Gremlin's Tall Stories

After the last couple of weekends of putting on at least 1600km a weekend, it was time for a break, see the girlfriend (who had been very understanding) and catch up on some odds and ends. Saturday was spent popping into Cycletreads for some items Toto had already sorted, then some stuff for a client, then spent the whole evening playing with a blackberry set up.

Sunday was forecast to be brilliant, and what better way to spend it than go for a ride (coz uh... we haven't done that ...

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With the Grand Challenge complete, Monday was a comparatively leisurely affair. Going to bed late the previous evening, missing the usual breakfast affair on Monday morning was an obvious choice. Afterall, with the nice bakery down the road, where's the motivation to get up early?

Up around 9am, packed up, and Toto and I were probably last to leave the holiday park just after 10am. We weren't even going very far, popping down the bakery probably 1km away, where we waited for Toto's ...

It’s “only” been a 12 month wait since the last one, but the 2010 one was finally here. The plan was to try and finish off any work by mid-afternoon, then pack, load the bike and head down in the early evening. This year, I even have a handy helper, in the form of Toto, who is doing his first. He takes the entire day off, heads down early, and then proceeds to txt me. “Should I take my laptop”, “When are you coming”. I suggest he ask for two rooms near each other, so we can find each other. The ...

Around Tuesday I collected my new textile trousers from Quasievil and with the microphone sorted, I was only waiting for my helmet to be finished with the wiring. Mileage on the bike meant it needed almost 2000km put on during the weekend, service was organised for Monday (well, drop off, and they service as soon as they have time). The initial plan therefore called for 2x 1000km over the weekend, service, tyres and everything will be ready for the Grand Challenge (next weekend).

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Imagine that… an electrical install that went according to plan and was easy.

GiJoe insisted on helping me install the wiring for my heated vest… for some reason he doesn’t trust me. I wanted it installed for my weekend riding, he was busy Friday evening and Saturday afternoon, so we met up Saturday morning. I even impressed him by being up early (aka, before midday).

He comes around, xtank and seat come off and some quick discussion about how to put wiring in. Quite ...

I bought a new helmet a little over a couple of weeks ago, as my new long distance helmet (still have the Shoei XR1000), but I've been looking at the speed of my stops, and concluded that if I don't have to remove the helmet, I don't have to remove the plugs, balaclava etc, balaclava needs jacket adjusted, as it slides underneath etc. In short, a flip front helmet was called for. Get to station, lift front, ea, drink etc, and no potential problems with fuel station attendants either.
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