¡InvictaMoto!

I signed up for this today.  I am partly deaf in my right ear. I have no midrange hearing and that's where most sound in human life lies! Oddly, when there is a lot of noise, like the musak pumped out on stores and shopping malls, I can easily become disoriented. The problem I have is that the headphones I have all have the "on" button in the right ear unit. I have to have in/on both ears to hear the message that they are connected to my phone.  Okay not a biggie but sitting amongst a group of people is. I simply can't hear what anyone to my right is saying, so I try to sit with as many people to my left as possible! I have a hearing aid. It's rubbish. Does nothing at all. I was expecting a marvel of miniature electronic  engineering that went in my ear and made a difference. Does it buggery. So raising money to help people that are totally deaf and live their entire lives in silence get an assistance dog seems the least I could do. Twelve dog walks in...

The Prime Minister has spoken. Wear a mask or else....

Whilst sitting at the laptop, sound turned up, and logged into work email and helpdesk, what better way is there to while away the time? Exactly. Planning a holiday trip that I'll never actually go on! 🤪 It was all because I caught the tail end of a travel programme on TV where they had flown to Marrakesh  I was curious to see how far it would be to ride there. It's over 1900 road miles from Calais. That much was easy enough to work out. Once there hotels, with parking and with the usual booking.com free cancellation and no pre-payment options, seem very reasonable.

He was eleven years old recently and also with us for just over seven of those. He is still as mad as he was the day we brought him home from Dogs Trust in November 2014. Here he is resting....

I have merged the Cruising merge into this blog. I've not deleted it just leaving it to die a natural death. https://pandc-cruising.blogspot.com/

Last week I sent the Oakley glasses off to be re-glazed. They were fitted with a prescription and clear lenses from new. Now that I don't need prescription glasses I decided to get these done as well. I had already had them do my Ray-Ban glasses. I wore them almost immediately and can thoroughly recommend ReGlaze . They have done a great job.   If only Oakley and Ray-Ban bothered to offer re-glaze for frames they sell to opticians for prescription lenses!

Only week away. This weekend it is bitterly cold. I went to the football at Arsenal yesterday and it was cold and wet. On the way home Storm Alwen had hit further north with snow and the usual traffic and rail disruption. We had high winds that trimmed trees if their dead branches. So it's 🤞 for next week. I have already  bought some Lego toys and today added a couple if teddy bears. Kids love a teddy 🐻 don't they? With the amount of salt and grit on the roads the Kettle will remain garaged. So it will have to be Vera Strom on the road. I'll need to get the hose out to wash the corrosive crap off the bike when I get home. The forecast for next Sunday is for an 8ºC high and a low of 4ºC.  No sun just murky, cold and cloudy. Need to wrap up warm and give one of my base layers a go! Monday 29th Bears are ready to be collected from Argos in Hythe. The weather forecast has changed slightly and the chances of precipitation have dropped but temperatures still the same 8ºC to 4ºC...

I haven't been out since Meldrews' Sunday and Vera has been sitting in the garage in the cold. So a quick visit out there to check and the tyre is still rock hard. Success!

Today was the early kick off in London and so I was on my way to Folkestone West to get the train to London at 9.30am.  It was cold and the wind was getting up along the seafront. I had already booked my train ticket on my Key smartcard and validated it yesterday. Just in case. It's a good idea but as usual with Southeastern Trains it's badly thought out and delivered to the public. Today the country is in the grip of another weather storm with another nonsensical name, Arwen! But in reality it's cold and wet. Some of Europe including northern France had snow. From the TV it looks as though the North of England and Scotland have had a few inches of the white stuff. As for the game. A dull first half against the team currently bottom of the league. In fact Newcastle's Shelvey had three attempts on target well saved by Arsenal keeper Ramsdale, whilst Arsenal huffed and puffed and Aubameyang missed a sitter from a yard out. The second half looked to be going the same way u...

The package from J&S arrived late last evening with DPD. I didn't have much time to unpack it and have a look inside the very nice zipped case it comes in. Even that looks like a bit of quality. Maybe the Apple system of superb (and attractive) packaging has rubbed off on lots of other companies? I only bought the single unit kit as I doubt that Claire will come on the back of the bike again and there's even more doubt that she'd have a Shoei helmet if she did.  Although I have seen some reviews where the kit has fitted in/on other makes as well. I have had a quick look around the contents and will have a more in-depth look at the weekend. I'll have time to sit down and read the instructions on fitting it into the helmet and of course, how to connect to my phone and TomTom. I removed the old Teamset this morning so that I could clean the helmet inside and out. The boom where it leaves the bracket is looking very worn. As it is the long boom I...

I have been looking for somewhere to go for Claire's birthday next year and then eh voila, a cottages.com email arrived. Black Friday! Initially I looked at the south coast, Hampshire or maybe Dorset.  It's outside school half term holidays when prices rocket, but even so for a short break prices were silly money. I think that many owners are trying to get back what they lost during the lockdowns. I won't play that game. So I expanded the search and thought about the Peak District and had a look. Even here there are Black Friday discounts.  With the filters set for "dog friendly" and "enclosed garden/patio" there were very few options.  Individually there were quite a few but once both were entered, the choices became fewer and fewer. I bookmarked a few places but in the end decided on The Stables near Matlock in Derbyshire ! It's dog friendly so Reggie can come too.  I need to plan  how to get there. We can't check in until 3pm in any case.  Go...

The Royal Military Canal was built between 1804 and 1809. The fear of invasion from France was very real at this time as Napoléon Bonaparte was conquering his way across mainland Europe. At this time thinking was that any invasion would take place along the flat lands of the coast and the adjoining Romney Marsh. So the canal was built and runs for 28 miles from Seabrook, where there is a battery and Cliffs End in Sussex.  On the north bank there a large earthworks created from the spoil of the canal itself.  Foe much of the way between Seabrook and West Hythe Dam, this is still there to be seen. Along with zigzags in the canal this gave the defending army higher ground and a chance to open up targets on the southern bank. Taken today on a sunny lunchtime walk - near the Palmarsh Bridge. Where I live we are around 500 metres from the open sea of Hythe Bay and around 100 metres south of the canal. The Military Road runs parallel with the canal on the north bank. Troo...

Picking this up from another posting. What excuse for Vera's inactivity? None really. Apart from many of us have more that one life. Working 40 hours a week. Family. Dog etc etc.  Riding a motorcycle for fun is one of those "lives" that has to be fitted into all the others. I guess this true for all of us.  We all have other calls on our time and so we have to basically ration everything we do to fit in with the wishes, needs of others and our environment. Although I haven't been without a motorcycle since 1978, I am very time poor when it comes to just going out and throwing a leg over one of them and taking off. Maybe with retirement time poverty will be reduced and instead of working a 40 hour week I can use some of those hours enjoying the freedom of the road from the back of a motorcycle. Mind you, my wife is already suggesting things I can do! Volunteering at the local historical society.  I would be good at that (apparently) because I like history and I have ex...

After adding myself as "Kettleman" for Suzi Triplo and hardly doing any miles I got them to merge the accounts together into one as InvictaMoto! I hadn't noticed that some entrants have two or more bikes listed for the challenge. The combined mileage (converted to kilometres) means I have accumulated 920! Only 920. As a result I have slipped down the table from 100th to 107th! As Suzi has a miles odometer I convert that to kms and round to the nearest full km.  Vera is easier as I change the display to kilometre speedo and odometer. I need to get out more and gets those kms rolling under the wheels. https://www.kilometerfresser.eu/kf/kilometerfresserrangliste.htm It will soon be the end November mileage submission time and I have hardly been out.  Suzi not been out since October 9th.  The weather simply too wet and with the cold weather they will salt the roads.  Not idea for polished alloy casings! What excuse for Vera's inactivity? None really. Apart from many of u...

Claire took these few photos of me and Vera. She was using her phone. Next time I will charge the battery on her Sony DSLR! They are a bit grainy but were taken in poor light, so that may be a contributing factor! Not her fault it was dusk. Today's model is wearing: A Shoei Qwest Paragon TC1 helmet in red and black A Frank Thomas Aqua Jacket in black with faded panelling ARMR Haro Motocycle Trousers in black. TCX Explorer 3 Boots Spada Gloves

You'd be right if you read the subject and immediately thought "Queen". But this time I am referring to another head coach at Oldham Athletic FC has been sacked or has left the job "by mutual consent". I've lost count how many have come and gone since the current owners bought the club. Someone said nine. https://www.oldhamathletic.co.uk/news/2021/november/24112021-club-statement/

I was hoping that the reply from Cardo Support was going to be positive and from some deep storage they would have found a boom for my old Teamset. With the current boom starting to show its age and begin to look a bit frayed I'll need to opt for an alternative for the Shoei Qwest. The helmet is quite a few years old but it is still in "as new" condition. It would be a waste to buy a new helmet. Instead, I am looking at replacements for the Cardo. There are plenty of options. From the cheap and cheerful to the phenomenally expensive. I have toyed with the Cardo SHO-1 before. I like the idea that it fits less obtrusively than the old and even new style Cardo systems.  It is made for the Qwest and others in the Shoei helmet range. It being Black Friday week (!)  I found that J&S had a set at about 50% discount. So I ordered one. A couple of days to delivery.  Let's hope it is as easy to install as it looks in the pictures! https://www.webbikeworld.com/ca...

For a number of years I have been using the Fuelly app and its desktop version to track the mileage and miles-per-gallon I get from the vehicles I own. It's easy to use and came about when I switched from an iPhone to Android and the app I was using on iOS wasn't available on the Android platform. I currently keep a log on the three vehicles that we own as a couple, the Juke has replaced the Insignia, Vera Strom has replaced the Rocket III, and I added the Kettle "Suzi Triplo" just to see how much fuel I use! It all helps when planning a trip. How? It gives me a pretty accurate idea of how far I can go on a tank of fuel.  I am one of those guys that likes to have a full tank when I set off on a ride/trip.  Belt and braces I guess. My metaphorical pants aren't going to fall down! When I am away on a longer trip this applies too.  I'd rather fill the tank, even if I have only done 50 miles on the current one before I leave the overnight stop. If that means tanki...

A month to go and then I will officially reach the State Pension Age for the UK.   But am I looking forward to it?  I have mixed feelings.  It's not as though I have been working every day in an office with colleagues around me so that I will miss the banter and all that.  I have been working from home since March 12th 2020!   I have been into the old office building once and that was over a year ago and I didn't see anyone I knew! Even the guys on the door at 222 Upper Street had forgotten who I was and I used to see them every day! So the countdown on the right is getting lower and lower.  I don't officially retire until the last day of December as that means I get a full months pay to tide me over until the State and my occupational pension start to cough up! And I am fully expecting that to go wrong!   I have already applied for my bus pass. This gives me free bus travel across the country!  If I was living in one of the other d...

It's getting cold and wet now, so the "summer" boots have been cleaned and put away in the wardrobe. They simply don't work with textile trousers like the ARMR Haro I wear in winter. As I was looking to see if Black Friday means I can get another pair nice and cheap I came across a rather odd review on Amazon. Unless the perp is a vegan then why could anyone want synth leather instead of the real thing? Real leather is so much stronger. I shouldn't judge but it does seem that there are some odd people about.

Another route filled out with prospective fuel stops.  This is liable to change and  have have shared it with my brother.  I suggested that we go down to Spain his way and come back mine.  This is the bare bones route, overnight hotels and the fuel stops.   There's plenty of time to see about some stops on the way to break up the journey and take a lunch or tourist type break! It is a holiday/vacation not simply a rubber and fuel burning exercise!

With all my planning I tend to not add in fuel stops to my routes. Neill does as he usually tours with his friend Patrick. Patrick has a Honda Shadow with a smaller fuel tank range. I have been through my outward trip and added some fuel stops.  Vera is currently averaging 50mpg dead on the Fuelly app and this is mixed riding in town and on the motorways when I do tend to push the speed limit to it's outer envelope.   With Covid-19 being rife (and cases on the increase!) across the EU countries and Channel crossing fares being a complete and utter rip-off, I haven't been away to test what sort of mileage I can expect "over there"! With a 20.5 litre tank I am looking at around 170-180 miles between fill-ups to ensure a margin of error. So far I haven't done more that about 149 miles on a tank.  With a non-toll route in each direction there will be some fairly low speed limits, but there are sections of non-toll motorways that can be experienced, and speeds might ge...

I've not added any posts to this blog since 6th April 2021.  Many of the UK population had had their second jab by then and we were looking forward to being "safe" from the pandemic. Here we are in late November.  Many of us older people have had a THIRD jab and still there is no light at the end of the tunnel. People are still getting Covid-19. People are still dying. We can hope for a better 2022 but only a fool would bet any money on that being true.

Yep, it's that time again.  I only knew there was a map upgrade as I connected the TomTom to the Dell to transfer a couple of routes I had been planning from MyRouteApp to the unit. Once the 410 is connected by the USB cable to the laptop,. MyDrive Connect fires itself up and as usual, it knows who I am but never remembers my password. Once entered it told me there were three upgrades. The local bodges, plus the entire Europe and US maps. As I am unlikely to travel to the US in the near future I didn't tick that box. Off it went. The download stage took about a quarter of an hour and then it started installing.  Or so I thought. I left it to its own devices and popped back later to find the very familiar "checking" under the timer. To know what maps need upgrading it has already connected to the 410.  So why at this stage does it always seem unable to find it again? I usually have to unplug the USB cable from the laptop and it errors to say it has lost the connection!...

Still in service. I tend to use the Shoei helmet in the winter. The Teamset has been used on a variety of different helmets for many years. I'd have to check the packing slip to say exactly when. I still have the original box! It still works very well and is paired to both my phone and to the TomTom 410. The volume is good. Far better than my LS2 Metro. The problem is that it is so old they don't make the bracket and microphone any more. Once this has had it that will be end. It's starting to look as though it's not long for this world! I emailed them to see if they have any NOS headsets. Sadly their reply was that they no longer have stocks of this boom anymore. 

A short ride out today for Meldrews' Sunday. Destination was Dungeness Railway Station. I decided not to take the usual A259 route along the coast to New Romney and onto Dungeness. Instead I went off piste and tried the probably aptly named Swamp Road from Old Romney  to Lydd. The swamp, if there was one, has been drained and it now forms part of Romney Marsh. A flat area with many "drains" that firm similar terrain to the polders in the Netherlands.  There were only two of us for a coffee and a chat. The ride back was across the marsh to Dymchurch and home. I went back towards Ivychurch and then followed the signs to Hythe.   There are so many concrete slab roads across the marsh.  And these offer more grip than the tarmac ones.  Oddly though, the grass and weeds growing between the cracks is far less obtrusive than the two foot wide moss and weed in the centre of the tarmac sections! When you have a weed and moss section and an open drain/ditch right alon...

From the previous post I laid out two options, Plan A and Plan B. The latter was to leave after racing and stay in a hotel in Lleida. We have decided to do that. So I have amended the booking at the El Cid and removed the Sunday night and added another hotel instead. The new one in Lleida is the Ramon Berenguer IV. Quite budget but all of Lleida is cheaper in comparison to hotels nearer the Catalan coast.  The hotel has private parking at €7 a night for a car space and in my booking I asked for a space to be reserved.  Although there is street parking if the option to have secure parking is there, it's worth taking! That change saves us about 110 miles on the way home on Monday. The saving will allow us more time to thread our way through the Pyrenees at Pont de Reu and then into France.  We need to check the distances and overnight stops on the way upwards.

At last a home win. In fact, at last a win. Due to other results Latics have moved up to third bottom.

It looks as though my brother Neill is onboard for the trip. He has been planning routes of his own and the way out is roughly the same as mine until we get to the south west of France. His route angles off before mine and goes through the Túnel de Somport . It makes the route down slightly shorter but not much in it. It would be nice to go over the pass and ignore the tunnel but I don't think we have the time.  From Somport it is still about 4 hours to the hotel. I would like to keep my route back though. It would give some variation to the trip. We can look at other places to stop off on the way.

The Haro story continues. After a year of riding in good weather only, today's ride to FWR was the first time the Haro trousers had been out. Probably not the best photo about!! Not the first time out of the wardrobe. They came out on Sunday for the Ring of Red, except with 6psi rear tyre meant that was as far as they got. Today with an expected high of 12°C I decided to wear them matched to the Oxford Warmdry.  I dug the Frank Thomas Aqua Jacket out as well. Another first time in 2021. It all worked very well. The temperature gauge on Vera showed a high of 13° in traffic in London. The main problem is that they don't have a traditional zip fly but a gusset with zipper. This means when you need a widdle, you need the sit down loo rather than the normal stand up. I stopped at Maidstone Services to try that out for size ... Phew. All in all I did about 140 miles today and was pretty comfortable all day. The last blog with Haro as the subject:  http://invictamoto.blogspot.com/201...

Arriving home from FWR after getting the tyre done. I don't have many of me on a bike and in motion.  They are all blurred apart from me and Suzi Triplo taken by a professional photographer. So this has to do. Taken by Claire on her phone. The light wasn't too good.

Window Advert Valentino Window Advert Had a run up to FWR to get the tyre slow leak looked at. Nothing wrong with the tyre. So they removed it and cleaned the rim again and replaced the valve. No charge as expected. I need to keep an eye on it.

Fitted this today to Vera. It's not waterproof so only summer use... 😆

In blog-time it's not that long since I made the first post. I have been working on this in reality for the best part of two weeks though! So where are we at the moment? Day 1 - Shuttle or Ferry to Calais. Overnight - Tours Première Classe Day 2 - Tours to Bayonne. Overnight - Bayonne Première Classe Day 3 - Bayonne to Morella. Overnight - Morella El Cid Day 4 - Morella to Motorland Aragón to Morella. Overnight Morella El Cid Day 5 - Plan A - Morella to Motorland Aragón to Morella. Overnight Morella El Cid            - Plan B - Morella to Motorland Aragón to Lleida. Overnight TBC Day 6 - Lleida to Cahors. Overnight Cahors Campanile Day 7 - Cahors to Chartres. Overnight Chartres Hôtel Inn Design Resto Novo Day 8 - Chartres to Shuttle or Ferry - Overnight Home. There are a few ends to tie up but this looks like this could be the final plan. If the weather is still nice and warm, hot even, I might get to wear my bandana again!  Without anyone laughing! It...

When it arrived on Monday afternoon I actually read the instructions and checked the photo on Amazon to see how it fitted together. I was a little surprised that the flexible pipe that fits into the unit screws into what seems like a rubber seal.  The other end has the valve depressor and is a screw fit. So with a suitable kneeling pad I switched it on and connected to the valve on the wheel.  It showed that the 34psi I had foot pumped in on Sunday had dropped to 27.5psi. I dialled 40psi into the VonHaus and pulled the trigger.  Man is it loud!! I think the pipe could do with being a bit longer but I guess with a car wheel there would be less reaching under the vehicle to get on the valve. I didn't have a stopwatch running but it was only a couple of minutes and the 40psi was reached. I have already arranged with FWR to go back on Friday and get the tyre checked over. The "experts" on the Facebook and other forums say that as long as there is no obvious hole or nail or ot...

Plan B already! Working with Google Maps and MyRouteApp in different windows I can see that with the road conditions crossing the Pyrenees, either by the suggested (shortest?) route and my alternative route via Andorra are going to be over ambitious. So Andorra is definitely dropped. Google Maps gives three options from Morella. Via the Bielsa Tunnel, the Somport Tunnel and via the N-232 to Pont de Reu and the border there. I am moving more towards a re-vamp of the plan as follows. Lleida is about 110 miles from the El Cid and about 75 miles from Motorland Aragón, Packing up my stuff at the hotel on the morning of race day and after the racing finishes mid-afternoon go from there to a hotel in Lleida. I've had a look and there quite a few at a very reasonable price! This would cut down the mileage on Monday by that 110 from the El Cid. From Lleida to the currently planned stop at Cahors is around 280 miles and six hours on the road. It takes the N-230 to the border which is a bridg...

On the way out I have planned the no toll route that basically is get to Rouen or nearby on the free sections of the motorways and then head across to join the N10 (or whatever it is numbered in each départmente) and head south or south-west.  What about coming back?  Do I want to tread the same path? Or seek out a new one. First step fire up MyRouteApp and select Google Maps. I am currently booked into the El Cid Hotel in Morella. It's about 43 miles from the circuit at Motorland Aragón.  What if I change the El Cid booking and pack my meagre belongings into my panniers on the Sunday morning and head to the track and then use that 43 miles to head off to a new hotel on the way home?   Something to ponder? For now I am assuming I will be solo on this trip. If my brother Neill decides to join me then it will halve the cost of the hotels, and I'll have to change the sleeping arrangements at each hotel!! So what does MyRouteApp come up with. Well. It depends on the...

I have been looking at the non-toll route to the El Cid hotel that will get me/us there on the Friday afternoon.  Having decided on Option 1, ride both ways, I now have to decide how long to take and how long Claire will suffer me being away.  I was looking at a week away or in reality 8 days - two overnights out, three at the GP end, and then two nights back.  If Neill comes along he might want to take longer and that will need some debate. I have booked the hotels in twin bedded rooms but if it is a solo trip, then I will see about changing to a double room and have a big bed just for me.... It's pretty much the same route I took way back in the 80's when I rode with my ex-partner to Biarritz for a week in a villa owned by a colleague at Reuters. We wanted to avoid the toll motorways and what was then called the N10 went all the way from the outskirts of Paris (where we got lost near Versailles) to the Spanish border. Back then I was on the Kettle aka Suzi Triplo. I hav...

As you can imagine with a Covid restricted crowd as big as 20000 in 2021 and a circuit basically built in the middle of nowhere, there is pressure on all accommodation and on hotels! In non COVID years the crowd is even bigger. Last weekend they estimated that there were 75000 at Valencia for the final GP of the year and to see Valentino Rossi's last GP. If you like to camp then that's okay with me. See you another time. I've been a hotel or b&b only man for about 22 years. Having camped at GP events before I know first-hand there's not a lot of sleep to be had! Looking on booking.com wasn't that good either. I use them as they offer easy accessible information on hotels and also you can book with "free cancellation" and most often no prepayment. Many of the hotels come up as full or sold out.  Gradually you get further and further from Alcañiz and the circuit itself that is to the north-west of the town.  At the same time, the hotels that are coming ...

If we consider that this is a motorcycle trip, then there are a few options. I can ride all the way there and back - Eurotunnel and/or short ferry I can take the Brittany Ferry one way and ride the other way I can send the bike on a truck and fly down to collect it possibly ride back I have to admit the third option only appeared after I had read an article this afternoon where some guys packed their bikes up with a specialist transport company, then they flew and met the bikes and  as they were "professionals" they left the truck to bring the bikes back and the flew home.  Possibly not for me, but worth pricing up? "But" I hear you say, riding is the point of a bike/motorcycle trip. And you would be right. So I have been mostly looking at options 1 and 2.   The return trip is in the environs of 1800 miles from the Eurotunnel terminal at Calais to Motorland. On top of that will be all the wrong turns and detours en-route to get to petrol and to hotels. On to...