On the Road Again!

Well, I could have done with booking the ferry a little later in the month to ensure that it went on my next Tesco MasterCard bill. But it needed doing ASAP to ensure that the booking would get made and not sold out for the bike spaces. As we were unable to fill all the rooms we have decided to cancel both the triple and twin rooms at the hotel and book the quadruple room! It looks as though the days of a large group going are over for the Meldrews. A quarter share in the quadruple room works out at around £65 each for two night bed and breakfast. The ferry has cost £50 for the weekend.   I have entered the Advanced Passenger Information (API) onto the website and oddly the booking shows the times of the crossing to be different to the ones booked only a few minutes before!  later leaving the UK and earlier leaving France to come home on the Sunday! Anyway that's all done.

It's a little disappointing that with 37 members of the Meldrew's that we have only managed to get 5 plus a friend one of of them so come along to the first overseas event since Covid and Brexit. In the end four of us will be travelling by bike and a couple will be going in the car.   We had originally booked a twin and a triple room and earlier today we booked the quadruple bedded room and dropped the other two rooms. So now we have 4 beds and 4 people! It also works out cheaper per head for the hotel and it includes breakfast, which is rare for that kind of price.  The  Gasthof 't Zweerd is right in the centre of Ypres and walking distance to the Menen Gate for the evening Last Post Ceremony and is right where all the bars and restaurants are situated.  Parking should be right outside!   Next we need to decide what ferry we will get. I expect we will go P&O from Dover to Calais and then have a run across country to Ypres. The TomTom shows us goi...

It's been quite a while since the Meldrews' had a trip away, just a weekend across in France or Belgium.   We (The Royal We?) used to go to the Bikers Loft. I only actually went the once as it seemed to clash with other commitments. That was on the Rocket and back in 2015!  The others in our informal group that we call the Meldrews' have been more often. You can read about my trip to the Loft here . So when one of the members suggested we have another look at a weekend away I didn't get to involved as the first two weeks in September I am away with Claire and the dog in France in the motorhome. I gave some dates when I am not away or at football.  The weekend 22nd to 24th September popped out at me.  It's the North London Derby at the Emirates, but we have already agreed that it will be one of Phil's games so I am free. I like the idea of being well away as I would want to watch and I prefer to wait until I know the score. Yes. Live football sometimes sucks! Ov...

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,...

Today's Meldrews' Sunday ride was to Jo's Café. I went a couple of Sunday's ago for a V-Strom meeting and ended up Billy No-Mates. So today was the first chance to try out the new Givi Airflow screen that I fitted yesterday. I had set the lower section on the same mounting holes as the OEM screen. The sliding upper dead middle. Once on the bike heading down the A259 on rougher tarmac it seemed road noise was increased. On smooth new tarmac much reduced. Once at Jo's we had breakfast, Cal, Trevor and me. Before we set off I lowered the upper part a little. Instead of halfway it is now about one third.  This improved the ride no end. I could ride with the LS2 Metro either flipped open or with the visor open. Both with little wind on my head like it was before.   Inconsiderate insect spattered on new screen!! The route back took in some back roads. A sunny day and although not super warm I wore the Rev'It jacket. It will be fine in the summe...