A jolly good week end

Last week end some of us intrepid Round Britain Ralliers had a final camping week end for 2008 at 'Conkers' near Burton on Trent!
As none of us had any idea what the site was like I elected to take the Caravan to use as a 'club house'

(This is an old photo as despite having taken 2 cameras AND a DV camera, I failed to get any photos?!)


The thinking behind the camping trip was to allow the RBRers who might have to come from a long distance away the opportunity to meet up for the week end, not having to rush about to get back home and hand in their photos for adjudication on the Sunday (Dave the Disorganiser and his family, have 2 week-ends when they welcome the participants of the RBR to come and have their photos checked and points/scores issued)
This is always a popular event and an get a bit crowded.

On the Friday Steve and I set up the caravan and had a practice BBQ with Jacki & Phil, Paul was there in his camper van but got carried away uber-relaxing!
We were denied the pleasure of Highwaylasses ('s) presence by her work commitments :-(

Saturday saw Teresa, Mick and Hanna appear and a few day trippers including the British Biking God 'The Grim Rider' and Jerry who stayed at the YHA which is on site..... with a bar...... and a restaurant..... and is brand new...... and had I known it was there I would have stayed in it as well!

The BBQ sort of went on a bit, plenty of smoke (caravan still smells like a transport cafe) and we got to see/hear Graham and his brother Barry in full bickering mode, (this had to be the highlight of the week-end) and it started to rain as soon as their bikes started to go home.

I think it was a successful week-end and the weather was perfect (apart from the bit of rain that we had booked for Graham)

Brightona, and the failed challenge!

Steve and I decided to go to the Brightona Bike meet having seen it on the UK Bike web site.
This was a good thing to do, lots of bikes albeit HDs in the main, but there were plenty of them as the day wore on there were not far off the same quantity of bikes at Brightona as there was at the Ace Cafe burn up

There was some strange looking bikes there as well! there were some that were in the process of being fabricated, I think, as the engines were missing!
(I notice things like that.)


It has to be said the excitement of being there was heightened by the lack of traffic control, which made riding far more enjoyable weaving in and out of the pedestrians crowded onto Madeira Drive, and when on foot dodging bikes and cars coming at you from all directions.

Anyway having battled our way past the entry and paid our £5 we wiggled our way through the crowd and parked at the far end of Madeira drive then walked down to Harry Ramsdens for Fish & Chips.
Here we elected to take the 'Harry's challenge' meal, which consisted of a larger than normal lump of your preferred fish + chips and Peas/Beans (you get a certificate if you manage to clear the plate) all went well when it arrived it looked very manageable (in fact dessert was muted) however it all went wrong about 1/2 way through and neither of us succeeded in our quest and consequently failed to get our Certificate - disaster!

This was not a good thing to do!! and lessons have been learnt ('till we go back, that is!?)

Nearly Christmas! (Well, close enough to justify getting more bike kit?!)

I feel a desperate need to spend more money on the bike.

so I plan to invest in some more bits of plastic to protect the rather rubbish paintwork on the areas of the fairing where the paint has worn off! and some better weather protection - Compared to my Triumph Trophy the weather protection on the Honda is not much cop either!

I'm thinking, if I sneak a few bits on the bike at a time, 'Er indoors may not notice. although there may be a problem when I roll the bike out of the garage after a few months of sticking bits on it, and it has sort of evolved from a stock Pan European to something just short of a Goldwing!



Still, That's a bridge to be crossed when I get to it.
Live for the moment, that's what I say!! (Albeit a very short moment, probably!)

Don't read this if you're a sensitive biker who likes to treat the road as a race track!

How arrogant and ignorant are some of us bikers!

I've just seen some footage of some seriously silly riding

Why do we have to put other peoples lives at risk with our need to go faster than everything around us?
If we can't kill innocent people as a result of our stupidity and ruin the lives of their relatives maybe we can kill ourself, and ruin the lives of our relatives and loved ones. (How clever is that! we die so we don't have to worry about anyone; is that a definition of ignorance or arrogance?)
Not to worry though! we like to think - that our mates think - we're brilliant riders, which, of course we are!!
So we'll never crash/run over a child/cause some other road user to crash, etc. we're just too good and anyway, they should have seen us coming and got out of the way!

If you need to speed, do it on a track and don't give the Police & press (and undertakers) reason to persecute Bikers who just want to enjoy safe riding and are happy to share the road with other people!

Rant over