MooN

The trans sibierien, Vladivostok - Moscow has been my dream trip since I was about 6. originally wanted to do the train ride but once I got riding I've wanted to do it by bike. The dream is not dead, but it gets a litle less likely with each passing season and then I came across some aussi dude who rode it as part of Sydney to London, alone, at 70 something and the lights go back on... more realistically, I have a fully planned route for a trip visiting all the capital cities of the schengen area. 21 cities 30 days 10900km +/- 3500€ budget 'soon as I can sell a child or 2 ... ?

Oh, it's a cup holder! I have the same on mine but have always used it as an ash tray...

I think that if it was likely to cost 30€ there would be less trouble...

"raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock"

You'll be impressed to hear that I have done sweet F.A. today. slapped a coat of varnish on the other side of the shutters so I can put them back together tomorrow. went for a stroll with the kids and took the bottles to the bottle bank. Ho Hum...already bored with Lockdown 3

where's "MA" the US I guess?

South west, not a region I know... I'm in Burgundy.

I just discovered that this is actually FAR older an attributed to Marcus Aurelius ( and probably has a quite different meaning taken in context) "neque hoc metueris, ne vivere aliquando desinas, sed ne nunquam naturae convenienter vivere incipias" " it is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never begenning to live"

In France no MOT for motorcycles (yet) MOT for cars every 2 years and you have to have one les than 6 months old to sell a car. Commercial light vehicles ( like our works vans, not HGV's it's every year, but overy other year it's just a pollution check not a full control. Cost for a car is about 80€ currently.

that's why Pete moved there...

Thank you, one of the last pieces I made during my year of training.

always have been... despite my busy schedule for the weekend I found time to take part in the demo ride organised by the FFMC ( French FEM affiliated motorcycle action group) protesting against the proposed legislation imposing a "Control Technique" ( french equivqlent of the MOT) for motorcycles, and this despite numerous independant and even govt sponsored studies concluding that: "no evidence can be found of a link between mechanical failure and motorcycle accidents" " No other european country where such testing exists can demonstrate any corrolation between the testing being implemented and and a reduction in the number of accidents imvolving motorcycles" " technical or mechanical failure is a demonstrable cause in les than 0,3% of motorcycles accidents in France" and so on and so forth. The main mouving force behind the attempt at implementing this new legislation is a millionaire businessman whose name is... DEKRA which just hqppens to be the same name as the largest chaine of MOT testing stations in the country ( the potential market is possibly worth 5 billion euros)... so yes, the french are revolting in the way they are best known for, despite covid Regs, and despite shit weather. about 250 bikes held a protest ride around the 3 DEKRA testing stations this afternoon. It may well be a waste of time, but similar demos have been held all over france this week end and with general elections looming, who knows.

This weekend I will be mostly: making shutters: I had 3 quotes to have our downstairs shutters replaced, 2 pairs 1m50 x 1m ish and one triple shutter 2m20 x 1m50 ish all 3 quotes were over 3000€ ! That's just taking the piss so seeing as I have 3 weeks of furlough to deal with and the weather should be good enough to work outside I thought I'd have a go myself. Though I've never made any shutters, I did originally train as a marine carpenter / boat builder. I had to clean nearly 20 years of cobwebs off this before I could start Having no power tools other than a cordless drill, I bought pre sawn planks for about 100€, ( doing one to stqrt with and see how it turns out) a box of screws, and a couple of thicker planks for the cross members, took the measures from the existing shuters and set to. dismantled them this morning for a 1st coat of varnish tomorrow. just then need to reassemble, 2 more coats varnish and fit to the existing hinges. total cost around 130€ per window.

I got in on the tail end of DSUK I think, pretty much as it merged/ morphed into maximum bikes which I sorely missed when it dissappeared into the morass of "fess de bouc" and promptly died a death. I leapt at the chance when you got this going Pete.... fuck that says a lot about how sad my life is! ?

"a few prawns short of a sea food salad" " bercé trop pres du mur" is my fave french one. Literally meaning they rocked his cradle too close to the wall, inferring his head went; bump... bump...bump...

" madder 'n' a box o' frogs"

trawling through some photos yesterday amd came across this from our last Britanny trip. In Britanny they make ( apart from crépes) whant they call "Kouign" ( pronounced "Queen") which are pancakes more like blinis and can be savoury or sweet. This restaurant extrapolated this and produces a "Burger Kouine" ( burger King, get it?) which has "Kouine" instead of a bread bun. Bloody lovely! uuuurrrpsss !

"froler la mort n'est rien, passer a coté de la vie est autrement plus grave" french biker proverb. "dicing with death is nothing, missing out on living is far more serious"

Ah, "Bodgit and Scarper" I remember years ago replacing a through hull fitting on a boat in the water and when the company director asked how it went, my oppo replied point at himself and I, " Bodgit and Scarper" boatfitters to the gentry! I nearly wet myself, never having heard the phrase before... still makes me giggle now.

I wonder how many times I've used that bike park in my misspent youth? My CM125 used to know the road from watton to Norwich on it's own I reckon. The Forum wsn't there in those days though. @Slowlycatchymonkey I was member of the the Norfolk Mountain Rescue team for a short while...

I want to know why Phil's GS is disguised as a honda... red white and blue striping, gold anodised rims... ?

to be fair though, that's not just women...

I'll send you mine, please PM address...?

oh yes they can! insofar as any one individual is concerned ( you in this case) you do what you feel right with and don't go with a trend just because "they can't all be wrong". Unfortunately for me, the adv shape bike is what suits me best physically, always has been so I just have to put up with people assuming I'm just another ADV trend follower... Fuck'em, who cares what the others think ride what suits you.