Motobiker

Quite cool here 8am and 13c. Week today, heading for Pembroke dock.

You use the switches because the bike cannot see whats coming, it doesn't have eyes. did I mention he was dumb? as well as a bore. stop quoting him because then I get to read his inane comments.

yes, though it will not allow a gear change if the engine is either too slow or too fast. occasions when a gear change would be silly. same on bends, if the bike is cranked over it will not allow a gear change, either by accident or on purpose as that would/could be dangerous, if not just plain daft. It has 6 gears and 2 clutches. one for evens and one for odds. when its in an even gear the other clutch is ready for an instant change. its very clever.

I do, I have owned geared bikes since 1980. I wanted something a bit different. Anyway, you are a bore. so off to the ignore list you go. (though I'm betting he will not be able to ignore me and any posts I make.) did I mention he was predictable?

Oddly enough so do I, it has 'up' and 'down' buttons on the left handlebar - ideally placed for the thumb and index finger. push a button and it drops (or ups) a gear. click. I like it mostly because its impossible to stall on highly technical mountain roads. which is very handy indeed. Gear changes are so incredibly smooth.. almost unnoticeable. No lurching back and forth which is great for a pillion. no chance at all of helmet tapping. And all this means that the clutches and chain have a very easy life. The switches are marked + and - in the photos. These instead of a gear lever.

Who knows how his mind works. I don't exactly make a secret of it and even, rather mockingly call it a scooter myself. It isn't - because most scooters don't have a traditional gear box. I guess its more that I ride my bike rather than transport it in a van for a photo opportunity. The levels of insecurity are really quite amazing. You might have noticed, his tendency to simply copy what is said about him and then repeat it back. That speaks volumes.

He’s doing that looking in the mirror bit again . But if he wants to be immature and use “Gay” as some kind of insult or slur then that’s just fine. I’m really quite secure in my sexuality. Whereas the types that go on and on about it, usually are not. In psychology these behaviours are pathological, so deserving only of pity. either that or he's just another sad troll. (with a van)

A compass should tell you if it was a chapel. it will almost certainly be on an east-west alignment. Though I would expect it to be a little grander with windows down the sides, or at least on one side.

I was never one for chopping and changing bikes, a few, a very few I only kept for a year or two - mostly because buying it turned out to be a mistake. But, there was one that I regretted selling and even today, 27 years later, I still miss. Sadly it was destroyed by its buyer, which just makes my regret a little more poignant. I bought one of these in 1988, one of the very last Meriden Triumphs. A 1982 Triumph T140TSS and for me it was the bees knees. Sold it in 1994 because I wanted one of the first Hinckley machines, which was a bike I really liked. But, it wasn't the same. My dad used to make money on the side by refinishing Triumphs and he did his magic with mine and so it was completely solid and never leaked. I never had a single problem with it. not once. It looked almost exactly like this.

As long as that’s all he’s taking him for….

Now you would think the resident idiot would realise that quoting me not long after blocking me just means he lives up to his name. But it’s hard to resist taking about yourself while trying to insult someone else.

I don't have a van. so, I always wear gloves when riding.

That was on Saturday and I suffered like a catholic. Today Im doing it special-like, with a mornay sauce served in a Provencale manner with shallots and aubergines garnished with truffle pate, brandy and with a fried egg on top and spam. Wednesdays I like it simple.

Do you mind, I’m about to have a rump steak

You tend to find that in these small villages, in particular. There is a deep reverence given by the locals to these places. There is always a visitors book and reading the entries is really quite illuminating. "Thank you for our freedom." is a very common comment. What happened at the Barn was almost completely forgotten, it was the local mayor who decided this couldn't be allowed to happen and the memorial is entirely down to him. The same goes for the much smaller burial sites, a corner maybe of a village cemetery with just a few, maybe just one grave. Not ignored. They are never ignored. The locals still care for them. In between the normal 11/11 day of special recognition.

There was a K1200 for sale. in Scotland, it ticked every box. Handily for me, the seller was just a couple of miles from Edinburgh Airport. Before calling him I checked and found that I could fly there from East Midlands for £45!! and could be there by 10am. I also enquired about adding it to my insurance its and so forth. Once everything was in place and I knew all the ins and outs.. I called him and when he asked me where I was, I told him and he immediately called me a time waster and hung up!! I didn't call him back.

Many moons ago, while researching a more pleasant journey from the tunnel at calais, to the Ardennes, I came across a little patch of green, It looked very much like a War Cemetery. Having a closer look.. even more like a Cemetery... on the Dunkirk veterans Road, a clue of sorts. Anyway, I found out what it was, The Scene of one of two massacres, mass murder of British and French soldiers that happened during the Dunkirk escape. Both unlucky enough to be caught by Nazi Fanatics - SS. who had zero respect for the rules of war and the Geneva Convention. So, anyway, last year with a few hours time on my hands I went to this place. Im always deeply moved by War cemeteries for some reason, despite being Irish (by birth) and have no connection to WW2. Though a great uncle died in WW1. Connaught Rangers. that's so far back and removed, there's little or no connection. though one day I will pay him a visit. Anyway.. this place. So, A replica of the barn was built, and English oak tress planted for each of the men that died. A few managed to survive and escape and were rather more fortunate to be captured by ordinary German Soldiers and so were treated of their wounds and spent the remainder of the war in POW camps. But.. these poor men that died. So utterly barbaric. We tend to think of Dunkirk as a great win, almost the entire army rescued.. but at a cost. Afterward I went to the local cemetery where these men are buried.. in a further active of obscenity - the SS stripped them of all ID before the slaughter, So.. the men were buried together in a mass grave, with the neat rows of stones close by. Its not just the graves that move me, its the personal messages on them. a couple of lines allowed to the bereaved. - The middle one there: "Only one to the world, but all the world to us. Our Son." And of course... I visited the unknowns. the 4 of them - together. You can read the wikipedia page... if you want. https://tinyurl.com/n3hosrl

It's very easy to injure your back lifting a bike, if it's something you're not used to doing. Also, it's next to impossible to do this solo if the bike is on a slope and especially if the tank is full. doesn't have to be much of a slope either. I guess this is aimed at the accident prone or older and less fit owner or distance solo traveler. Not something I would rush out and buy.

Cutting the tree... or pollarding it. Has very likely added centuries to its life span. As its much less likely to be blown over in. a storm. Its an ancient traditional way of managing trees for firewood dating back to long before the age of coal. I love pottering about old graveyards.. or even more modern ones. I really like visiting the "unknowns" in the war cemeteries when I cross over to France and further on (making a point of seeking them out). I usually emerge an emotional wreck.

It was made simpler by finding a better photo that showed the engine was a Honda. that was easy using google image search. You upload a photo and google finds similar. Finding the actual bike then became much easier as, fortunately that bike has a very distinctive engine, with the plate at the engines rear with its 3 cut-slots. And so it didn't take long at all,, probably a couple of minutes for a match to turn up. Seems that particular model is extremely popular for this kind of treatment.. there are hundreds of them. A lot of them seem to have had the 'scrambler' look/treatment, which is very trendy these days. with all or most of the big brands producing one, or more. I quite liked this one. produced by Brickhouse Builds in Missouri.

Think Ive tracked down the Donor... the engine looks identical.. or very similar indeed to the Honda CB360 which was produced from 1974 to 1976. The second photo shows a rebuild made by Slipstream Creations, based in St. Louis, Missouri. https://slipstreamcreations.com A little less radical as they seem to have kept the engine, frame and tank as well as possibly the forks and wheels.

The engine is a Honda. Found a photo from the same shoot. The photo was very likely taken in Wyoming, as that is where the plane in the background is registered, its a Cessna 150H made in 1967 if you're interested. So... the Bike is a heavily modified Honda. and its probable that the only thing that is original is the engine and possibly the frame, but... who knows. They do tend to butcher bikes and either cannibalise others, or have parts made bespoke. Just look at those handlebars!!! So @Parker This bike is a one of a kind and has been built for a customer and then used in a photoshoot. Im betting America has plenty of bespoke builders, who could produce something very similar for you either with a donor bike you supply, or maybe there are the kinds of operations who produce bikes like this to sell from their workshop. Giving old bikes.. or parts of bikes a new lease of life. See my follow up post below.

All other metaphors may now retire.