meatloaf

As always you video's are brilliant mate.

Just had to crack open a bottle of Kraken which was also a Christmas present as I've just heard that I am going to be a grandad again.

Sorry that was in poor taste, my youngest always gives me a different rum every year and this year it was Dead mans finger, not tried it before but that will be cracked open tonight.

FFS Blackie after reading this I woke up in a panic this morning after dreaming that I'd been riding bikes for the last 50 years on a moped licence, just had to check and sure enough group D any motor bicycle ( with or without a sidecar). Maybe I should cut down on my rum intake ?

No Blacky, I mean it wasn't a proper bike as such but it had gears and stuff and got me my full licence.

Nice one slice, being a widower I always get what I want these days, I mean if I can't treat myself to what I want what's the point. It's usually some woodworking tools/machine trouble is the workshop is getting a bit crowded these days and I haven't got the space for a bigger one. Life can be such a bitch. Merry Chrimbo everyone and make sure you have some fun.

Funny my little Honda 125 broke down just before the test so I borrowed my uncles little Honda 50, soon as I passed went round to mates and bought his 650 BSA

I'm glad I took my test way back in 1968, a ride around the block and if you didn't fall off and didn't knock the examiner over when he jumped out in front of you all was good. When I told my youngest about my test he couldn't believe it and said basically you didn't have a fucking test then but back then we thought we were hard done by as I worked with a couple of old guys who never even took a test to get there full licence. Of course things had to change because it was plain stupid but the current system is overkill and I feel for you youngsters that have to jump through all the hoops just to ride a bike.

Brilliant great write up. TBH I don't think you can do better than have a road trip with loved ones and great job on the FJ by the way.

Done a bit of research and 96mph in a 70 zone is considered to be way over and wont be offered a speed awareness course and it will involve a court appearance , being a pensioner my income is next to FA so shouldn't get stung too hard and from what I've read they can take up to 6 months to prosecute me, so I'll just have to wait I guess. The possibility of a ban no matter how short would be a real pain in the arse, luckily I wasn't going over the ton (which of course I've never done) because that would defiantly mean using public transport to get about.

A couple of months ago after over 50 years of riding/driving I got pulled over for speeding for the 1st time, I admit it was a fair cop and I'm lucky I haven't been caught before. Can anyone tell me what the procedure is ? i.e. does it involve a court appearance or can I plead guilty by post and how long is this likely to drag out before I know my fate.

welcome . took my test in 1968 on a Honda 50 that I borrowed because my bike had broken down, next day I bought my mates BSA 650, the air turned blue when I told my son about this

That's looking good Blackie

Hope you all had a good one and all the best for 2018

That would be funny but I actually know some sad people that are like that.

Fuck that for a game of soldiers, in my prime I had to climb 250 ft up a radar tower to change a cable and that was high enough for me, these days I put off climbing my ladder to clear out the gutters. If we were meant to go that high we would have born with wings

Drewps, tommo, looks like a brilliant trip and some of those roads look awesome, great pickies and great write up but what's with all the boots on the table, is it some Spanish tradition or what? Likewise I'm not at all jealous no really I'm NOT

Obviously not enough people are upgrading so P bucket are trying to blackmail us casual uses into upgrading, well they can go f**k themselves, too many issues with this to actually pay for it. Any suggestions for an alternative would be welcome.

What bad luck. Be careful my daughter got knocked off her first bike years ago, the old guy didn't want to go through his insurance, I got a quote the next day and as soon as I saw it I knew he wouldn't pay as it was a lot $$$. Sure enough when I showed him the quote he changed his mind but we had already been in touch with the insurance Company by then.

Yes buddy it was. Luckily Mrs meat was a bit of a biker back in the day so there was never a problem, in fact when my daughter and youngest son first started riding it was Mrs meat that encouraged them and if I remember rightly insisted that we paid for their first bikes. She also encouraged me to get back on bikes after a few years of just driving cages.

I'm afraid I've got no faith in the police these days, a few years ago my car was broken into in broad daylight in an Ikea car park, even though a witness took the reg number of the car used by the arseholes and gave a full description of said 2 arseholes, the police did sweet fuck all.

That's exactly what I did when trying to buy a chuck for my lathe, was amazed at how many big named suppliers just don't hold the stock they are trying to sell, eventually found a small independent supply that gave cracking service, guess where I'll go next time.

Dewps It was my leg that saved my new panniers from getting damaged. Better not to tumble. Back in the day I did a lot of driving in Spain when me and Mrs meat often took the kids camping, mostly northern Spain and if my memory serves me right we always took the scenic routes and went along some cracking roads for bikes. Did make the mistake of heading for Madrid once when it was a bank holiday, everyone and his dog was leaving the city, worse traffic I have ever been in. Slice it was brilliant and hopefully will do some more, I love my bike but a bike that wasn't so thirsty would have been a more sensible option, as we did a lot of riding on country roads and petrol stations were almost non existent, never ran out of fuel but got very close at least once. Blackie I think I'll pass on that mate, I did try resting with it raised ( as per medical advice) but after an hour it was killing so I ended up in my workshop making stuff. I'm just pissed that my bike is parked up and it's summer out there today. So true Jimmy, my daughter can be a royal pain in the arse at times but this memory is got to be the top one in recent years.

I've just got back from my 1st bike trip to Europe, it wasn't without incident but was a brilliant trip. Really enjoyed riding with my daughter who did most of the organizing. When we disembarked at Dunkirk my sat nav had a hissing fit and we got totally lost but somehow ended up on the right road, eventually the sat nav got sorted and we headed for Bruges. I had a few more issues with the sat nav but got to the B&B in Bruges a bit later than planned. On Monday after switching to google maps we headed to Vianden in Luxemburg, about a 200 mile journey, after getting past the road works in Bruges the traffic thinned out and we had quite a fast ride to Luxemburg. We left the gloomy weather behind and were now riding in 27 degrees.The roads in Luxemburg are quite spectacular and on my bike which is long and low proved to be quite interesting, The twisty roads were a welcome relief after the long straights we had been on but there were a couple of really sharp hairpins that proved a challenge, I found myself dropping down to 1st and even had to slip the clutch to get round and even then my pegs and boots left marks on the newly surfaced roads. Our B&B for the night at the Hientz hotel, we even got our own personal parking. It was nice to get out of my leathers and have a shower and break out the shorts. Time for a drink and a treat, this went down really well. Went on the chairlift and had a nice cold beer at the top and just chilled for a while taking in the views. We found a nice restaurant on the river bank, and ordered "Judd mat Gaardebounen" which is a traditional dish of the area, and of course a cold beer . Not many bikes here but apparently in a few weeks it will be heaving with bikes, not surprising that this place is so biker friendly. Google maps is quite good but not perfect, when we left the hotel it took us on a twenty minute trip only to pass the hotel again before heading for Neuerbuge in Germany, no worries it gave us chance to ride the twisters before heading for the straighter roads,absolutely no reason to go to Neuerbuge but we were so close to the border and I think Shelly wanted to tick a box to say she had ridden in Germany. Just checking, I don't think Shelly trusted me to get us to Lorraine in France where we were booked in Two wheel moorings a bikers B&B run by an lovely English couple. I don't WTF happened but while doing a u turn to get in the overnight parking at the B&B I managed to drop my bike pinning my leg between the road and over 300Kg of bike, luckily the owner of the B&B was there to get my bike off me, It could have been a lot worse, the angle my foot was at I thought I must have snapped something but it was just badly bruised and very swollen from just below the knee to my toes. After resting for a while with a cold compress I found that I hobble about and more importantly take the weight of my bike without too much trouble but I had to break one of my golden rules and ride in trainers as there was no way I could get my boot on. Supporting the bike when stopped wasn't a problem but changing up was a bit slow and painful and I found myself changing down with my heal. On Wednesday we headed for Mailly - Mailet in France for our last overnight stop before heading for home, once again the sat nav played up and when we got to about 1 km from the B&B it just took us round in circles but eventually found the place more by luck than judgement. I didn't really fancy the 20 mile to the nearest town with some restaurants for food but after a shower a couple of hours rest and some more painkillers we set off. I think sat navs are brilliant but sometimes they can take you down roads like this, WTF has the tarmac gone, fortunately the tarmac reappeared about a mile down the road. After a nice meal and some cold cokes we headed back in the dark, a pleasant ride in the warm night until we hit the country lanes where we were bombarded by bugs of every size. Our final ride in the EU, a stop in Boulogne where we encountered our first heavy traffic, as well as an ice cream and cold drinks it was a much needed piss stop. Then off to Calais for our ferry home. All in all a bloody good trip with my daughter, mainly good roads, friendly people, no nods from other bikers but plenty of waves, salutes and leg kicks with the exception of a couple of HD's who had that typical stony stare that we are all probably used to. Then it was back to reality, fuck I hate UK motorways the M25 in particular. Finally back home 940 miles door to door absolute magic ( well most of it)

Not sure about that Slice it's more like practice, perseverance and good old you tube. Being retired and a widower I've got to something to keep me out of trouble. I'm really jealous of some of the guys that post in the project section now some of those guy's really have skills. Hope you get to the bottom of your rattle problem mate.