On the Road Again!

It's almost Meldrew's Sunday again.  I need to look for the quilted lining as it will be freezing again.  I did a click on the tags and the last time I mentioned this was 2023! So at least then I knew where the lining was!!! http://invictamoto.blogspot.com/2023/02/meldrews-sunday-feb-23.html This Sunday we will meet at the RAF Café at Manston Aiport. 

May 21st and the third Sunday in the month - so it must be Meldrews' Sunday again. As a non-club group of motorcyclists we tend to meet at a variety of places across Kent on the 3rd Sunday. There are other meets during the month, but this is the main one. Or rather was. Despite membership of around 35 on the Facebook group, we are lucky to see more than 6 and most usually it is me and Cal on our own. This month we decided to have breakfast in the NAAFI Cafe at the RAF Museum at Manston in Kent.  There are actually two museums, this one, and the Spitfire and Hurricane Museum nearby. Cal and I were honored by the presence of my brother neill in his K16 BMW.  I was on the V-Strom and Cal in his Honda Forza 350 scooter. On the way up I had set the Yamaha My Ride app to record my journey. As usual it failed to work. If I didn't have loads of rides recorded I would be deleting it. After breakfast we went across to look at the new installation in the Spitfire & Hurricane Museum,...

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...

Autumn has caught up with us quite quickly. Luckily during most of the petrol crisis of the last few weeks the weather had turned wet and windy.  We didn't have any petrol anyway and so nowhere to go. But this last week and into the weekend the weather became more late summer with mostly dry and sunny weather. Temperatures were and are still in the mid-teens but acceptable on the bike. As yet I haven't made the jacket change. I did the helmet change as I find the Shoei to be lighter and  more comfortable in the cooler weather.   At the weekend taking Suzi Triplo to Rye for the Kettle Club meeting I wore a jumper under the Joe Rocket. It was warm enough around lunchtime to ride back with it off. But although I am a fair weather biker now, I do ride into November and December. I thought it was about time I invested in a decent base layer. I have had a variety in the past and found then wanting. Either too short in the body, or simply not good enough to keep body heat i...

With the early morning temperature touching 25°C I pulled Suzi out of the sweaty garage. Sweatier even more by the time I had my helmet and gloves on. Suzi fired first stab of the button, choke engaged. Burbled over nicely. Living in a small town with a couple of miles of seafront means traffic. Traffic and lots of it. I chugged along into Hythe and onto London Road. The traffic into town that way was tailed back way out of the town limits. Summer and sun ... Once free of the traffic, Suzi ran easily up to my 3500 rev ceiling whilst running the engine in. This equates to around 60mph. Perfect for A roads but a little slow on the M20.  She humned along quite nicely to that ceiling. A little boggy on a bigger hill.  At H's I parked up. It's always a good feeling when people go and look at your bike. 😁 I had set the Yamaha My Ride app to run and "finished" the ride. I ordered a bacon sandwich and a tea and was tucking in when Meldrew Cal arrived. He is bikeless ...