MooN

well I think our local prefect has finally lost it! this morning it was -8c ish and freezing fog, cars in ditches all over the bloody place ( i exaggerate a little... but I only have a 10km drive to work and saw 2, wifey does 20k in the other direction and saw 1 plus an accident) The mwin road through the village here was fun cos a water main burst during the night so it was a proper ice rink. Kids off to school on the bus, no problem, all the schools open. Tomorrow the forcast is for +4 in the morning, rising to 10 ish in the afternoon and rain. All regional school transport and schools are closed tomorrow due to extreme weather comditions... fucking lunatic i tell you.

chores today, it,s been cold this last 48hrs and not got above -3c all day today. I spent 2 hours outside assembling and then fitting roof bars to the car in preparation for a family trip to the UK to see my parents in feb. Bit of a pain and a financial drain that I really don't need but Mum's 93 this year and Alzhiemer is doing what it does so If I don't go when I have the chance, it may well be the last.

ST Malo is my favorite place on earth. ( so far...) first visited as a kid on a sailing boat and have been back numerous times since, it never gets old. but don't even think about going when Paris is on school holidays.

buy some earplugs. oh, and make sure your bathroom has industrial gauge waste system.

anybody here visited? 80th anniversay this year, and if my Britanny trip doesn't come off ( looking less likely already) my plan B for the 8th may long weekend would be to go visit the landing beaches. I'm looking for info on whether I need 2 days "on site" or if one is sufficient, and what to see and what to not bother with. As the internet is only capable of supplying commercial tour operators advertisements and information pages from conspiracy theorists explaing how, "in fact", none of it ever happened, i thought I'd ask a group of people who's opinions i respect. Obviously I could,t find one, so I'm asking you lot as a last resort... anybody been and done it?

Fair point. , so I'll see your mangled arm / hand and raise you a rheumatoid polyarthritis and twin teenage daughters ( if they don't count as handicap or a disease they f'in well should do )

if you're playing " one-upmanship" in this domain on this forum, I think it should be made clear from the start that neither Yamahead nor Bob Oneleg are allowd to play , They should have a league of their own where weight loss due to removal of body parts is a legitimate thing and the rest of us can sit and quibble about who's getting oldest the fastest...

you can if you like but that's not the picture I took.

this is why I kept the transalp for so long ( partly) cos it cost me fuck all to insure and run and was worth fuck all if sold. further down the line and I have the house is paid for... and I have the triumph... and i,ve just got a new car... those will have to last till the twins have pretty much finished education I guess, then we'll start again if I'm still in a fit state.

I hope you get paid extra for working those days Saul? I remember working at centre parcs back in the day we would fight to work the holidays cos christmas day and new years eve wer paid triple with bixing day and new years day paid double, though I expect that doesnt happen any more. I haven't booked any time off over the festive period cos we're not going anywhere except Lyon for the day on the Sunday 24th so I'll have sat, sun &monday off next weekend, then again the following wekend but that's all.

I'm not sure they are looking for long term sales. Maybe some of them are, after all ts a fucking HUUUUGE place and mentalities obviously differ across such a vast country. We have maybe 2 or 3 of our suppliers who actually seem serious about improving quality and service, the rest... not so much. If I go back through the qualityreports sent to certain suppliers I will find identical reports about the same items going back 5 or more years related directly to the quality of build and of materiels used, with a similar reply " Oh we velly velly solly, that made by bad people in ploduction line, we fix plobrem, chop chop..!" ( if you don't find that offensively racist then you're probably over 50 ) and this has been going on for years, to the point that we struggle to find dealers for these machines cos most competant mechanics won't touch them. my boss reckons that another 4 or 5 years will see that particular supplier dissappear ( he's seen it before) and is already diminishing business with them so that we have as few machines as possible still under warranty when they do go pop. To be fair we have some prototupe machines from another supplier that ARE improved and do show signs of actually wanting to increase quality so just maybe...

They already have most of central africa financially over a barrel cos they've been heavily investing in infrastructure there for the last 10 years or so and that comes at a price that hasn't yet been disclosed but that I suspect will be a commercial monopoly of some description. They have now started trying to invest in eurpean infrastructure as this will allow them financial control there too. I'm starting to sound like that other conspiracy wanker, so I'll stop drinking.

yep. That's EU law and they will abide by that for exactly as long as they want to. they know as well, if not better than, anyone that there is no way in hell any eu law could be enforced in china, who would impose whatever sanction was applied? you could sue the dealer, the importer, whoever but try and sue a chinese company with an EU law... their govt does not recognise Eu law. They conform to safety norms to be able to sell their vehicles within the EU, that's as far as it goes. This is, of course just my opinion.

The law is the same, big or small bikes. The number of small bikes sold is massive compared to the number of big bikes. Why would they treat big bikes differently ? re the smaller european brands, its a VERY different mentality. You have some hope of compensation if you get sold a lemon by a european brand. The Chinese say « good luck with that » as they do not recognise international law and, as yet, have no need to.

I agree with Bob and Pedro, (but don't tell them that...)

everybody who I would consider nominating ( all two of them) have already been nominated so I wont muddy the waters further...

specifically wait a couple of yeasrs and see what happens when they need replacement parts. We have had to dismantle 6 brand new bikes into component parts in order to supply replacement parts to dealers of one of our chinese manufacturers as they are incapable of providing any parts. so we have one part of the assembly workshop putting shipped bikes together to be sent to the dealers, and the othe rhalf dismantling completely same model bikes so that we have some spare parts... Madness I tell you! when you order parts for a quad that's maybe 5 years old and they reply we dont make that part anymore. Um... the law requires the constructor to supply replacement parts for 10 years... " Not chinese law." is the standard reply. i can only imagine what is gong to happen in a couple of years when all the new MG and Volvo suv's start needing replacement parts... I hope I am wrong, but I see a shit storm on the horizon.

oh they're fucking everywhere pete, I really do't worry about stuff like climate change any more, the the human race will have destroyed itself by reverse darwinian reproduction long before the next ice age, or heat increase or whatever the newest threat theory is.

it's 25 k lighter cos theyve used 25k less metal in the frame and swingarm.... put it under some stress, real conditions with a load not press release day controlled conditions, new and prepared ( doctored) by a dedicated team and you'll find out where they'vs shaved the weight from. To be fair I know nothing about this bike or this firm, but from what I know about chinese motorcycle production I am pretty confident that if it's cheaper its because the parts are mede cheaper ( low quality materials, unskilled workers, and a healty disregard for any and all western rules and regarding safety, or norms, or garantees, all driven by a totalitarian communist régime. I regularly see test rides of these bikes, or CF moto, in the motorcycling pess here and they rave about them ( well yeah, cos if they don't then they'll just not be invited to the next test day all expenses paid trip to Hawaii for the press trials on the dozen or so carefully prepared and doctored versions of the machine) you then never hear anything further. Why? Because 8 months and 5000km down the line the bikes are falling apart, or are terminally ill and there are no parts available, the dealershave stopped dealing in them cos they can't get any parts or tech support from the factory and are wrapped up in legal proceedings and the factory is pointing out that under chinese law, which is the only one they recognise, you, as the end user, can go fuck youself . Ok, I'm exagerating. But only just.

Had a big nostagia day yesterday the weather was so crap, 3c and thik unmoving fog lasting all day without lifting, that it was just like being back in England...

and it always incomprhensible

If you go to Jax shack in the dordogne, gimme a shout...