Is it a 'plane or a washing machine?

Come off it Jim French (MD British Europoean airlines aka flybe.com), who are you kidding with this misleading piece of inflight literature - people collect this stuff you know!
Did I really produce almost my body weight in CO2 flying to Frankfurt last Friday? I had better eat some more apfel strudel. I agree with seat pitch bit tho' - bloody uncomfortable!

Spare a thought for those RBR's out today

True all weather souls by the looks of it -:(

Let's go hug a veteran Submarine

Today's wacky activity involved donning scuba gear and diving on the A1 Submarine in Bracklesham Bay. This is a protected wreck and we need a licence just to look at her. Built in 1902 at Barrow in Furness she sank twice in her short career. The first time with all crew lost. Second time she was empty. No underwater photographs were allowed as we were not licenced to take any. Then a visit to the Submarine Museum Gosport - nice Portugese cheese tart in the canteen! Thanks to the lovely Sarah at the NAS for organising this day so well.

Starting out on RBR

Ok, so it's not to late to start this adventure - but where do I begin? I have the list of landmarks and the bike is almost ready for longish trips (lowered foot pegs fitted last Sunday - investigating a raised seat all to accomodate my 1,98m of vertical near arthritic normality).

George and Kathy's website gives some insight into what is involved but I have discovered a major problem - how do I hold the RBR card and take a photo at the same time? I must find a riding buddy or do I adopt the Ted Simon approach of befriending locals?Maybe a tripod and a remote control for the camera

There is a fair bit of helpful information on Highwaylass' witty blog and I had a reasonable degree of success at gleening an Alpine Ascent type of single day trip route planning strategy from Transport of Delight: It's such a perfect day...

Oh, and I found Bikergran's write up too.

More of a challenge will be the extended tours when there is so little holiday remaining....

Bonkers at Brooklands

By chance I visited Brooklands last Sunday whilst an Auto/Motorcycle/Aviation jumble was taking place. What joy to survey acres of Austin Allegro dymanos and Ford Anglia hub caps. Then I stumbled upon a purveyor of aircraft emergency instruction cards - you know the drill - implausible diagrams of adopting the "brace position" and so forth. Upon expressing my disapointment at the lack of historic Dan-Air sick bags for sale, the proprietor, a Chris Potts of Shardlow Derby, handed me his card and told me to get in touch.

The NEW me - virtually

Bizarre email spot

Normally I'm overwhelmed with offers for sex enhancing drugs and stockmarket tips but this arrival in my inbox tonight beats them all.

I'm looking for NICK LINCOLN to see if he has videos of his scuba diving dog. Are you him? I have a Rat Terrier that looks very much like the dog in the photo.


woof bubble?

Deb Stagonakis, the RATs and a BMW combination

No, not a Greek electro-bouzouki RAP group, but the co-owner of a very tempting organisation that offers bike touring in Southern Greece.

Blackburn. Lancashire

Excuse this but I feel that I must learn something for this years works Christmas do....I don't want to be called pervy santa again thanks very much Ken.


I read the news today oh, boy
About a lucky man who made the grade
And though the news was rather sad
Well, I just had to laugh
I saw the photograph
He blew his mind out in a car
He didn't notice that the lights had changed
A crowd of people stood and stared
They'd seen his face before
Nobody was really sure if he was from the House of Lords

I saw a film today oh, boy
The English army had just won the war
A crowd of people turned away
But I just had to look
Having read the book
I love to turn you on.

Woke up, got out of bed
Dragged a comb across my head
Found my way downstairs and drank a cup
And looking up, I noticed I was late
Found my coat and grabbed my hat
Made the bus in seconds flat
Found my way upstairs and had a smoke
Somebody spoke and I went into a dream
Ah

I read the news today oh, boy
Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire
And though the holes were rather small
They had to count them all
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall
I'd love to turn you on

After the excitement today ...

...at Erin's place, let's come down to earth with a Dakota in pieces at Coventry Airport. Just take a look at those naked Wasp engines!

Take a flight in a magnificent DC3!

I love the throb and vibration of piston engines - call it "character" or maybe it's as romantic as getting a facefull of soot when leaning out on the Rheilffordd Ffestiniog.

PS this is just a ploy to put some of my "must do links" somewhere. And I must find time for the RBR.

Experience Greece on a Bike

Surely this brochure photograph is a mistake - some ghastly marketing blunder? We should tour Greece by motorcycle to relish the wonderful switch back mountain roads and breathtaking views. Unless we are talking about the latest U-Motorrad mit snorkel.

Flyride Greece

A Touch of Turbulence around the Shoei

The otherwise excellent BMW tuning parts website
has come up with this as a different means of wind protection. Could this be an innovation redolent of BMW's aviation heritage or is it an April fool? Stone the crows what happens if Sid Cager performs a SMIDSY manouvre in front of you in Neasden Parade - an unanticipated and imprecise beard trim?
The real issue being, I can't figure out whether to ditch the rather naff looking windshield on my Boxer- I don't really like bikes covered in tupperware - we have scooters to satisfy that market demand! In any case the windshield seems to be so angled as to cause undue and irritating turbulence and noise around my head at 70+: OK you say, crouch behind the screen like the spotty youths on their FS1E s (time warp moment).
What I really want is one those nice half fairings that the R90S used to wear.

The Cat and Fiddle on camera

The rider here appears to be competent wrt positioning compared to that shown in that load of cobblers Japanese "instructional" video how to ride motorcycle at winding road (see a previous post). Oh joy!Buxton to Macclesfield! . A long time prior to the untimely and sad death of Brian Redhead this was one of my favourite and much travelled roads especially as my purpose for driving along it was to have Sunday lunch with good friends in Knutsford. The night drive back to Derby was always a bit of a trial it has to be said...

Bird Strike

One of my early tasks as a budding RR engineer was to scrape bits of birds out of RB211 engines and send them to a man at the Natural History museum for identification.

It's amazing how some people earn a living!

This clip, What happens when a bird is ingested into an RB211 at full power
is actually quite interesting for anoraks like me as the engine went into a multiple surge and starting sounding like a doodlebug.

How to ride a motorcycle at winding road

Vaguely amusing and I'm learning how to post U tube clips into the blog (although strangely I was logged into the Polish version of U Tube). Not my scene riding aggresively at S bends - more of the spirit of the kamikaze pilot? Not quite the IAM recommended road positioning either. Whilst I'm on this, a polite note to the R6 rider who was on the centre white riding South on A29 at Ockham bends at 15:12 7th July 2007 (right hand bend for you mate - you should have been scaring pigeons on the near side - left hand for me that's why I was near the centre white). To make a short story even more boring, my observer complemented me on my mid-bend rapid evasion technique to avoid you banging your helmet on my right hand cylinder (shere fluke if you ask me). P.S. My observer was the one on the white bike with "Police" plasted all over it, sporting a white helmet and dayglo jacket - mind how you go "sir".

Pigeon Safety

This guy won't be getting the boot treatment of his English cousin - those spikes look a lot more inviting.....

Bog Snorkelling

Bog Snorkelling report from the BBC

Bridging the Gap

Unfortunately I arrived late for the Bikesafe course and missed the briefing where the handouts were given out - I have not the faintest clue what this blue plastic object is for. Maybe it's a cookie cutter?

Triangles and Forces

No point in getting hung up with the physics behind "countersteering". My understanding is that a motorcycle must lean to turn and that by some jiggery pokery lean can be controlled by pushing or pulling on the handlebars.
Simple? Trust me - I never received much benefit from an Engineering Science degree bestowed on me by the oldest University in the land.

Meet the Relations

The Future is Yellow

A "practical" underwater scooter to beat the British climate. Not entirely sure about the attire - a drysuit would be preferable.

White lines improve road safety?

Another inconsiderate expert spouting forth! Ms Dr Hill needs to put some leathers on. Manhole covers don't even get a mention - She should be ashamed of herself!

Report in DT - EurocRAP

Best wishes, Mr. Angry of Tunbridge Wells
Guest Blogger

Banish Leg Cramp?

Will spending 222 euros at the MV Motorrad very tempting on-line shop be money well spent or will it lead to all sorts of other problems..we shall see!