Gerontious

Quick heads-up. a change in the law that I certainly didn't notice in June. but suddenly became glaringly obvious due to an email today from Eurotunnel. Important - You must add Advance Passenger Information (API) to your booking for all passengers before you check-in. This is a requirement by law for travel between the UK and the EU, failure to do so will mean you are unable to travel.

The level of confusion about these things is off the scale. Ive not bought one and I don't see any need to either. In just under 3 weeks we will be going to the Eifel and using the normal route, which passes through Lille on the A25. Its incredible to me how many people think that I must have a Crit'Air. Of course, I do not.

much better off with a laminated goretex jacket. this can be cordura or other. no worries then about folding and no need to ever treat the outer with anything. totally pointless actually. the only reason to go for an inner layer now is so you can remove it when the sky is blue and the heat intolerable. I wouldn't buy a jacket with a fixed inner layer.. ie a separate membrane that's fixed in place. this is to my mind the worst of all worlds (unless its a winter jacket). I would rather spend that little bit extra for laminate. its not like laminate is overly expensive now like it was 10 years ago. its fast becoming the norm. unless you are opting for genuinely budget gear. goretex or its clones is flexible and cannot be hurt by normal folding. If as is predicted heatwaves are going to become normal then during the summer you would be better served by wearing a fully vented jacket. like the Forsair. and carrying a waterproof outer (or over) layer to put on if downpours are predicted or a deluge is about to happen.

16 year limit.

Try ETA as their max age is 20. Aside from that maybe talk to one of the specialist insurers for older bikes like Carole Nash.

Yes. I tried it for a fortnight and as it added nothing, no improvements to the experience I have with route planning, I deleted it. If it was designed to draw me in and get me to pay the subscription. it didn't succeed. shame really, given what people say about it and have been saying about it for quite some time now.

Its appears to be a straightforward copy of the OEM, perhaps a little more efficient. its not marketed as a race filter (stage 2 or 3) so.. you might be expecting more than its able to offer. or at least that's what the website seems to be saying about the filter for your bike. You will always see improvements when you replace an old filter with a new one.. that's in part the point of doing it - engine gets the air it needs, it runs as it should. The website literature for your bike makes no mention of further modifications. That tells me its just a straight copy of the OEM. They do produce more... err, special (race) filters. but not for your bike. Just this one, below. is it the same part number?

You'll just have to close your eyes and imagine its all new. I try to do a different route there every year and we've never done this one before. I don't want to revisit the road where sideways went sideways into the ravine. and we've done crossing at Dasburg and Vianden to death. So this is it. I have an idea, ride it upwards backwards. figure it out. sing a hymn. or a carol. or maybe recite something jolly by Walter de la Mare translated into sermo plebeius. or sermo vulgaris. your choice.

Shame they haven't done my intended crossing point from Lux into the Eifel. can't have everything I suppose.

I was a bit disappointed that I can virtually ride south into the village, but not carry on down the L10 past the Schloss towards Sinspelt. I’ll look forward to the next data-dump. never mind eh.. 4 weeks on Sunday and we’ll be doing it for real. Sorta… ish.

How about that? Long time ago I gave up on any hope that there would ever be a street view available for the Eifel.. or indeed anywhere in Germany and suddenly. (as if by magic) there is.. not exhaustive but I guess that's just a matter of time. its a good start anyway. our area. A familiar eatery. A random Castle... there are a lot of them.

you may be right. But what does “a lot more expensive” actually mean? £35 for 3 months is the figure I see most often. I guess that’s a lot more than £25 if bought via some other source. Assuming you can track it down and it’s actually genuine and your documents actually arrive in time. (Or at all)

As far as Im aware you buy insurance for the Balkans at the border. countries like Bosnia and Albania. probably Serbia too. Croatia and Montenegro are both part of the EU so shouldn't be problematic. The same applies for Turkey. In all cases this is the minimum TPO equivalent. And you must use a 'major' border crossing as back road crossings won't have the office you need.

Who would send me a message like this? Prizes aren’t available for obvious answers. Because the answer is definitely obvious. Yamaha being the super suitable for international touring TRX850 with modifications.

Before I went away last time, I looked at the big brands and had almost settled on Green Flag. but thought it was a bit steep at well over £100 per year UK and EU. I went to compeer the meerkat and they had the same policy for £41. only difference is that there is a £40 excess if I call them. not much chance of that, but even if I were to, £40 isn't much. so I went with that. this is only available via that comparison site. 1 year UK and the usual 90 days EU cover. To my mind the most common reason for calling them is a puncture. and I can fix almost any puncture in short order. rather than wait however long for someone to arrive. we can be on our way again in 20 minutes. so long as the puncture is repairable. on a tubeless tyre. and we can actually find it on the tyre. One famous year I couldn't find it as the object was so tiny.. the tyre had a slow leak so I was stopping every 40 miles on the ride home to get some air into it. got home OK. turned out to be a sliver of steel. razor thinned well embedded. air only leaked when the weight was on the tyre. one of those truly rare events getting a puncture like that.

Im now just about ready for this. only item on my exhaustive 'to do' list is Travel insurance and I'll probably go with navigator again for that. Pick up some euros too, but not many as I'll be using my card for almost everything. petrol. hotel. some meals out. If there's any left by the time we are on our way back then its easy to get rid buying fuel or save for next years trip to the Harz. (or Alps) 40 days. tick tock.

It probably didn’t change much over its 4 year lifetime/production run.

If I was buying new I might consider it (once the price drops from £529+) but Im not convinced its worth upgrading from the XT. 15% larger screen isn't enough for me. and the software upgrades are immaterial. irrelevant for my purposes. The high price doesnt really do much to make these things attractive to those out there that use their phones.. in fact all it will probably do is add ammunition to the 'who needs a sat nav when I have a smart phone.' argument. £529. no. not today.

seat height on mine is 35.4" one of the.. if not the tallest 1000cc road bikes you can buy. but seat height isn't everything, some men who are taller than average don't need a higher seat.. it can easily be the reach to the bars that is problematic. But that can be fixed just like any issue. but sadly I think answering this thread is a waste of time. the OP has been away from the forum for almost 5 weeks. one post and gone.

good jobs all round I say!

Got to love twitter. These agenda driven clickbait video clips are always entertaining and the ensuing comments are hysterical in all senses of that word and more than a little daft. Here’s a clue though: listen carefully I will say this only once. This isn’t in the UK. It’s somewhere in Germany. We don’t see car park fees charged in euros. A quick look round the wonderweb and oddly (or not) no mention of this kind of protest. Though lots about them glueing themselves to the tarmac. And the rather more forceful response from ze polizei. oil poured on the road. Guaranteed click bait. Cue mass outrage. silps on glue or diesel - not half as exciting, especially as the edit is crap and she doesn’t even slip on whatever it is she’s pouring. but it added a bit of fun to my night shift with the rampaging schizophrenics, so not a total loss. At least I had finished mopping the blood up and had time for a breather. we have cake!!!

If you can see it. rain is coming. if you can't see it. it's raining. fact.

Place I was brought up, we had an expression 'all around the Wrekin" which meant, in simple terms. 'the long way round'. just found this. might need some adjustment for coffee and cake at Esch-sur-Sûre (obviously) maybe hug the border in the north west rather than pass through Wilz. Im working on it.

Unexplained photos. Like this one from today.