A 2014 ramble with a very special guest..

Roberto

Well-known member
UKGSer Subscriber
Joined
Feb 13, 2006
Messages
4,550
Reaction score
53
Location
London
I'd been back at work for some seven months now and that spelt time for a small holiday. This won't be a mega write up, nothing particularly unusual, just using the bike to go on some hols to Portugal and to do a bit of riding into the bargain. Any excuse for a ride.

The bike in use is the same 2009 Red 1200GSA which has trundled just 52k now. It needed a bout of pre-trip surgery with that man Steve down at Motoscot doing the honours to give the gnarly thing a bit of love. I'd term it as being used pretty hard over the various rambles so didn't have any qualms when the bill split into two pages. It felt nice to be back out on the bike, and to quote that Gucci bloke, 'quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten', well I felt OK with the bike purring along nicely.

The plot slightly thickened for this particular trip when my 73 years young dad started asking a lot of questions about what I was doing and where I was going. Rolling back a few years to 2009 I bought a K1200LT from this parish for the reason that my dad wanted to experience a trip out on the bike. I didn't think he'd get on well with my GS at the time so I'd said if he'd meant it I'd sort something out, which I did, something turning out to be this big grey passenger friendly battleship with one of the chairs that Thora Hird used to advertise in the small ads section of the Sunday Mail bolted on to the back of it. We didn’t do anything huge- we had a day trip to Le Touquet, all very pleasant on a sunny and gorgeous late summer day punctuated with pomme frites, coffee and waffles. That scratched the itch I'd reckoned, he talked a lot about how he'd enjoyed it but didn't mention a great deal since. The K1200LT remained indoors mostly afterwards, aside occassional trips with the good lady and where necessity meant that it could transport both my brother and his guitar where it was needed. It still sits there today in the garage, looking all mighty and nice, garage queen, occassional shelving unit and SORN season ticket holder.

Anyhow- I'm drifting off, rambling if you will. So dad starts making a few more noises at which point I suggest that he can come along if he wanted to, but it'll be on the GS and it'll be a longer trip than he'd done and he will have to make sure he's up for it. I wasn't going to do any selling of the trip, just talk about the hard and uncomfortable bits.
I should explain though, my dad is an extremely fit 73, still charging about like a bloke in his fifties. If I didn't have thought he would make it on a longer trip I wouldn't have asked him.

Things went a bit quiet so I thought mother had talked him into her view of sense, or given him a telling about 'daft ideas' so I left it as it was. The following week I get a call. 'I've had a think about it and if its OK I'd like to come' was the nub of the call. Excellent! At this point we were only three weeks away from going and the week in the middle plus weekends would be taken up with a work trip to Australia, so lots to do in not much time.

There was a bit of a last minute scramble as you can imagine. I called Direct Ferries to change the ferry booking. I'd booked a four berth cabin just for me so the very helpful lady on the end of the phone added Dad on for the princely sum of ten quid. All rather good.
Like most older folk, he has medication a plenty and if he were to jump up and down I'm pretty sure he'd sound like a box of shaken tic tacs. I got a travel insurance quote from the post office and then put him on to explain all of the medical stuff. Not long later we're sorted, that was actually pretty easy.
Next.
He didn't fit any of the gear we had in the stock cupboard, a choice of my stuff, which would have seem him look like one of those comedy costumer competitors from It's a knockout, carrying a tray full of drinks over a bouncy castle, or my brothers stuff, which was on the small side; the Rod Stewart in his pomp look does make for comfortable riding not - so that called for a bit of a scramble. I was taken up with all things work, getting ready for presentations and all sorts down under, so everything got organised via the very lovely and ever helpful Becky at Southport Superbikes, bless you Bex, ultimately making sure he was smart and well turned out in decent gear.
On the positive side his noggin fitted an Arai helmet I'd got in the Christmas sales last year, for some reason I'd been 'keeping it for best' like some set of family china stowed in a sitting room glass cabinet. I'd never really used it so it, it was just sat on a shelf in a blue bag and still had that new hat feel to it. 'I like this one' was the verdict from pater, choosing to pull a face at the other options including BMW's system 6 verdict: 'a bit like a pedal bin' or BMW's own version of the tour x which was proclaimed as 'looking ridiculous, no no not for me'.
His feet are just a tad smaller than mine, so with a pair of decent smart wool socks (another recommendation from around here I think).. And hey presto, DHL delivery permitting we appear to be mostly sorted.

Matters minor but boy, the man can pack. He's been used to Cruise Liners towards the latter end of his working life and long into retirement so the idea of roll up canvas trousers, a toothbrush and a barclaycard was going to take some convincing. I gave him a pannier bag on the strict instructions it was to be packed nicely and not stuffed to breaking as it needs to disappear into this little metal box, like so, (giving a QVC style demonstration). Eyebrows are raised. And you get the bigger box I say to him. This statement demands an explanation; there's an expression of disbelief on seeing that they’ve nibbled the edge off of the other one to fit the exhaust on, the robbing gits.

Then there's the intermission. I go off for work on Friday and return the Monday week after. Cardboard boxes have been delivered to Dad's but dared not been opened, I can only assume for there be dragons or some such like. Different generations and all that, funny though that they didn't like to open the boxes, even though addressed to him. FFS dad, try them on!
Thankfully jacket was perfect, trousers a little snug but root cause of that was dad actually not declaring his real waist size, declaring more of 'what his fighting weight is and what he should be'. Well you picked a bad time to choose that tactic, dad, you aint' going to get any lighter over the coming days.. :)
 
Good on you for taking 'Pater' on your trip Roberto. This has the makings of another top ramble. :cool::thumby:

I am most definitely in :popcorn:popcorn
 
Rob, this is a terrible ride report; get on with it, man.:rob:p
 
Right, we've all been patient, but it's been over 4 months!:rob:D
 
Not before time Rob :thumb

My father was 74 when we toured Germany together, both of us on 250 MZ Supafives .... he never stopped talking about it.

Good one a Rob .... real quality time together

:beerjug:
 


Back
Top Bottom