We're all going on a summer holiday

Here we have one Velo MAC champing at the bit all loaded up ready to go on holiday on Le Grande Tour de France. Spot Ye Olde original King & Queen touring seat! I have offered up prayers to the great Magneto God and hope we will have a trouble free 2 weeks. There are some tools nestling in that little box just below and to the left of the oil tank including a special one to adjust the infamous Velo clutch. The tyres have been pumped up to take all the weight and the suspension set on its hardest setting. Stage 1 is to go to Pete's place in Langonnet. I understand we are meeting Pete, Wendy, Niall, Liz, Marmite and Andy in the restaurant of the Portsmouth to St. Malo ferry tonight. I have plotted a route to Langonnet that is mainly department roads. We won't be doing much more than 50. I guess the others will zap off down the autoroute. It is a 100 miles from St.Malo to Langonnet so that should take us 2.5 to 3 hours. Pete has booked the local restaurant for the traditional arrival grand stodge in the evening. After the weekend we will set off for southern France where the plan is to tour a round staying in B&Bs, eating and taking in the sights. I fancy seeing the cave paintings in the Dordogne but it is very difficult to get in because they only allow 180 visitors a day. Exploring the Pyrenees a bit might also be fun, I have only ever charged through them on the way to somewhere else. No doubt there will be some shopping along the way but there is precious little room in the panniers. In 2 weeks time we catch the P&O ferry back from Bilbao to Portsmouth.

Motorcycle clothing

As most of you will know I have been using the same old black leather jacket that I bought when I was about 17 or 18 which makes it about 45 years old. The summer zip has shredded and I can't get into it anyway. The winter zip is still OK. Whilst it has a certain period charm it really needs an imperviousness to cold and wet that only the young have.

Feeling rather flush I invested in a set of Hein Gericke goretex stuff recently which is truly excellent on the keeping warm and dry front but being a self confessed poser I still felt a bit stylistically challenged. I had been very tempted by some Ducati leather jackets at Pro Twins in Godstone. Jo who is always up for a shopping expedition persuaded me to pay a visit with intention to purchase. We then got treated to the how to screw up a sale treatment.

The very nice guy who sells parts handed me over to the guy who sells bikes and clothing. Like anyone else buying I wanted really to be alone to browse and try on. Using the sales guy to provide information. Finding a jacket I liked I started to take the armour out. I hate this stuff and these jackets were to some extent fashion items and all that armour crap ruins the look of them on. Over comes "sales" guy. "What ARE you doing?" he enquires aggressively. I explained that I wanted to try the jacket on without the armour to see how it looked and felt. He grumpily acquiesced to this but hovered all the time I was having debate with Jo on whether to buy or not (she was less keen than me). I then took jacket off and he then pounced on it saying "I will put it all back together now" and took it away for re-assembly. This really pissed me off because I still had not made up my mind whether to have it or not. So out we stomped.

Went over to P&H Motors at Crawley who have a bit of Ducati stuff and got a nicer jacket at a cheaper price.

Finally; helmets. Why are some helmets nearly £300 and some £30? I accept that it is a safety device but they are all made to BSI standards. Has anyone ever seen any objective testing that says the really expensive helmets are more protective than a cheap one? I accept that my preferred option, open face, will be less protective than full face. As a life long purchaser of cheap helmets my observations are:

1. The visor always gets ruined long before the helmet wears out then it is a devil of a job to get a replacement and I often get a new helmet because the visor has gone.
2. Generally I have always found cheap helmets comfortable enough and 'do the job'.
3. From an aesthetic point of view I think a nice simple black or silver open face looks a lot better (if a helmet can look good at all) than some garish Shoei thing.

Pictures

This is a trial to see how this link works: Click here for photos

The Club

I thought it might be a good idea to post up a few facts about what we are in case any interested parties stumble across us on the internet. The Wimbledon & District Motorcycle Club is an old club with a history that goes back before the 2nd World War. The Wimbledon and District bit is now rather theoretical as members have moved out over the years to places as distant as Norfolk, Oxfordshire and Sussex. However, there is a nucleus of people that can still be classified as living within the district of Wimbledon.

There are only about 30 of us of diverse backgrounds and ages that share a common interest in motorcycling. We are not a 1 make club and members have bikes that include BMW tourers, old Brit iron, Jap specials, Italian sports bikes etc. We meet on the first Friday of every month at The Dukes Head at Tadworth in Surrey. We loosely organise a number of events every year and this can include, dinners, trips to Chimay and Spa, "alcofrolics" to France, short motorcycling holidays to Brittany and other events as they arise. Most of us are now in our 40s or 50s with a small number of younger members. We very much welcome new friends of any age who would like to join us. Anyone that fancies joining us send an email to geoffstovold@googlemail.com

Virgin blog

Ok girls.........am told I must set an example and "blog" for the first time in my life. Well, somewhere to put knitting patterns for spare sprockets - what could be more exciting than that?! I may even have a sprocket receipe somewhere................................................Jo :0)

The Newsletter is dead

In the small hours I had an epiphany moment. Feeling increasingly guilty at my failure to produce a newsletter, I suddenly though why not a blog instead. The newsletter is redolent of stamps, envelopes, men in uniform on red bicycles and the sounds of a terrier shredding your mail as it drops on the mat. We are now in the 21st century and the postman is an endangered species.

The attraction of the blog is that I can write a small amount when the moment takes me and others can chip in with their two pennyworth too. I don't have to produce a whole tome at one go, with precious little material and not much imagination.

Also what prompted this was that last night was a particularly good meet at the Dukes Head last night almost like the old times at pub next to the bus garage. Float and Sheryl, Chris, Niall and Liz, Richard, me and Jo, Rob and his friend also called Rob and Crasher. Welcome Rob 2, we hope we see more of you. We need some young blood. Jo and I had a good run up on the Duke (a tad fast for Jo's comfort, I got the odd smack on the back of the head). A slower run back because I had had a pint (only the one officer). Rob's pocket cafe racer is still going strong and looking better for an improved seating arrangement. I think this is a brilliant little bike produced on a sub £200 budget. Rob should do a piece for Back Street Heroes. He is still thinking of doing Chimay on it. He wants to know who else is going to Chimay this year. I think the Murray's are and possibly the Rowans. Thats it for now. I am now going to figure out the settings and how to publish this thing.