MooN

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

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…

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…

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.

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

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...

Things hotting up at work as the workshops prepare for a round of the electric motocross world cup this weekend. Its on our test track which has been completely remodeled for the occasion. Ill try and get a pic or two at the weekend but heres a coupe of our workshops today

you wasted your money, the only professional service that would make that poorly designed boat anchor worth voting for involes a gallon of petol and a match

27 here this afternoon and set fair for the next week or so. It's allegedly due to a high pressure system that entered the UK illegally and is now stuck there until such time as it can be sent to rawanda, which is fine by me cos the outer edges of it are blocking the shocking bad weather from the south from coming this way.

in order to be eligible you have to have owned at least 47 different bikes in the last 3 years and any photo has to be of yourself on the bike on a thursday at no less that 874metres altitude. Only photographs of 811.4kb will be accepted and must be posted in an east -west direction on a tuesday and contain an equal number of green and red pixels along the median axis.

nope, you were a fucktard beck then and you're a medicated fucktard now.

there's only 7 entries cos there's so many rules a regs that most people can't be arsed.

the problem with riding in a group is that I can't stop for pics whenever I want so there aren't many pics. I'll see if I can cobble something together over the next few days.

Just got in from a 3 day trip to the ardeche. 1130km 18 hrs saddle time im fooked.

Dunno if this is allowed cos i inow you wnt have bikes in vans, but heres a pic of my bike in a town called “Vans”

Left home at 08:00 this morning, 10 hours and 450km later ( including proper lunch, coffee and beer stops) arrived in Saint Cirgues en Montagne, about to attack the apperitfs… tomorrow, The Ardeche.

daughter signed up for amazon prime so I've hacked her account and am watching "The Good Doctor" but I imagine I will get bored with it before series 3

Hi Russel, Ignore the peanut gallery... you'll learn to sift throught he dross and find some pearls ( you'll need to look hard, but they are there). Bobo neleg's question is the good one, cos a 650 sports bike might be a bit of a handfull for starting out, and yet a 650 cruiser or traily type would be better adapted, so don't stick at cc but horsepower and size. Remember this mantra f your looking for a budget 2nd hand machine; Cheap and fast won't be reliable Cheap and reliable won't be fast Fast and reliable won't be cheap on top of that, remember that if the deal looks to good to be true, it probably is... I would advise getting something you can get both feet flat on the ground with, its reassuring for a first bike. add to that something the will retain some resale value so that when you get bored and want something bigger and faster, you can sell it on ( so not italian or chinese). let us know how you get on and we eill take the piss accordingly

Nope, i was busy doing “me”.

Brother in law is going on a temporary transfer to a specialist centre in Hyeres tomorrow and needed some stuff dripping of for him in Lyon before he leaves. Wed planned to go and spend the afternoon with him sunday to take him his stuff. But, the cat escaped from the colditz courtyard on Thursday night, reappeared on friday in a bad way. Vet says she got bitten by a dog so 4 stitches and convalescent. Didnt want to leave her alone all day Saturday so Mrs Moon stayed home & i decided to run down to Lyon and back by bike. 4.5h run south ( no motorway) getting there at 14:00. Sit around in the warm and dry taking the piss out of brother in law whilst a storm front goumes through from sw to ne and then a 3 h night blast up the autoroute home for 22hoo ish. Boy did i get that plan wrong! left here 09:00 having checked the weather radar and realised the storm front was moving faster then forcast and starting to rotate north. i stopped about an hour out to zdd a layer under my jacket cos the temps dropped 5°. Again an hour later for a quick slurp of coffee from my flask and a 2nd thermal layer. I was already on the northern edge of the storm fron and the rain was coming down steadily. I got a bit further south before finding a bus shelter to eat me sarnies in whilst watching alternately the rain and the weather radar. It become very clear over half an hour that i was going to have to bail on the brother in law and rely on that age old tried and tested military strategy of” running away”. The storm front was moving much faster than id thought and the main body was now right between me and Lyon. The weather radar shows the storm had reached the Rhone valley and stalled, curling north in an anticlockwise rotation, generating wind and lightning strikes along with heavy rainfall. i misread that completely! And rode home with my tail between my legs ( metaphorically. Though the rain eased as i got further north i definitely found the limits of ALL my rain gear well before i got home. I dont remember being so thoroughly soaked in years. i am decidedly too old for that shit. i’ pit brither in laws stuff in a box and sent it “chronoposte”. 400 odd km round trip, 300of which in steady rain. on the plus side im not aching all over this morning, and the bike didnt miss a beat.