Skip to main content

Sinterklaastreffen 2017?

Currently the UK is in the grip of a cold spell.  Winds from the north-west are coming from the pole and bringing icy conditions to the south of England and snow and ice to the more northerly climes.

So.

The decision whether to go to Belgium will be taken later in the week.  The newspapers are scaremongering about "arctic conditions" being with us for weeks rather than the usual days.  

One of the geographical benefits of where we are off the coast of mainland Europe means that we benefit from the jet stream and that generally brings warmer air up from the equator that means we get less snow but we get more rain than the Europeans. 

Unfortunately it looks as though we are going to be north of the jet stream this week and in the cold air.

It was very cold on Friday when I went on the Ride for Kelly and on Saturday we (Neill, my brother and me)  went to the football (soccer y'all) at Gillingham and even with four layers of clothing, gloves and woolie hats it was still freezing!

Today it was heavy rain!  

The ide aof a Johnny No-Mates trip across the Channel to Belgium in the pissing rain or freesing icy cold is not that attractive!

Let's see........

Update 28/11/2017

Weather forecast for the weekend has taken a turn for the worst.

They are now saying that Friday into the weekend will have what they euphemistically call "wintry showers" during the day and overnight.

Bugger.

Update 29/11/2017

Definitely not going now.  Snow forecast for the south-east and "near continent".  That's Belgium.  Riding a £10000 ($12700) bike in those conditions it a definite no-no.

Update 4/12/2017

It didn't snow but on the morning I should have set off it was -3C in Hythe. Frost and ice to scrape off the car....

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

New Battery?

The weekend showed how weak the battery has become.  Having had to use the dbPower unit on four separate occasions during the day in Belgium was the giveaway. We are in the second winter of this problem where the battery isn't strong enough to start the bike. In the summer it charges and holds that charge and although I keep the dbPower unit to hand I rarely have to use it.  But in winter it barely has the power to turn the engine over. It's simply "clunk". The lights come on though and that probably doesn't help. So what to do? Being a fair weather biker nowadays I won't be using the bike that often until the new year. Do I get a new battery sooner rather than later? It might end up freezing away in the garage. I have a garage in a block away from the house with no power, so a trickle charger is no use either. I have been looking at a replacement though.  A  Motobatt  with a high cranking power should be around £75. So unlikel...

Cup of Tea - Having a go at it!

Well that didn't work out as I expected.  The TomTom satnav/GPS had a wobbler and so I only managed P, O and E before calling it a day. I need to connect it and delete the routes it thinks it has and update the one that I will amend on MyRouteApp. The E wasn't the one I was expecting.  That both village signs were in quite dangerous areas meant a stop wasn't very clever. Some of the roads TomTom chose would be difficult on a DR trail bike. But we managed it in the end. P - Peene Railway Museum O - Ottinge Court Farm E - Eythorne Maybe a POE challenge! In the end the stats were: