Town planners!

I was in Seattle recently and i came across this motorcycle parking. Yes - that is parking for THIRTY motorcycles. They obviously make small motorcycles in America! Unfortunately i could not find a way to demonstrate the scale but it's it's safe to say that you might be able to get 2 bikes parked within the yellow triangle. I would love to see how the fit 30 in!?!

Sorry for the slightly blurred photo. I was laughing so much when i took the picture!

Naturale Bike Wash!

30 foot drop into fast flowing river. 30 foot out with a 90 degree left handed through trees. Easy

I got very wet.

The trick is to come down hill, wheelie so the front wheel does not hit the water with the rear driving you through. That will be for the next course then!

You want us to go where?

First off - spot the instructor. Yep that little figure top of the hill on the left of the track. Aim for there! Now spot the bike just over half way up. Now try and figure the gradient out. Lets put it this way, with the loose gravel you would have difficulty to walk up it as it was so steep!

Now how do i get from where i am sitting taking the picture to where the instructor is? Err, first avoid the deep water filled ruts, go downhill a bit, cross a deep rutted fire road that goes left to right, staggered junction, get the bike into second, floor it and aim for the top, whilst trying to stay on! Easy when you know how. Oh, and just where the bike is, remember there is a 10 foot flat bit, so roll off the throttle a bit, then back on to ensure you get to the top.

Great instruction, the right machinery and a bit of bravery gets you to the top. What did we all do when we got to the top - laughed so much it hurt and asked to do it again! Were all just a bunch of big kids with big toys.

Sorry officer the accidents always seem to be behind me!

Sorry for the delay in posting. Been traveling around like crazy with work (Paris, Zurich etc), but Friday and Saturday i got sometime to myself. Got off flight Thursday evening from Zurich and 3hrs later i find myself in mid-wales.

It's time for the advanced off road bike course. Luckily there were only 3 others on my course and we zipped through the theory and got out on the trails. This is the aftermath of riding too close together - i lost a bit of traction on a steep climb at the top, dean launches 240kg of BMW into the trees and Jeremy panics and drops it mid-way up! I did the decent thing and took a photo then went to help pick the bikes up! You will notice the the bike at the back of the photo 2 blokes are picking it up! More photos soon!

Start Ya.....

At work today got chatting with young Richard - a native of Australia. The discussion was about the KTM being delivered this weekend and how it gets started. Luckily for me its got an electric starter but backup is a kick start! This reminded Richard of past difficult engines in the past and a product that's made in Australia called - "start ya bars^%d".

How i laughed when i read the product description - "Nulon's SYB high potency, highly concentrated, highly flammable formulation is designed to instantly fire-up difficult-to-start engines"

Gotta love the ozzies.

Out and about

So had sometime to myself and decided as it was sunny and dry i would get out on the bike. Was just going for a wee spin - which turned into a 3hr 25min run! Some offroad included (more on this in a mo) So i managed to cover a 226 sq mile area totaling 126 miles. No tea breaks. Average speed was 37mph! Slow you might think...well check out the church lane image i will post in a moment!

Thanks to garmin for the plot and stats!

"Just nipping out on the bike for a pint of milk" !

Booked the BMW advanced off road motorbike course in the Brecon Beacons for July 08! Two days of advancing my knowledge and skill in riding off road.

So the wife had better be worried when she hears "just nipping out on the bike for a pint of milk" as it might mean slightly longer distances covered!

She did want yaks milk didn't she? :)

Sunday morning ride!

So decided on a test - a 120mile route over towards ZigZag hill (vote best road in UK via continental tyre customers), over Salisbury plain, back towards Winchester then home. Idea was to see as many B or unclassified roads as possible - thanks to offline planning!

My day pass was stamped and I set off just after doing breakfast duties for the kids.

You know your in trouble, when (a) the bike complains about the weather - those pesky Germans like to remind you how cold it is by flashing various warnings on the dash - the actual temperature is displayed and an annoying flashing snowflake. (b) every time i went into a slight covered area and the temperature dropped the wing mirrors and front screen misted up (ON A BIKE FOR GOD's sake!) Never seen that before. Little unnerving as your blind to the rear, the roads are damp - or was it black ice, not sure!

Good news is that you know the sun's going to rise sooner or later and it will dry out. Also good to test the olde riding skills. Good to say that i kept it upright, got over 120 miles done, and a nice hot mug of tea and a sausage bap at half-time. Good morning's riding!

Now who wants to come around and wash the road salt off the bike? ;-)

Now we know where were going!

So the land rover has built in sat-nav so it was bye bye to the old TomTom and i spent the money on a new SatNav for the motorbike! Ruggerised, can be submersed in water and is impervious to petrol! So this means I'm bound to break it in the first 3 months!

Managed to mount the display inside screen of the bike! Just waiting for some bits from an off road company to wire the unit into the bike battery permanently!

Great features include being able to plan route on PC and upload to garmin unit. also have the ability to upload pre-planned routes or even load the route log into Google Earth! Cool!

Weekend away

Just spent 2 days in Brecon in South Wales on a motorbike offroad course! Boy am i knackered, but it was great fun, learnt alot and my body aches!

The folks run the course on behalf of BMW

http://www.offroadskills.com/

Instruction, location, food, equipment are all great.

For anyone who has ridden a bike for a while i recommend it. They even do a lady only course as well.

One guy even flew in from Canada for the 2 day intro course and today he is ridding 80 miles offroad through the national park before flying home.

Success

4 weeks ago i passed the Advanced Motorcycle test. I now make progress safely :)

3hr bike ride today across Salisbury Plain via Upavon, Pewsey and Marlborough. Fantastic weather, very little traffic, great roads. One very tired rider by the time i was finished.