InvictaMoto's Red Pepé Blog

The footnote to the release of the new 2.5L Rockets. It ought to be better in every way.  Mine was £11000 and 5 months old when I bought it in June 2015. As tested these are nigh on £20000!

My brother Neill saw this mug on Amazon and thought I could add to my Christmas list.   I have so many mugs that Claire keeps complaining.  I have four in use at work that I rotate my way around. Three in my locker and one in use, then wash, and choose another. Maybe it's true. 

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

I was up at 6.50am and out before 7 30am. Pepé needed the dbPower unit to start as I had expected. I had had it on charge to make sure it was at 100%. Why? I expected to use it a few times in the day. The first obstacle was J11 was closed other than northbound on the M20. A truck had overturned and the carriageway was damaged. A little self made detour (turning around the end of the centre verge (median),  and I continued onto the A20 to the Shuttle. Both UK and French passports were taking time to get through. A terrorist attack in London the day before was probably a contributor. At UK I had to take my helmet off. I had chosen the Shoei over the LS2 flip-up. It looked like I was going to miss the booked shuttle as I waited for the queues to move. In the end it was gone 8.30am before the barrier lifted and I was off to be squeezed into the last carriage. Or so it seemed. I was told to park, as usual front wheel into the kerb. The cars shuffled forward.  And I wa

So the weather is turning drier tomorrow. At least the rain looks to be holding off. Instead temperatures are to drop into low single figures. Centigrade that is. A high of 7°C. I popped out briefly last Sunday to fill the tank with our cheaper unleaded 95 fuel. With a full tank it means theoretically I could get to Ostend and back.  In reality I will need a top up. I'll most likely do that on the way to Ostend on the motorway near Veurne, once in Belgium. On Sunday I used the dbPower charger to start the bike, but risked starting it at Seabrook without it after fuelling and it started.  Still. The unit goes with me. Fully charged! Whether it will boot up at the Tunnel....  From my local riders I will be Billy No Mates. Instead I'll meet up with Tony Young at the Velodrome. He went today and booked in and got the special event t-shirt. It's €15 for the weekend and €10 for a day visitor. The t-shirt included.  50th & last So to tomorrow. Up early and out of the house for

An early start. Definitely. I guessed that Pepé wouldn't start without an infusion of electricity. I was of course right. Without dbPower he is d e a d. Looks like  new battery in the new year. Maybe one of the Motobatt "big yellers" like I had on the GS a while back. Plenty of cranking amps. Anyway, the miles to empty gauge showed 1. By the time I got to the first meeting point it was up to 81. Remember this. The ride across the top of the Marsh was done slowly. There are so many leaves on the road. On the edges, and down the middle where they have been thrown by cars and trucks. It is very easy to come a cropper!  At the bottom of Knole Hill in Aldington I set the Yamaha My Ride app running, then headed to the meeting place.  To my surprise the app worked!  Only short but at least it worked. The phone was upright in my inside jacket pocket. I will reveal  the stats later.  It was slippery underfoot remember! From Hamstreet we (Iah J

This coming Sunday is our monthly Meldrew's breakfast meeting.  The plan is to meet a little earlier than usual and head over to the Waterside Cafe near Hawkhurst for an arrival at about 1030am. As the weather has turned decidedly winter-like recently the run is weather dependent.  If it's too shitty we'll go the old HQ at the Blue and White Cafe in Mersham on the A20.. I plotted a route on MyRouteApp and it looks like a 59 minute ride across country.  The quickest route is to go along the coast to Rye and then turn northwards but we have a part-way meet in Hamstreet.  Putting a waypoint in actually knocks four miles off but also increases the time but only by a few minutes. I need to get the LS2 Bluetooth charged up and connected to TomTom.  I will also try and see it the "Yamaha My Ride" app will work this time on my phone.  I made the changes that their tech support suggested and have yet to try it out. Fingers crossed it's not pissing dow

The Old SOCS Facebook group came about when a few of us after years of being ex-Suzuki Owners Club members (and some ex life members) decided on a ride up to the National Heritage Motor Museum near Warwick, to surprise long term mate John Storrie. From that humble beginning the FB morphed in "Old SOCS" and the idea of a weekend was floated.  To appeal to a larger audience it was decided on August and Vic Dunckley came up with a place, Coniston in the Lake District. Accommodation is somewhat on the pricey side in the area in August. But luckily there is a youth hostel in easy walking distance from the venue and the pubs/restaurants. So I am booked in there. It is £30 a night in a dorm. 😱 The only fly in the ointment is whether I am holiday with Claire in August and dates that might conflict.

It looks like I won't be Billy No-Mates this year. CHEERING!!  Not at the moment anyway. Not a Meldrew's member but Tony Young. We first went in 1985.  This is sadly the last ever rally, or at least Sinterklaastreffen, so quite fitting we are both going 34 years later! Screenshot as original is pdf I was looking at the P&O ferry this year but although cheaper than the Shuttle it takes longer.  So I have booked 0836 out and 1850 back with Eurotunnel.  Tony will go over Friday and so could book in then. He's staying outside Ostend in a B&B.  If I was able I'd have stayed at the Polaris/le Parisien for old times sake. In term time I can't get away on a Friday.  Inscription is €15 for the weekend and €10 for the day. There are also special t-shirts for the event. I have loads but "I was there" shirts are good!!  So end of November and my mo should be luxurious. 

So it's Meldrews Sunday again. Whether it is the time of year but there were only two of us out.  And we were separated. We decided on The 2-Stroke Cafe at Greatstone. It was closed.  I checked on FB and they had posted on Friday that it was closed for a leaking roof.  Cal headed off to another cafe and I went to another one as I didn't know where he was going.  I gave the Yamaha My Ride app a chance and it finally worked. Okay. A two mile ride in a virtual straight line shouldn't have taxed it.  After coffee at the "End of the Line" cafe at Dungeness Light Railway station I set off for home. I tried the app again.  After a longer ride I expected to see a full journey. No.  As it had done last time I tested it and it effed again. Packing up after less than a mile and a half.  I'll give it one more go...  Update 21/10/19 Posted a question on the play store and the developers replied

Finally. The new Elsemade fabricated seat is fitted. It's wider and deeper than the original, with an added gel layer.  Next. Get Claire to try it out. 

An annual service costing £254 inc taxes. Not bad. Dropped Pepé off just before 9am. We did a few errands and shopping and then home. I called just after half time in the rugby where New Zealand were annihilating Ireland to find it was ready. Changing back into bike gear we headed off to Laguna Ashford.  The ride back was quite boring on the A20 but the bike pulled nicely. 

Still plenty of time before I become Billy No-Mates again for other riders to stand up and join me on the run across to Ostend.   Of course, we may have Brexited on October 31st and the EU might have erected a sea-wall between us and the mainland of Europe..... Or then again, everyone might see sense and carry on as normal and allow tourism to take place. Might. It won't be too bad. I will meet up up with long term biker buddy Tony Young and family on his trike.  When we went for the first time in 1985, Tony and Heather were there I think on his Aspencade or maybe a BMW RT.  My memory has faded. My partner at the time, Audrey, was on the pillion of my almost new MZ 250ETZ. Two up with luggage was a struggle. Back then we used to stay the weekend from Friday to Sunday at the Hotel Polaris.  It became "our" hotel and over the years we stayed there as a Suzuki Owners Club group we tended to meet the same  group German riders year in year out. Tony will be

Hoping to get up to Thurrock for my annual attempt to create the ring around London's M25 ring road.   Pepé already has the poppy under the headlight and the year bands on the clocks. I'll have to dig out the big red t-shirt to squeeze over my riding gear. The usual two wristbands have been ordered, one for me and one for Pepés speedo.  Update 11th November 2019 After all the planning I woke up on Friday 8th with a terrible gut ache.  I had to work from home as the loo was the most common seating place.  It was no better Saturday and the codeine phosphate quelled the urges. Sunday was no better and I watched the Remembrance at the Cenotaph in London on the TV.  SO I missed the run. I was slightly better on Monday and worked from home again.  I observed the 2 minute silence in the house as a break vfrom work.  Once again, codeine phosphate came to the rescue.

Today was supposed to be the Distinguished Gentleman's Ride .  For the second year running I have signed up and not made it on the run. On both occasions I had picked up a bug.  I had signed up to do the run from Laguna in Maidstone. As well as the cold/flu we were woken up early by the Environment Agency calling with a severe flood warning for our area. I live about 250 yards from the sea. All that is between us and the sea wall is the Hythe Ranges and a holiday caravan park. Hopefully the wall is enough. Last year it was a stomach upset, this year for over a week I have had cold/flu and a sore through. My throat swollen and I have difficulty swallowing.   In 2018 I salted my account with a personal donation and this year I decided not to. So sadly the charity haven't made any money off of me this year.  I'll no doubt to Movember again in November. Looking at the early posts I am sure that full dress Harley's aren't the kind of bikes listed by the

Since I became a fair weather biker (and more of a motorcycle owning but mostly non-rider biker) I have yet to get to the 10000 miles service limit. So once again, Pepé is booked into Laguna Triumph to have the Annual Service done.  It's October 19th and so by then I might have added a few more miles to the odometer but it will still be less than 10000! Since I bought the bike just over four years ago I have only managed an average of 2000 miles a year.   It is all made worse in that my brother ( https://ndtea.blogspot.com/ ) is off again on another trip on his BMW.  This one trip will be more than my entire year's mileage. Of course, there are different reasons for this but there you go.  It is what it is.

With Flickr becoming more and more of a PITA since it was taken over I have been looking for somewhere to store photos to be shared on social media including blogger and most importantly - free. So I am trialing IMGBB. The photo, below, is linked using html code from IMGBB.  I had to resize it to XL as it was massive. It's the only one I had loafing about on my work computer. Pre-windscreen as well! Mr Baloo 

On the ride out to the transport museum I tried out the Yamaha My Ride app for the first time. My brother had it on one of his trips and so I thought it might be a bit of fun. I kicked it off before leaving the museum, sadly it cut off after just three kilometres. Have no idea why as I didn't move it in my pocket.  In that short distance I managed two roundabouts and it measured me with left and right lean angles of 14°. Only  14 degrees. And there I was hoping for better.... Not quite in the Mark Márquez zone.  Next time I am out I'll give it another try...  Bit crap. 

Today I had a short run out to the transport museum. They we going to announce the winner of this year's raffle. Luckily it was sunny day and I could wear the Joe Rocket mesh. If only I had worn it to France a few weeks ago!  I needed fuel and so went along the coast and filled up at Tesco. The miles to empty was 23 miles. I managed to squeeze in only 17.8 litres. At 40mpg I ought to have had more like 70 miles left.  The ride was then up through the speed neutered Alkham Valley. An okay ride. At the museum I parked on the pavement outside and behind fellow Meldrew Cal's BMW 800. I parked there for the photo opportunity.... see below. We were joined by Frank and Lisa, also Meldrews, both on their own bikes.  Having had a partner for 15 years that rode her own bike, I do like to see women enjoying the freedom of riding.  We were there drinking tea and chatting and then set off on our various ways home. I went back through Alkham Valley and a little spurt up

Whilst out walking the dog today I almost had ideas of betraying Pepé! A guy parked at Waitrose on a Ducati Multistrada S. It was red and had luggage, colour matched. It looked really nice. It also had Italian plates. But. I remained faithful. 

Finally arrived in Corbie having passed the once elusive Red Baron crash site. This time I didn't stop. Once off the autoroute the new 80kph limit does seem to extend journeys. I parked across from the cemetery and then went across.  Corbie Municipal Cemetery Extension William Devall. After putting my RBL cross by the stone, I took a photo and then retired. I sat in the shade of the big trees to cool down.  I was hungry and after some reflection I set off for Albert and the non-toll route home.  Lunch in town at the Hygge cafe. Plat du Jour. Potatoes with Lyon sausage. The sausage is loaded with pistachios.  Oh yeah. There was lettuce with a nice dressing.  As I was riding I had Diet Coke rather than beer.  Checking the time as I relaxed in the sun I realised I needed to abandon the non-toll route and revert to toll route. Time had got away with me and TomTom was showing an arrival time too late for my booked shuttle.  On the way back to the bike, parked in the square, I tried out

A few more new places for me.  The roundabout route from Bazentin took me past another Newfoundland monument complete with stag. Sadly,  it was too dark for my phone..  I popped up at Mametz and followed signs down roads more suited to a GS! The Welsh 38th Division memorial.  It was worth the bumpy uneven road to see this. If I was Welsh I would be proud to have been there, even more than I am to pay respects to these brave men.  In Montauban I came across the  Liverpool Pals  monument. It's quite small.  Another new place is Bell's Redoubt.  You can read about  Donald Bell  here.  Still not at Corbie. TomTom took me to Albert. We scouted round the town and I filled the tank. An eye watering cost and 122.1 miles covered.  Halfway between Albert and Corbie is an Australian monument - The Third Australian Division Memorial.  The road was deserted until I got the camera out!  Photos taken.  On to Corbie!!!