InvictaMoto's Red Pepé Blog

Service date today. As I haven't managed to hit 10000 miles yet, I booked the annual service instead. It's cheaper luckily. It should have been last week but due to the building work at the Triumph shop it was put back a week. This morning it was freezing. Cars iced over but at least the roads clear enough. By the time I got to Ashford my fingers were frozen at the tips.  After changing the date when I got to the Triumph shop the workshop looked like it was weeks away from finished. So we schlepped across to the other shop where  they usually have KTM, Ducati and Kawasaki. Outside was another Rocket fitted with a supercharger. I'd love to hear that running. I took a couple of photos. Some three hours later I got an sms to say it was finished. We were in Folkestone  walking the dog and watching a ceremony where they were commemorating the centenary of the ending of The Battle of the Somme in 1916. A picture here too. At least it was dry and cold ...

From five of us at the Meldrews' meeting point there were only two of us, me and Cal,  that made the ride to the Ride Out starting point in Canterbury. There we found that the local scooter clubs had turned up in large numbers and on a range of scooters form the 1960's right up to latest model four-strokes. There were fewer motorcycles though and that was a little embarrassing after the publicity the run had been given locally.   Not that I hadn't seen plenty of bikes on the road to and from the event.   In the end we had donations from the non-attending Meldrews (well most of them) and this was handed into the run organiser.  Amounting to just short of £1600 in cash and some online donations made from people's phones to justgiving. The run itself was along the A257 to Sandwich and then to Deal and then ending at Dover seafront.  Our group was led by a bloke on a GoldWing.  What a prat.  On an open section leading about forty assorted ...

This Sunday I am hoping to get out on this run for charity. It's for a local girl that needs some very expensive treatment that can't be funded on the National Health Service and is available only in the US. That life saving medicine can cost $1m is a disgrace in the first place but that there is no insurance that covers it is equally bad. So it is for the community to come together and raise the necessary funds to help save a life. In July some thieves stole the collection from a local shop in Hythe. Despite the cctv video being shared thousands of times on social media and the TV, no one has ever been caught. A women and her teenage son were clearly seen stealing it.  Someone knows who they are and they haven't been turned it to the police or for some local justice. So as well as having the just giving page to donate, bikers and scooterists will take a collection on this run.  it has been published across the South East and on TV as well as biker sit...

It will be soon that time of year when a find out how much a kidney sells for as I raise the funds for a service.  Okay, it's not that bad, but I doubt it will be inexpensive. As I haven't made it to the 10000 miles service interval it has been booked in for the annual service. Hopefully that will require fewer body parts being traded. Before then there a few rides where I can make thew odometer look a little more respectable.

This year the Ring of Red will be on 13th November. The official Remembrance Sunday. We are too busy to actually have Remembrance Day on November 11th when it is supposed to be so the nearest Sunday suffices. This year I plan to head up the A2 to Cobham Services and see if any Meldrews turn up and then about 1230 head up to the meeting place at Thurrock Services. Hopefully the weather will be kind again. Report and pix to follow - and they are here ..... RUN REPORT

Missed the DGR yesterday as I had a really bad dose of man-flu. Felt bad most of the day until late afternoon when I pulled Pepe out for a short run around the edge of the Marsh Down to Dymchurch and New Romney then back up towards Ashford and across the top of the Downs back home. Altogether 25 miles.

It's almost a week since I got home and I have just got around to checking the exact mileage and calculating the overall fuel consumption rates, what we call mpg. A bit lazy I know.  The return trip from home to home worked out at 1767.3 miles on Trip 2. Mpg ranged from 44.09 to 54.52.  I haven't sorted them in date order only lowest to highest. But at a quick glance at dates the highest consumption was on the way out in the middle of the trip. Getting 54.52 mpg on a 2300cc cruiser is pretty decent I think. The cross country sections in Bavaria and Czech were frustrating in parts due to traffic, trucks in the main,  but apart from a few miles the surface was better than anything we have locally in Kent or anywhere in the UK. So much smooth tarmac perfectly made for bikes. And at moderate speeds the mpg went up. On the way back, one section, when we had to detour off S19 north of Pisek due to the Ždákovský most (bridge) being close...