Eunos Chump

The best thing about France is undoubtedly the TV show Falco .  He's a tough, motorbike-riding police inspector who get things DONE, but not by tedious conventional detective work - he does it by staring moodily into the distance, wearing a leather jacket, and having a great beard.  And he's sometimes visited by the ghost of Elvis (who speaks fluent French).  Naturally, he has a complex personal life. It's a very aspirational show for style-blind British chumps. Here are some lovely pictures from the France trip - it was hard work (1400+ miles), but very good fun and we packed a lot in (including riding through Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany in 1 day... I had a stinking cold and was at the very limit of my endurance on that day)  Self preservation society outing.  The citadel at Bitche.  This was an accidental find - we were in the area for the fantastic winding roads (and pure Hansel and Gretel scenery)  Cite de l'Automobile museum...

Monkeyboy and I took the caravan out for the first time this year, it was LOVELY.  The New Forest would be much better without all the PEOPLE though. Just 7 days to EPIC EURO TRIP!

I had to visit Dublin yesterday, so thought it would be fun to go on a little turboprop plane: It was REALLY NOISY, like a WW2 bomber, and pretty cramped.  Still better than a RyanAir 737 though (which remains the benchmark for cattle-class transportation), and Southampton airport is lovely and uncrowded.

Monkeyboy and I finally paid a visit to Brooklands today - I've been passing it for years on the train but just kept forgetting about it. We enjoyed it, though it's an amateurish collection of stuff (much of which might be described as scrap), in a sprawling and poorly managed site.  It's like an object lesson in how not to run an attraction. This is junk, not an exhibit.  Yet I've taken a photo of it...  Remaining section of the banked track  I had one of these!  I remember it being big and heavy... I must have grown an awful lot over the past 35 years, 'cos it's actually  tiny . DB style!

I want a sat nav for the Euro trip, but rather than buying a ridiculously overpriced motorbike-specific one I've got myself a Galaxy S4 smartphone and Copilot instead.  I've also got a RAM mount to attach it to the bike, the fitting of which has caused me much bother today... First attempt: drill a hole in the screen, and bolt the RAM mount (below) to it.  Once the extension arm, waterproof box and phone were attached it was quite heavy, and on the road it was extremely wobbly. The 2nd attempt had the mount bolted through one of the black trim panels that cover the mirror bolts.  Felt very sturdy, but once on the road it again started to wobble about, and obstructed the fuel gauge. 3rd and final attempt: attach the mount via the pinch-bolt on the left clip-on.  This is rock-solid and doesn't obstruct any instruments.  It's not under the screen so harder to see and there's less weather protection, but it's fine. The case is an Ultimate Addons Tough Ca...