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

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

Director John Young gives us an insight into his life outside the domain of Accountancy, John is definatly not your typical Accountant!!!

Introduction

After the excitement of last year surrounding the lead up to and then the Iron Butt Rally itself, 2012 was always going to be a year akin to “the morning after feeling”.  Nevertheless, we have some pretty neat things lined up for this year.

During early July, we’re off to explore Iceland and the Faroe Islands for just a little under three weeks.  Prior to that, the TR3OC have another two charity rides lined up one on the NVT Easy Rider Moped from the Blackpool Tower to the Eiffel Tower and one on the NVT Rambler 125 from Nordcapp (the top of Norway) to Gibraltar.  I’m supplying both bikes for the charity rides and so I daresay, I’ll ride in both of the rides at some point.  Last year, our JOG-LE ride raised more than £10,000 for the charity Help for Heroes and whilst we are unlikely to top that, it would be nice if we could raise a good “chunk” for this years charities, (1) The TT Riders Association and (2) Riders for Health.

I’m planning on competing in the Brit Butt Rally this year and also to complete two IBA rides – a BBG1500 (1500 miles in 24 hours) and a EE2E (European End to End) which is the same ride as the one that we’re doing for charity only as an IBA ride, it has to be completed in 72 hours.  I’m planning on using the IBR Trident for both of these rides.

And what else ?

Well the “usual” trips abroad to various shows and rallies, the Beezumph rally obviously on Anglesey and a myriad of other “bikey” things will no doubt fill up the remainder of the year for us.

So welcome to 2012 and in the words of David Coverdale and Whitesnake, “Here we go again !!”

1^st January 2012 : Sharlston Soapbox Derby

The new year was less than 7 hours old before we found ourselves trundling up the M1, destination Sharlston for the New Years Day Soapbox Derby.

The NVT outfit from last year had been modified and up-graded to a machine that we felt was capable of challenging for the top positions.  This year, I was “driving” with Stevie, my younger son, doing first the pushing and then being the “monkey” on the chair.

The racing was divided up into 20 heats, two semi-finals and a final.  Each heat consisted of 3 karts and each team raced in 4 heats, scoring 3 points for a win, 2 for 2^nd place and 1 for 3^rd place.  The top six teams went through to two semi finals and the winner of each semi final went through to compete in the final

Our first three heats, resulted in three second places ……

A comfortable second place in our first heat

Another second place for us behind Batman and Robin – aka my younger brother Steve and my eldest son, John

With three second places, we knew that we were within striking distance of making the cut for the semi-finals but that we probably need to win our last heat to make sure.

First place in our last heat meant that we made the Semi-Final “race-off”.  Stevie is keeping a close eye on the second placed kart as we cross the line.

With that last heat win, we tied with two other karts on 9 points, but there were only two more places available in the semi-finals.  A “race-off” was needed …..

 

And second place (just) in the “race-off” meant that we made the semi-finals

Although, we made the semi finals, we were drawn in the worst of the lanes and never really challenged for the lead although we comfortably held second place throughout the race

Missing out on the final by one place – second in our Semi-Final

We’ll be back next year, although I think the NVT Outfit has probably reached the limits of its development JJ 

We may need a whole new kart for 2013 ……..

7^th January 2012 : Newark Winter Classic Show

The first show of the year was a brand new show running for the first time in 2012 and the TR3OC had decided to take a stand there. 

I’d been feeling ill all week and although I’d said I would go up to give a bit of support to the guys manning the club stand and didn’t intend to let them down, I wasn’t looking forward to the 80 mile ride up to Newark.  So, I was secretly relieved when I was asked to take some bike parts up for Sam Milner to collect from the stand, meaning that I’d need to go in the car instead of on the bike.

Having said that, and even having driven up, I wasn’t feeling that great by the time I arrived at the Newark showground and so my visit to the show was never going to be anything other than a brief one.

The club stand was good with a “mock shed” being a feature and for the brief time that I was there, seemed to be attracting a lot of interest. 

Having delivered the box of bits and spent just a few minutes chatting to club members on the stand, I had a (very) quick walk around the remainder of the show.  As always, I seemed to bump into a fair few people that I knew as I made my way from stand to stand meaning that my stay at the show was a little longer than I had intended it to be.  Nevertheless, although I hadn’t actually arrived until just turned noon, I was back in the car and heading home before 2.00pm. 

Part of the club stand – a “shed” discovery

Once home, I spent the remainder of the afternoon “tinkering” in my new centrally heated (and warm) garage.  The “grand opening” when the IBAUK come along is now only a couple of weeks away and there’s still a lot to do in there.

14^th January 2012 : B’ham/Wolves TOMCC “Christmas” Meal

Even back in 1977 when I first joined the TOMCC, the Birmingham/Wolves branch Christmas “event” (back then, when we were all kids, it was a very loud and very alcohol fuelled raucous party) has always been held during early January.

Now as we’ve all aged, it’s no longer a party but a nice, gentle meal out at a local restaurant.

Myself and Sonia have been along to this “modern version” for the last few years and we find it’s always a nice night out.

What made this year memorable for me was that I was awarded the “Harold Snape Bournville and TOMCC Trophy” - quite a mouthful, I know J - but effectively, it’s the Clubman of the Year Trophy

This came as a complete surprise to me as I had no idea that my name was being considered and so I was a little lost for words as I was being presented with the trophy by Ron Barratt (who is a branch member).

When I got home, I dug out the old Nacelles that I had kept from my early days in the club.  It seems that the last time I “won” the clubman of the years was back in 1979 !!

18^th January 2012 : IBR Talk – TOMCC Peterborough

Dave Porter (the editor of Nacelle) had contacted me just before Christmas to ask if he could run the story of the IBR in the magazine.  As I’m continually amazed that anyone other than myself finds what I write interesting, I did as he asked and sent him over the story – over 100 pages of it !!  Given that the story would entirely fill two issues of the magazine, it clearly needed “trimming” and Dave enlisted the help of the TOMCC Vice Chairman, Mick Barratt for the task of editing down the story into a manageable size.

The upshot of this, was that Mick (who is also chairman of the Peterborough Branch) had to read the entire story and then decided to invite me over to the branch to do my talk.  As I always enjoy listening to the sound of my own voice, I duly accepted the invitation JJ …..

 

Me and “Hele” in full flow giving our talk

There must have been about 30 or so club members who came along and they all seemed to enjoy the talk. 

I’m getting well versed in presenting the talk now and standing up and speaking about the ride is nowhere near as daunting as it was when I first started doing it, last August.  The strange thing is, that six months on from actually riding in the IBR, with each talk I give, I find that I’m beginning to appreciate just what an achievement it was to finish.  I can vividly remember, that in the immediate aftermath of completing the rally, thinking to myself that I couldn’t see what all the fuss was about.  Now as I relay the story of the ride, I can …..

Anyway, next stop of the “IBR Talk Tour” is the TOMCC Meriden Branch on 5^th March.

20^th/21^st January 2012 : A Quick Trip Abroad

January at work is manic.  It’s all due to everyone of my clients thinking that they’re the only person who decides to leave their tax return until the last minute.  There’s simply nothing better in the midst of this January madness to get on my bike and take a nice long ride to have a break from the monotony of churning out tax return after tax return.

This year, I decided to head for the Groningen bike show.  Groningen is on the northern coastline of the Netherlands close to the Dutch/German border.  Well that was the plan at least …..

Due to a combination of not being able to get away from work on the Friday until nearly one o’clock, then having to drop some papers off at a clients in Coventry and finally the twin assaults of lousy wet weather and the M20/M26 junction being closed, I didn’t even get to the Channel Tunnel until nearly 7 o’clock.  Then add on the waiting time for the train, the 45 minutes crossing and finally the one hour time difference between continental Europe and the UK meant that my tyres did not feel French tarmac until just before 9.00pm – and it was still raining L

By 10.00pm, I’d only reached Gent, some 80 miles from the Belgium/Netherlands border and still some 200 miles away from Groningen and with being wet, hungry and tired, I checked into my usual hotel that I stay at in Gent, The Ibis Opera.

Once I’d got warm and eat something, I mulled over my plans for the weekend and decided that I’d set my alarm for 6.00am, see what the weather was doing and make any decisions then.  For now, a warm dry bed beckoned …..

I didn’t need the alarm the next day as at around 5.00am, I was lying awake listening the rain batter against my bedroom window.  Well, that made the decision as to whether or not to  ride the further 200 miles to Groningen very easy for me and with that, I rolled over and went back to sleep.

With my plan “A” now firmly shelved, as I was having breakfast, I looked for alternatives and very soon decided to spend the day in and around the First World War battlefields.

After a quick 50 miles blast down to Ypres, I left the main roads and found the old back roads that ultimately would lead me back up towards Dunkirk.  More importantly, these are the roads that between 1914 and 1918 led to and from the Western Front.

Once you’re on these roads, it’s not long before you start to come across the cemeteries and once you pick up the first, thereafter they come thick and fast.

I stopped at the first three cemeteries and walked around taking pictures of various graves.  The ages of some of the men killed very soon put my own feelings of being “pissed off” with tax returns firmly in its place.

 

This puts your own problems into perspective.   G.A.Chambers, aged 19, 12^th August 1917 - the day he died …… LJ

Just one of hundreds of war cemeteries dotted around Ypres

Like military cemeteries the world over, the maintenance was immaculate and even though it was the middle of winter and the remainder of Flanders was covered with its famous mud, the grave yards enjoyed a lush covering of neatly mowed and very green grass.

Eventually the cemeteries become fewer as you move away from what was the Western Front and before long I rejoined the coastal E40 which took me back to Calais and the Chunnel terminal.

With gaining my hour back, I was back on English tarmac by 2.30pm and with plenty of time before I was due home, I decided to visit somewhere that I’d been meaning to go fir a while – the Battle of Britain memorial at Folkestone

 

All three are British machines JJ

Whilst I was there and walking around the visitor centre/gift shop one of the attendants commented on how nice it was seeing someone riding a British bike.  The complement was nice and made all the more poignant given where I was.

The Battle of Britain Memorial

I left the memorial at just after 3.30pm and after what can be best described as a “brisk” ride home, I pulled into the yard at home at 6.30pm.  Folkestone to home is 223 miles – I may have “strayed” slightly when it came to adhering to the speed limits on the ride home JJ

Still, I returned to work on the Monday suitably refreshed.

28^th January 2012 : IBAUK RTE - The Garage Grand Opening

Over the years, as my bike collection has expanded, so as the memorabilia.  I had always wanted a building to house my “proper” bikes (read : BSA/Triumph pushrod triples) and the associated triple “stuff” and so just before Christmas 2011, and after quite a protracted planning stage, building work commenced.

By the time the New Year came around, the garage was finished (central heating included) and was ready to be kitted out.  Once that was done, it seemed a good idea to have an “Opening Party” and with the success of the last IBA RTE we held here, we decided to host another to co-incide with the grand opening.

The Garage

In the weeks leading up to the RTE, more and more IBA members added their names to the list meaning that by the time the day arrived, we were expecting somewhere in the region of 30 people.  As ever, Sonia was a star (as were my mom and dad) and they managed to prepare and feed the group with a menu consisting of hot pork baps, grey peas, curry, chilli, soup with a constant stream of tea and coffee served from the garage “kitchen” by yours truly.

The Garage looking the other way ……

I think it’s fair to say that the garage was “well received”, even by those riders who had no interest in classic bikes and at least four admitted to “garage envy” by the end of the day.

 

A nice turnout of bikes

It never ceases to amaze me when a group of bikers get together how they can continue to find new things to talk about on the subject of bikes, biking and bikers.  One would have thought that after 100 years or so of bikes being around, most subjects would have now been talked to death ….. JJ

 

The riders aren’t quite so pretty though JJ

With the last of the riders leaving around 4.30pm (and the first having turned up at just after 11.00am) meant that we’d had nearly a full 6 hours of “entertaining”.

So, the garage is now officially “open” and we’ve done our IBAUK RTE hosting for this year !!

30^th January 2012 : Wolverhampton Business Club Talk

Just before Christmas, I was out at lunch with Dermott Kelly, a bank manager who I know and the subject came around to bikes and some of the trips that me and Sonia do.  The upshot of this was that I was invited to do a 20 minute or so talk of our “biking life” to the Wolverhampton business Club.

Normally I have no real problem with doing talks on bikes and biking – but then again, I’m normally talking to bike clubs and not a group of accountants, solicitors, bankers and other assorted professionals J

Nevertheless, the talk seemed to go down well and the questions afterwards certainly seemed to me as though the audience enjoyed it – but then again, they could have just been being polite ….. JJ

I think I prefer talking to bike clubs ……..