Steve_M

I’ve bought one of These. Similarly, supposed to be for four people but it looks a bit tight. The expectation is that we’ll fit three in at most, and it’s only intended for when grandchildren stay with us and want to camp on the grass. I can see a time when we have more relatives visiting than we have space for, mind… in which case it may be pressed into service.

Cadwell Park. If Carlsberg made motorbike tracks it would be Cadwell. I’ve had many happy days there, both as a spectator and riding around it.

Said grandchild made the choice. I can be “grumpy”, apparently… I have no idea what he means.

I’ve delegated sleeping in the tent with grandson to my good lady for this evening. The tent is around 30 years old and is probably not waterproof so we’ve erected the gazebo over it as a precaution. A larger replacement tent has been bought (Blacks have a 60% off sale I found this evening) for future grandchildren / step-grandchildren visit.

I was intending to head up that way but I encountered a couple of somewhat damp bikers at Langholm. It looks like there’s a lot of it about. They did the road outside our house a couple of months ago but there wasn’t anything like as much loose gravel. I also encountered it in Lincolnshire … see photo

Beware the above. I rode over from Langholm to Newcastleton on the Langholm Moor road and then to Harelaw on the B6357 before turning off to head home. Both had the after effects of the roadworks, resurfacing I guess, which meant there was deep gravel strewn across the width of the road. The traffic has not had time to compress the gravel into the tar, or disperse it which means it’s unavoidable and make the ride a little “squirrely” for want of a better term.

I ride alone pretty well most of the time. A mate occasionally brings a few riders up from Norfolk, I know most of them from RoSPA / IAM and I’ll have a day out with them. I’ve never liked riding in large groups anyway - even when the drop-off system works - as some riders egos get in the way (I’m thinking of a particular couple of riders from a social group I rode with a few times). Touring we do as rider and pillion alone. I like the freedom it gives, being able to stop to take photos, ignore the original planned route, etc.

I had the loan of one when my CX500 as in for service (a long , long while ago). I rather liked it. But, then, I was only used to the CX500… a bike I wish I still had, mind.

Funny you say that you didn’t enjoy the FJR. That’s how I felt about mine. We did three tours of around 2,500 miles, and I used it for house hunting (we moved from Norwich to Cumbria) which racked up a few miles. The owners group rate it as a top bike but it just didn’t work for me. My BM had 10,000 miles when I bought it four years ago and has 33,000 on it now which includes a period of lockdowns, though I did a few trips volunteering to run scrubs for the NHS (it was dreadful having to ride over the Lake District Passes with no traffic ). This year will be relatively low mileage but I’ll still do around 6,000 miles.

I went through a period of not wanting to go out on the bike. I think it all got a bit stale and I was disillusioned with a particular biking group I used to ride out with regularly. I got my mojo back by organising rides for a small group of people whose company I enjoyed.

Back in the late 1990’s I sold my under three year old Suzuki Bandit with around 27,000 miles on the clock, so around 9-10,000 miles a year on the clock. Potential buyers tended to comment with some surprise that “you use the bike” … Looking at adverts for bikes of a similar age I noted few did much more than a couple of thousand miles a year. Fast forward to now and I’m seeing something similar. While I’m averaging around 7-8,000 miles a year (not commuting, and no longer an IAM Observer has reduced that), I’m seeing lots of bikes with less than a couple of thousand miles a year appearing in adverts. Now I know that covid lockdowns affected opportunities and cost of living - fuel in particular - will have had an impact but I remain surprised how little some bikes are used. On the other hand, I did spot a rather nice full luggage 2016 Triumph Tiger 800 with around 6,000 miles which would tempt me - if I were in the market. Which I’m not. No, definitely not thinking about it. Not for a moment.

And this is how Vegetable stew is born

Good afternoon. The local car club held their inaugural classic car show at Lanercost today. I popped down to have a look. I’d guess about 50 vehicles were on show, ranging from relatively modern to over 100 yrs old. Quite a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours, with many owners being quite happy to chat about their motor.

I had a couple of petrol driven tools but I got a contract to do maintenance around stables, so changed to battery powered kit. I’m really Impressed by their performance, though the strimmer and leaf blower run down the battery very quickly ( I have three batteries so it’s not too much of an issue)

Mowers excepted, all my gardening power tools are (Stihl) electric. In winter the hedge trimmer can take a few moments to warm up the gearbox grease, but other wise, totally reliable. Bear in mind I was a self employed gardener for four years, they’ve had an above average amount of use/ abuse.

Hi, and welcome.

That’s looking good.

Engineering skills coach? Is that teaching them which size hammer to use?

Good luck.

I wouldn’t fancy taking that out in an airport.

An interesting expression.., I like it. Back when I was employed I had cause to attend various events around software, its development, and how to project manage those deliveries. An interesting bit of information came out of an event where Agile software delivery was discussed. Part of the cost advantage of (proper) Agile delivery is not delivering function that is not going to be used. We were presented with the information that most software function is rarely used, if ever, so why spend time creating it? I think the same applies for phones.I need phone and text capability, safe browser access to the internet, and a half decent camera for happy snaps (no need for professional level images). Anything else is wasted… and I have to spend my hard earned pension on loads of function I’ll never use. Incidentally, the same applies to my car and motorbike…

We’re not in a rush to change the wooden flooring… One of the jobs I’m not looking forward to is replacing the floors in the lounge and dining room. Both are, to use a technical term, f*cked. The lounge is a floating floor and I think we’re looking at replacing the current wood with engineered wood. The dining room, I suspect, will be digging up wherever is under the wooden flooring (concrete?) and then making a decision on how to replace it. I laid a concrete floor in my first house and it was knackering - and I was 23, and fit. Not sure I’m up to that now.

Cheers. My good lady and I are starting to get the hang of it now. We employed someone to do a couple of the rooms and I spent a while taking them cups of tea and watching what how they did the work. We also have a couple of guys we know who are well versed in renovating ancient properties and are happy to take a call from us when we need advice. The problem with the one guy being that he’s very much a purist and would almost have you doing the whole process from digging the lime through to the end product One of the decisions we made is that we’re not aiming for flat surfaces, but following broadly the line of the stone, which is giving the wall a bit of period character (well, that’s our excuse for not being very good). It will make fitting the skirting and radiator a little tricky but that’s part of the fun.