InvictaMoto's Red Pepé Blog

Who would have thought on an afternoon ride I would get to lean the Rocket over further than Mark Marquez, the MotoGP World Champion does week in week out, lap after lap!!! Yep. Truly unbelievable. And of course bollocks.  The Yamaha My Ride app was running and in the same pocket as every other time. How it got my usual 20° or thereabouts totally wrong,  I have no idea. Anyway, today up through Hythe, Sene Valley up to Alkham Valley to Whitfield. Fuelled up at Tesco and then down the A2 to the Duke of Yorks, down past Dover Castle and back home up the A20 and then off to the Battle of Britain Memorial but it was closed so I went past without stopping. Down through Folkestone and the coast home. No photos today. Only My Ride. And that's it for today.

The problem with the pandemic is that for 4 months I have been working from home. To the day.  In that time I have had hardly had the chance to get out on Pepe. And when I have the lockdown restrictions have meant not actually going anywhere. So when I finish for the summer on July 21st I am hoping to get a few days a week out for a ride. But where to? One day I need to go to the office. We are being evicted at some stage and moved to some shitty place up town. I want to get my personal stuff from my locker before it all gets lost or dumped. So that will be a nasty surprise riding into central London.

Another nice summer morning. I pulled Pepé out of the garage and tried to set the Yamaha My Ride app working. Since last time it lost my login details and I couldn't be bothered to mess about. H's cafe is near Lydden on the A2 between Canterbury and Dover. H's is alongside the Kent Motorcycles Honda dealership. Out back is a former Little Chef restaurant that Kent use a a rider training centre.  I was going to meet fellow Meldrews MCC member Cal there. And of course any others that made it. Today none did. My outward journey was up over Sandling onto the A20 where I was left for dead by Marc Marquez and his brother, or what passed for them in this part of Kent. The A20 between the turning by the High Speed Rail link and the M20 J11 as far as the J12 junction is a "bikers road". It can be fun. Some guys ride like they are the aforementioned MM93. I split off as the first junction through Postling, Lyminge and Elham Valley. All very relaxe...

Covid-19 put the kybosh on the event as it had with nearly everything in life. I planned a route to take me around London on the M25 and up the M11. On the way back I wanted to stop in at the NAAFI cafe at North Weald airfield. North Weald was one of the WW2 fighter air stations in the defence of London and the South-East during the Battle of Britain. But it was cancelled and so was my trip.

Actually into East Sussex. Finished work from home at 4pm. I was togged up and away about 4.20. No plan. Started the Yamaha app but when I got back it had effed up.  Went to Rye via Appledore. Almost empty roads and in bright sunshine. Good ride. Only 42 miles and an odometer moving onto 9740.

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...

Today as it was sunny instead of a lie-in I would get out for a ride. But where to? In the end I did a circuit of East Kent. Home to Canterbury and then loop back home. With the M20 closed northbound both the A20 and the Canterbury road were packed with foreign trucks.  Why these guys can't follow a clearly marked "diversion" is anyone's guess. Stone Street to Canterbury wasn't the diversion route. Twats. I stopped in Canterbury for fuel. ASDA selling at 100.7. I have missed out on the lowest price for years at 99.9p. I had the Yamaha app running in my pocket. A bit disappointed with the lean angle. I did try. Honest. So another shortish ride done. End mileage: 9670.