Four Days

With two weeks of annual leave remaining in September ear marked (at least in part) to explore the fabulous mountains of Arcadia Greece on two wheels, a GS motorcycle deployed in Germany, and a newly acquired bike trailer in Cheshire that should allow rapid blitzkrieg movement to the Southern Balkans, some rapid trip planning had become necessary to move the trailer to Brussels for a handover to Mrs Nikos. And then I noticed that Ted Simon, the father of write two books having ridden a motorcycle around the world slowly twice without a TV support crew and a farting companion,  was to give a talk at the Transport Museum in Coventry. For the avoidance of doubt this is a blog post concerning a four day round road and ferry trip from Cheshire to Brussels in Belgium and any similarity to reality is purely illusory and without foundation. No K75s were harmed during this trip but there was a fair bit of naughty waffle eating. 

Coventry - The statue of the legendary Frank Whittle who in a shack in Leamington Spa developed a crude form of gas turbine jet engine despite the hindrance of the UK Government that forced Frank to publish the idea in Flight magazine that effectively gave BMW practical details.

Jupiter - Ted Simon's Triumph following the inservice development of 40,000 miles - see route map on rear panier.

Not a wax works  - Ted Simon signing previously sold and mostly tatty copies of his books.

£20 worth of fish and chips - but the Norfolk Lines waitress (kelnerka ) was pleasant enough.

Where our VAT goes part 1 - an intriguing and GPS defying inner Brussels tunneled ring road.

Everywhere I trod Euro Cobblers had been there before me.

Where our VAT goes part 2 - the European parliament building in Brussels - part of the gargantuan administration that tells us what curvature is allowed on our pork sausages.

Initially I did not notice the "fries" part of the notice and assumed that this was evidence of the long standing language feud  in mainly Walloon speaking Belgium.

How strange to hear Carmen sung in Walloon with Flemish sub titles.

 A conservatory factory outlet  in the old city??

Dunkirk ferry port floating observation salon, tea room and shopping arcade.

Mrs Nikos advised that Niederbayern is near Austria and therefore my ferry queue fraternisation  with this HOG outing was to be avoided at all costs.

The painters are in but having a tea break.  Arrivaderci Norfolk Lines - Guten Tag or should it be Hej DFDS Seaways.

The traditional Sunday evening English recreational activity of crossing the River Thames.  Bikes go free by the way but these guys should have been in the left hand lanes.

Almost back in Cheshire - it's so nice to meander along England's byways at a constant 49.5 mph.

Lost Lad and Magnetic Sump Plugs

The Nikos family has been associated, one way or another, with the Peak District for many years and it is woeful that we have never ventured more than five miles away from the comfort zone of the Cat and Fiddle.

 The tell tale sign at the Fairholmes car park that is the start of our 71/2 mile walk around the Upper Derwent valley. Actually there is only one dam in this direction.

No excursion in the Peak District would be complete without a vacuously staffed filthy counter  with bikers standing around although we would have to wait four hours for the pleasure of weak tea and stale eccles cakes.

This is the base of the Derwent Dam and not somewhere in the Ruhr.

Not an Avro Lancaster in sight.

View from Derwent Edge to the Ladybower reservoir.

The going is mostly easy up here on Derwent Edge as we pass Lost Lad peak.

The outcropping grit stone has been weathered into some weird and wonderful shapes - here are some weird and wonderful rock climbers playing with their equipment.

Looking in.

Looking out at....

K75 interlude - apologies for this but I have not mastered the blogger text editor.

A magnetic sump plug doing its job.

Now its clean.

Sheep

Male sheep

The Titillation of Tubby

The reason the electric screen fails to operate - crud! The vendor made a point in saying that at least the screen had failed in the down position - the author subtracted £100 from the asking price.  A five minute job to remove the switch, resolder the green wire, clean and lubricate the sliding contact.

On the delivery journey home I had noted (apart from wobbly handling) excessive movement in the brake pedal.  On inspection and adjustment to take out the slack, a dollop of brake fluid emerged:  New cylinder £103 - Nikos now £3 down....
(I have never seen aluminium delaminate like it has on an area of the brake lever - this lever is mounted on the bike where it is exposed to all sorts of crap from the road so it has now been cleaned up and sprayed with ACF 50 corrosion inhibitor in case you are concerned).

New tyre fitted - seems to have cured the wobbly handling.  The old tyre had squared off and was down to safe limits at the centre.  Curiously the previous owner had kept fastidious records and notes but had wrongly converted  the rear tyre pressure of 2.9 bar to be 46psi. I had subtracted £100 from the vendor for this and so I'm £4 up overall.

This is a demonstration of  the HID headlamp bulb conversion on dipped beam.  The H4 bulb system normally produces high and low beams from 2 filaments.  I was curious to discover how a single HID H4 gas discharge bulb could do this and the answer is an electro mechanical shutter integrated into the bulb assembly.
You will note that Nikos cousin's broken deck chair is picked out  by the dipped beam and the tomato plant is receiving extra white light.  You will also notice the external air temperature guage that had been sitting in the spare parts box for 20 years has now been put to "good" use.

Main beam - the IKEA folding chair is now fully exposed and irradiated at 5000K whereas the tomato plant is mainly in the dark.  I decided to upgrade the headlamp so as to avoid festooning the bike with add on lamps as I did with Tractor (my GS) and keep the lines clean on the aerodynamic masterpiece of the K75.  I realise that I have no redundancy.

The IKEA sofa aka  the bargain remade seat waiting for £70 on Tony Archer's workbench and this should provide 2 inches of extra leg room and allow me to slide back my riding position and position my legs for aerodynamic effect within the fairing.

Further to the first test ride to validate the titillation and repair (during the Northern lights night time spectacular HID light demonstration) the rear brake switch gives up the ghost - this is a manifestation of the law of sod especially as its function appears to be key in the operation (or otherwise) of the ABS system. Now I'm  £23 down.

Rosinen Bombed Tour

The sweltering tropical weather over Wiesbaden broke just before I arrived back for the weekend, but by Sunday the thunderstorms had abated, the sun shone but with fresher air temperatures and we donned the protective clobber for our second tour of the Taunus. (The first tour has remain unblogged in deference  to the hapless bee that had flown up Mrs Nikos' jacket cuff and stung her on the arm somewhere near Dietz...)

On the way to Epstein - a typical Taunus vista.

Statues at Schlosshotel Rettershof.

Frankfurt cathedral surrounded by modern buildings - we arrived here due to roadworks  near Bad Homberg.

Clearly a large organ.

Riding next to the River Main.

The day is improving as on our quest for the Berlin Airlift memorial I spot on the map a village called Zeppelinheim.  Naturally the museum is closed.

The Berlin Airlift memorial - easy to see from the A5 autobahn but hard to find as it is appropriately sandwiched between the South main runway of Frankfurt airport, the A5 and a high speed rail link.  Access is by a footpath and bridge from Zeppelinheim.

The C54 "Rosinen Bomber".

The C47 "Dakota" with a glimpse of the autobahn sign in the near background.

A pair of Mrs Nikos' noteworthy rosinen bombs (recipe on application) redolent of a design by the late and great Barnes Wallis.

Bus Lover's Holiday

A Leyland Bus picking up passengers outside Mosta Dome

 

Mrs Nikos had some good fortune and willingly consented to come with me on my almost regular five yearly bus spotting holiday to Malta, that little gem of an ex British naval base skulking in the Mediterranean sea just below Sicily.

An AEC bus picking up passengers at Cikewwra having made it up the fill from the Gozo ferry terminal in the outstanding heat.

An Airbus A 320 at Luqa airport - another of Nikos' famed night-time ramp shots.

Another AEC bus moments before running over some Scuba divers.

A Leyland Tiger Cub with a misleading Volvo number plate light ornamentation at Valetta bus main station .

A Bedford Supreme and an AEC Commander pose side by side at Valetta main bus  station.

Heaven knows what this is  - the name plate has fallen off.

This soulless vehicle looks like something from the Iron Curtain.

Mrs Nikos pets a stray cat as she is fed up with looking at obsolete British buses. 

 

 Mrs Nikos concludes the purchase of an AEC bus to convert into a camping car.