Day One.... Did you know that Pete is 50??

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Originally uploaded by Captain Smurf

Bikes finally checked and all gear stowed and packed; we set out to catch up with Pete to celebrate his 50th birthday at the Plough in Farcet Fen. Off we head with sunny skies towards the good route... A6006 to Melton Mowbray and the A606, past Rutland Water, to the A1.

This trip, having splashed out on a pair of Midland G7's complete with headsets and PTT kits from Maplin, we have bike to bike communication. This proved invaluable for being able to talk while still moving in town, and gives two pairs of eyes for spotting cashpoints in Oakham. Not so good on the motorways or above 50MPH with the bottom end (cheap) mikes we have which came as an offer with the radios.

First issue found, the maps I had loaded on the GPS were not ROUTING maps! Bugger, means we can only tell where we are , and not depend on the magic box. No probs really,as we are loaded to the gunwhales with Michelin maps...

First minor navigation problem was the road I thought I could take is now closed off due to a bypass being built! Diversion is in place, but signs run out... a quick u-turn and we are in territory I know and arrive in style... not too late and not the last.

Tent goes up presents are presented and we get stickered... boy do we get stickered. Dawn, Pete's other half, has three times the number of stickers for the event she was expecting and they all have to be used. Great, stickers,kids and drunk bikers... what a combination for mischief.

Pete's do coincides with a wedding and another birthday party that is a mini music festival. Apart from the wedding the guests mingle and get drunk together... the wedding guests are a wee bit discomforted by lots of people staggering round wearing yellow stickers stating "Pete's not accident prone but a bit unlucky and 50!" And finding them on their cars...wonder how that happened....

We imbibe some of the local brew and after a brief torchlight lust session over the Wunderlich BMW parts catalogue with Bowser we head for bed... quiet start really.

Delays......

Well here we are looking out the window at a fairly good day. No rain and possible showers, but Jules has a badly bruised foot ankle knee and leg from a fall yesterday and I am wiped out after a hectic couple of weeks in work after our main client pulled a go-live date forward by a MONTH!

Most of us booked the end of July off as we expected to be working flat out through August, but nooo, computer says go go go for July.

That and swine flu have caused a shed load of extra work and one very tired Scouse, who is still a day of bike prep away from leaving... so tomorrow we hit the road. Can't wait!

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Book Review

These are the days that must happen to you - Dan Walsh.

Dan Walsh was a writer for Bike magazine and decided to ride the length of Africa.... okay so far so good...then got another bike and tried it for the length of the Americas. He got a wage while doing it as he sent back regular columns , that were mildly entertaining ... he manages to write in a New Journalist/Gonzo style, as he states himself ,that he never quite gets right; he himself agrees his style is part Hunter S Thompson, part early Mark Williams, and part Nick Cohn , and a big dollop of Tom Wolfe.

Essentially like many long distance riders there is a sub plot and with Walsh it is constant battle with not becoming a statistic like many of his friends back in Manchester , or the Manc scally drug mules he visits in a Central American prison. Realising he needs to grow up as mainly alcohol,occasionaly recreational drugs and constantly travelling starts out to first destroy his relationships then his health... then the bike dies... he tries to obtain a balance in his life.

As the book is actually, as stated earlier, a collection of columns that he wrote for Bike it feels as such. Each chapter becoming a fully formed item, and there are some sections that you know he wrote purely to meet a deadline and others have a great deal more craft lovingly applied to them.

It made me mutter "Twat" a lot while reading, but not always in the negative and some sections made me laugh out loud. At time things shine through, the sheer joy of riding , the essence of the pose factor , the sheer rebellion of riding in todays sanitised car based societies.There is some incitful writing that makes you nod in agreement , but a book needs to be taken as a whole entity and as such it is not a classic, but as a bit of entertainment I would recommend it.

Be a good one for being stuck waiting on a flight , or like I was. on a train to London and back.

MAG urges riders - respond to threat of bad technology from Europe

An international consortium of new technology designers has been brought together by the European Commission to develop new devices capable of informing, or limiting, motorcyclists control over their bikes.

The spectre of dangerous, destabilising and distracting devices being fitted to your next bike is not one that riders take lightly. There is a very real risk that politicians and policy makers will mistakenly think that fitting car-safety devices to bikes will improve road safety, when the opposite could be the result.

The Motorcycle Action Group today urged riders to act now to avoid future bikes being fitted with inappropriate devices. "We are at a crucial stage in the development of these devices..." said MAG Campaigns Manager, David Short "but we have a golden opportunity to tell the designers what will work for us or against us."

FEMA, the European riders group comprising all the major national rides groups across the continent, has argued its way into the expert group to defend the motorcyclists' interests and set-up an on-line survey so that riders themselves can tell the designers which technologies are a dead-end. But some media coverage of this achievement has painted FEMA's success as if it were supporting the concept of taking control away from riders.

"Bizarrely, some riders have been misinformed about the role of FEMA and now think the riders groups are in favour of removing their control over their bikes" said Mr Short. "MAG and the other FEMA member organisations are utterly opposed to the threat of removing riders control, we have a seat at the table where we can explain why some of these technologies would work against our safety

For your chance to tell the international group of technology designers what you think they should work on and what to avoid, complete the on-line survey at http://www.saferider-eu.org/your_opinion.html before the end of July.

Global Warming ? My Arse !

Yet another wonderful summer sunset ... NOT! It gets more like autumn everyday, winters are getting milder, longer and wetter and still they want to burn more fossil fuels, as everyone seems to think it is a "humanitarian right" to spoil the planet with excessive fuel usage ....grumble grumble mutter.... when will summer ever start.