Well after a great seven months of last year I parked up and pulled the garage door down and tucked the bike up to hibernate for the worst of a winter which hasn't really seemed to go away. To recap, the finale of the 2012 adventures were spent on a foggy subzero Autobahn, partying in Berlin, chilling out (quite literally) in the Czech Republic and dodging icy conditions in the hills of wunderbar Deutschland on the return leg with a tin hat of finally getting pissed on in the freezing downpours of Holland. Undeterred, and giving it one last go there was an attempt to do Scotland in the second week of December. I sought counsel from the UKGSer community before setting out on that one; the verdict was very much don't bank on it, and I'm glad we didn't because it didn’t happen. Riding up and skirting the Yorkshire moors saw riding in tyre tracks carved in the snow and slush, before reaching a frozen Tyneside, and our loop around Scotland actually got us as far North as the A66, ending up snowed in for a few days in the Lake District before linking up with Tosserfolk at Toad's pad for a bonzer chrimbo do. Still, the beer was good, as was the company, so we can't have it all and mustn't be greedy now.
In the meantime, back at HQ, during our wonderful winter I've done some work around the house, done a little writing, read some books and incurred significant library fines. But most of all I've spent a lot of joyous time with family which is something I missed out on while I spent too long behind a desk, something which I've come to profoundly regret.
Anyway. Bikes. Riding.
So the next one will be a kick off in Spain, so I'm afraid it'll be a bit of a repeat of some of last time but with some new places and no doubt a few new tales. I really enjoyed my time there so I'm looking forward to going back. We'll see where we go from there.
It's fair to say the my good old Red Hedgehog (otherwise known as a 2009 Adventure) got well used last year and a little knocked about as a result. It has navigated the drive-in potholes of Albania, similarly epic poor roads in Romania, wibbled in Poland's finest wobbly tram track roads, teetered in Bosnia Herzegovinian storm drains, and been a bloody handful on Latvia's central unmade road network, those amongst many others unmentioned. It has island hopped in Croatia complete with a guest tourist and a suitcase. It has circled the Iberian peninsular twice, one time with a guest and an unfeasible amount of gear. It has done all that and been spritely enough, even well loaded up to avoid the local driving in most of the more exotic places where it seems the entire population are auditioning for a part in the remake of Death Race 2000.
It has done all this without fuss and has been a joy to ride throughout. It still amazes me on just how staggeringly easy this 1200 is to ride.
There have been a couple of gremlins, but no show stoppers by any means. I think the biggest drama was actually trying to get a new tyre in Spain. Don't understimate that should you head out there and think you'll need one. Luckily for me it was no problem, with no particular deadlines to meet at the time, but meanwhile in the real world that doesn't work.
As I say I think it did a lot of hard graft. I don't mind some of the cosmetic blemishes, or shall we say character, as whenever I look at it now it makes me think of the great places we've been together. It is now like a trusty old friend, a pair of comfy old slippers, full of tat, stickers and general crap. It has become the motorcycling equivalent of visiting your grandad's house and he doesn't throw anything away.
Anyhow, one hopes with 43k on the clock there's quite a bit more to come.
Fast forward to 2013. March comes along and after a couple of false starts we start to get in shape for the year ahead. A new final drive bearing goes in and we're rewarded with a crisp piece of paper from those nice people at VOSA that says we can go and play for another year. Nice. Oh, and a new rear tyre. You know, there's something oddly satisfying about a new rear tyre. I can't quite put my finger on it, although I do put my fingers on it as it were as I seem to have acquired a strange habit of fondling the tread at every opportunity. Good job there's no equivalent of Operation Yewtree for bike related fiddling, otherwise my name would be on a list somewhere.
But, alas then its back to the garage and onto the life support of the Optimate. I'm having a few joint problems and riding isn't much fun, so nothing is done.
April brings a sunny Sunday and the promise of Springtime finally. I can hear bikes out on the ring road near where I live. Neeeaaaaaaaarrrrrr…
Time to go out. The temperature readout on instrument cluster reads 19 degrees. A ride across to the other side of London to visit some friends confirmed again just what a joy it is to ride about on it and so the anticipation of another trip truly begins..
The bike is pretty much ready to rock and roll. What else did we need to get? Well, not much. I repaired my DS Protection raid box, the weather got to the lock and after a lot of piddling about that got sorted out. I made a pennytech cover from an pushbike reflector and that did the job well. Next stop Touratech design department for me. I also acquired a Screen spoiler to try out, plus a pucker BMW top box bag courtesy of your friendly UKGSer 'Items for Sale' section.
So there it is. Details to follow.
In the meantime, back at HQ, during our wonderful winter I've done some work around the house, done a little writing, read some books and incurred significant library fines. But most of all I've spent a lot of joyous time with family which is something I missed out on while I spent too long behind a desk, something which I've come to profoundly regret.
Anyway. Bikes. Riding.
So the next one will be a kick off in Spain, so I'm afraid it'll be a bit of a repeat of some of last time but with some new places and no doubt a few new tales. I really enjoyed my time there so I'm looking forward to going back. We'll see where we go from there.
It's fair to say the my good old Red Hedgehog (otherwise known as a 2009 Adventure) got well used last year and a little knocked about as a result. It has navigated the drive-in potholes of Albania, similarly epic poor roads in Romania, wibbled in Poland's finest wobbly tram track roads, teetered in Bosnia Herzegovinian storm drains, and been a bloody handful on Latvia's central unmade road network, those amongst many others unmentioned. It has island hopped in Croatia complete with a guest tourist and a suitcase. It has circled the Iberian peninsular twice, one time with a guest and an unfeasible amount of gear. It has done all that and been spritely enough, even well loaded up to avoid the local driving in most of the more exotic places where it seems the entire population are auditioning for a part in the remake of Death Race 2000.
It has done all this without fuss and has been a joy to ride throughout. It still amazes me on just how staggeringly easy this 1200 is to ride.
There have been a couple of gremlins, but no show stoppers by any means. I think the biggest drama was actually trying to get a new tyre in Spain. Don't understimate that should you head out there and think you'll need one. Luckily for me it was no problem, with no particular deadlines to meet at the time, but meanwhile in the real world that doesn't work.
As I say I think it did a lot of hard graft. I don't mind some of the cosmetic blemishes, or shall we say character, as whenever I look at it now it makes me think of the great places we've been together. It is now like a trusty old friend, a pair of comfy old slippers, full of tat, stickers and general crap. It has become the motorcycling equivalent of visiting your grandad's house and he doesn't throw anything away.
Anyhow, one hopes with 43k on the clock there's quite a bit more to come.
Fast forward to 2013. March comes along and after a couple of false starts we start to get in shape for the year ahead. A new final drive bearing goes in and we're rewarded with a crisp piece of paper from those nice people at VOSA that says we can go and play for another year. Nice. Oh, and a new rear tyre. You know, there's something oddly satisfying about a new rear tyre. I can't quite put my finger on it, although I do put my fingers on it as it were as I seem to have acquired a strange habit of fondling the tread at every opportunity. Good job there's no equivalent of Operation Yewtree for bike related fiddling, otherwise my name would be on a list somewhere.
But, alas then its back to the garage and onto the life support of the Optimate. I'm having a few joint problems and riding isn't much fun, so nothing is done.
April brings a sunny Sunday and the promise of Springtime finally. I can hear bikes out on the ring road near where I live. Neeeaaaaaaaarrrrrr…
Time to go out. The temperature readout on instrument cluster reads 19 degrees. A ride across to the other side of London to visit some friends confirmed again just what a joy it is to ride about on it and so the anticipation of another trip truly begins..
The bike is pretty much ready to rock and roll. What else did we need to get? Well, not much. I repaired my DS Protection raid box, the weather got to the lock and after a lot of piddling about that got sorted out. I made a pennytech cover from an pushbike reflector and that did the job well. Next stop Touratech design department for me. I also acquired a Screen spoiler to try out, plus a pucker BMW top box bag courtesy of your friendly UKGSer 'Items for Sale' section.
So there it is. Details to follow.