S-Westerly

What is a "Biker Cafe"? What defines one? Been to a few in my time where if you weren't local were made to feel as welcome as a pig in church.

Some decent kit there. Tempted by the 209 litre drum of engine oil. Keep me going for the rest of my life and then some! Seriously though some decent kit, passed the link on to my son in law who's the K1600 owner.

Sure am.

Not a problem I have. With the slope on which I have to park the bike when it's on the centre stand the back wheel is about an inch off the ground.spinnig it is no problem. Wedge a cobble stone under the wheel when not doing anything.

I've ridden from Barnard Castle to Stroud in temps of 2C on a single charge. I did invest in the larger batteries but they still fit in the cuff of the gloves. The smaller ones are my reserve. So total on road time at motorway speeds was 4 hours.

Have to say my heated gloves have been great. Not had cold fingers since I got them and as they are "smart" the batteries last for a decent length of time except in the very coldest conditions.

Must admit I don't really consider depreciation as I always assume that it'll be worthless by the time I'm done. Tend to keep things a longish time unless I manage to destroy it first which isn't unheard of.

Good to know as I'm waiting delivery of my Ultimate Ears custom plugs. Got the ones with built in speakers and 31db noise reduction.

She was pretty calm but I think it was certainly an incident she isn't going to forget. Still mutters about it darkly on occasion.

My wife once dropped me off at Teesside airport when we had the Alfa Romeo. On the way home the gear stick came off in her hands. According to the kids in the car she was ice cold and coped well. Given she was just accelerating onto the A1 and in 2nd gear at the time she didn't do too badly. Pre- mobile phones and a Sunday to boot. When I got home 6 months later she was quite terse about it. We also had a Saab instead.

What depressed me about Beamish was a lot of the stuff in it I could remember from my grandmother's house. Some of it was also to be found in my wife's auntie's house up until about 20 years ago. Of course she did live in Newbiggin which was / is pretty backwards.

Hey, I was born in Lancashire! Don't live there though and haven't since I was 7. Fairly sure they have electric but set in their ways. However their arms are longer and their pockets are shorter than Yorkies!

Ducati Multistrada 950. My missus refuses to go near a bike so can't speak for the pillion but for the rider it's damned comfy imo.

Tried them too and they were the best of the ones I have tried but still had a habit of falling out and the three became two etc.

Pretty well what I am seeing around here. Was in Stroud market yesterday and it was pretty busy although most folks were masked up but social distancing just wasn't happening really. All the coffee shops were doing takeaway and folks drinking them in groups. Police were around and never seemed to bother anyone. Doesn't bother me at all.

As I said I've tried most of the disposable ones on the market including ones we use at work. Anything I stick in my ears so far has a tendency to fall out even when wearing a helmet. At work I just use over the ear muffs which work although they get horribly sweaty in the tropics. Hence my going for moulded custom jobs with filters which if I want can be connected to my phone. Supposed to block 31db of noise.

The side stand is powder coated and is actually OK apart from the actual floor plate which gets dragged over the ground etc. The centre stand isn't oem and although bought from Germany I suspect was assembled a bit further east. With hindsight I should have powder coated it before I fitted it but a coat of hammerite black does the job every 6 months or so. No real corrosion yet just surface bloom occasionally.

It's actually a hare and after jointing and boning out we will have the saddle tonight, soup from the bones and offal and a pie with the meat from the haunches.

Sunday dinner as it was:

Painted (again) the side stand and centre stand which really seem to suffer from salt and grit which given their location is no real surprise.

I tried these and they didn't work for me, sadly.

I've tried umpteen different types of disposable ones as well as the auritech reusable. They all worked to a degree but they all have a tendency to work their way out over a ride and sometimes quite quickly meaning I have to stop etc. As I have ear issues anyway I'm trying to protect the hearing I have left. So I've just had moulds taken of my ears almost two weeks ago and am waiting the end product. I'm getting them from Ultimate and I hope they'll be what I'm expecting. One other thing - I never ride without ear protection these days as I have significant hearing damage partly from biking but also from industrial noises and firearms in my youth.

Went for a walk today and lock down is looking increasingly like a busted flush. We walked from home up to Haresfield Beacon which is a well know viewpoint over the Severn Valley and on a clear day like today you can see Steep Holm in the Bristol Channel. The car park was jammed, there were cars all down the side of the road and many folks who I'm guessing were not single households. Not much sign of social distancing either. We were last that way about 3 weeks ago in snow and we saw maybe 5 people in total.

We had Gurnard fillets with a couple of jumbo crevettes and half a dozen palourde clams.

Well I performed my essential travel going the longish way round. Achieved my objectives and enjoyed sunshine and dry roads! Saw quite a few other bikers out and about as well. Doubtless all on essential journeys.