Wow am I late getting this blog out! My pooter blew. As in Windows7 opens but without any sign-in box. It's going back for repairs. My lousy luck is world famous (Everyone sing along: "If it wasn't for bad luck -I wouldn't have no luck at all"). Let me explain. I DO have 'luck' in many huge areas of life. But Sod's Law rules every minute of it. I'm sort of like a chap that wins a round-the-world boat trip only to find the terms and conditions stipulate you spend the entire trip sitting on a drawing pin (thumb tack to Yanks). So I thought I should report my incident of last night that flies in the face of reason. I parked my motorcycle in Westmnster!I was due to meet my business partner at a curry house in London for a freebie meal. I checked motorcycle parking spaces on my sister's pooter to find that Westminster charges to park bikes now. (Greedy swine councillors!) Undetered I left a bit of extra time and rode off into the sunset. Oddly enough I even got a tad muddled on the route in and wasted a further 5 minutes. Then a detour due to road works at the bottom of Queensway added another 5 minutes. I finally rode past the front door of said restaurant and swung right immediately as I saw a motorcycle-only-parking-bay right across the road. There was even a tiny spave left next to the 3,756 Honda 90 Pizza delivery bikes. I squeezed in, making sure not even my mirror crossed the end-of-bay white line so the gangs of Somalian Traffic Wardens couldn't book me, checked the fees and found that they stop charging at 6:30pm. It was EXACTLY 6:30pm. Cocky sod enters curry house as a dozen Bin Laden-look-alikes leave...
Flippin' cold riding home. 6C (42F)! Britain's longest winter I reckon!
I have been riding quite a bit lately. Mostly to visit dealers to promote Extra Mile Bike Tours and MotoZania.com. One event I really enjoyed was an evening at Haslemere Motorcycles (no longer in Haslemere though!) where R1 riding World Superbike star James Toseland attended. There are pics and video of his visit on their website.
Now I expected the usual breeze in, wave, rush out leaving 6 signed autographs. Nope. This boy was gracious, witty and pleasant and spent the entire evening there signing autographs for a queue that went round the block and then he sat and played the electric piano and sang for us! At just 23 years of age his many talents blew us away. Now I am not an autograph hunter but I did get my poster with a signature for the 'office' wall. It seemed disrespectful not to!
On that evening the sales chap Mark asked me if I had seen 'IT'. ??? 'IT' turned out to be a Suzuki Burgman with a big label that said Sold to James Kingstone on it! The RATS! In front of all those people! My mate Andy will laugh about that! Andy and I sneeringly suggest that the other should be doddering about on a Burgerman with day-glo safety harness and tesco carrier bags in the footwells. Haslemere Motorcycles have indulged our pranks on one another for many years. Now it was my turn to get sneered at. With a cast of thousands present. I'll kill you guys! I also met the Yamaha rep that night who described the new R1 in terms that made me drool and doubt my change to Aprilia. One day I'll snag a ride and see how good it is. When I win the Lotto...
The problem James Toseland's niceness has created for me is that I was cheering for Leon Camier on the Aprilia RSV4 in World Superbikes. Now I have to cheer for BOTH of them! (Not that that is odd for me. I cheered for both Munich Bayern and Manchester United as they battled it out in footbal. United won. Very dramatic. We thought the lads would beat me up in the pub as I cheered for the Germans but once I explained they laughed and bought me pint.)
I met Leon very briefly at LAX awaiting passport control some years ago and sort of cheered him on ever since. When he romped away with the British Superbike title last year on the Yamaha R1 I was at Brands to cheer him on. I must be effective at cheering because he won all 3 races. (It was a bank holiday Monday). That was the day the Rover destroyed my beloved '98 R1. I blasted it from Brands and slowing to a pleasant pootle with just 5 miles to go...kerbang! Over the bonnett and down the road. Yesterday I went for an MRI scan on the busted hand and foot, 9 months later.
Anyway, there I was as a happy R1 supporter and Camier went to Aprilia. And then I bought my Aprilia RSV1000. So I cheer for Aprilia and feel guilty every time I sign into MotoZania.com as R1MadBrit. Maybe I need to change to R1RSVMadBrit? I think just Mad Brit would be more appropriate.
One of the dealers I visited was Three Cross Motorcycles near(ish) Wimborne, Dorset. I do believe Leon Camier lives there. Anyway, salesman and generally good chap Steve Thomas takes me in to a showroom to show me a Moto Morini 1200 Corsaro in Italian red with Termignonis. Starts the beast up. OMG it was like Armaggedon with a sidestand. He casually asked if I had my licence (always my dear boy) and said he needed me to ride it 20 miles to the petrol station to fill the tank. The sun was shining, roads near empty, the fields were golden and the English countryside looked like a 1920's Weetabix advert! That bike is AMAZING! Grunt? That bugger will pull dead elephants up walls! The supermoto stance was very confidence inspiring and in no time at all I felt relaxed and comfortable. I liked the low-speed handling and the swooping bend-altering flight was more akin to snowboarding. I was planning to mug someone to buy it! 30mph, 6th gear, I opened up and away she went without a glitch or a "how's your auntie?". As I rolled into Three Cross Motorcycles to return the bike a chap was waiting his turn to test ride. Asked my opinion the second I dismounted all I could stammer was "WOW". He grinned and went off to change into his gear. If he can afford it I hate his guts...
I know it sounds like this is a plug for that dealer but the atmosphere in the place was excellent and I like that. I will say though that almost all the dealers I have visited in England are super friendly.
I also visited Snell Ducati in Alton Hampshire to say hello to 'Desmo' Dave. He raved about the Desmo and the new Multistrada which is selling like Nissan Micras at a pensioner's convention. Apparently they have the last Desmo you can buy so nick yer local MP's fiddled expenses and get down there.
Another event I enjoyed was the Goodwood Breakfast Club on Sunday 2nd May. A mate from the pub with a Triumph tiger 955i met me at 8am and off we rode with threats of rain overhead. The ride from Haslemere to Goodwood is GLORIOUS with cute English villages and forested twisty roads. The breakfast was £10! We wandered amongst the bikes and old vehicles for an hour and then blatted our way back to our local pub where an even bigger English breakfast is just £3.69. Gotta save for fuel. We just beat the rain too. Oh dear, it's raining, I guess we'll just HAVE to have a pint until it stops...
Photos: Don't mention the war! VW camper van one can hire if one can withstand 20mpg at $6.92 per US Gallon. The biggest bike I have ever seen the Boss Hoss bus - my lens wasn't wide enough to get the sauna in the topbox. A MotoGuzzi single cylinder Italian Army bike with weedy rifle. No wonder they surrendered. Proof that spring has sprung in England and the streets are lined with blossoms. And Rovers!
Finally, I got the Aprilia serviced by Racing Creations and took Paul Coltman's advice to ride the A339 home through Alton. What a lovely English road! The sunshine has been much appreciated but it's still so flamin' cold! I blame the Highafalutin Iceland volcano.
Last but not least I am investigating the price of shipping my 05R1 from AZ to UK (or even Spain). I say investigating because not one of the logistic companies has responded to my on-line requests for a price. I really just want to sell the bike but no one seems to be buying Stateside right now so I'd rather have it where I can enjoy it. If anyone knows a good international bike shipper I'd like to hear from them.
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