On the Road Again!

The best laid plans of nice and men. The weather this week has been terrible. It's May but you would be forgiven into thinking it was January or February. In the occasional sunshine temperatures get into double figures centigrade. A high of 14°C is greeted with people taking off a jumper or two. But raincoats are still retained.  The forecast is for the same for the next few days including the weekend. That means heavy rain and hail storms every day.  The wind is also up. It's strong enough to have many places closed due to the danger of falling trees. This makes the chances of taking a highly polished motorcycle out in that weather seem very unlikely. The DGR is in doubt here! Not that it matters much as I haven't had any sponsors any way.

 I might keep my jacket done up though.....

The ride is about a month away and  I am planning to go out for a short ride on the Kettle that day. It coincides with Meldrews Sunday so as long as the weather is decent I'll combine the two with a ride to H's at Kent Motorcycles. I don't know how dapper I will be! They have also revealed a set of posters for the event.   I guess the Kettle is a classic for the ride? Donate

I guess this includes women/ladies as well and anyone that identifies as any gender imaginable. I wasn't going to sign up this year as May 23rd seems too early for a mass gathering. Even on bikes and in the outdoors. https://www.gentlemansride.com Then I saw there is an option to ride solo and take part. So I signed up to do that. I think this will be my 6th or 7th... I have raised the massive sum of £31.  Most of that will be me "seeding" the pudding as it were. My page is  https://www.gentlemansride.com/rider/invictamoto Donate!!!

Today was supposed to be the Distinguished Gentleman's Ride .  For the second year running I have signed up and not made it on the run. On both occasions I had picked up a bug.  I had signed up to do the run from Laguna in Maidstone. As well as the cold/flu we were woken up early by the Environment Agency calling with a severe flood warning for our area. I live about 250 yards from the sea. All that is between us and the sea wall is the Hythe Ranges and a holiday caravan park. Hopefully the wall is enough. Last year it was a stomach upset, this year for over a week I have had cold/flu and a sore through. My throat swollen and I have difficulty swallowing.   In 2018 I salted my account with a personal donation and this year I decided not to. So sadly the charity haven't made any money off of me this year.  I'll no doubt to Movember again in November. Looking at the early posts I am sure that full dress Harley's aren't the kind of bikes listed by the organisers as...

This year I plan to turn up again on a non-hipster bike and enjoy the adulation of the assembled masses whilst raising some money for cancer charities. Sadly my fund raising efforts have not gone too well. The main focus is through Facebook where I have 60 friends. Some of them are outside the UK in the USA, Germany and the Czech Republic. That does leave around 50 within the Sterling zone. Although as an international charity event sponsors can pay in sterling or Yankee dollars or euros or any currency that is internationally tradeable. How many have contributed to my (currently) measly £21? ONE. So with three days to go here's hoping for a few extra quid/dollars/rand/krone. Whatever. Here's my sponsorship page: https://www.gentlemansride.com/rider/invictamoto

Alright. I know. I am not a hipster and I don't own a hipster bike but I can still raise money for the charity and now they have joined up with Movember that I do anyway.... http://www.gentlemansride.com/rider/invictamoto That's my page.