Eunos Chump

Berlingo came back yesterday, after about a month in the bodyshop.  The other driver had admitted liability so there was no excess to pay, and in addition to a new door they'd fixed all the other dents and scratches on that side of the car, and even the broken tailgate trim. Obviously, lots more biking has been going on.  I feel like I'm starting to use some of the machine's capability now, which probably means I'm due to chuck it down the road.  It's a constant challenge not to speed everywhere though.

Some of the photos I took today at Beaulieu ride-in day; just £5 for entry.  I spent another £15 on the predictably overpriced food/drink/ice cream, but it was still a top value day out.  I had to go alone as Rob bailed out at the last moment, but that meant I could do all the boring stuff I'm never normally allowed to, such as looking over the abbey ruins and the kitchen garden.  I am so very dangerous. 6 cylinder Honda - don't want to be dropping that Some V-twins that are not as fast as mine  How can there be this many bikes in the entire country?  This was just a small selection, they were just everywhere.  Great weather was a help, I assume (I'm a bit pink now, in fact). That silver one looks nice... I'll bet it's owner is very tough, handsome and outdoorsy.  He's probably a model or a professional kick-boxer, or something. There was also a bike display team, they were CRAZY, it looked SUPER DANGEROUS.

Went to a bike show in Wokingham today.  There was a lot of interesting stuff there including a1928 Harley, through 60's British bikes, to '70s Jap superbikes, but unfortunately I only had my Blackberry and it wasn't in the mood for taking photos, so make do with this single snap of an old Ducati.  It was tiny, like a kid's bike.  Interesting to note that  earlier bikes had the gear/rear brake levers the opposite way round, it must be bloody awkward to remember that when you're riding.  A few had hand-operated gear levers for added befuddlement. It's ride-to-work day tomorrow, there is a strong risk of rain but I must comply :)  I really need to get used to riding in the rain, and stop being a massive wuss.

Finished servicing the bike yesterday, had to get Mrs B to sit on it and hold it upright while I checked the oil level though; why didn't Suzuki fit a bloody centre stand?  It's all working lovely now, anyway. Had a few hours of dry roads today, so I've been out doing a few circuits of my favourite routes.  I've got a bit used to the ooomph now, so I've been very sensible and have hardly broken the speed limit at all.  I had my first motorway ride too, doing 5 miles of M3.  Didn't like it, even though the only traffic was cars at 60/70mph there was an awful lot of buffeting.  Also had the helmet visor come open during a high-speed lifesaver, not for the first time.  I'm going to have to experiment with holding my head at different angles, there doesn't appear to be any fault with the visor so I'm not sure what's happening.

The weather has turned very wet so I've started to give the bike a thorough service.  It's taken the best part of 2 evenings to replace the spark plug on the front cylinder!  The lower fairing had to come off first, and some of the mounting hardware was rusted solid.  I had to drill one of them out, which resulted in the surrounding bit of trim getting damaged, so that's more work (glue/knifing putty/coat of paint will fix it).  Then there's more faffing about tilting the radiator forward, while manoeuvring in the plug socket.  I've taken the opportunity to paint the radiator and water pump with black Hammerite (paint flaked off both), and the fairing hardware (rusted).

Watched this last night, and thought it was very good.  It's not nearly as 'Hollywood' as I'd been led to believe, though Prost is portrayed very much as the villain when in fact both he and Senna were as bad as each other for dirty tricks; that's the nature of such fiercely competitive people, perhaps. The film concentrates on his McLaren/Williams years only, this is no life story (which would have been interesting, as he used to live in Reading).  There's a lot of footage I'd not seen before, such as driver briefings, and a Williams-Renault sat in the garage going up and down on it's electronic suspension.  It was also fun to see Mk3 Cavalier safety cars, I'd forgotten about those.

Traded in the YBR against this earlier today... No doubt I could have got it for a better price, but as soon as I set eyes on it I was WANT WANT WANT!  I'm like this when I buy cars too.  Still, better to be wildy enthusiastic about things than financially astute, eh?  It's a 2002 K2, with nearly 20K on the clock and FSH.  Apart from some cosmetic corrosion of the forks (which seems a common fault on these), it's in very nice condition.  I would have preferred a yellow one, but I  wanted the full fairing (the lower one was an option), and it was fairly local. I came very, very close to dropping it as soon as I rode away, when I stalled turning right onto the main road.  In fact I've been mostly terrified of it all day, but have started to get the hang of it now.  I have to go out for short rides too, as the riding position and weight are forcing me to use muscles that never normally see action.  In fact it makes me feel like a big squashy...

Passed the bike exams today, but it was VERY STRESSFUL.  For me, module 1 was the worst; it's 10 minutes of manoeuvres in a compound, comprising a slalom, figure of 8 circuits, slow ride, U-turn, an emergency stop and a swerve test.  On the first day of the DAS course, I ran through the lot without a single problem, yet for the following 3 days during practice I managed to mess something up every single time (foot down during the u-turn being the favourite).  I made 3 minor errors, 5 are allowed.  I never want to see a bloody cone ever again. Module 2 was 40 minutes on the roads around Newbury, which I was more comfortable with.  To make it more challenging the direction indicator bulb was gone on my bike so I had to remember to hit the indicator cancel button every 20 seconds or so, then it started to bucket down with rain, and then we came across a multiple pile-up.  Mistakes were a missed observation at a roundabout, and joining a dual-carria...

The YBR hit 2000 miles on the way home this afternoon, and it just keeps getting faster.  Either that or I'm losing weight... unlikely.  Rob and I had a trip to Hayling Island yesterday, the 115 mile round trip was the longest so far (there was a short pause to refuel on chips'n'coke).  Great fun, especially as it no longer rains in Hampshire any more.  We'll all be dead of dehydration come September but there'll be some great biking weather in the meantime. Spent some time perving at SV650s, and I'm even eyeing up another bike to keep it company, a deeply uncool Yamaha Virago 535!  I will need to adopt another persona when I ride that, possibly involving tassles and a bandana.