Fathers Day

Had a lovely day out last Sunday for Fathers Day, with Julie. Dan was on a Cadet camp and Tash was out. We went to Bursledon Brickworks, Swanwick, Southampton. It's the last remaining steam powered brickwork's in the UK.

To be honest it was not the bricks that I was interested in, but the "industrial" type relics and the narrow gauge train. It was sunny and quite warm and we were there from about 12 to 3 pm.



Then we had to go back and get Dan, who was waiting for us. He has a great time at battle camp, and came back nice and dirty! He has final selection fro the Army on the 6th/7th July.



Today we are going to the Armed Forces Day in Andover for a while, Dan with the Cadets will march through town.

Will catch up on more news later..

Show Winning Bike!

No, not mine, while I was at the Shipton Bellinger Fete last weekend I saw these two nice trail bikes, one of which is a show winner!



The green one is a Rickman Matisse 250, and as you can see it won Bike of Show at the Classic Dirt Bike Show 2009.



It has a Bosch CDI ignition and Betor front and Ikon rear suspension, and is owned by Shipton Bellinger resident Peter Patrick, of Peter Patrick Motorsport.

Lovely!

Quick update on my bike, I cleaned off the worse of the two side panels that I bought for it on Ebay, stripped the adhesive sticker off with a heat gun (carefully!) and rubbed it down with my palm sander. It is now sprayed matt black (because I did not have any gloss black in the garage!) and nearly fitted, I ran out of time to sort out the stripped bolt that holds it on. I've also received and fitted the mirrors, but I am not sure I like them, they are round, black with chrome stems, they do not match as a pair and they are short! Will decide if I want to keep them or not ASAP.

Fathers Day today so off to Bursledon Brickworks, Dan's away on camp and Tash is out as usual.

Biking news....

Thought I ought to catch up with some biking news, I am using the Yamaha more now than the car, in Wednesday (it rained on me on the way home!), Thursday I took it up to meet Andy at Frimley, about 50 miles along the A303/M3. My first "journey" on the motorway. Being a big fan of "Long Way Round/Down etc" and other motorcycle journey type films and books, I have often wondered what it would be like to sit on a motorbike for hours on end!

The Yamaha did well on the motorway, held 70 easy with another 10+ to hand if I needed it. I still drive like a car driver, though! Bum only got a little numb, took under the hour to get there. The we drove up to Coventry in Andy's sport Jaguar convertible thingy, 410BHP!

Same journey back, again the Yamaha held 70 when needed. It was much windier, I think a better helmet and ear plugs would help, if I were going a long way in the future. Some fluttering noises and matbe popping sounds, not sure if it's the bike backfiring at speed or just noise! If I were two up with luggage would struggle, I am sure.

On the way in by bike today (lovely and sunny) I saw several other biker's, a sports bike, a GS (probably a smaller one), a learner chopper thing and a trail bike of some sort.

I have bought a couple of side panels for the battery side, need to fix up and spray one to put it on, also still need to do oil change, oil the chain, fix the brakes, fix the temp gauge sender and fan switch, fix the exhaust blah blah blah....

Must go now, work to do....

About time I caught up (again!)

Last week was our 25th wedding anniversary, and Julie and I went to Birmingham! I know, not the most romantic of places, but we have already decided to go to Turkey as a family this year, so couldn't do much else. Anyway, on the way up through the Chilterns we went to Bourton on the Water. I had found this place because it has a small motor museum (the home of Brum, a TV cartoon car). When we got there I realised it was so nice that we decided to look round instead of going in the museum.



It's a lovely place, weather was a bit grey, but we had lunch outside ("waiter" brought our bill to pay before the food, maybe they get lot's of people legging it!). We looked around for three or four hours, then went on to the Royal Enfield importers a few miles away, which was a waste of time!

Next destination was the overnight stop, I forgot to put the correct "house" number into the satnav, and we ended up going the wrong way through a very Asian part of Birmingham. Once corrected we got there, and we were a couple of miles from the NEC, out target for the next day.

Our "accommodation" was a Innkeepers Lodge, I was a bit worried by the outside, room was OK, dinner was limited to roast with different meats. Not exactly romantic! (NOTE TO SELF. Next year for Julie's 50th do something just for us that is romantic, finances permitting!). Wednesday morning we set off for the NEC, and the Gardeners World Live Show.



We arrived at 10.30 ish after walking 20 minutes from the car park, and started to walk round, outside gardens first, because it was threatening to rain, although it was quite hot. First thing we bought was a collapsible plant trolley/box thing. Then we saw TV presenter Joe Swift, doing a piece for Gardeners World this coming Friday. Looked around the gardens, saw Toby Buckland, then Monty Don. Went into the RHS tent, it was huge, packed with plants. Did a quarter of this then went over to the main NEC building (take it from me, this show is huge!).



Had lunch (bought from Tesco's that morning, saving our money for as many plants as pos), went into the main halls, where we were stopped by a guy from N'power. Ended up changing electricity suppliers! Looked around the main halls, when we went to leave, it was tipping down with rain! Luckily this stopped after a few minutes (although it had been raining for ages by the look of it). Went back into the RHS tent, looked at the remaining 3/4 qtrs, you can imagine by now the plant trolley was getting a bit full!



Julie wanted to look some more so I headed of on my own for 30 minutes, saw Joe Swift again, this gave me the idea of buying his book and getting an autograph. Took ages to wait for him to finish, but I did it! Also saw Carol Klein in the RHS tent and took a pic. Now we were tired (about 5pm by now), but we had seen a water feature thing that had caught our eye, and we decided (bit spur of the moment) to buy it for our garden with the money my mum had given us for our anniversary (thanks mum!). After a bit of negotiation (they would not budge on price) we were the proud owners of a large brass looking metal container and four water plants!




We lugged this lot all the way back to the car and set off home. To cut a long story short, weather was not too good, pouring with rain. Traffic OK, got home in just over two hours non stop, about 7.45pm. Went out to get Dan from Cadet's at nine, other than that just watched telly!

20k clocked up on the bike...

Almost forgot, last Saturday (May 20th) the Yamaha clocked up 20K as I went up to do my radio show. I was on a slight diversion on a track on Salisbury Plain, so I stopped and took some pic's with my camera 'phone. Yesterday Dan and I took the bike to Salisbury, went and looked round the Yamaha dealer (Hayballs), had some new Tenere's in stock, and one outside rigged with luggage boxes etc. It's not bad, but it is a different bike to my old one. There was a guy in there buying one, and I was jealous! Dan wants a 3K plus 125 Yamaha road bike, I tried to suggest he gets an old one first, no doubt reality will kick in when he starts earning a crust!

Then we went into the centre of Salisbury and parked up, never been in so much traffic before! Bought a 25th wedding anniversary for Dan to give us, had a McDonalds, then bought Dan a mobile 'phone on contract, advance birthday present (it's next month). Then we went to see Terminator salvation, which was good.
When we got back I was knackered! Don't know how these guy's do massive mileages on their bikes, now I know why they have to get fit first! Julie had been off all day to the Craft Barn, and she bought in KFC, so two fast foods in one day!

Off on Tuesday/Wednesday for our wedding anniversary, will blog that later....

Catch up blog

Really ought to catch up with the blog before it becomes two weekends since I last did it!

Last weekend I spent some time on the Yamaha, set out to change the footbrake, found out that you cannot change it without removing the exhaust pipes! Took off the exhaust box (easy) and then found a small ring of holes in the exhaust pipes, which has now become a "slot". Going downhill even further one of the exhaust pipe manifolds has butchered bolts, holding on with two nut's on a tiny bit of thread, and the other one has been cut off in the past.




Tried to free off the rear brake caliper, could not split it, levered the pad's apart, not much better. Ended up stripping the front plastics off, and waiting for it to get dark (on Saturday night) to try and align the headlights (they were pointing into the trees).

Whilst the front was stripped I checked the temperature gauge, and it works, so the sender must be faulty. Also, the fan works, so maybe the sender is faulty there as well. Both are over 30 quid each at the Yamaha dealer in Salisbury (Hayballs).

Put the plastic back on Sunday morning, has a little ride to make sure it was OK, which was nice. I fancy spray painting it blue one day, graphics are V hard to get, and expensive.



Bike usage has definitely changed since the Enfield has gone, I use the Yamaha much more regularly, daily in fact, as long as it's dry. At the weekends though I do not tend to go "joy riding". Spoke to Adrian last Sunday, he has a Kawasaki 500 cc "Adventure Bike", which he had just been using off road on Salisbury Plain. Too much for me and my Yamaha, I think.

Also spent time in the garden mowing and emptying the hanging baskets, which Julie has now re-filled with nice new planting. Dan has got his two day selection test for the Army, on the 6th July, the day after we get back from holiday's! May have to at least drive him there, it's up the M3, not too far.

Tash wants to change careers which would involve improving here qualifications and going to UNI, would take four years. Hopefully she will work it out.

Been lovely and sunny all week, getting grey now and rain predicted over the weekend.

Bye....