S-Westerly

3 hours ago, curlylegend said:

Early Eighties one of BMW's design staff developed a casque modulable. I cant remember what it's called in English, but it's the kind that sort of goes from open face to fully enclosed. He happened to have a holiday cottage near Girvan in Ayrshire and was one day stopped by Strathclyde's finest while riding his BMW. One of the sharp eyed polis noticed that the helmet didn't have a BSI kite sticker on it, which was required in those days to be legal. They asked for his documents which he didn't have with him and when he told them his name was Peter Sellars they were convinced he was taking the piss. So they booked him for not wearing a regulation helmet and he was duly summonsed to the Sheriff Court in Ayr where he was fined £50.  

However within a few months of this the helmet was approved by the BSI and all motorcycle cops in Strathclyde were issued with them.

Peter Sellars sold his holiday cottage in Scotland and vowed never to set foot in the country again.

And the cop who booked him ?  He also was one of our customers, and a nastier more vindictive piece of work you would be hard pressed to meet. He would have been drummed out of the SS for wickedness, he was so bad.

So not much has changed vis a vis Scottish police then. My fortunately few encounters with them have been uniformly unpleasant. 

Tomorrow noon we shift from where we are now into New York's Stapleton anchorage. Then at 00:30 on Sunday we shift into our berth for cargo ops, so a busy weekend but hopefully drama free.

3 minutes ago, curlylegend said:

Depends on the company you keep, I suppose.

It's definitely not in the average seaman's regular vocabulary. 

You really need the white leather gauntlets to look the part. Not sure what part necessarily but definitely something.

Sounds like an awful lot of fun. Enjoy yourselves. 

I think I've met him in Gloucestershire. The number of idiots who bimble along at 40-45 then when you overtake them try and catch you up or speed through a village so they can is quite high. You can play with them a bit though if you are in the mood.

Glad I don't do spannering. Sounds like an open invitation to buggeruppery to me. Or at least for me.

13 hours ago, Nick the wanderer said:

Talking to yourself, that's one of the first signs isn't it? 

I find that at least when I'm talking to myself I can have a sensible conversation. 

Doesn't exactly come up in everyday conversation does it.? 

I was paying about £250 fully comp for the Multistrada through Bennetts. When I got the Guzzi I got a quote from them and it was over£1200 I think. When I asked why the jump in price I was told the underwriter for the Multistrada insurance wouldn't cover the Guzzi so it was some random outfit.  I declined their off and went elsewhere. Still ended up paying a tad over £400 but a lot cheaper than first quote. Do feel ripped off though.

Don't even know what a Voge is? 

Dunno. Maybe could be? 

On 27/03/2024 at 14:42, Pie man said:

Oil and filter change, brake fluid change, chain checked along with the other 500 or so checks the KTM dealer so called does at the service. 

Just clocked over 4200 miles in the last 12 months, probable put another 1K before my trip. Now the question is 'do I replace the tyres before the tour in May'. I have read reports of people riding  9K with the Avon Trailriders before changing them.   

Check your tyres. If they've still got decent tread after 5000 miles they may well be decent for your tour. Personally I've yet to get much more than 5000 miles from a rear tyre but it depends on how you ride etc.

I truly do hate windfarms. I can just about tolerate the offshore ones but the ones on land I detest.

I hadn't seen the news this morning. Now I have and I can't say I'm surprised. Large container ship loses propulsion power near bridge which means you have no control. Huge number of boxes on deck so a lot of windage. To steer at all this kind of ship needs to go relatively fast so when they lose power theyve got no control at all. Slide into a bridge support which had no protective barriers and that's going to be it. At close to 100,000 tonnes and travelling even as slow as 5 knots that's an awful lot of kinetic energy getting instantly transferred to the bridge structure. 

I'm a bit twitchy at the moment as we have 2 bridges to negotiate where the clearance is barely a metre. Hoping our calculations are correct!

I may have gone but I'm due back to sea in mid August.  

4 hours ago, Nick the wanderer said:

I hope you are not in Baltimore..

Right now we are at sea. Heading to New York where I should arrive on the 28th.  We then have to hang around for 2 days before they'll bring us in. What's happening in Baltimore?

Is there a point to watching  Buffy without lascivious thoughts? I thought that was the whole point of it.

3 hours ago, Simon Davey said:

One extreme to another with your sailing. 

Maybe we should have a word with your travel agent

Absolutely.  I want unlimited Pina Coladas too. Tonight we are off to New York to offload the rest of our cargo. Get there on the 28th if all goes well.

Here in Nova Scotia it is nice and sunny but bloody cold. -1.

Benelli is Chinese so avoid. Husqvarna is notoriously uncomfortable not that I have personal experience. Go for used Japanese brand although the small bikes are no longer made in Japan. Remember with CBT only you can't ride anything over 125 cc ever so until.you get some kind of proper bike licence you'll not be getting anything larger.

I've ridden one briefly and I found it very uncomfortable but that was for me. Other people love them so I suggest you try one and see. The seat isn't imo very comfy.  As I say try it and if it fits you go for it, if it doesn't try something different. 

Can quite understand why. I'd not be too keen either with that sort of runaround. 

Ultimate Addons have a decent website. I bought the mount for my GPS from them.

21 hours ago, mikeyd said:

I have a mt07 23 plate so really interested in your post . I’ll be doing a service soon my self for the first time . I’ll probably use an oil extraction pump to remove the oil as it works like a charm on my car the I can just never undo the drain plug. 

An extraction pump works but if you've got any small metal filings in there they won't drain out.