InvictaMoto's Red Pepé Blog

June 15th. International Ride to Work Day. Great if you are working.  Great if you have a motorcycle. Not so great if due to the Covid-19 pandemic you are working from home and own a motorcycle. That's me folks. I worked on the computer from 0755 until I logged off at 1607. I guessed I had done my bit. I togged up. Pulled Pepé from slumber in the garage and set off. Where to go?  I decided on somewhere to bang off a photo that I had been out on this International Day. So I went to Dungeness. The roads were quite busy. The UK is still not totally out of Lockdown. The parking at Dymchurch by the beach was maybe 40% full. It's June. Still kids aren't at school. So parents obviously consider the combination of sun and no school to mean it's holiday time. Dungeness was pretty empty. The ride to the Light Railway station and Old Lighthouse had quite a few cars and tourists were photographing Derek Jarman's cottage and garden.  I've done that before so took my photo of...

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 d...

The run began in Bexhill but it meant getting up way too early for me on a Sunday.  As it was it was lucky that I didn't go that far. More of that later. I decided to meet up at the midway point at Dungeness by the Light Railway Station.  I wasn't alone as fellow Meldrew Ian Gardner was going there as well.   Three others, Cal, Neil and Graham had met up at the regular Blue & White earlier in the morning to ride to Bexhill and then come back with the run itself. I arrived just before ten to see Ian had parked on the main gravel car-park by the railway station and cafe.  I parked in front of him.  We were joined by a couple of other riders and sat down to chat as bikers do. No names and probably never meet again, but instant camaraderie.   No posing and no bullshit . The first marshal appeared on the long drive w into the estate. Dungeness is the western most point on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway .  It is al...

Today would have been the Meldrews' March meeting but most of the regulars were away and I was down with a cold. So I didn't feel like a breakfast meeting. We took the dog for his walk and were back for lunch.  By 3pm I needed to get out and so it was. Firing up the engine I saw that the miles to empty on the clock was 12. I am sure it would have been more when I was last out. Obviously not. First stop was Tesco for petrol.  A ride up the A20 and past the Blue and White where I should have been some five hours earlier.  No waiting but annoying that "pay at the pump" wasn't working again. Always seems up the swanee when I am on the bike. Where next? I decided to head for the coast and then loop back home. So opted for the B2070 to Brenzett and then the A259 to Romney, then Lydd and onto the Dungeness Estate. I was too late for the railway cafe although there was a train in the station. Instead I tried to get a pic of the bike by the old lightho...