27/02/12 - THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A BIKER AND A “BIKERETTE”

22^nd February 2012 : The Police, Speed Cameras and the 14 day rule (continued.)

I was surprised to receive a reply back from the police to my initial letter almost by return of post.  In the letter, they state that the NIP received by myself was not the initial document but a second one after I had been nominated as the driver.

I wrote a reply and it was sent by return post.  Again, it is reproduced in full below.

Copy of second letter sent to Warwickshire Police :  

Dear Sir/Madam,

Y***/**/**** - Notice of Intended Prosecution

I have received your letter dated 20^th February 2012, the references for which are detailed above. I have enclosed a copy of the letter sent to me, for ease of cross-reference.

 
You state “the first Notice of Intended Prosecution was sent to the Registered Keeper as detailed from the records we are entitled to use when the offence was viewed”

The Registered Keeper (per DVLA) is :

Carelogic Limited

Pottal Pool House

Pottal Pool

Penkridge

Stafford

ST19 5RR

You will note that that address of the registered keeper is my home address.

I mistakenly informed you in my letter of 16^th February 2012 that I personally was the registered keeper of R111 BSA.  I own in excess of 15 vehicles, all recorded at this address.  In respect of all of the vehicles with the exception of R111 BSA, I am personally shown as the Registered Keeper.  On receipt of your letter dated 14^th February 2012, my natural assumption was that you had written to me as the Registered Keeper and not as I have now checked as the hirer/named driver of the vehicle in question.  I apologise for this error.

Nevertheless, my statement in the final sentence of the third paragraph of my letter of 16^th February 2012 of “The written Notice is the first indication from you of any intention to prosecute.”  still stands.  There had been no Notice received before that date.

The only people who open post addressed to Carelogic Limited is myself and my wife who are both directors.  The company employs no staff and the only other person residing at Pottal Pool House, is my youngest son.  The original Notice of Intended Prosecution which you claim was sent within the 14 days did not arrive at this address.  I can also confirm that no documentation has been returned to yourself nominating myself as the driver in question.

Accordingly, could you please provide me with :

1. A copy of the original Notice of Intended Prosecution addressed to the Registered Keeper
2. A copy of the document nominating myself as the keeper - the description used in your letter of 20^th February 2012, or;
3. A copy of the document nominating myself as the hirer/named driver - the description used in your correspondence of 14^th February 2012

It will be interesting to see what information I receive back regarding my requests.

24^th & 25^th February 2012 : Motorbeurs Utrecht and the Butte du Lion IBAUK RTE – aka “Hele” goes European ……..

I have a teddy bear.  There, I’ve said it now.  However, this is no ordinary teddy bear.  This is “Hele” the teddy bear, who last year completed the Iron Butt Rally in the USA with me.  Now given that the Iron Butt Rally is the Worlds Toughest Motorcycle Rally and IBA riders are billed as the Worlds Toughest Riders, then that would make Hele, the Worlds Toughest Teddy Bear.  In any event, I though it was time I introduced Hele to Europe …………

Don’t mess with this bear – he may look cuddly but looks can be deceptive JJ

The plan for the weekend was simple.  Leave home early Friday and catch a morning shuttle to France.  Ride up through France, Belgium and Holland and get to the show at Utrecht mid afternoon.  Spend the afternoon and early evening at the show and stay overnight in Utrecht.  On Saturday, I’d begin to make my way home, making a slight detour to meet up with the guys from the IBA UK at Waterloo for a couple of hours at the RTE (Ride to Eat).  Leaving there late afternoon, I was due to catch an early evening shuttle back to the UK and be back home for around 11.00pm “ish”

Just after 5.00am on the Friday morning, the Daytona headed towards the very familiar journey down to the Chunnel.  Of course, with my current speeding ticket dispute hanging over me like the sword of Damocles, my usual gung ho journey down to Folkestone was a little more restrained this time, turning what is already, at best, a tedious journey, into one of total boredom.  As ever in these situations, my mind started to wander …….

I reckon over the last five years, I must have made at least 100 tunnel crossings as we use the tunnel at least 15 to 20 times a year.  So that means I’ve done the M6, M42, M40, M25, M26 and M20 drag at least 200 times (there and back).  At four hours per trip, that’s 800 hours, or 48,000 minutes or hold on, hold on ……. 2,880,000 seconds.  That’s nearly three million seconds of my life has been travelling back and forward between home and Folkestone.  I considered if there was anything useful in knowing this statistic and after mulling the thought over for a few minutes, I came to the conclusion there wasn’t.  It was an absolutely useless piece of information – but one that nevertheless, I’m glad that I now know J  On the other hand it did pass 50 miles or so as, over the years, my mental arithmetic has become, at best, rusty and calculations, with so many zeros like that, do not come easy to me any longer !!

Three hours of 70 mph tedium later, I pulled up at the tunnel, checked in and ignoring my pre-booked time (as normal) rode straight around to the loading bays and onto the next train.

Once in France and free from the fear of dreaded speed camera, I relaxed, wound up the 955i and was on my way.  I should point out here that I don’t ride stupidly fast, but 80 to 85 mph on a bike like the 955i, is barely is holding the throttle off the stop.  It’s a nice comfortable pace to ride at and more importantly, that extra 10 to 15 mph makes all of the difference over a long journey.

Hele arrives in Belgium for the first time

As I passed Gent, then Antwerp and crossed the Dutch border, it occurred to me that apart from a brief trip through it’s southerly tip last year on the way to Germany, I hadn’t been to the Netherlands for a couple of years.  The Netherlands has always been one of my favourite European countries, if only because, it’s one of the few European countries where, as a British person, you feel genuinely made welcome.

By 3.00pm, I’d reached Utrecht, checked into my hotel, had a quick shower, changed, jumped back on my bike, ridden the further 5 miles to the bike show and was inside the halls.  This was great, I’d told no-one I was going to be in Utrecht and so I was just able to do my own thing – which I did – meandering around the show, with no particular plan.  It didn’t close until 10.00pm and I was in no rush.

The great thing about the Utrecht show for me compared with our own NEC show, is the wide diversity of exhibits on display and the very first bike (and I use that in the loosest sense of the word) that I saw as I walked into the first hall, demonstrated this.

If you’ve got 6 litres of Aston Martin V12 spare, what better use could there be ? J

Someone, (presumably high on some kind of illegal drug at the time), had clearly had the good fortune to come across a spare 6 litre V12 Aston Martin engine and rather than “waste” it by using it to power a car (like any sane person would do) had decided that it would be much better utilised to power 2 wheels !  The resultant machine is pictured above.  Beauty, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder ….. JJ

As with many shows, there was a live action arena outside and at this show it was a display of trials riding.  The two lads riding the bikes were going through an endless routine of seemingly impossible stunts - ones that I think I would have had trouble climbing over let alone riding a bike over them.

As always with these sort of shows though, eventually your envy for the supreme skills that these guys possess overwhelms you to such an extent that when they do have a slight slip, you allow yourself a wry smile and for a millisecond or so, you stand there feeling pretty dammed smug.  The fact that they then get up, dust themselves off and on the next attempt execute the “impossible” perfectly, soon puts you back firmly in your place !!

Ooops ……

Made it this time !

One of the “must see” stands at any show for me, is always going to be the Triumph stand.  At Utrecht, all of the manufacturers stands are grouped together in the one hall.  It seems that at any show you visit, the Triumph stand is always busy and Utrecht followed the same pattern. 

Given the amazing success story of Triumph over the past 20 years since their “rebirth” in 1991, it still both surprises me and saddens me in equal measures at the general lack of public acknowledgement of this fact.  As a country, the United Kingdom has hardly covered itself in glory recently regarding its manufacturing capabilities and yet the success story that is Triumph barely ever gets a mention in the mainstream media.  Even now when parking the bike up, from time to time, some misty-eyed old gent will come up to me waxing lyrical about a Triumph he had way back in his youth and then be surprised at the fact you can still buy a modern Triumph.  I’m never quite sure who’s at fault here, Triumphs marketing guys or whether this is just another example of the rather worrying secret agenda that a succession of governments seemed to have had, of killing off biking.  Phew, time to put the soap box away …. J

My next bike – mine arrives in 3 weeks.  The next time we’re in Europe, we’ll be on the Explorer, complete with comfy (and heated) seat, upright riding position and a whole host of other modern luxuries

Although I’ve seen the bike several times now, I spent most of my time looking at the 1200cc Explorer.  Mine arrives in just over 3 weeks time now and I’m looking forward to riding a more comfortable bike than the 955i.  Although I’ve covered nigh on 100,000 miles on the Daytona over the last 5 years, I’ve noticed that I’ve started to ache a little more after each long journey.  I think that I’m making the transition from being a sports bike rider to an adventure bike rider just at the right time.

It was well after 7.00pm when I’d decided that I’d seen everything and left the show.  As I walked outside, the rain that had been threatening all day had finally arrived and it was a wet few miles back to the hotel.

After a quick meal, I was in bed by 10.30pm and asleep by 10.31pm.  These days, I can do early starts or late nights – but not both !!

By the next morning, the rain had stopped, the sun was out and it was a beautiful, late winter/early spring day in the Netherlands.  I was in no rush today.  The RTE location was barely 130 miles due south of where I had stayed overnight and we weren’t due to meet there until 4.00pm.

An RTE is a “Ride to Eat” and tend to be held once a month somewhere in the UK and 4 or 5 times a year in Europe.  There’s no set pattern to these gatherings though.  Someone will simply suggest a place via the IBA UK forum, we all turn up, have a bite to eat, hang around for a couple of hours (some will then stay overnight), take a group picture and then disperse gain until the next time.  As one of my buddies from the USA so elegantly put it, “we ride alone to be together”.

Even with a leisurely ride down and a detour for a coffee for an hour or so in Antwerp, I was still at the Butte Du Lion a good two hours before the official time - not that I was the first though.  Mark and Angie from London were already there and as I rolled up into the car-park, Roland, Steve and Deb, more or less followed me in.  We retired to the café for coffee and food.

Ere !!  Who’s nicked my bike I was sitting on ? Sartorial elegance at its finest J

As more people arrived, someone then had the “good” idea that we should climb to the top of the monument – all 226 very, very steep steps of it ….

It’s a long way down for a little bear

Half hour later, I realised that 6 years on from running my one and only marathon, I have lost more than a little of whatever fitness I had back then J

The IBA flag flies

But it’s an even longer way up !!

And then, all that was left was the group photograph.  As always, the group assembles and some poor passing person is asked if they wouldn’t mind just taking a photograph.  After having a succession of 20 cameras or so later thrust into their hands, the poor soul, finally escapes presumably to have some sort of physiotherapy on his/her, by now, aching index finger …..  

The obligatory group photograph.  I’m second from the right looking “cool” - note the Monument near the top left hand corner of the photograph 

Those that were then staying overnight, left for their hotel and those of us returning home left for the tunnel.  It was 138 miles back to the tunnel from Waterloo and inside a couple of hours, we were on the train heading back to England.

On the shuttle home and Heles first European adventure is nearly over

As we left the Chunnel terminal and joined the M20, Hele who was riding pillion didn’t say much.  I think he’d enjoyed his first trip to Europe.  Myself on the other hand was again lost in my own world as  I started to calculate how many seconds it would be until we arrived home …….

26^th February 2012 : TR3OC Cogenhoe Swapmeet

Although I didn’t arrive home on the Saturday evening until almost 11.00pm, by 8.00am the following morning I was back on the bike heading for the TR3OC annual swapmeet at Cogenhoe near Northampton.  This has been a feature on the club calendar for as many years as I can remember.   Although the amount of rubbish (sorry, I mean spares) that people bring along has diminished over the years, no doubt due to the rise in activity on e-bay, it is still a well supported event, with many members simply seeing it as a social event.

The older we get, the faster we were – or so we remember !! J

As treasurer of the club (although not for much longer as I finish my term at this years AGM) for me it’s a chance to settle a few outstanding accounts and catch up with other committee members on general club business.

With the NVT Runs, the L.P.Williams Re-unuion and Beezumph already looming large in 2012, I certainly had plenty to talk about and once I’d had breakfast, spent the next 3 hours chattering away. 

This year, I even bought something from one of the stalls – a air filter assembly for a X75 Hurricane (without boring you too much, this was a special one year only model, that had an air filter assembly that are difficult to get nowadays).  I bought it simply as a spare on a “just in case” basis, presumably just like the guy who was selling had done some time previously.  As I handed over the £20 for the air filter, both Pete (the seller) and myself both knew deep down that at some point, this air filter would re-surface at a future Cogenhoe Swapmeet for someone to buy from me, presumably again on a “just in case” basis.  In the biking world, there is a sea of spares that spend there entire life, never actually being fitted to a machine, just moving from one bikers garage to another …..

One mans rubbish is another man treasure

As I left the village hall and headed for home, I realised that I’d now got the next 3 weekends at home – or rather in the garage.  The “jobs to do on bikes” had now reached into a two page list.  It was time to curtail accumulating the miles for a while and time for some spannering to begin.

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A BIKER AND A “BIKERETTE”

The Police, Speed Cameras and the 14 day rule

The day started badly ……..

It’s always unusual for Sonia to phone me during the working day and so I knew immediately that there was some bad news awaiting me as I picked up the phone.  I wasn’t wrong as Sonia told me that I’d received yet another “speeding ticket” – this time, I’d apparently been doing 47mph on the M42 when the variable speed limit was showing 40mph.  Now whether the overhead gantries were showing 40mph, nearly three weeks on from the date of the offence, who was I to argue – they probably were and even if they weren’t, there’s little point in arguing against something like this as I’ve found out to my cost in the past.  A quick glance at my diary showed that I was indeed on the M42 around the time the “alleged offence” took place and so rather glumly, I resigned myself to having yet another three points on my licence.  With six points on there already, plus these three would mean one more “strike” and I was facing a possible driving (but more importantly, riding) ban.

What is all the more amazing and given the miles I ride each year on bikes capable of 150 mph plus, every single speeding endorsement that I have ever had on my licence, bar one (and there’s been a few J), have been whilst driving a car.  Now given that the last four have all been in the Land Rover makes it all the more galling as the Land Rover barely exceeds the motorway speed limit these days due to its age and mileage and that’s with my foot planted firmly on the floor !!

I returned to the more mundane matters of catching up with correspondence at work, but there was something at the back of my mind nagging away about something to do with N.I.P.’s (Notice of Intended Prosecution aka speeding ticket) and time limits.

Now the internet can be a wonderful thing and quick “Google search” later, I found the piece of legislation that I was looking for. 

A quick call to a criminal lawyer that I know (that is a lawyer who practices in criminal law, rather than a lawyer that I know who is a criminal J), confirmed my apparent findings.

The letter that I sent off to the Warwickshire Police is reproduced below.  My lawyer friend tells me that this is now “dead in the water” as far as the police and any sort of prosecution are concerned.  I, on the other hand, am a little less confident, but will be absolutely delighted to have my doubts proved wrong. 

Now let’s see what they respond with …..

Copy of Letter sent to Warwickshire Police :  

Dear Sir/Madam,

Y***/**/**** - Notice of Intended Prosecution

I received your letter dated 14^th February 2012, the references for which are detailed above. I have enclosed a copy of the Notice sent to me, for ease of cross-reference.

 
You have written to me because I am the Registered Keeper of the vehicle mentioned in your Notice. My address is correct as per the details at DVLC, and the vehicle was not a Company car, and was neither hired nor borrowed.

No Officer spoke to me at the time of the alleged offence, and no accident took place. Also, no Police person has spoken with me at or near the time and place detailed in your Notice. The written Notice is the first indication from you of any intention to prosecute.

Your Notice details the alleged offence as 08.54hrs on 30^th January 2012. The Notice is dated 14^th February 2012, and was delivered to me by first class post.

Excluding the day of the alleged offence, the date on the Notice was the 15th day after the date of the alleged offence.

Under legislation section 1(1)(c) of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988, a Notice of Intended Prosecution is required to be served on the driver or registered keeper within 14 days of an alleged offence.  Since the Notice of Intended Prosecution was created on the 15^th day after the offence, it was impossible for it to have been served on myself within the stipulated 14 days.

 
I believe therefore that the Notice was served out of time and accordingly, prosecution is time-barred..

Fingers crossed !! JJJ

15^th February 2012 (Part 2) : B’ham/Wolves TOMCC visit to my new garage

The second part of the day was a much more pleasurable experience.

My new “garage” has attracted more than a little favourable comment and so I felt having hosted members of the IBA a couple of weeks back, it was only fair to invite over my local Triumph Owners Club.

Sonia again provided food and with several members of the North Staffs TOMCC also coming along, meant that we had another 20 plus attendance.  Given by the nice e-mails we received the following day, it would appear that the evening was a great success.

The most amazing thing though concerning that garage, is that we actually had a email from someone wanting to “hire” the garage from us for a few hours for a meeting.  I suppose that’s the ultimate compliment that we could receive for what we’ve put together.  We actually declined the offer of payment for the hire of the room, instead just asking that a contribution be made to the charities that the TR3OC, later this year, is doing its charity rides in respect of.

Should anyone reading this ever find themselves in my garage, the collection box is just to the right of the door as you leave ….. JJJ

18^th February 2012 : Bristol Classic Bike Show

Another weekend, another show – this time Bristol.

My bike club, the Trident & Rocket 3 Owners Club had taken a stand there and that meant two very important things, one, the chance of free entry passes and secondly, somewhere to leave our gear whilst we walked around the show.  “We” in this instance was myself and my eldest son, John. 

Although I’ve ridden bikes since I’ve been seventeen (some thirty-five years now), I’ve discovered that I’m not the “cool dad” that I thought I would be when it came down to my kids and bikes.  Both John and Stephen ride – they both have 600cc Triumphs – and to put it bluntly, I’m not exactly thrilled by their decision to have bikes !!  A perfect case of do as I say, not as I do, I think JJ  

The Club Stand

Partly due to the forecast of heavy rain, but mainly due to the fact he hadn’t arrived back home until around 5.00am, Stephen opted out of the trip down to Bristol and with Sonia already “crying off”, that just left John Snr. and John Jnr. representing the Young household at the show.

Although it’s billed as the Bristol Classic Bike Show, it’s actually held nearer to Shepton Mallet.  The Garmin read 128 miles as we pulled into the car-park at the showground and after a quick phone call to one of the club members on the stand, a couple of free passes duly appeared.

The first “motorbike” that Sonia had back in 1979 (and I use that description in its loosest possible way) was one of these – a Honda Express.  50cc, 1.5 bhp and a top speed of 30mph

She now rides this – A Triumph Rocket 3 Trike (aka The “Trocket”). 2300cc, 140bhp and a top speed of 135mph

As I’ve said before, shows for me have long since stopped being anything other than a social event and an excuse to go for a ride.  Occasionally an exhibit will catch your eye or you’ll pick up something off a stand, but more often than not, my time at shows is spent chatting to people - Bristol was no exception.

As regards the bikes on show, I think I actually spent more time looking at a “40 miles from new” little Honda moped than anything else and that was only because Sonia had one of these back when she was 16.  She now rides a machine 46 times the capacity JJ

We stayed at the show around 4 hours or so, before leaving for home – just as the rain started.  Neither of us had carried waterproofs with us and so by the time we ridden through the storm and out of the rain, we were “somewhat moist” J.  It didn’t help matters that the temperature had dropped significantly and so by the time we reached home, we were both glad that it had only been a two hour ride back.

As we were due to go down to London the next day, I left the bike out overnight but when I woke the next morning, any thoughts of riding the bike much before sunrise disappeared as I looked out of the window to see a blanket of snow covering both the ground and the bike.  More relevantly, after snowing, the temperature had dropped to such an extent that the roads immediately surrounding our house had turned into an ice rink.  Bikes and ice do not work well together.  After watching through the bedroom window, a succession of cars hit ice and slide unceremoniously into the kerbside, I went back to bed……  London could wait for another day.

The next morning ………

In 7 days time, I’d be heading off to the continent again.  This time to the Netherlands and Utrecht for the “Motorbeurs” show and on the way home calling in at the “Butte Du Lion” (which is the monument at the site of the Battle of Waterloo, just to the south of Brussels) to meet up with some of the IBAUK riders on the first of this years European RTE’s.

Blasts from the Past

As I hoping that many people reading this blog will be following our biking life for the first time, I thought occasionally I’d throw in a few pictures of some of the places we’ve already been to and some of the things we’ve already done.  Don’t worry, it’s just going to be pictures – so there’s no difficult reading to do J

Following one from the last picture, here’s a few “snowy” ones to start with ……

Germany : February 2010

Wales : March 2007

Northen England : February 2006

Norway : February 2011

 

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A BIKER AND A “BIKERETTE” Continued

8^th February 2012 : Performance Triumph Stratford Open Evening

This was another of those open evenings that seem to be becoming more popular with bike shops, especially it seems, with Triumph dealers.  The way it works is that the shop simply stays open for a few hours longer, puts on some food, marks up a few items with special prices and then invites along the local Triumph club. 

In all honesty, it cannot be denied that from a business point of view and as a marketing strategy, it “ticks all of the right boxes”.  On top of that, they’re generally a pleasant night out, you get a chance to meet up with folk who you may not have seen for a while and once in a while, you do drop onto a bargain.

I went down with Jon Everall and then having had a quick look around, eat some food, listened to the dealer “welcome”, spent the remainder of the evening chatting away to Clive Humphries about the “good old days” of biking and how we don’t understand these “modern motorcyclists”. 

It’s good to be nearly 52 as I can officially slip into my “grumpy old man” mode whenever and wherever my fancy takes me and on any subject whatsoever JJ ……..

10^th – 11^th February 2012 : Retro Moto Wieze

Two days later, saw me off on another quick trip across the Channel, this time for the classic bike show and autojumble at Wieze, which is about halfway between Gent and Brussels in Belgium.

The weather had remained bitingly cold throughout the week and although no further snowfalls of any substance had been forecast, the sub zero temperatures were set to continue.

After an early start in the office on the Friday, I was able to wrap up for the day, be back home and on my way, by just turned noon.  As it was school half term, the Chunnel had very few spaces available and the only crossing times I could get were 4.20pm or 7.40pm on the Friday.  I opted for the earlier one, but that did require a fast ride down to Folkestone in order to check in on time.

When I arrived at the terminal, the queues for checking in were unusually long.  A quick chat with one of the Chunnel staff and the reasons were clear – there had been a couple of breakdowns earlier in the day, which had led to a substantial backlog developing.

After a unsuccessful attempt as I always do, to simply ignore my allotted time and just ride around to board the next train (the first time I might add that this hasn’t worked), I took myself back to the terminal, “plonked” myself down in a corner and waited.

The terminal was full of families off on “half-term” ski-ing holidays.  It seemed that every family though was a “cloned” unit – a rather ridiculous looking dad, wearing a Barbour jacket, with an unfeasibly “loud” woollen jumper underneath, a “yummy-mummy”, sun-glasses perched on head and two/three annoyingly loud “brats” (sorry – children), whose every sentence appeared to begin with the words “I want ….”.  Outside of course, the car-park was full of cloned vehicles – 4 x 4 ‘s of all shapes and sizes.  These will for the first time in months, all be presumably experiencing the sort of weather conditions that they’re built to cope with but will spend most of their time parked up in the “devoid of snow” hotel carpark, having travelled down to the ski centres on roads “devoid of snow” ……         

See, I did tell you earlier that I was able to slip into “grumpy old man” mode at the drop of a hat !! J

After waiting around an hour and conscious of the fact that it had been a cold journey down, it was going to get colder once the sun had gone down and that I still had 100 miles to ride once on the other side of the tunnel, I decided to try again to bluff my way onto an earlier train.

This time it worked and within 15 minutes I was boarded (the last vehicle on) and 45 minutes later arrived in France.  Although it was still daylight, (albeit not for long), looking out of the window as we approached the terminal offered little in the way of encouragement that it was going to be anything other than a very cold ride to my hotel.

The scene that greeted me as the train arrived in France

This was one of those times, when you just had to “get on with it” and having kitted up left the relative warmth of the train and rode out into the French cold air.  Still it could be worse, I could have been one of those ridiculous looking dads …JJJ

Albeit that I was barely 30 miles away from England, the temperature on the continent was noticeably colder and as the light faded away, it dropped still further.  At least the roads were dry and with me being free from the problem of losing your licence if you’re caught speeding – it’s generally just a nasty fine abroad - I wound the Daytona up to a “respectable” cruising speed and crunched the 100 miles to Gent as quickly as possible.  It was simply a race to get there before both my fingers and face gave up the unequal struggle against the cold.

As the cold bit into every part of my body, I was reminded of a description someone once wrote of what being cold is like when you’re on a bike :

“There is cold, and there is cold on a motorcycle. Cold on a motorcycle is like being beaten with cold hammers while being kicked with cold boots, a bone bruising cold. The wind's big hands squeeze the heat out of my body and whisk it away; caught in a cold October rain, the drops don't even feel like water. They feel like shards of bone fallen from the skies of Hell to pock my face. I expect to arrive with my cheeks and forehead streaked with blood, but that's just an illusion, just the misery of nerves not designed for highway speeds.”

The one thing that the Daytona is good at though is gobbling up the miles and even with 100,000 miles on the clock, can still cover ground with indecent haste.  Within the hour - yes, an hour J - I turned off the motorway and rode the last few miles to the Gent Ibis hotel, my usual first night stopover point, whenever I’m heading North or North-East into mainland Europe.

It was still very cold, but from what I had seen in the dark, at least the lying snow had petered out somewhere around the Ostend area.

For now though, a warm shower, a change of clothes and some food – in that order – was all that I was concerned with.

The Wieze show is only around 30 miles further on from Gent and so I lay in the warmth of my bed the following morning, for a lot longer than I would usually.  I must admit, having peered out of the window at a rather frosty Gent, there was some considerable reluctance on my part to think about climbing back on the bike for another days ride.  At least it was sunny though and I attempted to make myself believe (albeit failing miserably) that sun would mean warmth.

I was due to meet a Dutch friend, Martin, at the show and as I arrived, he was waiting for me.  He cheerfully informed me that his outside air temperature in his car was reading minus 12 as he pulled into the car park.  Although I never saw the gauge myself, the lack of feeling in any of my fingers more or less confirmed this ……. L

Martin from the Netherlands.  He only live 100 kms away, but he’d come in his car

So as for the show itself ?  Well like so many shows these days there’s generally very little new to see.  E-bay has very much destroyed auto-jumbling (although the odd gem does still turn up from time to time) and the Internet in general plays its part as a “spoiler” to remove any surprises that shows might have in store.  In my opinion, shows have become much more of a social experience these days and offer the opportunity to meet up with friends that you haven’t seen for a while.  Of course, the fact that a show exists, also provides a reason for a ride …….

As if to re-enforce the above point, of the couple of hours I spent at the show, the vast majority of the time, I was sitting down drinking coffee and putting the world to rights with Martin.  Now, I know that to a non-biker, to ride some 400 miles, be at a show for a couple of hours and then ride back home another 400 miles may seem like nothing short of madness, but it’s something that you do understand or don’t understand.  If you’re in the latter group of people, there’s simply not enough paper and ink in the world for me to successfully explain it to you JJ

As I left the show, the temperature gauges on the overhead gantries on the E40 still read minus 5 and it was a chilly, albeit sunny, dash back to Calais to catch my 2.00pm crossing.

Again and unsurprisingly, I was the only bike at the terminal and although I have many pictures of various of my bikes sitting awaiting boarding at Calais in my photograph collection, a picture of one in the snow was a notable omission – not any more …..

There’s cold and there’s “Motorcycle Cold”

Once back in the UK, the tedium of the 221.3 miles (yes, I’ve done this journey so many times that I know the exact distance) from the Chunnel to home was all that separated me from a nice warm bath.  At least the temperature was again noticeably different from the French side of the Channel and as I sped along, I basked in this relative warmth.

After a refuel and a coffee break at Oxford, I rolled up back at home just before 6.00pm.  The next trip abroad would be in a couple of weeks time to the big bike show at Utrecht in the Netherlands, but between now and then, I’d be helping to man the TR3OC stand at the Bristol Classic Bike Show in 7 days time