MooN

I would, of course, really like to ride to the 4 corners of the earth. Not doable for myriad reasons. A four corners of europe trip would be fun, and is an idea put away for later but not forgotten. The four corners of France Is kinda on the cards, but the plan has turned into more of a "all the way round, passing through the cardinal points" idea and is still in the planning stages. This is the first one of a "cardinal points" or 4 corners of the departement idea ( hey, start small right!) and it might very soon be the limit of travel anyway. So, North, East, South and West. Starting with the Northen most point of the Yonne department accessible by road. a round trip of 180km which took me 2h30 minutes + a couple of stops. Clear blue skies and warm, I dunno what the temp was but I stopped here to remove thermal liner from my jacket. The northern Limit of the Yonne department ( as opposed to the Yonne river) is just south of Fontaines Fourches on the D147 at 48:23'54"N 3:33'16"E. Here; beyond this is the region "Ile de France" which is in lockdown and into which I dare not go for fear of dropping down dead instantly from the dreaded lurgy... Looking south into our clean and healthy non confined department... Then I rode home. I am hoping the 3 remaining cardinal points of the Yonne are more photogenic, or at least more interesting to look at. good ride though?

I'm with Tym on this one, but only cos I didn't undsrstand a fucking word of what Pete or Buck said.

I know a girl called "Tor" and was going to ask her, but then actually read the thread...

its a toyota Pete, my goddaughter who was still very small at the time called it the Tatayoyo, and the name has stuck.

I call BS. but then what the fuck do I know? I've also never owned a new vehicle in my life, the most recent being Tatayoyo which is 8 yrs old.

"same"

I've been using the sma etyres on the Tiger since I got it and am on the 3rd set. I quite like them, I know Pete says he had them slip ot on him but I find them fine. To be fair, when I bought the Tiger the whole package was so awesome compared to the old tralp that I probably wouldn't have noticed anything untoward from the tyres, but I'm still happy with them now so I guess that I should probably be concerned that my riding is sufficienty inept to render tyre choice irrelevant.

I've been using my phone on the bike since I got the Tiger and went all modern and gadgety. not had a problem wit it yet, excpet that it tends to overheat in the summer.

it really is a shame that the French don't have the same reaction of hilarity to innuendo and bum jokes cos the scope in their maritime terminology is even more extensive than ours... I just have to snigger quietly to myself at my own smutty "carry on up the canal" jokes ?

It didn't bother me at all. not being able to ride was frustrating though.

not to mention Futtocks, Buttocks, rowlocks and bollards...

still 11 hrs to go till the weekend here...

I'vs had an official invitation from the govt to go get my vaccination. I went to the doc who said, well they're fucking optimistic I have no vaccin left and cannot order anymore... Theres a phrase about piss ups and breweries that springs to mind. I'm sure it's those sneaky english keeping all the vaccins for themselves... ?

well they just shut Paris. AND, they've done if from friday night which means the fuckers cant run away to the countryside before they're locked down. So, Paris and surrounding area ( Ile de France), northeastern France and the Alpes Maritimes ( Nice) are semi locked down from tomorrow night. essential stores only, allowd outside with a valid reason but only in a 10k radius of home. Rest of France maintains curfewbut that is eased from 18h00 to 19h00 through to 06H00.

I pay 330€ a year fully comp for the tiger including breakdown cover. it was about 200 for the transalp. I have been quoted less by other companies but the garanties are lower an the service I have had from AXA has been second to none.

sounds like a good plan, allows you to concentrate on riding and enjoying without having to spend weeks planning. I think Nathan is pretty down to earth from what I've read so should be a fairly relaxed organisation. Take loads of pics and report back here when finished please. I'd love to know how it goes.

Pete, you seem t have the knack for creating haven's for oddities, the "not so normal". you should really get a large subvention from the EU for looking after the handicapped. Handicapped? Yup, Buck is a multiple expat who drives a harly and rides a bus, Bruce is Saffer and rides a boat, You're a taffy dago, I'm half frog, Tym is unstable, Bob... well Bob has a Bristol accent, Grasshopper is a girl ( and fixes her bikes in a tent) Cattee lives in Norfolk FFS!, various other members come from the dark side (of the atlantic) Yen puts up ride reports from abandoned toilets... lets face it, Pedro's probably the most normal person in here and he's portugese. all of these conditions should be considered a handicap. Is it really surprising that our collective "Humour" is not readily comprehensible to all and sundry? I like it, Thank you for keeping it going despite what "normal " people might say or do.

oh I wouls so love to have snow like that... for about an hour!

no he wouldn't. but his wife would if he could be bothered to ask her

That's never stopped the rest of us

I liked tham on the transalp, never noticed any untoward slipping, but did have a front one that had a fabrication defect. I gave up using them when it became impossible to buy any, then Michelin announced they were closing down a couple of plants with the loss of 5000 jobs in the same week they announced global profits of millions of euros... fuck 'em. tried others and I like these ok. and some dunlops trailmax I had on the tralp as well. Like I say, at MY skill level, I don't really think the tyres make much difference, I'm not exactly pushing their performance envelope...

pirelli scorpion trail II Pete, they're as good as the Michelin anakees on the road, if not better, and fine on dirt or gravel so long as it's dry, at least for my skill level.

it probably goes on for miles. this was facing south but it started turning back towards the East a bit further along, across the front of the coming storm, so I turned off it onto a more southerly route.

well I thought it was funny... a couple of other shots from 150km this afternoon dodging some nasty storm cells that were wandering around the area this was a biggie, mouving south east and starting to generate it's own wnd patterns in front of it, exactly where I was when I took this shot...ooops... and this was as close as I wanted to get. Don't get me wrong, these are not tropical storms and there's no rotation or other tornado like phenomena but they do generate locally storm force winds and dump huge amounts of water so you really don't want to be in one on a bike. Having stopped for the pic right in the path of it I then legged it, unfortunately home was also right in it's path and I got a bit wet in the last 5km as the leading edge caught up with me. I managed to get in the house about 5 minutes befre it really let loose and boy did it dump some water. For about 10 minutes, the water was standing about 2 inches deep in the yard and you couldn't see across the road. Short lived but intense is how I would describe it. I've just now ( hours later) been out to put the bin out and there's a lot of branches and stuff all over the road and a tree down a bit further along, so it looks like I did right to run away.

allo allo