sAsLEX
3rd September 2007, 08:27
It has been 6 month since I had swung a leg over a proper bike for any decent ride, a sin to say the least!
But Saturday dawned fine so out came the mini bikes for racing round the Fort....... trying for the pass up the inside of the hairpin I carried a bit too much brake in through the corner and down I went, good start to the day one lap in, result was grazed elbows knees and chest.... the safety T-shirt did not do too well nor did the jeans, the 1 quid gardening gloves held up well though.
Too stiff to fold in half for more mini bike racing we packed up and my mate suggested I come up to London with him..... "but how I have no bike I say" to which he replies " oh I got Shiners bike you can have mine!".
So some ringing round to upgrade the safety tshirt to a jacket and proper gloves we were set to go. His bike a KTM Adventure 640 was a bit different to the NC30 but didn't take long before it was feeling very comfortable being back on two wheels! We had a passenger to drop in London so shot straight up the motorway, boring until we hit traffic and I remembered how to split or filter as they call it here.
The plan called for dumping the girl in central London and then head back southish via any twisty road we could find along the way. So we took off without the handbrake and fly through London traffic until at a set of lights taking off my bike spits its chain.
Park it up and asses our options, cant get hold of his breakdown company so we leave it for the night and double back down to Pompey........ but alas the luck was not improving as the Honda Africa Twin we were then on obviously drank allot more two up at 90MPH than we thought so it was a nice 2 mile push to the servo after rolling 2 miles at 40kmhr (bike had a kmh speedo)!
Sunday dawned and we hunted for a bike shop open....... found one in Kent.... but they did not have a chain..... and no one we could get hold of had a link we could improvise fixing the chain with. Got hold of the Breakdown company finally and they suggested they could get a mechanic to meet us at the bike so we both jump on the Honda and head back to London....... where a flatbed truck meets us with no tools so I jumped in and rode in the truck back home.
So after all the drama no real ride but good to be back on a bike, and trying to get the KTM fixed tomorrow for a ride later in the week.
But Saturday dawned fine so out came the mini bikes for racing round the Fort....... trying for the pass up the inside of the hairpin I carried a bit too much brake in through the corner and down I went, good start to the day one lap in, result was grazed elbows knees and chest.... the safety T-shirt did not do too well nor did the jeans, the 1 quid gardening gloves held up well though.
Too stiff to fold in half for more mini bike racing we packed up and my mate suggested I come up to London with him..... "but how I have no bike I say" to which he replies " oh I got Shiners bike you can have mine!".
So some ringing round to upgrade the safety tshirt to a jacket and proper gloves we were set to go. His bike a KTM Adventure 640 was a bit different to the NC30 but didn't take long before it was feeling very comfortable being back on two wheels! We had a passenger to drop in London so shot straight up the motorway, boring until we hit traffic and I remembered how to split or filter as they call it here.
The plan called for dumping the girl in central London and then head back southish via any twisty road we could find along the way. So we took off without the handbrake and fly through London traffic until at a set of lights taking off my bike spits its chain.
Park it up and asses our options, cant get hold of his breakdown company so we leave it for the night and double back down to Pompey........ but alas the luck was not improving as the Honda Africa Twin we were then on obviously drank allot more two up at 90MPH than we thought so it was a nice 2 mile push to the servo after rolling 2 miles at 40kmhr (bike had a kmh speedo)!
Sunday dawned and we hunted for a bike shop open....... found one in Kent.... but they did not have a chain..... and no one we could get hold of had a link we could improvise fixing the chain with. Got hold of the Breakdown company finally and they suggested they could get a mechanic to meet us at the bike so we both jump on the Honda and head back to London....... where a flatbed truck meets us with no tools so I jumped in and rode in the truck back home.
So after all the drama no real ride but good to be back on a bike, and trying to get the KTM fixed tomorrow for a ride later in the week.