Steve_M

I took a little trip up to see a couple of the grandchildren. I had to use some motorway but found some non-motorway roads for added fun.

A guy I know used to take a Honda Vigor on track days. Now that’s brave / foolish.

Went for a little bimble around the southern bit of Dumfries and Galloway. I knocked out a variety of routes on MRA, last night and chose the D&G option once on the bike. With hindsight I may modify it to avoid some of the towns for future use. I took a diversion from my satnav route when I hit the A75 to Newton Stewart. I really couldn’t face it, so crossed over and found a section of the National Scenic route which is a single track road across moors and through mixed forest. Most pleasant, with some good scenery. The screen shot is of my actual route, not my designed route.

I have a Stihl battery powered leaf blower which I use… Obviously that wasn’t the reason I gave my good lady for buying it… blowing leaves off the drive…

Incidentally, a few years ago I attended a talk by Simon Yates - you’ll know who he is if you’ve read the book or watched the film. Only towards the end of the talk did he, light heartedly, refer to Joe Simpson as “the accident prone guy”. Seems fair enough description having read other Joe Simpson books…

Not a humorous book, but another vote for Joe Simpson’s book, Touching the Void. On a lighter note, Tony Hawks’ book, Around Ireland with a Fridge gets a vote as does Dave Gorman’s Googlewhack.

A visit to that area has been on my wish list ever since we moved up to Cumbria. Hopefully I’ll get around to it sooner rathe4 than later, though I’m not sure when, being a bit busy working on the house.

Ah, that’ll teach me to read the post correctly. I would always expect my insurer to deal with the claim, not a third party unless my insurer had advised me they were outsourcing the claims handling. In writing.

Churchill are your insurers and it’s their responsibility to deal with the claim. Stay away from anyone else claiming to be a claims handler.

There speaks the voice of experience. I concur.

Good afternoon. Today I will be mostly laying OSB floorboards. My knees, thighs and back are going to be most uncomfortable tomorrow, when the OSB laying continues. At least I got out for a quick ride yesterday.

People who drive down a motorway slip road at 40mph then wonder why they can’t merge with the traffic. Plus. Politically manufactured “Culture wars” from extreme political stances of all colours.

My frequently used kit is kept in cupboard in the utility room. Miscellaneous old bits of kit and security stuff are kept in a cupboard in the barn / workshop where the bike is kept. The cupboard is actually two kitchen units stacked one above the other - we have a low ceiling in the utility room so it’s the only way we could fit something of that nature in.

I think you’ll find that the GS is quite tech heavy with its ride modes and ESA. I get your point that new technology needs familiarisation (I may have noticed this rolling out new software while working in IT for 30 years) but if it’s to be adopted as a popular feature than it really needs to be reasonably intuitive to use. Or, at least, the basic features should be. The likelihood is that any of the esoteric features (and this applies to most software) will rarely be used… even if the manual is avidly devoured by the end user.

I still haven’t read the manual for my GS, and I’ve owned that over four years now. My brief experience of DCT on an X-ADV (interesting little bike) and a Crosstourer (disappointing with conventional gearbox) was that, left to it’s own devices, the gear changes didn’t always take place where I would expect them to happen, but easily dealt with by manually overriding. This was, though, about five years ago and I understand the system has been refined.

Out for a ride yesterday I took a little side turning as I went over Langholm Moor, deciding to follow it and then let the satnav show me the way out. oops.

22nd July, CJ Ball will be giving people chance to try out bikes with DCT. Here’s a chance to see what bikes with DCT are like to ride. Also an opportunity to ride bikes that you would normally not consider. EG. I’ve ridden an X-ADV and a CTX1300 on previous CJ Ball events.

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.