On the Road Again!

"What difference a day makes, twenty four little hours" goes the song, or something along those lines! I have been like a child in a sweet shop. Spring is assuredly on its way any time in the next few months and every year I become disturbed by the Dark Side. Last year it by the BMW K1200S that was being sold off at a slight discount (BMW!!) as the new 1300S was in the showrooms. This year it is less simple but all the options have Triumph on the tank! Sense prevailed and the Rocket Touring was sent for the early bath. Next up the Sprint GT, favoured by my brother. Then the Explorer. But why? Okay, my GS is 14 years old in May and already over 10 in my ownership. First registered in 1999 in Bavaria, before being wrenched from the loving hands of some blonde pig-tailed Fräulein. Isolda or some such statuesque figure, now she uses her arm to carry 12 big steins of beer to waiting and thirsty Munchener customers. We can but dream. It has over 810...

Certainly feels good to be back on two wheels. Mot went off okay and the new Odyssey battery went in.

A bit late this month and not all the mileages have come in but here we are anyway. There is one month to go, or to be precise there are 16 days left and then it is all over and done with. Updated on the 15th November when the last two entrants sent in their mileages.

Willesborough Windmill , originally uploaded by Invicta Moto . Here's a selection of the pics and the route we took. Everytrail Flickr It was the first run I have done nationally for the BMW Club, and I think it was a success.

Maybe the service needed to have come before the long run to Wootton Bassett yesterday? The bike ran pretty well even so but I needed it to have its annual service. After 66000 miles I tend to have it serviced when I can afford it and when I think it is about time to get it done. More often than not I take it to Neil Harrison aka Steptoe in Kingston upon Thames (or pretty close!). It's a long run round the M25 from my house and then with his loan bike I make the trip back up to Islington for work. Today the M25 was worse than I have ever experienced it. Ebbing and floing, then stopping dead for no apparent reason! In the end my ETA at Neil's was 0900, and it was about 0910. The final leg from the M25 past Chessington World of Adventures (it used to be Chessington Zoo in my day!!) is a nightmare of 30mph nanny state speed limits and cameras. Neil loaned me a G-regd K100 and it was a bit of getting used to. Especially as it has no left mirror. It is amazing how you come to rely o...

Cooper Motorrad , originally uploaded by Invicta Moto . Cooper's had an open day for the release of the S1000RR. Loads of bikes on display and loads of free food.

Nice Shiny New Bits , originally uploaded by Invicta Moto . Nice Shiny New Bits , originally uploaded by Invicta Moto . Nice Shiny New Bits , originally uploaded by Invicta Moto . A few of the nice and new shiny bits that were fitted after the accident. Now I have to work out how to keep them as nice as they are now.

Had a shock in the week when pricing up the handle unit for my BMW topbox - £118 or thereabouts excluding lock barrel. The problem I was having seems to lie in the handle being wrenched up whilst it was still locked. Not by me, so I can only assume by some thieving scum. I've not had anything nicked though. I looked at simply buying a new box and bid on ebay only for the seller to cancel the auction. So today I had it to pieces. Three screws to remove the lock barrel. Couldn't see how the handle "friction" workd. Took the other side off... Can't see a prob there either, but did have an R shaped spring pop out. God knows where it came from! Reassembled and it seems fixed. Oh well.

60080 Miles , originally uploaded by Invicta Moto .

Okay, so my GS might be a little care worn, and yes, the paint is starting to lift on the barrels but it is 10 years old. It (I avoid calling the bike "she") was first registered in Bavaria in early 1999 and was then brought to UK later that year and registered by now defunct dealership SPC. So in UK it is not a decade old until September 2009. I still have the old registration document that came in the pack with the service book and handbook, both in German. Anyway, MoT time. I had the bioke out a couple of weeks ago for the Ally Pally show, but haven't had much opportunity to get out and about until this weekend. The MoT ran out on 15th march, so to comply with the law, I booked a specific time at my local bike dealers, Alford Brothers, in Folkestone. Since I moved to this area I've had my TDM and GT worked on there. The former for servicing and the latter for a an accident claim back in 2000. I bought a Bandit 1200 in 2001. I checked everything ov...

The BMW Club Committee have given the green light to the Club having a meeting on the Isle of Man during the Centenary TT in June 2007. I have already booked the Liverpool Arms, Baldrine between Onchan and Laxey for the morning of the 7th June 2007 - Thursday. I thought it was best to have it on a day when there was no racing. What I now need are volunteers to assist on the day and in the run up to the event. I have a small budget to spend on publicising it here and abroad. If you want to volunteer or have some ideas on where and how to publicise the event please email me

Over the years I have owned a few different style bikes from the GT750 that I still own, to grand tourers like the Cavalcade to bikes with off road pretensions and many roadsters in between. My current bike is a BMW R1150GS. I’ve had it for three and a half years and of all the bikes (with the exception of the Cavalcade and Katana 1000) it’s the one I really don’t want to sell… if only they still made them.

A group of French BMW owners from Europ' Touring in Arras came to England for a day trip and Claire and I offered to meet them and act as tour leaders on a trip around Kent and East Sussex. I planned quite a long route that would take in some scenic roads, a trip on the Kent & East Sussex Railway and then lunch. After a very warm and sunny spring week, Sunday dawned to almost torrential rain! The short run to Dover was against gale force winds and it rained mostly all day. First hassle was an accident on the exit to the Dover Docks that had traffic held back through Customs to Immigration. Then when they finally arrived half an hour later we wouldn't have made the Tenterden section in time for the train. We adjourned to the Little Chef at Seabrook to re-group and decide what to do. It was still raining quite hard and so after a short break we togged up and set off. We met Lol at Tenterden but had missed the train we had hoped to get and the next one was a diesel and didn...

The original plan for Easter was to spend the day in Belgium with the GS Club UK at the GS weekend at Kasterlee. As it was only a week after coming back from the US, I had to cancel those plans. But the bike needed a 20000km service before the Czech Trip... and so I decided to see about a service in France and use the ferry ticket for that instead. I searched on the BMW France site for a dealership in the north of France. Purely to see if it was cheaper than in the UK. In the end I booked in to Europ' Touring in Arras. In France both 6000 miles and 12000 miles services are about 40% cheaper than the UK. Even with the cost of a cheap crossing over or under the channel it would be cheaper. And as I was less than happy at the standard of the service done at SPC at 6000 miles, plus the place was in the middle of nowhere and had no loan bike on offer (to me at least!) despite buying the GS from them! SO, a dealership in a town had to be better. Patrice, the owner, lent us a Scarver 650 ...

The original plan for Easter was to spend the day in Belgium with the GS Club UK at the GS weekend at Kasterlee. As it was only a week after coming back from the US, I had to cancel those plans. But the bike needed a 20000km service before the Czech Trip... and so I decided to see about a service in France and use the ferry ticket for that instead. I searched on the BMW France site for a dealership in the north of France. Purely to see if it was cheaper than in the UK. In the end I booked in to Europ' Touring in Arras. In France both 6000 miles and 12000 miles services are about 40% cheaper than the UK. Even with the cost of a cheap crossing over or under the channel it would be cheaper. And as I was less than happy at the standard of the service done at SPC at 6000 miles, plus the place was in the middle of nowhere and had no loan bike on offer (to me least!) despite buying the GS from them! So, a dealership in a town had to be better. Patri...