Vera Strom MoT Day

Although today was forecast to be thunderstorms and high winds it at least left off until I was about halfway back from Cheriton Motorcycles. Of course, no Englishman is without waterproof over trousers and jacket in the massive top box.  

When I say no Englishman I mean seasoned rider.  The two L-plate squibs on a scooter and a KTM 125 of course were the exception to the rule.  One with shorts, trainers and no gloves expecting his Chinese made scooter to have the necessary protection from the elements and maybe the gravel rash should he dump it on the very wet slippery road...

Anyway I set off from home a little late as I had looked at a clock where the battery is running down and it is showing about 15 minutes slower than real time. Suddenly realising I had to get changed into bike gear and then ride 15 minutes to the shop for a Noon appointment when it was already 1140....

Traffic as expected was against me. Why is it always that way when you are running late?  I arrived just after 1200. Left the bike and retired to get a coffee leaving them to do the tests. "Back in about 45 mins" the tester said.

So off I went to find a coffee. Cheriton High Street has quite a few "local" cafes. Each and every one of them closed. It's Wednesday. It's lunch time! In the end I went into Costa. A franchise chain rather than "local" even though it will be franchised and staffed by locals!

I read a copy of More Bikes, the free newspaper that many bike shops have copies for their customers to pick up. It's not a bad read.

When I got to the Q&A section about legal matters, and managed by solicitors White Dalton, who I have read many times before and who are all bikers, I was amazed to read a letter from a guy that has a 1500 Goldwing that he maintains and services himself.  He was asking whether he can sue Honda for an accident he had where the front mudguard collapsed and caused the front wheel to stop.... tossing with and his wife to the ground. Ouch.

Short answer? No. He was adamant that he did all the work to meticulous standards and the bolts must have come adrift on their own. Honda's fault..... DOH! 

Folks! They live amongst us!

I drank up and had a walk back to the shop and picked up the pass certificate.  I do like to have a piece of paper that shows that it has been in for it's annual testing and passed. No advisories that need looking at.

The wind had got up as I was walking back and with it at my back it was quicker walking that way that going to the cafe!

It was still sunny.  I paid and set off. I had got maybe halfway home when it started to spit. I could see ahead in Golden Valley (misnamed as there is no gold!) that it was pissing down. I stopped under some trees and had just got my Richa over trousers on when the first heavy rainfall started moving towards me.  A perfect time to have had a GoPro on the bike to see it advancing up the road. I had just got my Triumph over jacket on when it reached me!

I did have my Belstaff Hipora waterproof gloves with me, but as it was raining that hard I didn't want to open the top box again to get them out!

Luckily the rain only lasted a few minutes and by the time I was almost home it had finished.  Even so, I would have been soaked to the skin without Richa and Triumph!

With the weather forecast to get worse, I put Vera straight into the garage with the Oxford Monster disc lock in place. I have two. One yellow and one black.

Later on, it was blowing a gale and the Yellow Warning for thunderstorms from the government is back. It is blowing one hell of a gale at the moment!