On the Road Again!

When we went in 2012 it was pretty miserable and it rained nearly all the time.  We hardly had chance to get out of our waterproofs the entire weekend. The weather forecast id looking better this year - but do we trust weather forecasters at all? So what to pack? And more importantly what to wear on the ride down? And what to pack it in?  I have the Klicbag panniers but they are rather small for a long weekend away and need something extra.  Okay, four days and three nights away. When Claire and I went  to the Somme for the centenary I bought the Saddlemen sissy bar bag. It is enormous. Superb for two of us for a long weekend including dress-up suits and dresses. Later the same summer I used it for Czech for the GP in 2016 and It was great for a longer trip and I was able to stash some wine bottles in it.  So I need to find space for pants/socks/.t-shirts for three days, jeans and trainers (that take up a lot of space), hoodie, light w...

Done! A slight hiccup as I forgot to take the invoice and my insurance with me. I took the "man bag" with Döra's paperwork though. So I had an extra ride back home on Döra and back to Laguna. The R3 was outside and had been cleaned and polished. They had done the first service and fitted the power supply socket.  Sadly they didn't have the time to fit the Klicbag pannier rails for me, and so I left them at home. It was a little sad to trade-in Döra but a new era awaits. My first stop was Tesco to fill the tank and then off via coffee at the Blue & White cafe where I took a couple of pix. Outside the Blue & White Cafe Outside the Blue & White Cafe It is pretty much a fluke that my ShoeI  Qwest matches the bike paint job. And then it was home. Non-biker life sometimes gets in the way. At Home One small job was to assemble the panniers. When I say assemble, I mean fit the brackets onto back of the Klicbag panniers. I forget to say they arrived yesterday. Easy...

Moving from a bike with panniers to a bike with no luggage as standard is a bit of a problem.  I am off to France for the weekend, next weekend on the battlefield tour of the Somme. I had a look at the thirty year old Swagman panniers I have in the garage and although they are sound, they need a lot of work to clean and get ready. But on a new bike I need new luggage! After some weeks of research I sorted the bike I wanted, and now luggage.   Triumph OEM panniers,  that they fit to the  Thunderbird LT and America LT look very nice but at nearly £700 they are way too expensive.   I joined a few forums to see what are popular and apart from the OEM panniers, there were two other main choices, Klicbags and another from Belgium.  In the end I opted for Klicbags  as they leave very little presence when the panniers are removed.  That they are removable is a boost as I won't want them fitted all the time. So I ordered a set. They come out at half the pr...