On the Road Again!

The government is meeting soon to discuss whether we will join the Netherlands and impose a lockdown. Whether a "circuit breaker" will allow the virus to be defeated is unknown. Let's see what they decide.

A guide to where we can ride and when, without breaking lockdown rules. https://www.devittinsurance.com/blog/tips-to-getting-back-on-the-road-post-lockdown Photo credit Fabio Affuso

I had the boy out today for a short ride off the drive to make sure it was all working. Once the Spring comes and lockdown is over I'll be able to get out and about again. It's a shame with half term not that far away that the lockdown will still be with us or it will still be crap weather. After a few months in the cold garage although all the lights work and the clocks do their check, there wasn't enough juice to get it going. A quick connection with the dbPower unit and it started first touch of the button. I let it run up to temperature to check that the fan and everything work.   Although I sorn'd it to save the tax money it is still Mot'd until February.  Nearer the time I'll book it in to get that done. Again, weather dependent. If we had a nice dry day I will get out and five it a deep clean.   The run off the drive was to make sure the ABS switched on and the light went out.  At least there was a strip of dry road that wasn't iced like a skating ri...

With us still in lockdown in Kent and after what seems like forever banged up 23 hours a day in the house, I can't wait to get the bloody vaccine and be able to go out again on the bike. I doubt after so long in the garage that it will actually start!  I have the dbPower unit on charge to 100% to fire the big boy over.  And then we'll see.  The weather hasn't actuality enticed me out on the road either. At the moment it alternates between hissing rain and high winds or frost that brings out the gritters with their nasty sand and salt concoction that rots Triumph chrome away in minutes. The new Motobatt battery I bought and fitted a year ago, today as it would happen (!) will no doubt be as dead as the proverbial dodo.  All thanks to the bastard that created this virus in their little laboratory. When will it all end! In the end did what I should have done months ago but I suppose I thought it would all be over and normal life might start to come back. ...

We have just emerged from a Tier 4 lockdown that seems to have had no effect on slowing down the transmission of the Covid-19 spread and so from tonight at 0001 we are back into a more severe lockdown. My shoulder is much better and I can ride the bike, but of course, a total lockdown means no ridey bikey! Bollocks. So now we must wait until and unspecified mid-February date when we might be allowed out of our houses for more than just limited socially distanced exercise (dog walks allowed)  and to hunt for food.

After the lockdown we seemed to be getting somewhere. Locally Covid cases has dropped. Instead the weather was appalling. My shoulder still not good. Even with the exercises I can't reach back to get something out of my right ass jeans pocket. The pain, good pain, as Shaun the physio calls it when exercising is terrible. So another month has passed. It's now cold and wet most of the time. I doubt Pepé will want to start...

Sadly as we enter another lockdown in England it's nearly two months since Pepé and I went out. Why? I am unable to ride due to tendonitis in the shoulder! I can bearly lift my arm to hold the right bar and throttle. More Physio. Fingers crossed - at least I can do that.

Coalition of Motorcycling Organisations reports progress and growing support.   This version: 2020-05-21         Following the submission of its Ride COVID Safe White Paper to the Secretary of State for Transport, Grant Shapps, last week, progress has been made and support is growing. Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Motorcycling Group, Chris Law MP, said: “I very much welcome this initiative and the partnership between the organisations which created it. Motorcycling does have an enormous role to play in any transport policy if we are to see a long term reduction in congestion and pollution, and the Parliamentary Motorcycle Group has long advocated this. The riders’ code announced last week provides invaluable advice to those using motorcycles during the Covid19 crisis, and I urge all motorcyclists to take it into account and ride safe during these extraordinary times. As Chair of the APMG I strongly urge Ministers and the DfT to fully rec...

This started off as a memory bank for the different things I had drunk at home and on holidays.  It might seem to have got out of hand, but it's easier than soaking the labels off and sticking them in an album. This is a Flickr album!

It started off as a lunchtime pull the bike out and Solvol the rusty bits! It was warm and sunny. By three after midday I was getting bored.  Pepé was out and shining from the polish. There were no calls on the helpdesk and I need to have my lunch and visit the supermarket.  Togged up I left and decided to try the Sainsbury's at Folkestone.  Bigger store, more choice?  I had the list of what was needed in my pocket. For the fashion conscious I was wearing the Joe Rocket mesh jacket, black Kevlar lined cargo trousers, my old boots and the black LS2 helmet.  I took London Road out of Hythe, A20 and then M20 to the Hawkinge turn off, then down through Folkestone on Black Bull Road and out to Park Farm.  Sainsbury had a queue too long and so I headed back along the coast to Waitrose in Hythe. Parked up. No queue to speak off and straight in. Once done I had a short ride home.  The first ride for 8 weeks or so.  Enjoyed thoroughly.

Today is the start of the third month since I last went up to London on the train to go to work. On March 12th 2020 my boss said as one of those with underlying conditions (as result of the heart attack and stenting) I should start to work from home.   I was already at home by this stage.  I had had almost a week off the week before with 'flu like symptoms. I went to work on the Thursday but was really ill on the way home.  Maybe I had had Covid-19 and only mildly?  I have no idea. Until they start dishing out the anti-body test we'll never know.   On Thursday 12th it was later in the evening when he made the decision. It means that my work laptop was on the desk at work!    One of my colleagues collected and posted it to me. It arrived today.  It saves my shared with Claire personal laptop from a 40 hours week!  Once I had fought my way through the blocks and locks that the Council's IT monkeys have tied it down with, I can work...