Sunny

A good night with an overdose of whisky. Just enjoying the sun now at Cromarty..

Stop for lunch.

En route to the Guzzi Rally on the norton. Stopped for lunch at this nice cafe. The roads are really busy which is surprising as we thought everyone would be watching the royal wedding. Nice but cool today.

Guzzi breaks down shock horror

After a great weekend and having a sunny day to travel home the Breva decided it had had enough of me and broke down (23,000 miles) , it appears its not charging but it could be to do with my starting problem that reared its ugly head on Friday. Bottom line was I spent 4 hours at the Invergarry viewing point waiting for the breakdown truck, a nice place to stop but a bit boring for 4 hours. The bike is now home but a quick call around the dealers this morning showed there are no relays to be had in the country!! So tonight I'll be getting stuck into MVD to get it ready for the Guzzi rally this weekend, fork seal to change (a right PITA) and a good check over. The rest of my Guzzi's are without MOT and I don't have time before Friday to sort anything out so I'll be Norton mounted this weekend!
Great weekend though!

Chilling

Brilliant run up on Friday to applecross, 23 degrees and hot. Sat outside the inn until quite late which is unbelievable for April. Saturday and today have been a bit cooler and some rain but not bad at all. David headed back earlier after finding his tyre flat this morning , luckily Gill had some repair goo in a can so that he hopefully got over the bealach. Just spending a chilled day here.

Glencoe

Parked up at Glencoe for lunch. Just stopped for petrol and found my starter isn't working, oh well back to push starts.

Bliss

Its been a very busy start to the week, barely got my head up today from the dreaded computer screen writing reports. It's the last thing you feel like doing when outside its sunny and warm, so much so that when it came to 6.30 I was fed up with this bloody work thing. It was still nice outside so I got the Norton out and had a brilliant run down the small roads. The sun causing a haze over the fields, the sheep with their new born lambs running away from the sound of the Norton in an almost comic fashion, the norton smell of pine from newly cut trees the whole experience just lifts the spirits. You know what? I don't even remember the work thing now. Buy a motorcycle and put all the head doctors out of business.

Air travel

So I find myself this morning at Edinburgh airport very early on this Monday morning. Its funny how they have managed to turn air travel into the most de humanising of experiences. The long queue of Monday morning commuters the 'boots off sir ' the body search when the over sensitive scanner picks up on the plates and screws holding my ankle together and of course the search carried out by an Asian, the stroppy staff reveling in their position of power. And I just heard my flight is delayed. What a shite way to travel!

Classic Club meeting

A cracking day, sun shining and very warm, a great day to be out on a Norton (or any bike for that matter) A good turnout for the meeting also with some interesting bikes along.

Eric's BSA complete with tea set! (Nae Kippers though!)


A very unusual Silk Scott

Only three years seperate these two bikes in age but quite a bit more in Technology!!

Nice 750 BSA

Progress

Today was a good day for progress on the latest commando fix. Engine stripped and new cam fitted, thanks to Alex for the use of his bench and moral support. Engine together again but left the head off as its easier to get back in the frame without help. Engine now back in and hopefuly after I finish it it'll last for a few years before I have to go back in there again!

First chippy run.

One of those nights when you just had to get out on the bike, perfect for the first chippy run of the year.

Now I hate cyclists even more!

Last night I had a pleasant run to Queensferry for dinner, the good B924 road which leads from the A90 out of Edinburgh has roadworks on it. The roadworks are to allow "footpath widening and construction of a cycle path" What the footpath widening also means of course is that the road is now much narrower and its made the bends much more dangerous. How long before there's an accident here? Not long I guess, hopefully the people involved sue the retards who came up with this idea. Now just to get this right, we are in a recession, need to cut public spending, because of our governments intervention in Libya we are suffering weekly petrol rises (and of course HM Gov gets a bigger Tax take all the time) our roads are in the worst state I can ever remember and yet we have money to create a playground for the tree hugging, smelly and anti social cyclists at the expense of putting Tax paying road users lives at risk? Is it just me or have our councils lost the plot totally? Even cyclists on their forums are moaning about this as it will be more dangerous for them cycling on the wider pavement into groups of pedestrians!!!! Cyclists pay NO Tax towards the upkeep of roads, motorists pay Road Tax and Fuel duty to prop up those idiots in charge and yet cyclists seem to be getting pandered to by those in charge by the provision of cycleways at a huge cost all over the place, and no I don't subscribe to the argument they reduce congestion, they cause it!! In the Benelux countries I respect the cyclists as its part of their culture and they live harmoniously alongside other road users, here they are just a PITA!!!

Superb weekend

Well once again we were so lucky with the weather for our weekend at Rogart stopping over in the excellent railway carriage accomodation there. We left Friday night with Ian and Alison and headed up to the Hostel at Invergarry, a stunning run along Loch Laggan with superb picture opportunities at every corner but the lack of traffic meant that we were enjoying ourselves too much to stop. A great night then another superb run up the great Glen to Rogart for the Saturday. Sandy was the only Norton rider there with David and myself getting no points for turning up on Italian machines instead (the shame of it) Around a dozen of us made the effort and were rewarded with great weather, great roads and great company (and I had a great hangover on Sunday also) Thanks to all for their company and banter, next time I'll take the Norton honest!!

Wales

Just arrived in Wales, the Rebublic of Anglesea in fact! Nice scenery on the way but terrible traffic and why do they have to have the road signs in Welsh, so confusing, more so than in the rest of Europe, the last time I found it as hard to pronounce words on signs was in North Africa! Good weather today so I think I may have been lucky to see it at its best. Apologies to my Welsh friends but I'm saying it as it is!

York.

In York for the AGM of the Norton owners club. Of course no visit would be complete without a visit to betty's tea rooms. The biggest surprise and disapointment was the amount of public drunkenness and general bad behaviour going on. It seems that its the choice amongst retards for stag and hen parties. A good weekend though despite that.