MooN

just some pics from the 3 hours i was out for today. weather is, as usual this time of year, wonderful. Blue skies. 25deg and a light breeze. I followed a route I had not really planned some tie ago but had forgotten to tick the box "avoid gravel" on the gps route planner...

 

 

 

 

 

I was about to sign up one od my ex girlfriends for that new tv reality show. I thought she’d be ideal 

 

then i found out it was actually called 

FACT HUNT. 

4 minutes ago, XTreme said:

Nice shots! How old are you now Chris!

old enough to know better, young enough to not care.

 

 

52

there were all sorts of ideas being bandied about regarding inviting people round for a drink etc but by the time i'd fended of a dozen phone calls wishing me happy birthday and having "done the decent thing" and waited till we'd actually finished desert with the children, I  quite shamelessly ran away.

 

I rode south into the morvan, knowing that a storm front was coming from that direction, due to arrive with us around 10 tonight. I rekoned i could ride soutwards till I see it and then turn and run for home. I didn't meet the weather change till I got as far as Chateau chinon  which was about as far as i'd planned to go anyway, The horzon looked quite black and the temperature rose with the humidity in the air. I dared to pick a quick sprint westwards across the front of the oncoming weather system  and the turned northwards once I realised it was moving much slower than I had anticipated, and took the twisty minor roads homewards. didn't stop for many pics cos I didn't have a camera with me, only the phone and I wasn't in the mood anyway. I got a couple when I stopped for a swig of water and onother when I stopped to plug the phone charger in. 

235km 3,5h. goy home well befre the weather, but it's getting muggy now and I can hear thunder in the distanceso I'll have to go put the cover on the bike before finishing this. 

 

 

4 hours ago, Buckster said:

This is why.

what you have failed to realise is that nobody gives a shit what anybody in the uk thinks. 

Why pick on me? Theres Bobo Neleg too, and Saul… an clive’s daughter allegedly…  

the 17th septemberists… today “Motorcycle Riders” facebook page, tomorrow The World !  

On 13/09/2023 at 11:59, boboneleg said:

Nice report Chris   

Just one point of order, you went to the Charolais region and yet not one photo of the famous cattle , not even a photo of the one you had for dinner ...........

 

too busy eating it mate !

6 of us set off Saturday morning for a weekend in the Beaujolais, it wa going to be a laid back one cos the nutjobs of the usual group were otherwise occupied so there was only us sensible ones left...

The first leg was from a mates house in Vallan ( 'bout 10 minutes from mine) down through the well known riding area of the Morvanand into the Charolais region south of here. As we were not actually straying far from home we took a meandering roundabout route which ended up at La Clayette for lunch. Being just south of Charolles, it was eviden that charolais steak was on the menu.  the restaurant was easy to find, "opposite the Chateau"  

this was a coffee stop in a sleepy burgundy "one horse town"

This was like 10 AM and the temp was just starting to get warm, around 25 ish (c)

By the time we stopped for lunch we were vying for space in the shade at the bike parking and it was a solid 30deg C

The chateau has belonged to the same family for the last 300 years, but was built in 1380, so a little over 100 years BEFORE colombus set of to get lost...

themorning route:

The afternoon route dropped south as far as Tarare, before winding back north east to Tramayes and again was planned to keep pretty much to the back roads.

the route down as far a Tarare:

Having had an excellent lunch of prime charollais steak and chips we lazed about a bit befor getting moving and reached Tarare around 4, temps well up around 35 C we were looking for shady roads... At tarare I jumped off from the group as I needed to sort a problem for by bro in law in Lyon and my plan was to nip across to Lyon, sort the problem and then jump on the autoroute north from there to meet the others at Tramayes around 6 30 pm when they should also arrive at the hotel.

so my route looked like this

I got to bro in law's in under an hour and sorted what needed sorting ( and had a bit of a mank at the care staff as he's got an expensive high tech cooling fan in his room but no one had thought to turn it on for him... not really their fault, there are almos no permanent staff now so they're all agency staff and know fuck all about anything and care a little less...)  The temps in the city were up in the 40's so I wasn't hanging about longer than neccessary and rapidly got the F out of there ( I don't like cities at the best of times) Getting out or Lyon northwards means either going all the way around to the east or going through the Vaise and then the Fourvieres tunnels which is like the dartford crossing but with french drivers...  not exactly fun at 5pm on a saturday evening and though I was able to filter through the worst of it thanks to a local bike who I let through and then tailed, by the time I got through the peage onto the A6 proper i was ready for some air so trusted the "Coyote" navigator to warn me of any speed traps I wound the bike up and didn4t get overtaken till I was pulling off at Macon ( for info, on the autoroute, apart from the automatic cameras that are well signed, the police are only really interested in anyone doing over 150km/h real speed cos less than 20km/h over the limit is basically a 45€ fine and 2 or 3 points so not worth their while) so I kept it around 150 t0 155 on the speedo, which is 145 to 150 real, you take of 5% which gives about 142 - 145 and your'e well within the "less than 20 over" bracket... so I got to Tramayes in time to grab the room with the best shower and grab a beer from the bar before the others arrived. 

Lyon -> Tramayes ( and no it didn't take me an hour and 9 minutes...)

The hotel was nice and clean, had a well stocked bar, which we underetook to de-stock in a fairly methodical manner, and a good kitchen 

sunday morning dawned after a hot night only really disturbed by a bunch of drunken old men giting up to piss out all the beer they'd consumed that evening... oh, wait a minute... that was us...  Oh yeah, and the gunshots at 04h30, that definately wasn't us...

 

Usual continental breakfast, coffee and lots of it, croissqnts, breqd and jam etc

we rode northish from there via Mont st Vincent where we stoppoed for coffee at the village fete that was seting up as we arrived, very genteel it was too and the views...

https://www.burgundy-tourism.com/natural-sites/le-mont-saint-vincent

the church here is 11th century so a good 200yrs OLDER than yesterdays castle

Only 10 am but temperatures soaring again so we were all grouped in the shade

How d'ya fancy a front door like this?

then onwards towards Santenay where we pulled up in the main square at midday and aced the last free table at the better of the two restaurants. Believe it or not I had fish and chips 

We'd been riding through vinyards all morning with evocative names like, Mercurey, Rully, Santenay, and so forth, Les vendanges ( grape harvest) oficially started last weekend and so were in full swing with tractors and grape waste strewed liberally all over the roads, which made for some acrobatic cornering manouvres fron some of the group.

The afternoon was a fairly straight forward run home across our usual playground and our lead rider who had meticulously planned the route thus far expressed a desire to follow for a while rather than lead and made the mistake of sending me up front. Well, the days of the group waiting for me and the transalp after a particularly "fun section" are definately over and my revenge was well and truly exacted 

Autun, chateau chinon, planchez, quarré les tombes for a beer, avallon and home

The section Autun, chateau Chinon, planchez is one that parisians will ride 2 hours down the autoroute to get to and 2 hours autoroute home having ridden it, that is how much fun it is. 

Sorry so few pictures but i wasn't leading so didn't get to choose when to stop, and when I was leading I was having too much fun to stop, and it was too hot anyway.

Highest temp was 37.5 degC as we rode through Autun.  about 700 odd km over the weekend I guess.

haing had the bike ot of action for 10 dqys qnd then a dose of covid hqving me " persona non grata" in my own bloody house. I pissed off for a ride today.

400 odd km over about 6 hours or so, they'd been harping on about the Champagne grape harvest starting today so I thought I'd go have a look, well I saw  absolutely no grape harvesting going on AT ALL. In fact I saw almost no one at all, the whole time i was out... brilliant

It wasn't untill I was nearly home that i realised the camera had been used last by daughter No2b and she'd obviously been smearing he fingerprints all ove the f'kin lens, so the photos are shit. 

This is at Romilly sur Seine, and was the first tank into Paris with the Leclerc 8th armoured division and the FFI on 24th August 1944. 

 

I stopped for Lunch at Epernay, cut across east and south to Vitre le Francois where I fuelled up and had a quick chat with a bloke on a Honda CBX, he's had it from new, bought it 26th August 1980... it was pretty clean, but obviously ridden. Legendary machine.

Champage? Here y'are, Pick yer own...  

weather got muggy as the afternoon wore on and temps up into the 30's so I had a lot of rehydration pauses, in the shade.

 

3 hours ago, XTreme said:

I'll start enjoying when it gets below 30.......god knows when that's going to happen!

Due to drop into the 20’s at the end of the week here. Yay! 

spent the morning today trying to drop the temperature inside the house. Then shut all the shutters cos it was 38 in the street outside and buggered off to spend the afternoon at a friends house who's got a pool... I was planning on cycling in to work tomorrow morning but they're forcasting 38 to 40 c for the afternoon and I aint cycling home in that!

Ps, if you’re looking for sympathy, you’ll find it in the dictionary about half way between “shit” and “syphilis” …✌

5 hours ago, boboneleg said:

I may remember this day for a long time .  I cancelled my camping this morning as the forecast looked dodgy and decided just to do the trail ride to the campsite instead. 

On the ouskirts of Bath I decicded to ride up a lane that I haven't done for a long time.  There have been travellers parked up in the bottom of this lane their vans/caravans/horse boxes and whatever else they can find to live in for over 20 years , it was a bit of a squeeze to get through their vehicles but I got through and headed uphill from their camp.  It was totally overgrown, obviously due to their presence nobody had been up or down the lane for a long time................

 

 

This is an easy bit, it got worse and worse until I was just trying to bulldoze my way throught it.  And then it happened, a low branch caught my right foot and I was off............

 

Once I'd got the bike off my leg I set about lifting it up , on the first attempt I felt some resistance when it was half way up so I shoved it and felt my right bicep pop.  On the next go I felt my back go

I had a closer look and the branch that had me off was wrapped around the handlebars preventing it from coming upright.  After about four more goes I suceeded but my arm and back felt very sore .  Here is the offending branch after I'd torn it up a bit...........

 

 

I knew that this day might come where i'd struggle to get this bike upright and today was the day.  I need to look at my situation now as I can't risk the same happening again  .  The bike will probably be for sale now and I'll think on about whether I trail ride anymore .

You don’t necessarily need to give up trail riding you nobber, you just need to use your noggin and not go alone where you dont know or are not sure about.  Less adventurous sure, but better than either getting terminally stuck or giving up. Just tone it down a bit. 
 

Currently reading “l’enfant de Noé” ( the child of Noah” ) which tells the story of Joseph, handed over by his parents to complete strangers willing to harbour him as his parents fled the Nazi persecution of the jews in France, and his struggle to survive, trying to find his parents after the war. 

I have given up watching telly, it’s nearly all shit.  No1 daughter is signed up for netflix and amazon prime so ive been looking for stuff to watch on there, i think i have found aceoss the two plateforms, probably 6 films that i have watched, otherwise absolutely sweet F.A of any interest. I start a series but by the 3rd or 4th episode find that they have run out of ideas and are clearly just inventing ridiculous plot twists to justify their existence and  vehicle their publicity. Having got some new glasses, im back to reading books…

10 hours ago, Pedro said:

Me and @Sofia, catching a boat to Plymouth, then riding north with her leading the way through (I hope) pretty roads, then catching another boat in Liverpool (?) to the Isle of Man, and two or three days coming back South.

Where are you catching the boat from Pedro? 

I got up early today to beat the heat, have managed to get a second coat of paint on half of the living room ( other half not painted yet)  and remove about 15 kilos of hair plug that was blocking the shower outlet pipe as i discovered to my delight this morning. 
it is now nearly 11 and 28°c already and im sitting here seriously considering going in to work just sos i can sit in the air conditioning…

19 minutes ago, XTreme said:

If it was a quality chain like a DID and it's kept well maintained then 25K miles is quite realistic.

definately not weel maintained. I think I did actually clean it once or maybe twice but otherwise, just regular lube. I know i've rarely needed to adjust it. 

get the bike back tomorrow, it having been parked at work waiting for "wemoto" to deliver the drive shaft sprocket and nut that I lost on the road last week. They still haven't delivered but I "found" a nut the right size "lying around" in a box at work so "liberated" it from a life on a chinese quad and pressed it into service on my Tiger.  I need a chain and sprocket replacement any way so I guess it'll hold till I can get that organised.

I was trying to figure out when I last ad the chain and sprockets replaced and the last bill I can find for it goes back to 2018, 40,000km ago ( that's nearly 25,000 miles) which seems a lot, even for a slow arse like me, especially with all the TLC I don't give the chain. I can fine no trace of having had another since, does that even seem feasable? 

Might I interject at this point?

I am sure that there are some decent Chinese copies of other peoples bikes, of the 12 Chinese and 1 Taiwanese constructer I deal with at work some are better  than others, some really want to improve and are trying, others clearly dont give a flying F about quality, or reliability or longevity or any of it. They also do NOT adhere to any european or western laws about availability of parts or honoring warranties. If the importer and dealer are any good the cost of honoring warranties is built into the sale cost of the bike, so you can imagine how much the bike is actually worth... To be fair I don't deal with CF or some of the other Chi.com makes and we only import 50 and 125cc models ( along with quads and SSV's ). All of the bikes we import are chinese copies of Yamaha, Honda, or even Derbi, but they do not copy the quality, only the design. the quality ( on the bikes) is mostly absolute shite, so its not just because they copy a good design that the fabrication process is as good. 

@yen_powell  had he still been alive I would have introduced you to my paternal grandfather, London history was his specialist subject, lived all his life in hampstead, worked in the city, was an ARP warden and Fire watcher during the war, retired and a guide at ST Pauls Cathedral when I knew him ( his one claim to fame was that his fire watching post was on top of the dome of ST Pauls the night the cathedral was bracketed by bombs and had all the windows blown in). London was his fave topic, almost silent on any other subject. 

388km this afternoon riding to the centre point of France.  I think this is a disputed honour and depends on how you find the centre so there must be at least two other "centre of France" markers that I can find this one is in Bruere Allichamps, about half way between Bourges and Montlucon.

crossing the Loire 

 

lunch stop ( sandwich and thermos cos restaurants are 1) almost impossible to find open on a sunday these days and 2) no longer seem to exist outside the towns and cities.

centre point 

On 29/06/2023 at 22:11, Pedro said:

Turns it into an adventure, he’ll be like Tom Hanks living in the airport except stopped in a gas station somewhere.

more like that train in the thomas the tank engine stories who refused to come out of the tunnel cos it was raining... 

taken last week, is that allowed? 

7 minutes ago, XTreme said:

Windows 11 is the current version.

I have windows 11 on the putor at work, lots of clever thingies better and slicker than 10 but more hiccups too, nothing serious but annoying. 

 

 though to be fair I know fuck all about how any of it works...