MooN

we're looking into wankers redundancy, but the French employment laws are atrocious for trying to get rid of somebody, costs huge amounts of money unless you can prove professional misdeeds.

oooh thanks, I might have to try that. I have followed the various adventures of Colebatch riding that part of the world which has only served to fuel my desire to go there one day.

Dunno, try searching for Fred Coleman the Author

I'm already a lot slower than I used to be. the problem is, it's not really his fault, our main mechanic has been off sick ( piss taking) for a year now and despite advertising we've had 0 candidates for the job. That, on top of the covid situation means that he doesn't really have much choice. However, I ran with it for the 4 months of last season ( and ended with a ruptured tendon in my ledt shoulder and a split meniscus in my left knee) but said quite clearly that I was NOT prepared to do another season like that one. He is also playing the mechanic and painting boats etc, but that is, at the end of the day not my problem, it's his company and I am an employee and I need to look after me at the moment he can look after himself.

had to start back to work again this week. Not a happy Bunny. due to circumstances I have taken a step back 30 years and am now doing a mechanics job. Problem is my boss seems to think that I can do this on top of all the stuff I am supposed to do as manager like sourcing and ordering parts, fuel, gas, running the stock, fixing the bikes, client paperwork, client handovers etc etc etc. I have told him, in writing, that I am not physically capable of doing the mechanics job ( which is why they changed my job description in 2016 after my back operation) and gave him a copy of that letter. So far he has simply carried on as if he never got the mail. Not gonna last cos I will rapidly break down ( physically). Needless to say i haven't been up to posting much this week.

"Le Reseau Marcel" was originally written in English, but it was bought for me in French by my mother in law. Itis an incredible (true) story of Moussa Abadi, a Syrien jew and his french catholic wife who between them, and with the help of numerous others, saved 527 jewish children from the concentration camps. I have just go to the part where Odette ( Moussa's wife) is interned in Auschwitz. She avoided death because she was a nurse and volonteered to help in the "hospital" which was, in fact Dr Mengele's experimentation lab... the absolute pure and unadulterated horror of it is very, very clear. The book as a whole is a striking example of normal people taking extraordinary risks to do what they know to be right and just, whatever the cost. Not however, a book for the faint hearted.

I thought the kit under the triumph seat was a bit lightweight, but at least it has the neccessary bits to tension the chain. I still reckon that on most modern bikes, what with the ecu controlling the engine and most other stuff even the dash being digital and electronicly controlled, apart from changing a fuse, there's not much you can repair roadside anyway. so the quality of a toolkit is acedemic.

thanks @Sir Fallsalot I meant OPTICAL zoom, not mechanical, but I just couldn't think of the word for it. Brain dead having started back to work today after another 4 week furlough ( that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it! )

if you're looking specifically at zoom capacities, most codern cameras ( especially compacts but some Bridge models as well) have a mechanical zoom and also a digital zoom, for good quality you want as much mechanical zoom as possible rather than digital zoom, which deteriorates detail quality. That's what I was told by a professional when I was looking at compact cameras. Other than that I am clueless

naaah, the French only worry about the rain if its getting in the pastis and watering it down...

MEDIC! MEDIC! I bet you saw your life flash before your eyes. I was expecting some ripe swearing in that vid though

well it wasn't me for once!

I can see that abs can render the braking power ineffective but would a locked wheel slide be more efferctive? in the dirt I mean.

can someone explain in terms an idiot (me) can understand about ABS and the desire / need to disconnect it when riding offroad? Now, I don't do "proper" hardcore off road riding but trails / dirtroads in the dry . Bike is tiger 800xc ABS. The ABS is deconnectable and I understand that this is most desirable for off road riding... what I don't understand is why? Whilst riding stony trails this afternoon, in a couple of steeper down hill sections, on loose stones, I distinctly remember thinking that I had to be really careful to not lock up the rear with the brake cos it'd become uncontrollable... a front wheel slide would be an automatic attack of "lying down with a motorcycle on top of me" . I then remembered that I had ABS so was able to relax a little. It may be that an experienced rider would be able to control a slide, a rear wheel slide at least but I'm curious as to what circumstances would make a rearwheel slide preferrable to controlled ABS braking?

I've no idea what the rules and regs are on the GR routes Bob, probably differs fron region to region, I just give walkers a wide berth and stop for horses. problem for horses is that if I switch off, the alarm runs its auto diagnostic and emits a crescendo series of beeps... no horses today though, just a couple of walkers.

I seem to remember that on XRV.org the first wave of subscriptions was to access certain parts of the forum, but I could stil post and read the general stuff, the 2nd wave meant only subscribers could post. I stopped going.

I decided to eschew the tarmac today and adjusted the suspension accordingly. having pretty much run out if ideas within the 10k radius I decided to ride some of the local trails, starting with the GR13 ( staying within 10 km of home) This is actually the first ever trail I rode on the transalp back in 2005 0r 2006 having been inspired by ride reports from, if I remember rightly, Grizz, Gnomad and one or two others on DSUK or maximum bikes. I picked up the GR13 at Champs sur Yonne and took a wrong turn almost immediately, but discovered the way into the village football field back tracked a couple of hundred yards and headed east along the correct trail I'm not very fit and am still learning the tiger off road, so I stopped regularly to think about what I was doing and to catch my breath, also to look at the map ( I use a paper IGN , (O.S. equivalent) for this sort of thing) and actually enjoy the "proper" navigation. as you can see, this is no technical "off road" riding a la Boboneleg or Sirfallsalot, but more or less wellmaintained, dry limestone trails through the vinyards. One of the things I love about riding these trails is that I came across no fences and no gates... at all. Looking out over the river, South East to Vincellottes and directly South through wooded sections above Irancy and back on the open trails across the plateau to drop down the other side back to the river and home. nearly 3 hours in all. Finished at the car wash to get the dust off,

same here. Annoying thing is that I desperately need to get to mother in laws house to shut the heating down, and get the papers for her car as we can't do anything with it without the paperwork and the longer we leave it the more it's going to cost. I'd go down by bike, so alone, be alone in the house and ride back alone coming witin 2meters of absofucking lutely no one but nope... 10 km limit. I'll be able to go as from monday... which is when I start back to work....

you've missed the point. a robust business model is not their aim. the only acceptable business model today is " more money, faster" so, once a forum has ( for example) 1000 active members, buy it for 20,000€ ( for aruments sake) impose an annual subscription of, say 25€, if you lose a third of members cos they're too tight fisted to pay for full access to the forum then you rake in 18750€, the first year ( so you lose 6250€ ) but gain what? 10,000€ in advertising? ( i have no idea what that is worth, but if they didn't make a substantial net gain, they wouldn't do it) the second year, the advertising is the same and subscriptions drop bay another third as the site deteriorates, that's still 14,000€, subs + advertising. there are obviously various other accounting manipulations that allow you to pay less tax or lower charges due to the aquisition of a new business or assets being less than a certain number of years old, or employing less than x number of people or whatever, all of which is pure benefit to the parent company. multiply all this by n number of sites aquired and by y number of years it's been happening and you have your big fat dividends for the people who had sufficient money to invest in the first place. they lie to the people they buy the sites from and cheat the people they take subs from ( as they have no interest in maintaining the site after the first 3 years as the investment / profit curve no longer meets their required figures.) but hey, that's acceptable and even normal, they increased profits. oh FFS, now you've got me going too...

Nail... head. 10km lockdown ends monday, curfew pushed back to 21H00. Obviously I go back to work monday...

you've misread him , Pete knows when something's not right, he just doesn't know how to do anything about it

I'll admit to not really understanding the terrorist mentality... I imagine because they represent authority, for the same reasons that push moronic fuckwits to throw bottles and stones at ambulance crew or firemen. The worrying thing is that the police stations have been sufficiently securised ( is that a word?) to make the agressors target homes and familys as easier targets.

i watched that with horror. Went down hill faster than people could jump off. Started with subscription demands too as I recall.

it'll tell you in your bike manual what the manufacturers recommendations are for chain maintenance. Triumph says to Lube evey 300km for mine but I don't do that. To be honest I just look at it periodically, if it looks a bit dry I'll lube it, or if I've been on a long run in bad weather. I can tell by the feel of the gearchange and general vibrations, as well as ( on this bike) throttle snatch, if it needs tensioning a bit and am learning to detect when it needs a lube. some bikes are more sensitive to it than others. Frequency will depend almost entirely on usage and conditions.