom could communicate with the Cardo Scala fitted on my Shoei Qwest helmet. TomTom fully charged. All good. What was a stumbling block as that I had not actually foreseen nor had I checked was that the locking kit was in fact locked or maybe unlocked. There are two keys. One locks the whole shebang to the RAM ball on the bike that means the TomTom cradle is locked in place and can't be removed. The other key locks the cradle so that the TomTom can't be easily removed or it can't fly off the cradle in bumpy, possibly off road, conditions.   And yes, both were locked...