Gerontious

Its a bit short notice fella.. looking for a travel companion just 4 weeks in advance, especially when the Santander ferry is involved. Thats >£205 plus the price of a berth, if booked TODAY and is only going to rise or even worse sell out. very soon. Also.. May is very VERY early in the year for the Mountains. you might easily find pass after pass closed to vehicles not wearing snow chains and be forced to use the most busiest roads and even then be forced to turn back by heavy snow. You can go from 30c heat in the valleys to -10c at the top of a pass. And the gear you take needs to be able to cope with these extremes. My only tip is quite simple.. stay away from the coastal roads in southern France. Stay inland. The coastal roads are absolutely mad... especially near any of the larger towns and cities. Avoid Monaco. and the coastal road from there to the Italian border. Cross much further north... Maybe even use one the Tunnels. I went down that way with Snod Blatter 5 years ago in early JUNE.. and though we had a good time, so much of where we wanted to go was closed. due to snow. And we saw a lot of that almost everywhere in the mountains. We also were slow baked at lower levels. We had a good time.. but that was mainly through good luck and the fact we were camping and so had the option to head in a completely different direction at the drop of a hat if the weather seemed dodgy.. or i considered the risks just that little bit too high. Its a nice idea you have.. but, perhaps have a bit of a rethink. stay in the foothills, rather than aiming for the higher passes.. go 'round' or under rather than over. And if you do have any passes in mind.. keep a close eye on this website: https://www.alpen-journal.de/alpenpaesse - in German, but easy enough to understand. which lists almost every pass popular with bikers in the Alps and Pyrenees and shows their status. green is good. anything eles is either very VERY bad or at the very least.. you might arrive to find its closed and be forced to turn around. A pass that might be open on one day, can be closed the next due to snow.. or ice. snow melt/runoff freezing overnight and not thawing is as high a risk as Snow this early in the year.

If this is for the genuine rack, for the BMW panniers then you need these: This has to be fitted first, if its not already been changed: Then this: Had you asked, I would have suggested you not bother with the Genuine BMW and gone for Givi instead. which is far better and a lot cheaper. As you do not need to touch the original 'luggage' rack at the rear of the bike. https://tinyurl.com/y5jhpefz Givi also produce an adapter so a top case can be used on the original 'luggage' rack.

I would guess there were over 100 bikes there, maybe an underestimate. Which wasn't bad at all for a first meeting. Cafe doing hot food and drinks. A few stalls, shark Helmets, Tranam. Plus J&S.

Why does Britain like Tea so much?

Nice way to spend a Wednesday evening. A decent turnout for a 'first' and a nice cross section of bikes. Mine was the only Africa Twin. *smug look alert. Next time with a later sunset and likely to be warmer... it'll be rammed.

An Englishman, a Scotsman and an Irishman walk into a bar. The Englishman wanted to go so they all had to leave.

Time for me to get a new mug and matching coaster.

Very likely as Ive not had a phone call "can you do a shift today?"

Central will suit more people than anywhere. within this box so easy access from either the M1 or M6, South of the M62, North of Walsall/Wolves/Brum. I cant see a problem finding a campsite in that area.. what will be problematic is finding a campsite that allows campfires. (good luck with that)

If i come touring this year to Eifel/Luxumburg were going from point to point staying in bnb’s so would be no point in yaking them off other then when staying overnight. No. We stay at one hotel for 6 nights. Sunday to Friday.

Looks don't matter, get where you're going and take them off until you start for home again. On the road, nobody cares what your luggage looks like.

It's most useful if you have large panniers and are tired of scuffing them, maybe a bag strapped to the pillion seat which makes mounting in the standard way difficult, or have a tall bike and perhaps are a little less flexible at the hip. As with anything that has an element of risk, the first time can be nerve racking, but it soon becomes natural and as easy as the yank makes it look. You put your weight over the sweet spot without even thinking about it. His tip about holding the front brake is worth paying attention to.

Which bike did you go for jem, The F800ST or the newer F800GT? Photos of new bikes are generally required.

here.. an american shows how its done. ">

Mount from the other side. It may sound counter intuitive.. you might think the bike will tip over. but, it wont.. there is a knack to it, obviously.. but once you 'get that' its easy. for me the knack is to put my right foot on the RHS peg.. hands on the grips and as I step onto the peg have my weight just over the 'central line' of the bike. Its an old trick thats been around for years especially for big trail bikes.. now called "adventure" bikes.. that more often than not have corned beef cans as panniers on scaffolding. by mounting in this way... a greater proportion of your weight is actually on the tyres and suspension rather than almost exclusively on the side stand. and although.. as has been rightly said. the side stand is usually over engineered. theres the pivot to consider.. and i do wonder how many years that might deal with a "full weight mount" before giving way. because at the end of the day.. it was never actually designed for this type of 'abuse'.

I live too close to my workplace to ride the motorbike and its a 40 minute walk so I use the pushbike. One stretch is a road that Im unhappy about riding on during peak traffic and so I use the footpath, as it runs down the side of a walled former mental hospital, with houses opposite there are rarely people walking that side, but if there are, I always dismount and walk past them. That just seems right to me. I know it irritates me when cyclists ride past me on the pavement and if it irritates me, then Im not going to do the same to someone else. I would never consider riding my pushbike at night without lights, thats just an insane idea. Im always appalled when i see cyclists at night.. normally wearing as dark clothes as possible riding along without a care in the world, effectively invisible. This all stems back to my cycling proficiency test i did at school. and the 'trouble' i got into once, when a copper spotted me on my bike at the time without lights and accompanied me home for a 'chat' with my parents.

If we must have a 'winter time' it should be as long as winter. 3 months. make the change on December 1st and March 1st or don't make it at all. if Scotland wants to carry on 'as is'.. then let them.

I don't want to even think about it.

An alternative is the Bari crossing to Montenegro that puts you 80 miles along the coast from Dubrovnik. I've been to the foot of Italy on my bike and have no desire to ever go near the place again. I was intent on crossing to Sicily but turned round at Paestum south of Naples.(after a wander round the temples). And raced north... So desperate to get away I used the autostrada.

Was it goretex? No , I don't believe it was . This is why buying Goretex is a good idea. It doesn't mater that heine gericke has closed, goretex is guaranteed for the life of the garment.

Was it goretex?

If it was leaking there would have been no doubt. As well as dust and grime, underneath there would have been an unholy mess. When did this happen? Previous owner, cunningly disguised by not cleaning it. Or has the bike gone over and been stood up again so you didn't notice.

The problem with Tesco (and Morrisons) petrol was a single faulty batch, which was contaminated with silicon, this came from a supplier in Thurrock Essex (harvest energy) and was restricted to the south east. and happened 10 years ago. In that particular case the supplier was (unusually) an independent petrol station supplier. It cost Tesco a fortune to put right.. so, not something I will waste any sleep over, all these years later.

The only real problem i can see with the E22s is that they are the absolute bottom of the range. For only a little more i would go for these: https://tinyurl.com/yyjhd85z Kappa is a brand from Givi, made in the same factory. These appear to be much higher quality to the E22s and fit in exactly the same way The same panniers but carrying the Givi brand will set you back £188 from Amazon. https://tinyurl.com/y2du4wjd or £240 from sportsbikeshop.