MooN

organise. I've ridden in groups for years one way or another and 2 stand out in the effective simplicity of the organisation. It only works, however if everybody is aware of how it works. The group I usually ride with here, I rode with for years on my Tralp whilst others wre riding FJR1300's, R1, CBRR thingies, all much faster bikes and some petty capable riders. Not everybody needs to know the route, but when riding, a fster groupe will often break away and leave the slugs ( me) in their dust. I just keep going straight on at my best speed knowing that they will be waiting for me at the next direction change or at the top of the pass or whatever. When we're overnighting we usually plan to get to the overnight spot with enough time left for the speedfreaks to do a short sprint loop or even an out and back, depending on terrain. simple but effective if everybody plays the game. When we have a rider we're not used to, one of the group will always play the trundleslug and let the new rider know that when the nutters right wrist gets too much for them then at least one other bike won't be trying to keep up. The other group whos' system I liked was Aus Touring when I met up with them in the Vercours in 2013 Glitch ( the organiser and experienced tor leader) and his wife Goodie had it sussed and a short explanation from them alloed me to fit almost seamlessly into the group for 2 days with no problems, Glitch leading ( failrly fast most of the time) and goodie bringing up the rear, whenever there was a change of road or direction, the 2nd rider would wait at the junction till Goodie arrived, with 8 or 9 riders, all experienced and capable, this worked brilliantly, progress was good and nobody got lost ( despite a couple of them falling off a some point before I joined them I would still maintain that the price to pay for being a better rider in a group is that you have a responsibility to the less able.

in my misspent youth... swept out to sea in an 8 foot wooden sailing dinghy when I was about 13. The fact I didn't drown that day was pure luck.

to be fair, that shouldn't be happening. the better, more expeienced riders should be able to adapt their speed to the lowest common denominator and not incite them to ride beyond their abilities. ( yeah, idealistic I know)

Cars only. you're supposed to be equipped to replace a headlight bilb at the roadside. So many modern cars ( specifically Renault & Citroen) need the fron bumper taking off and the light removing to do this that it is no longer enforced. On top of that vehicles with xenon lights and such don't even have bulbs so... If you need a bulb most supermarkets and all motorway service stations have large selections readily available. happy to look at whatever you've planned.

I'm leading a ride from here down to Saint Cirgue en Montagne in the Ardeche last weekend in May. " too long, too short, too much autoroute, too much minor roads, we should eat here... and so on and so forth. Friday we have a club meeting where I will say that i'm happy to navigate the ride down, I have already plotted the route, I shal be leaving from this point at this time, following this route via here and here. either follow me or don't, I'll see you at the hotel at 18h00 for l'apéro. End of.

gimme a shout if there's anything I can help with France wise.

ive asked him to send me a pic of finished bjects, as and when.

I got back to him t'other day and he says he's been very busy ( hes a steeplejack, of sorts...) but he says he eventually got someone on the phone and suggested that there might be someone in the area who could come round... they said th'ed have a postal tracking N0 for him within 24hrs... He still hasn't told me what shop it was

they wouldn't fit in my top box, and to be honest, the weight of the bloody things would destroy a plastic tob box on the roads I use I reckon.

ou have a decompression lever!? I haven't seen one of those for about 20 years, and the last time I did it was on an old volvo boat engine

a bloke on the facebutt page "Motards Bourguinons" was asking if anybody had some old bike parts, especially engine parts that needed getting rid of cos he wanted to incorporate them into a sculpture or something. I scavenged these from the bin at work for him ( I couldn't find the crankshaft from the single so I guess somebody already had that) This also gave me a destinantion for a ride. Chateau Chinon. I had the devils own job attaching the two crankshafts to the rear rack in a way that they wouldn't move over the 180 odd km of minor roads. I really didn't want to lose them "en route" and have to retrieve them from some poor buggers radiator or windscreen. Unorthodox but effective, ( story of my life ) obviously monday ( bank holiday here) was overcast and about 10 deg C wheras sunday had been a glorious spring day. but the route went something like this as I was on my own, I ws having far too much fun to stop and take pics but took a couple alongside the reservoir the route home was a little faster, about 4 hours all told,

yeah, OK I didn't actually research it...

haven't you told them that there's a power shortage...

The Auld Alliance between Scotland and France was signed in 1295... but apart from that, I like a good kebab from time to time

lovely day today, first proper "spring" day we've had. spent the afternoon fiddling wit the bike to see if I could move the phone hoder abouve the clocks ( I can't not without fabricating some sort of bar. I then loaded it with a load of old engine parts from work that a guy I sort of know wants to try and incorporate them into some "Aaaaaaarrrrt", Two 1000cc twin camshafts are a bloody nightmare to try and attach securely onto a top box rack! they'ref'kin heavy too. Bike feels reqly top heqvy with them on the rack. I'm going to drop them off in Chateau Chinon tomorrow afternoon along with a few pistons and con rods "liberated" from the bin at work.

yeah but it;s still a suzuki

Great thing about curry, tastes the same coming up as it did going down….

Poulet tikka masala La Commune, Lyon. One of the rare indians ive found here that still spices his food properly, most have tuned it down by at least half to cater for the Fremch palette. They even do cheese poppadums FFS!

anybody got any contacts ooop tut north, middlesbrough way like? just wondering as a friend of mine here has ordered some bike parts from a shop up there and they're not answering mails or telephone anymore so he's wondering if they've ceased to be...

The Spanish Inquisition....

you just confirmed my hypothesis!

I'm convinced zzzzak is one of Pete's trolls, the only reason the persona exists is to create traffic on the site by spouting mindless conspiracy bullshit that he knows will elecit a reaction from anybody capable of rational thought. nobody's seen him, hes can'tpost a pic of himself on a bike ( cos he doesn't really exist) and where does he purportedly live? Oh, what a surprise, somewhere where there's no other members near enough to go and verify his existance.... Coincidence? I think not.

Any competent hacker would ba capable of faking a redated webpage, especially in a format so small it pixelates if you try to zoom in to the details. Photoshopping the image of a fake site in a toy phone into the image of a bike in a shed is easy. You’re just like “them”, fakes and lies, all of it!

Ah but you'll have to cos it's neccessary, even if its BIRTH identity was a boat anchor. It's been through the "OP" and had it's little bollard fitted and now has every righ to identify as a road train if it want's to

I'm not asking you to believe that the tiger is mine, or even that I exist otside of here, You're the one telling us to believe what you say and that you can prove that anything else is fake and yet you can't prove you're not a fake.