On the Road Again!

After loads of publicising the run on Facebook, to local clubs and in the SOC magazine, the glorious day arrived and ...... a turnout of ten.  Three from the SOC and six from the Kent Riders plus a new guy that turned up on spec that I most likely signed up for the Kent Riders as he was on a Kawasaki. Pretty typical of the SOC.  "No one organises anything" but when we do they can't be arsed to turn up. The centre had laid on a BBQ and luckily they hadn't invested too much.  And also luckily it meant two burgers each. There are about 40 dogs in residence and a handful of cats. Some are "lifers" that are too old or too cantankerous to be rehomed, but there are so many that need a home. Many Jack Russells and a cute little Chinese Hairless and Yorkie cross. Adrienne from the Centre took some pictures and they are here.    

I loaded up the bike last night with the dog food we had bought earlier in the day at Tesco.  The large back of Wagg (17kgs) went on the back seat and the smaller bags in the System panniers, plus two boxes of cat food that our Hilly has decided she will no longer tolerate in her food bowl that went in the top box.       I was on the road by 1030 and arrived in very good time at the meeting place at Maidstone Service on the M20/A20 junction. One other bike and so I parked nearby to create a space big enough for a lot....   Whilst having a coffee (skinny latte) in Costa I saw another bike arrive. It was club mate Neil Dalton on his XJR1300. He also had a big bag of Wagg on the back seat.  Gradually bikes started riding including regulars from the Kent Riders Club, Bruno from the R1150GS FB Group and Jim Sanderson, a fireman in Kent who started and runs the Fire Bike Service - http://www.kent.fire-uk.org/your_safety/road_safety/fire_b...

An update already. The destination is now confirmed as the Blue Cross Animal Rescue Centre   in Northiam, Kent. The date is still the 17th June 2012 . Now that we have a date and destination we have to look for a decent ride out for the riders we intend to invite and therefore a meeting place to accommodate the hundreds that will turn up.

Claire picking up the Pillion Award in the Kent Centre Mileage Trophy. She has won this five times since it was created in 2004.

The Suzuki Owners Club and Kent Riders arrive at the Last Chance Animal Rescue Fun Day on May 22nd for the Kent Pet Food Run. After twenty years of organising pet runs in Bedfordshire and Kent this was my last. Luckily, it turned out to be a success.  Thanks to everyone that came. Sadly, the 300D went to sleep just as they arrived and I missed off Tony Young who was the leader!!!

After some thought about a venue for the 2011 run I have decided on Last Chance Animal Rescue in Edenbridge, Kent. The meeting place will be the Roadchef Maidstone Services on the M20/A20 intersection to the south of Maidstone.   Departure time is 1100. We will be using the drop-off system to keep everyone together and the route will avoid the centre of maidstone. Please bring dog or cat food with you and of course your wallets for donate to this very worthwhile local charity.

The Kent Centre AGM is going to be held at the Britannia PH at Dungeness on Sunday 20th June. We kick-off at Noon and have lunch before getting down to the nitty gritty of electing the new committee. I am looking forward to standing down this year and letting other capable people take on the Centre and take it into the next decade.

On the "Wipers 2" trip our first stop was ostensibly for a coffee and this extended to frites for lunch and then a walk up to Mont Cassel to walk off a few of the calories. The steps up to the heights above the town are a bit overgrown and in UK with our greater "Elf and safety" culture they would have been closed years ago. The French get on with it and even let their dogs crap on them too. Talking of closed. At the top is huge hotel building boarded up and decaying. The Mont is in fact a narrow ridge, no more than 100 metres across at the top. On both sides are panorama tables pointing out places locally and fancifully, places further afield like New York, London and Leeds. There is also a windmill that judging by the electric sound was not being powered by the wind any more. The plain below is littered with mills. During WW1, Cassel was the HQ of the British Army fighting in the Flanders area. The statue is to Marshal Foch, who took over Supreme Commander of the ...

Not a theme park, although it sounds like it may be, but actually a recently rediscovered (in the 1970's) formation of trenches from WW1. These are around Messines Ridge to the south of Ypres. The trenches point northwards as this area was part of the bulge to the south the city. Entry is supposed to cost €1.50 per person but when we got there the gate had been wedged open and there were some other people already inside. The GPS location for the site is N50.80135 E2.87708. More reading http://bujold.co.uk/html/bayernwald.html

Roadtest originally published on the old Geocities SOC website in 1996!! Author: Paul Devall On the drive down to Crawley, where Suzuki GB is situated, to pick up the Bandit I really didn't know what to expect. I had just read a really praiseworthy test of the bike in 'RiDE' and wondered if I would get the same bike. In the end I got one of that bikes 'brothers'.  When Roger Simmons, the test fleet manager, and former mechanic to the stars of the Heron Suzuki racing teams of the past (remember Barry Sheene, Randy Mamola.....), brought N119 NCD round to the front, it looked very nice. It was the metallic red colour, they call it maroon, that I prefer to Teal Green and Black. After a few instructions about the small quirks on the bike I was then soon able to ride off. Only I'd forgotten my boots at home! I had all the riding gear I needed apart from boots. If you cast your minds back to early July, after a few weeks of summer weather, in southern England...

Originally posted on the first ever Suzuki Owners Club website hosted by Yahoo! Geocities. First posted in 1998. When Geocities announced they were closing I saved the source. Running with the Kettles - August 1998 On the face of it, a group of over fifty GT750's, drawn from all the different models from the entire six year reign, might seem a particularly insignificant and sobering thought to the non-believer. But. I BELIEVE! Thanks to some jiggery-pokery by Dave Pitcher, Chairman of the Kettle Club UK and Suzuki Owners Club member, we had a half hour. No. A wonderful half hour of track time to ourselves at the VMCC's "Festival of a 1000 Bikes" on the Sunday of the weekend event. Having a special Kettle-only session meant that we didn't have to put up with the myriad of slow blokes on Z900's and old British rubbish as we had done in Sunday's first session, the 1972-77 Over-500cc 'parade'. Waiting in pit lane I listened into a couple of ot...

I managed to get the latest upgrade of Mapsource to work on the new laptop and work through all the Garmin files to get a better route. A week to go and the excitement builds...

It's over a year away but now is the time to pick a date and stick with it and so we have. We will be going to the Retired Greyhound Trust again and as we evolve the run we will have more than one meet and ride-in. Watch this space.

When we arrived at the Stop 24 services there were three bikes waiting for us, Steve (VFR750), Brian (Bandit 1250) and Mark (BMW R1100S). We were soon joined by Neil on his XJR. At least there was one Suzuki present for the Suzuki Owners Club run! On the way to the meeting Claire and I had been most of the way to the kennels to check the road closure on Stone Street. As it was we would be turning left about 50 metres before the barriers and the diversion. Kent Pet Run , originally uploaded by Getzgirl . Me and Cee-Cee. Kent Pet Run , originally uploaded by Getzgirl . Me and Cee-Cee. I called run leader Graham to tell him and caught them as they left the first meeting place at the Oakdene Cafe. Kent Pet Run , originally uploaded by Getzgirl . Me coughing up into the collection box! After some of the group porked their way through a breakfast we adjourned outside to wait for the Oakdene group. Our six people on five bike...

Fingers cross for good weather. After a few days of "scorchio" we have dull and grey in London today. See poster at http://invictamoto.blogspot.com/2009/02/kent-pet-run-2009-poster.html for full details of the meeting places at the Oakdene and at Stop 24 services.... Report to follow.... pet food run

A month to go until some of us from the Kent Centre of the Suzuki Owners Club go across to Assen for the Dutch TT, or MotoGP as they call it now. Our group 5 on 4 bikes will include my GS, my brother Neill's GSXR1000, James and his 1250 Bandit and another Neil (with one L) and his wife on an XJR1300. We'll be joined by Brian on another 1250 Bandit at the hotel. Everything is booked and we have put a note on the Suzuki Owners Club's new forum to see if anyone else is going; maybe meet up for a beer in the evening? No contact as yet! The outward journey is mainly on motorway from Calais. We're on the 0925 P&O boat so allowing for 90 minutes to cross the channel and the hour time difference it will be gone noon when we emerge into the French sunshine. The sat-navs give the quickest route through Belgium as the motorway to Ostend and then down to Gent and up to Antwerp again, but I have always favoured an N9/N49 route that goes across from Brugge to Antwerp more...

May Day tomorrow and the BH on Monday, but what to do? Kent Centre breakfast meet on Sunday but don't expect many to turn up as there is a run to Goodwood as well. Need to get some Pet Run flyers out as there will be loads of potential bikers out this weekend.

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