Tango

There's another memorial that I know of a bit to the east of here. I'll have to make a trip over there and get a picture of that one too.

This morning. The memorial is for a group of French resistance fighters that were ambushed by the Nazis when they were heading to a sabotage mission just after D-Day. Most were either killed at the scene or executed in prison a few days later. There's a memorial service held here every year on the date of the massacre.

Definitely. I rode about 50 metres from my parking space in the supermarket to the petrol pump with no gloves this morning and I didn't like even that short distance! I was talking to a young lad in a bike shop a few years back and we got onto the subject of bike gear. He said that when he started riding he used to wear nylon tracksuit bottoms and an anorak and no gloves. All was well until one day, whilst showing off to his mates by pulling a wheelie, he binned it and slid up the road on his arse. Took the skin off both palms of his hands, but he said the friction melted the nylon tracksuit bottoms. He said the indignity of having his mum using tweezers to remove pellets of melted nylon from his arse prompted him to get proper bike gear from then on!

HOMERS! When I did my apprenticeship and afterwards whilst working in the factory I'd go to one of the shops to get something done. There were machine shops, fitting shops, carpentry shops, electrical wiring shops and even a perspex moulding shop. So, I'd go in and say that I needed something done: "Sorry son, we're flat out busy at the moment. It'll be at least a month before we can take a look at it" "Ah, ok lads. Just let me know when you can sort it for me please?" "No problems son. Anyway, what's it for?" "It's a bit on my motorbike that's broken" "What? Why didn't you say that it's a Homer? Come back in half an hour and we'll have it ready for ya" In the factory, homers were top priority!

I know people and even have relatives that have never been out of the country! One girl I worked with many years ago had never been outside the town she was born in! Yeah, some people don't want to travel and that's fine by me, but then they want to stop or make it difficult for those who do want to! I just don't get that mentality.

True, Pete. I'd only been abroad once by the time I was 22. It was only when I was in my 30's that I really started travelling a lot more and probably only in the last 10 years that I actually gave living abroad any thought at all!

I wish I still had my Speed Triple, but there was no way that I could get it registered here, so I had to sell it. TBH it probably wouldn't have liked the hot weather and would likely have got me into trouble with the gendarmes! Have any of you parted with a bike for any reason that you wished you hadn't?

I had a colleague at my last job who still lives in the house he was born in Finchley, he's 65 now. I once asked him if he'd ever move and he said probably not. I'm guessing that his house is worth a small fortune now!

From the stats here, it looks like unvaccinated are around 10 times more at risk of ending up in ICU than vaccinated. Likewise here, the number of deaths divided into vaccinated or not are not published.

When I did my apprenticeship and worked in the factory there were some real characters around, but where have they gone? I guess that some of the stuff we used to do or have done to us would get people sacked these days.

My third bike.......must have been around 1977.

I went there a number of years back with a Canadian colleague who stopped over in London for the weekend on his way to Germany. It's definitely very interesting, a good day out.

Shells on the beach at low tide.

Has there ever been a bike that's been offered to you or you've seen for sale that you regretted not buying? One of my mates had a Honda CBX1000 in the mid 1980's and, to save the temptation of riding it whilst he was on a ban, he entrusted it to me to look after for him. Anyway, after a while he needed some money and asked if I wanted to buy it off him. I was skint at the time, so I turned it down and he sold it to another mate for a song! I later wished that I had scraped the money together to buy it. Anyone else?

It's a shame that Covid-19 isn't weeding these fuckers out!

Depends on the rider. I had a couple of mates who I completely trusted and went pillion on their bikes many times quite happily. But then I had another mate who was nearly blind in one eye. He should have worn his glasses when riding, but he couldn't get them on with his lid on. So, his 3D vision was a bit impaired and, coupled with his failure to take into account the extra weight on the bike when taking a pillion, we ended up overshooting several junctions. How we didn't get killed I don't know, but I only went pillion with him the once!

True, I see a number of bigger bikes around, but a lot are GS' or Harleys, with plenty of small dirt bikes around too. The Honda is ok, but I'd like just a few more BHP. Tiger 800 would do me nicely!

I think that 17 years ago I was on a Triumph Trophy 900, which was a bit of a bus TBH. Quite different to the CB500X.

She'll never get ride of the Bonnie, but a smaller bike may get her rolling again. TBH, we went to Narbonne the other week with her driving the car, and, well, she got me put on the insurance so I could drive it! I'm not a good passenger at the best of times, but we had "words"!

I don't get out on the bike at weekends at the moment, my OH has lost her biking mojo at the moment. Plus it's a bit warm to get out, unless we go out early, but weekend mornings are for drinking coffee and eating bacon rolls, so that rules out early starts!

They're awesome articles, really interesting.