Took part in a 6 hour mopedathon for charity. I would never have believed how competative some people will get riding a 49cc moped without actually taking part.You'd have thought it was a track day or at least the BSB ! Too many accidents this time with several bangs, sprains and one possible broken ankle. Cost me a fabric burn from my elbow armour, a bashed Shoei X Spirit 2 and a burst zip on my Daytona boot. The guy who took me out from behind appeared a lot worse but he rejoined the action, as did I. Andy
Had another interesting and good day out on Eva Arranged to meet Dangerous Jim on his (new to him 996 SPS - just one more to add to his other 5 bikes) at Compo's Cafe in Holmfirth at 11am. I got there about 5 mins early and waited for him. At about 11.05am Jim rolls into the car park. And I mean rolled! He'd been coming over the Greenfield Road (Isle of Skye Rd) and had just got over the hill when the bike lost power and spluttered. He managed to put it into neutral and coasted about 2 miles down the hill to Compo's! :tongue: Anyway we removed the fairings. Looked at stuff and decided swiftly we hadn't got a clue what we were looking at, nor looking for, so Jim called the AA out. He played the "I'm spasticated" card and got a priority call out and the AA engineer would be with us in 20 mins Anyway the AA man took 30 mins to get to us which wasn't a problem. Forty minutes later he had Jim's bike firing on all cylinders and good as new. The previous owner had apparently removed an alarm and in his cack handedness had fucked the gubbins to the fuel pump which had caused the problem. So we were back in the game! Had a great run around Lancashire and Yorkshire, all done at warp speed as is Jim's wont, and we ended up in Settle for summat to eat and a brew. Route was summat like this from memory...... Then we headed back to Jim's for a brew and sat out in the garden in the sun about 4pm. I then headed home and managed to get back on the fumes! I'm not sure I'll have enough to get me to a garage to fill up next time I go out :tongue: Anyway Eva is now all clean and bug free and away in the garage under the dust cover. T'was a good day all round methinks
Got to the gym for the first time in 3 months. I have spent the summer gardening and swimming. Don't have time for everything. I have made another apple tart (which I shall shortly eat a slice of). Watched the Supersport and 2nd leg of Supersports. It just isn't the same for me without a competitive Ducati. Reasonably dull. Baggies didn't get beaten by Arsenal. Not bad. Weather was still dull and grey and I'm prepared to bet that had I had the Ducati out of the garage, I'd have been rained on within 10 miles, so I didn't bother.
Sat around the house feeling like s@@t, got some form of bacterial infection which gives me rigors, feel hot but shaking like I'm freezing, head feels like its filled with cotton wool, nose running fit to burst and to make it worse the weather has been gorgeous! So wanted to get the bike out but there was no way I'd be safe :-(
Today, I have mostly been completing the Cardiff Half Marathon. Great event, and the support from the locals was amazing, even better than the Great North Run!
ballachoolish to erskin for charity run got there late,(cool saved a feu bob) so popd in to mates in bridge of wier and back up road. spent the dosh i saved on a wild boar burger at the clachaig glen coe. not bonding with the 848 today.
Had my first IAM assessment ride today and it went pretty well. In about half the categories I scored three - which means good enough to take the test - and almost all the others were two and a half, so am not far off the required standard... I found the hardest thing was sticking to the speed limit - 30mph feels sooo slow and on some of the country roads it wasn't always obvious what the limit was. On top of that it's a bit weird knowing that you're being observed, and also having to keep an eye out for the direction signals from the assessor when he's behind you requires quite a lot of concentration when you're also checking the road ahead AND keeping an eye on your speedo. Pretty chuffed though - the instructor seemed genuinely impressed and he also took quite a shine to the Benelli Tornado so I promised him he could have a go sometime. He did of course have to ask what the fans are for... cheers, Dom
Managed to get out for a blast for an hour today up and around the cat and fiddle, its a bit awkward to get out on the bike as im working away at the mo so really enjoyed it. just avin a couple of beers now while cocking the word association game up.
The Tornado has it's radiator under the seat, so the fans at the rear are just the usual cooling fans, only much more of a visible feature than on most bikes People are always asking about them and some less scrupulous owners have been known to make up all sorts of elaborate but false explanations...!
They'd be wasted on me, follicly challenged as I am. Turbo fans. Propellers. Exhaust overflow outlets. Flatulence disperser. Now that I could do with...
