ABR 2021

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

 

Friday- a massive influx of too many people occurred. The numbers increased enormously but the facilities available had not been calculated correctly… cue the queues. Who wants to queue for 1-2 hours for food or drink and a lot of the concessions ran out of food by 8pm there will be plenty of complaints I’m sure. Fortunately they didnt run out of booze and what with the restrictions only recently lifting allowing these type of events the general mood remained pretty good. 

As luck would have it we seemed to have camped in a magical little spot out of view with plenty of space and its own separate toilet and showers- a massive result and plenty of room for friends joining us today.

Bike camping being what it is a lot of people had brought their own food and drink (or quickly did) and the food stalls upped their game so by lunch time the next day the queues had reduced significantly (apart from for ablutions) and the the good times were rolling again.

So many nice bikes to look at it was hard to know where to start the drooling. I was surprised to find myself drawn to two total marmite bikes, the latest Hayabusa and the carbuncled BMW that is the R18. 

The R18 is IMO much better looking in real life. The mahoosive chromed boxer engine sticking far out of the frame leading into their symmetrical dual ‘classic exhaust’ (thats the double round one not the rather odd fishtail jobby with the ‘authentic’ ugly seam) was on another planet, it looked like a cool 50’s spaceship and I was more than happy to hop aboard. The chrome was that thick chrome you’d expect and shouted “I’m a quality beast”. 

I was extremely surprised how easy it was to lift off the stand, its 345 kilos and felt so much lighter than my 240kg Bandit. I also discover theres an option for a reverse gear…. I think I might NEED it for Route 66 so now its just the small matter of £18,995…

 

 

The Hayabusa I sat on before Id even looked at what it was, I just thought it looked like fun. The sales guy wandered over so I asked a few questions, when I got to BHP, he replied its 188 which made me burst out laughing, now theres a bike worth maiming yourself for  

But as usual this is also on the “HOW MUCH?!?!?” list with a starting price of £16,495.   Hey ho…  dreams can come true  

 

 

After pint number two was finished (dont get me started on the shameful ciders available- at one point my only option was  a bottle of ‘Berries and Cherries’ an utter abomination that has no right to be called cider) all chances of actually going out for a ride disappeared into happy bike chat occasionally drowned out by the sound of motorbike engines and the stink of exhaust fumes.. bliss. 

Id like to show you a pic of happy people drinking but all I have is a pic of walking back to the tent and tbh its a fair representation of how the end of the evening went

 

 

[XTreme]

Brilliant Caroline!

I saw quite a few people on FB complaining about the facilities!

Did you get to meet any big names? I hear Elspeth Beard gave a great talk?

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

1 minute ago, XTreme said:

Brilliant Caroline!

I saw quite a few people on FB complaining about the facilities!

Did you get to meet any big names? I hear Elspeth Beard gave a great talk?

Lucky to meet a lot of them! Met Elspeth a few times, didn’t catch her talk this time but she’s usually good. 

[XTreme]

12 minutes ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

Lucky to meet a lot of them! Met Elspeth a few times, didn’t catch her talk this time but she’s usually good. 

No photo with Sam? He always seems to get all the ladies round him!

[Tym]

Sounds like allot of fun. 

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

A forgotten photo from friday. I stood out on the path precisely where my mate would need to turn to find our lovely empty camping spot with a pint of beer, he said its the best festival welcome he’s ever had! Anyway back to Saturday.

 

Saturday- This morning is a less than an exciting start, I knew for sure the longer I could hold onto the sides of the sleeping bag the better life would be. I’m not on my own in this and nobody is ready to do anything until several cups of tea have been drunk but by lunch time hunger pangs motivate us to get some sort of hangover cure. Some excellent quality burgers provided the necessary sustenance, don’t ask me how but somehow we were ready to roll again 

‘The Dirty Cow’ burger a hangover cure n a half.

 

Next Mr Slowly goes for a test ride on a Ducati scrambler, to his surprise he was booked for an off road ride, a surprise to him because even with minimal bike experience he thinks the Ducati Scrambler quite rightly is no off road bike. Before they set off he’s thrilled to hear its very muddy and slippery and they’ve had to shut some sections of the 20 mile course… not  

His first instructions is-  “On this section DO NOT touch your front brake at all” but Mr Slowly is one of those people that just doesnt follow instructions, sometimes because he just doesnt like being told what to do by anyone so doesn’t listen and sometimes he just wants to see what will happen… not even three metres from take off his hand stretches out towards the front brake and while one part of his brain is shouting NOOOO the other part makes him squeeze that lever- the bike goes one way and him the other. This piss taking was monumental cos who hasn’t experienced this demented brain quirk at some point? Sadly no pics cos as usual when you’re having a really good time taking pics goes out the window.

Had a good old view of the Harely Pan America which I think is much better in the flesh and in black, still cant make my mind up about it though and agree with Mr Slowly it would be vastly improved by a knight rider ‘Kit’ red led strip swooping left to right on the front.

Probably saying “Good morning Mr Money Bags, where can I take you today? Ive taken the liberty of sacking the bike valet after finding I still have grit in my bellypan”

 

 

About 10 of Himalayan trip women are up for the pub quiz so after a couple of much needed hairy dogs we wander over to the quiz area. I dont really enjoy these things because theres always someone who’s competitive nature takes over and it gets way too serious, if you take 10 people of their tenacity theres gonna be more than one competitive soul… 

Eventually the stupidity ends and the fun begins when we decide to partake in a couple more refreshments and some mild heckling of Steph while she does her Q&A session with the Sidecar Guys, somehow its seems to go down very well and Steph messages to to say thankyou

Unfortunately Ive accidentally spent all my fun tokens the night before dancing late which I was told the next day is not allowed. Id broken the rules- No dancing singing or shouting to reduce the chances of Covid transmission.. oops. So I bow out gracefully before tottery me appears (unlike the night before ) and have to accept if I dont get some sleep I may end up in the medical tent in a foil blanket sipping electrolytes.

 

Four of my Himalayan Trip compadres before things took off on Saturday.

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

44 minutes ago, XTreme said:

No photo with Sam? He always seems to get all the ladies round him!

I’m not a collector of  ‘star photos’ I always feel sorry for them with every one asking them the same questions and being overly friendly when they dont even know them, must be annoying! Didnt see Sam, he was probably hidden from sight by a gaggle of admirers

[busabeast]

Sounds like fun was had by all 

[Pedro]

I took a seat on an R18 the other day, and completely agree that it hides it's weight very well, it has ridiculously low ground clearance and lean angle though. As far as I'm concerned I would take a Harley over one any day. Also my legs were a little cramped, which is not cool on such a bike.

I am curious about looking at a Harley Pan America in person, the looks are growing on me. I am not one for black bikes as they're so hard to keep looking nice, but that one looks amazing.

I might have missunderstood, @Slowlycatchymonkey, but did that guy with the FJR ride holding that full glass of beer? If so, that's really impressive.

[XTreme]

14 minutes ago, Pedro said:

but did that guy with the FJR ride holding that full glass of beer?

Yeh......and he carried on to Assen and won MotoGP.......without spilling a drop!

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

20 minutes ago, Pedro said:

I took a seat on an R18 the other day, and completely agree that it hides it's weight very well, it has ridiculously low ground clearance and lean angle though. As far as I'm concerned I would take a Harley over one any day. Also my legs were a little cramped, which is not cool on such a bike.

I am curious about looking at a Harley Pan America in person, the looks are growing on me. I am not one for black bikes as they're so hard to keep looking nice, but that one looks amazing.

I might have missunderstood, @Slowlycatchymonkey, but did that guy with the FJR ride holding that full glass of beer? If so, that's really impressive.

I couldn’t shift a low rider or the other lovely Harleys theyre too heavy, this with a reverse gear I could. Agree the lean angle is very small but Id live with it riding the straight roads of America (like most of Route 66) after which Id polish it and drink beer next to it just like a Harley rider  

Yep off road on an FJR and a pint would be impressive but no he drank some and followed directions 200 metres to the camping sweet spot where I reappeared with the rest of his pint  

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

Sunday- Not a very exciting instalment because today we’re on the road home by 10 in the morn.

Some of the Himalayan trip women want to do the yoga at 7.30 am (I feel yoga is chasing me) but no amount of arm twisting is going to prize me from my warm tent for exercise at that hour- nutters.

We spend some time talking about this motoguzzi, about the Italians grasp of aesthetics, about perfectly machined parts and the reliability of different brands/bikes and what was wrong with them, you know the sort of stuff, Nortons rubber mounted engine etc etc, it was a geek fest of epic proportions, right up my street. Can’t remember whose bike this is though, anyone know? Its clearly a RTW travellers but I cant remember or maybe dont know who did it on a Guzzi?

 

Due to a pet emergency we’re packing up early, the emergency being one of the dogs has a load of shite wedged over its rear end and seems distressed about it… scoot scoot… scoot scoot scoot. My sons want to take it to the vet rather than deal with it! I tell them no way, get some gloves man up but by 9am its still not done so things literally went to dog shit 

As we pack up and the tent starts to be folded the gnarly lump of wood we’ve been carefully walking around for four days turns out to be the missing tent pegs, the missing tent pegs that had me wandering from tent to tent with my hands out asking anyone if they had any spare  My camp neighbours (really nice blokes) who took the mick continually about forgetting the tent pegs a had hearty laugh at that one. 

Yet again I have failed to attend the vast majority of the talks I wanted to get to… but it was worth it, lots of bikes and lots of well oiled bikers meant a good time was had by everyone. I met some really good festival people this year who love bikes and just wanna have some fun so we did  

We arrive home to find the boys had managed to brace themselves for shittery and had even found some germaline for the dogs arse, very proud of them

Next up a very short coast to coast mid July from Robin Hoods bay to Morecambe with a 78 year old man on a 125 shopping trolley. What could possibly go wrong?

 

 

 

[XTreme]

6 minutes ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

Sunday- Not a very exciting instalment because today we’re on the road home by 10 in the morn.

Some of the Himalayan trip women want to do the yoga at 7.30 am (I feel yoga is chasing me) but no amount of arm twisting is going to prize me from my warm tent for exercise at that hour- nutters.

We spend some time talking about this motoguzzi, about the Italians grasp of aesthetics, about perfectly machined parts and the reliability of different brands/bikes and what was wrong with them, you know the sort of stuff, Nortons rubber mounted engine etc etc, it was a geek fest of epic proportions, right up my street. Can’t remember whose bike this is though, anyone know? Its clearly a RTW travellers but I cant remember or maybe dont know who did it on a Guzzi?

 

Due to a pet emergency we’re packing up early, the emergency being one of the dogs has a load of shite wedged over its rear end and seems distressed about it… scoot scoot… scoot scoot scoot. My sons want to take it to the vet rather than deal with it! I tell them no way, get some gloves man up but by 9am its still not done so things literally went to dog shit 

As we pack up and the tent starts to be folded the gnarly lump of wood we’ve been carefully walking around for four days turns out to be the missing tent pegs, the missing tent pegs that had me wandering from tent to tent with my hands out asking anyone if they had any spare  My camp neighbours (really nice blokes) who took the mick continually about forgetting the tent pegs a had hearty laugh at that one. 

Yet again I have failed to attend the vast majority of the talks I wanted to get to… but it was worth it, lots of bikes and lots of well oiled bikers meant a good time was had by everyone. I met some really good festival people this year who love bikes and just wanna have some fun so we did  

We arrive home to find the boys had managed to brace themselves for shittery and had even found some germaline for the dogs arse, very proud of them

Next up a very short coast to coast mid July from Robin Hoods bay to Morecambe with a 78 year old man on a 125 shopping trolley. What could possibly go wrong?

 

 

 

If I'm not mistaken that's Chris Donaldson's bike!

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

4 minutes ago, XTreme said:

If I'm not mistaken that's Chris Donaldson's bike!

Ah yes you’re spot on. I saw his book (not read it yet) he did a trip 40 or 50 years ago and has just written it up. Remember that when youre giving us a flogging for not writing up ride reports, we’re just fermenting them for a few decades before posting

[XTreme]

5 minutes ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

Ah yes you’re spot on. I saw his book (not read it yet) he did a trip 40 or 50 years ago and has just written it up. Remember that when youre giving us a flogging for not writing up ride reports, we’re just fermenting them for a few decades before posting

Late 70's I think......he was one of the pioneers!

[skyrider]

3 hours ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

 

Friday- a massive influx of too many people occurred. The numbers increased enormously but the facilities available had not been calculated correctly… cue the queues. Who wants to queue for 1-2 hours for food or drink and a lot of the concessions ran out of food by 8pm there will be plenty of complaints I’m sure. Fortunately they didnt run out of booze and what with the restrictions only recently lifting allowing these type of events the general mood remained pretty good. 

As luck would have it we seemed to have camped in a magical little spot out of view with plenty of space and its own separate toilet and showers- a massive result and plenty of room for friends joining us today.

Bike camping being what it is a lot of people had brought their own food and drink (or quickly did) and the food stalls upped their game so by lunch time the next day the queues had reduced significantly (apart from for ablutions) and the the good times were rolling again.

So many nice bikes to look at it was hard to know where to start the drooling. I was surprised to find myself drawn to two total marmite bikes, the latest Hayabusa and the carbuncled BMW that is the R18. 

The R18 is IMO much better looking in real life. The mahoosive chromed boxer engine sticking far out of the frame leading into their symmetrical dual ‘classic exhaust’ (thats the double round one not the rather odd fishtail jobby with the ‘authentic’ ugly seam) was on another planet, it looked like a cool 50’s spaceship and I was more than happy to hop aboard. The chrome was that thick chrome you’d expect and shouted “I’m a quality beast”. 

I was extremely surprised how easy it was to lift off the stand, its 345 kilos and felt so much lighter than my 240kg Bandit. I also discover theres an option for a reverse gear…. I think I might NEED it for Route 66 so now its just the small matter of £18,995…

 

 

The Hayabusa I sat on before Id even looked at what it was, I just thought it looked like fun. The sales guy wandered over so I asked a few questions, when I got to BHP, he replied its 188 which made me burst out laughing, now theres a bike worth maiming yourself for  

But as usual this is also on the “HOW MUCH?!?!?” list with a starting price of £16,495.   Hey ho…  dreams can come true  

 

 

After pint number two was finished (dont get me started on the shameful ciders available- at one point my only option was  a bottle of ‘Berries and Cherries’ an utter abomination that has no right to be called cider) all chances of actually going out for a ride disappeared into happy bike chat occasionally drowned out by the sound of motorbike engines and the stink of exhaust fumes.. bliss. 

Id like to show you a pic of happy people drinking but all I have is a pic of walking back to the tent and tbh its a fair representation of how the end of the evening went

 

 

a bit hazy eh 

[XTreme]

44 minutes ago, skyrider said:

a bit hazy eh 

But no van to be seen Lionel!

Caroline's the Real Deal!

[Buckster]

3 hours ago, Pedro said:

I took a seat on an R18 the other day, and completely agree that it hides it's weight very well, it has ridiculously low ground clearance and lean angle though. As far as I'm concerned I would take a Harley over one any day. Also my legs were a little cramped, which is not cool on such a bike.

The engine configuration does not lend itself to forward controls.

[Tym]

Cool report, to bad no pics of the dogs ass part, Bruce would have loved that. 

[Pedro]

1 hour ago, Buckster said:

The engine configuration does not lend itself to forward controls.

But still, the big cylinders on it take precious leg space. On a GS or other bikes where you sit higher with  legs below you it's of no problem as you don't need to put your legs forward, but on a cruiser lower seating position you need somewhere to park your legs. On a Sportster's or a Dyna's mid control position it makes sense, on this it just doesn't, to me

 

[Buckster]

7 hours ago, Pedro said:

But still, the big cylinders on it take precious leg space. On a GS or other bikes where you sit higher with  legs below you it's of no problem as you don't need to put your legs forward, but on a cruiser lower seating position you need somewhere to park your legs. On a Sportster's or a Dyna's mid control position it makes sense, on this it just doesn't, to me

 

That’s what I said, you have been out in the sun too long.

[XTreme]

Vid from Nathan Millward......seems to be more Affy Twins there than anything else!

 

[Sir Fallsalot]

7 hours ago, XTreme said:

Vid from Nathan Millward......seems to be more Affy Twins there than anything else!

I'd say there was a great deal of T7's and CRF250/300Ls as well 

[XTreme]

35 minutes ago, Sir Fallsalot said:

I'd say there was a great deal of T7's and CRF250/300Ls as well 

I imagined it would be overrun with big GS's!

[Tym]

I;ll be in the vintage adventure class with my KLR in a few short "spare motors"..

 

.i mean "years"...

 

kinda...