Not Going Out.... Another Lockdown!

With us still in lockdown in Kent and after what seems like forever banged up 23 hours a day in the house, I can't wait to get the bloody vaccine and be able to go out again on the bike.

I doubt after so long in the garage that it will actually start! I have the dbPower unit on charge to 100% to fire the big boy over. And then we'll see.

The weather hasn't actuality enticed me out on the road either. At the moment it alternates between hissing rain and high winds or frost that brings out the gritters with their nasty sand and salt concoction that rots Triumph chrome away in minutes.

The new Motobatt battery I bought and fitted a year ago, today as it would happen (!) will no doubt be as dead as the proverbial dodo. All thanks to the bastard that created this virus in their little laboratory.

When will it all end!

In the end did what I should have done months ago but I suppose I thought it would all be over and normal life might start to come back. I should have done the "statutory off road notification" and claimed the vehicle tax back as the bike it sitting unused in the garage.

With SORN you aren't allowed to use the vehicle on the public highway and it needs to stay on private ground on in the garage. As mine has been the latter for months and months I should have done it before. Now I should get only 4 months tax paid back and when I need to use the bike I can tax it again.

The MoT runs out on 18th February and as long as I have an appointment booked, a bike with no MoT can be ridden legally to the testing station. Once the lockdown is over I will get it going and off for the test. I guess that will be Laguna in Ashford as usual.

Comments

Bikers Loft 3

The last day. After leading yesterday's run to Ypres, I decided to take a back seat, or a different place in the line of 8 bikes. And so after a repeat of the previous day's self cook breakfast we packed the bikes and headed off. Aiming for Nieuwpoort aan Zee as the first stop. The plan to follow a canal all the way there to where it meets the sea at a huge marina. I was bringing up the rear of the column and saw a sign like this one. "No Motor vehicles" After only one short section of the towpath/road. We tried to alert those ahead but Cal and I were the only two not heading past this sign. We chose to turn left across a lift bridge onto the other bank, where Nieuwpoort was signposted 15kms away. As we headed along we sounded our horns and waved at the "first wave" to no avail. Some miles further on their side came to an end. By then we were way ahead despite dropping the speed to 40. We carried onto t...

Screen fitted

Today I was working from home after the trains were cancelled and I came home from the station! I did a bit of work, you can only do what is in front of you on the helpdesk software, and so I had a late lunch and decided to have a look at the screen fittings. In the end, it was a 90 minute lunch and it is fitted. The four brackets have to be done one at a time, offering up the screen each time before tightening them in place. In the end it looks pretty central. No time to test it today. That will have to wait until the weekend. Fitted! The instructions are pretty rubbish, and look like an eighth generation photocopy of the original drawing. Still, the photo on Skidmarx website was marginally better. My positioning looks a little different but it seems rigid. Only a test ride will tell if it is okay.

Bikers Loft 2

We were up reasonably after a latish night and the self cook dinner! Breakfast is included in the room rate and is also self service as well as self cook. I'm not used to eating breakfast and so opted for the continental style rather than the bacon and eggs style! The rooms are pretty basic. I shared with Trevor and we had two single beds. A little re-jigging of the room ensured that there was a man-gap between the beds! Early suggestions for the Saturday ride out had been to the Wire of Death. An electric fence that was built by the German occupation army in 1915 from the coast at Knokke to the German border, and just inside the Belgian frontier. It was to stop Belgians escaping into neutral Netherlands. Over the course of the war it claimed over a 1000 lives. Read more. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wire_of_Death I can't tell you any more as we didn't go!! In the end we decided on Ypres, only 30 miles aw...

InvictaMoto's Red Pepé Blog

Search This Blog