A Great day out!

So we were lucky with the weather, not a bad day considering it was the first day of Winter, an excellent turnout and plenty banter (and huge helpings of cake for some) Still no salt on the roads so long may that last. Good fun, geat company and nice bikes, what more can anyone ask for. Great to see so many people making the effort, thanks for coming along.

The Early arrivals
Not a Norton but very nice anyway
An excellent Norton turnout
Jake getting in some excercise complete with fag in the mouth, why kickstart when Jake's around!!
Hanging on to the bitter end (maybe in the hope of a free cuppa)

New record

Well, this morning I beat a personal best, 4 bikes MOT'd and home before mid day!! MOT's are stressful enough (MOT = Annual safety check required by law in the UK) but I have to say it all went well this morning, of course you know that when Nortons are involved something will rear its ugly head, the roadster developed a misfire en route to the Garage and now runs like a bag of nails, never mind it gives me something to do!!!!!

Norton get together this Sunday

Hopefully see some of you at the Tullybannocher cafe just outside Comrie (on the road to St Fillans) this Sunday, meet up at 12ish to talk nonsense and put the world to rights!

A Chilled out weekend

Nothing much on this weekend, some garage time on Saturday, I thought I'd share pics of some of my Nortons and just to prove I'm not racist a pic of my Triumph which I'm considering using as a winter bike!! Just a rewire needed hopefully and a few odds and ends (which is how it always starts!!)
Today after the rain it was pleasant enough, actually a great day to get out on the bike once the roads had dried, no wind and a great run on dry roads , a nice trip to the beach although no sunbathing!! and home just as the rain started again, perfect timing for once.

Mellow Yellow

Hard at work in the garage today making the 750s back into a roadster (just a pipe change) so how did it take me so long? Well the new downpipes fitted well but they needed 2 1/2 inches cut of each of them so that the silencer would go on! If I'd left them they would have gone almost a third of the way up the silencer (which they can't because of the welding on the internal baffles. Oh and the stainless brackets were only polished on one side, and one of the brackets is handed so much polishing needed on one side! Quite crap really, when the spares were cheap and not of good quality you could almost put up with it, now they aren't cheap and some of the stuff is still poor! Can you imagine buying a downpipe for a Honda and finding its 2 1/2 inches (or 75mm) too long? I think not, even my Guzzi's which everyone think is stone age engineering get parts from the suppliers that actually fit.
Main reason for the change is to make it more practical, impossible to put throw overs on and to be honest although it looked nice there are other issues which come with a high level pipe setup. Hopefully get a run on it before the salt appears on the roads!

Too good to miss

This morning promised good weather so the "to do" list was largely abandoned and we took to the road, I was on the Mk3 Commando which seems to be behaving itself now. One comment from today, I've never seen so much dangerous, stupid and careless driving all in one day, it made me think that Istanbul was less risky, final manoeuvre of the day to shock me was a new Porche Cayenne which went through a red light at Gogar , and cut through the traffic on the roundabout using all 3 lanes at around 60mph, I hope the small penis guy kills himself before he kills someone else!! If I had a chance to get his number I'd have reported him. But none of that spoiled what was a great day wobbling around the border roads in relative warmth, superb! Pics are the bikes outside Gifford Church (good cafe across the road, try it sometime) the Bass rock reflecting the sun from the liberal coating of bird shit that gives it it's colour and of course me on the Norton!

Home again

So a wonderful two chilled days in Applecross but we were both missing some motorcycling so we came home yesterday and spent today riding around the borders, pleasant weather all round, the pics show a typical Applecross Sunset, the View from the Bealach heading back over the hill and us waiting on a herd of rather noisy cows being shifted to a new field, they were quite inconsiderate and just emptied their bladder and bowels all over the road so the bikes now need a wash! If you look you'll see my attempts at art by trying to frame Fiona in my mirror.

What a view to wake up to

The view from my window this morning. Stunning, having a laid back day, in the walled garden for lunch, what more do you need?

That castle again.

On our holidays to Applecross again. Stopped at the castle for a cup of tea. In the car i'm afraid , the weather isn't great so we decided to wimp out.

A Special Day

Not so much motorcycling this weekend as I was getting married on Saturday! The various road agencies did their best to ruin the day by having roadworks on all the roads around South Queensferry meaning the wedding stated 1 1/2 Hours late, still a brilliant day , The picture is of us heading to the reception in Norrie Miltons outfit.

Summer is now over

Well that was a nice last minute reprieve from autumn but now its over. Rain and wind. Some motorcycle fun on Saturday but gave it a miss yesterday. gratuitous picture of my Norton's attached, don't suppose they'll stay clean now were into Autumn weather. Some bad news yesterday, a good friend and inspiration to me died on his commando on Saturday near Salzburg, Wolf Pfieffer was and will always be a legend, he will be sadly missed. Viva la figa Wolf.