Bloody cyclists

Once again my Saturday morning peace in the cafe has been interrupted by a group of very rude and very smelly cyclists. They come in stinking of body odour, they must of heard of deodorant even these crinkly old idiots. So not only do they get in my way on the road and annoy paying road users they also assault my sense of smell in cafe's. I'm sitting next to their bikes and very tempted to pee in their bottles. The good bit is i'm out on my bike so as soon as I pull my helmet on i'll be calm.

Silverstone.

At silverstone today, 30 metres up in a cherry picker so an opportunity to take an unusual picture of the track. Bloody freezing after an hour up there. The wind is just below the safe level and just enough to drop the temperature to an uncomfortable level.

Sent using a Sony Ericsson mobile phone

Kelly Kettle

Out again today for a run, Guzzi mounted this time, took along the Kelly Kettle for some tea making in the "field". The Kelly kettle is powered by paper and small bits of wood, also gave me a chance to try out my Magnesium block and flint lighter, very successful as you can hopefully see in the short video. Good day out but the bikes were very dirty by the time we got home, no complaints a grand day out!

A commando day

Once again great to get out on a bike, even better on a Norton. Very frosty this morning so we had to wait until the roads thawed a bit. Its nice to get out in the fresh air though, as I approached Queensferry I could feel the temperature drop as we eased into the freezing fog. As we came out of the tea shop a couple of women were taking pictures of my bike, I spoke to them, one of them (an Australian ) said she couldn't believe it when she saw a 750 Commando as it was the first bike she'd ever been on back in Australia. She said her brother had a Harley back in Australia, I then replied oh a harley faggot, explaining I didn't consider this worth mentioning. Quite funny anyway, buy a Norton and never feel alone, always random people wanting to speak to you.

Grand day out.

After a day of torrential rain and high winds yesterday today we were left with just the winds to contend with, the temperature an almost summer like 10degrees C. We met up with Bob, kate, Ali, and Ian at Dreghorn services at about 10 30 and wobbled around the borders. The sun was out and in the shelter the wind wasn't too bad. Stop at Grantshouse for lunch just after Bob had been practicing his French driving technique (on the wrong side of the road ). We parted company then. A great day out, over 100 miles in not bad weather, really good for mid january, roll on the Spring !

Winter returns

The snow started last night and I awoke to another christmas card scene, not good al all. We should be having our annual frostbite run tomorrow but I think thats a no go now. Bit of a shame as its traditionally the first sunday in the year but was changed this year, of course sods law last week was fine. Just hope we get a bit of a thaw for next weeks camping! Think we'll need to take a snow shovel to clear a space for the tent though.

Back to work

Well that seemed to be a long break, back in the garage yesterday working on the guzzi. As always one step forward and two back, its always funny how those easy little jobs take up so much time. Things that you think will take five minutes grow into major timelines. Probably just me being too picky on details. Thought i'd take a photo of the fastback to share with you since you've not seen it for a while and because its pretty.
At the classic club last night, good to see everyone and good to see Ian doing his bit to keep the other residents of West Calder attending alcoholic as always. Spooky moment was George Martin giving me a picture taken at the classic club run at Glencarse about 12 years ago to see if I recognised anyone. I did but the scary thing was the two commando's side by side in the picture. Alex now owns one and I own the other. So I think if I continue with my quest to buy as many commando's as possible then every picture I see i'll know all the nortons in it. Good plan or not?

Happy birthday Bob

Out for a run today again but with Bob, Kate, and Ian. Ali had to work which was unfortunate. It was great to get a blether with everybody and it was a really nice run down to the borders despite the cold weather and some flurries of snow. It was Bob's birthday so we had a small cake ceremony at our tea stop. Bob is now officially well into his fifties, happy birthday Bob. Hope those of you who have bikes have taken the first run this year, unless of course you have to work!

Happy new year

So the first day of the new year was a write off as far as motorcycling goes but an enjoyable social day meeting family. I ended up more sociable than I intended due to the famous grouse though. Fiona had said we should go out on the bikes today and i'm glad we did. Ian lindsay wimped out on joining us citing the cold as an excuse. It was cold but the roads were dry and in the main salt free. I didn't even have to wash the bikes when I got back as they were still clean, amazing. So thats the first run of the year ticked off, hopefully many more enjoyable days ahead this year.