InvictaMoto's Red Pepé Blog

Any day now registration for the 2018 Allied Memorial Remembrance Ride will be opening. Hopefully the weather will be as good as it has been in past years with sun and staying clear for the fly past over the cemetery. I've been to six previously since 2010.  This year is the 10th overall!   I missed 2015 as I had had a heart attack and was off the bike and 2016 as it clashed with the Centenary of the Battle of the Somme and we were in France. So with this year 7 out of 10 ain't too bad! And with a bit of luck I won't be Johnny No-Mates this year! http://www.alliedride.org/index.php/uk-home

For a few years I had been tracking the miles per gallon and fuel usage of my bikes and cars with an app on my iPhones.  Sadly, when I moved to Android from iOS last year I lost that ability. I suppose as I still have the (worthless!) iPhone 5S I could have simply kept it charged and using wifi and the apps. To be honest. I didn't actually think of that until recently. A Doh! moment? But last summer I was googling about and found Fuelly . I saw it online and setup my vehicles and since June 2017 I have recorded all the fuel stops that I have done in the Insignia and also with Red Pepe.  I use it to calculate costs (less obvious) and the over UK mpg. When I say costs it is mostly because since having Pepe, I have had to fill the tank overseas in Europe.  In nearby Europe they use the Euro (€) and in Czechia (I hate that new name!) they use the korunna. Of course at home we still use the pound sterling (£).  But at least fuel is sold in litres in all countries...

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Vimy on 2017 Time has moved on since the last update on this potential run and I have heard back from the Vimy people in France. As with most years that aren't a big anniversary there will be the usual smaller scale commemoration at the Memorial. So I expect  numbers will be back into the hurdreds if not tens as previous years. The ceremony itself usually takes place on the other side of the memorial itself to that in the picture, although this side allows for a far larger flat space for the visitors! Last year there were many thousands and thousands of people. Mostly Canadian to celebrate a date that many see as "the birth of a nation". In 2014 there were maybe 100 people, no more than 150. So the plan. Unlike 2014 I will entrust my route to a TomTom. Which one I haven't decided but I have yet to try the 410 on the bike.  Once one gets used to it, it is a better piece of kit than the old Rider. I have fitted a new Bosch style plug to the...

The inaugural meeting of a new branch of the Triumph Owners MCC. It's been a while in gestation and tonight was the date chosen for the first meeting. Luckily last week's snow had gone but the roads were still pretty away with accumulated grit and muck in the middle. And I chose to take Pepé. What's that sound on game shows when the contestants get an answer wrong? Uh-uh? After getting Pepé out of the garage and booting it up with the dbpower unit,  cleaned off some muck, it was ready. It was only 5 miles to the Drum Inn but it was horrible. Dark and wet road. Crap everywhere. It was getting cold so I stayed about 45 minutes, had a coffee. And as the only one that had gone by bike (!) I left.  It was worse on the way back. Fogged visor.  Cold and still damp road. Some pix taken during fettling time: