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Showing posts from April, 2013

Happy Campers

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Monkeyboy and I have just spent a couple of nights in the New Forest.  We stayed at Denny Wood near Lyndhurst, it's very much in the forest so there's no electric, toilets or showers; just water.  I'd accidentally left my phone at home too, so we had to become primitive woodsmen.  It was excellent! I made a wrong turn at one point and ended up down a narrow track, with no space to turn around.  I used to be really good at reversing trailers but I've clearly lost the knack, as it took about 15 minutes and a lot of smoking clutch action to escape.  The Berlingo pulls the van pretty well, but early clutch death is probably on the cards.

Poole Bike Night

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It was absolutely packed, must have been over a thousand bikes on the first decent Tuesday of Spring.  Benelli Tornado with the nifty cooling fans; looks great, but would be torment to own, I'm sure.  Benelli is now Chinese owned and I believe some badge engineering is in the pipeline.  Repsol Fireblade looks light and compact, I want. Yamaha Vmax

The Road Warrior

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While looking for a more suitable vehicle to pull the caravan, I found these images from the 2014 Mad Max film: The 'Gigahorse' :)

If this van's rockin'...

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I hoofed it up to Coventry this evening on the VFR and bought this: I have named it SUPERVAN II and I should be collecting it Saturday.  

Mobile Road Block

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In my quest to make life ever more miserable for other road users, I've decided to get a caravan.  I ruled out the camper last week, it creates as many problems as it solves, and they're poor value compared to a 'van.  A tent is more discomfort than I'm prepared to tolerate.  So, this week we dug up half the front garden to make sufficient room: Today I put a Witter tow bar on the Berlingo (it has the best power-to-weight ratio), which was pretty easy as all the holes are already there!  There was a small piece of bumper to cut out, but that took 2 mins.  I made life difficult for myself by dropping one of the bushes inside a chassis member, and eventually I had to drill a hole into the boot floor to reach it.  There was even a handy grommet for the cables to pass through, but unfortunately there was no easy plug to attach the harness to (I remember Citroen BX estates having such a thing back in the '80s).  I've not finished this yet, as some of the cables ar

Prescott Bike Festival

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Had an invigoratingly speedy ride up to Cheltenham today, for the bike festival at Prescott hill.  The hill climb is narrow and winding, nobody was really going for it - apart from a 5 year-old on a tiny motorcycle!  He was hanging off on every bend and putting everybody else to shame.  This photo is obviously not him.  Suzuki TL1000R - do like, but I'm not grown-up enough to have one yet. Not my cup of tea, but I'm afraid to admit the Harley Davidsons appealed.  They've got a lot of showroom presence with their superb paint jobs and general chunkiness.

Camping

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This week, I have mostly been looking at motorhomes.  Then caravans.  Then tents.  Then motorhomes again.  I'm back at caravans at this exact moment, but this beauty has been on the radar: