UKRM run 2011. First home...

Just got back and am in the process of making a cuppa.

Excellent weekend, as they all are. Great to see news faces amongst
some of the regulars. Nice to have met Pip at last. I'm sure that the
rest of the folks are still on their way back as I write. The next
UKRMer back will probably be Higgins, although his BiL left pretty
early this morn to take part in the Belgian equivalent of the Highland
games.

Friday's trip was grim, as most of you have heard. The weather was
shite in all directions, although I didn't get hit with the hail like
most of the others did. With 30 odd bikes, the odd incident is quite
likely. You've all heard of Dodger's collecting of lorry parts in his
Wing and TOG's wire bodging, so I won't go into details there. The only
thing I'll add to Dodger's story though, is "****". It's one of those
stories where an inch either way, would have resulted in an entirely
different post.

In traditional UKRM style, Friday night was the traditional pissup. In
traditional style, I got completely hammered. I blame Scraggy (Nige,
look for "the finger" on the fb profile pics) for forcing me to drink
when he turned up at the hotel at 3pm. I don't think I've been so loud
in my life. Apologies go to Vass's daughter for asking what she was
wearing (use your imagination) through SMS's. I'll give her her dues,
she never bit and Mummy and Daddy just let me get on with it. Fi took
things in the spirit of the night and didn't react at all when I took
pics of her rounded buttocks and those of Champ (pics on fb). Andy and
Adie didn't even raise an eyebrow when I asked them to keep the
shagging noises down (they were in the room opposite me and they
weren't).

For me and a few others, I chilled out for most of the day on Saturday
not risking to go out on the bike, as I was probably over the limit
well into the afternoon. The hangover disappeared around 4pm, FFS. In
usual red arrows style, loads of others disappeared off on the tours as
they do. The weather was much, much better. I think only one quick
squall tried to spoil the day.

I was definitely more reserved last night sticking with only three
pints. Note sure about Dodger though. Seeing him gingerly tip-toe into
his room to not disturb Linda was a sight to see. I think he was on
"vision only" for a good while this morning with Linda.

The hotel owner was a happy bunny. I think he made a good few quid on
alcohol as well as the rooms. My run back this morn was pretty
uneventful but I managed to stick to the N-Roads and some D's too (A's
and B's for you lot) with a quick stop off in some village for lunch.
The weather was great and I think for most of the runners, it'll be
okay. Only Scraggy and Bronwz are heading into the rain, as far as I
can see.

Great trip. Thanks to Col for helping out with the DFV'ing. Two bits of
good news on the financials. Mark Roberts and SWMBO had been stuck in
the hotel next door for Friday night due to an overbooking. The hotel
owner was nice enough to give them a partial reimbursment for the
inconvenience. Kevin W and SWMBO had to drop out at the last minute.
The hotel owner was nice enough to give them a full refund. I'll get
this sorted either via Col or with Kevin directly (watch out for an
email). Piece of piss to organise and everyone coughed up when they
should have done. I'm pretty sure I'm not out of pocket this time. Ah,
um. Let's wait for the next post.

 

By my reckoning that makes you second home. Did you get lost?

 

Higgins wibbled forthrightly:

Nah, just took the nationals and had lunch en-route.

 

We probably made it 'home' before most.

Somehow we missed nearly all of it. Just a light shower here and there.

We headed off to Giveny, Google reckons we did about 280Km, it felt
further than that, it did use about 35 Euros worth of petrol, but we
weren't hanging about. Some great roads in and out of Rouen.

Same here, although I got a bit worried for a while as I passed a Police
van with the speedo reading the motorway GLF speed limit in Mph.

+1, and to you too.

 

Blimey, that's something we didn't expect. Thank you (and the owner).

I still haven't finished all the work that forced the last minute
cancellation because I'm still waiting for some of it to be handed
over for completion .

Kevin

 

Pip'll be one of the last, his clutch having given up on the way to
Calais and left him at the mercy of the AA.

 

Given the number of incidents and accidents that always seem to happen,
the phrase "couldn't organize a piss-up in a brewery" comes to mind,
although that particular part of the run never fails to materialize,
IYSWIM.

 

We always manage to organise the piss up part of the trip with the more
dedicated starting on the ferry before the boat even leaves Dover.

 

Andy Bonwick wibbled forthrightly:

So you made it back alright then. Time to change the coils, eh?

 

I'll have them checked but the bloody thing was fine on the way home so
it may have been a dodgy connecter block which the rain made worse.

I need to be certain they're ok (along with the wiring to them) pretty
quickly because I'm planning on using it for the Chimay trip and then
our big trip to Brno & Gedinne.

 

And I'm back, too, as you might have seen. Next job is to replace the
bodged repair on the K's wiring with a decent fix.

 

"Cab" wrote in message news:...

Back home at 7pm, many many thanks to Cab, Colin and Pat for organising a
great weekend

The bike made it with no incidents, no oil leaks whatsoever, sorry to
disappoint
and many thanks to all for making us and our friends Gary and Brian feel as
welcome as ever .

good time was had by all.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Cab

As am I.

Top weekend as always, thanks to Col, Pat and Cab for the DFVing and to
Kevin and Lynda Weller for their (as always) excellent hospitality. Such
a shame that they couldn't make it for the run. Next time.

Pip's little incident was about as good as it could have been, it
expired in an aire, so we at least had coffee and bogs available while
we waited.

I'll leave him to describe the traumas of his ferry trip. ;^)

 

Despite not being able to get a place on an earlier ferry I got back
home in time to have a proper dinner with SWMBO rather than a UK
motorway services meal.

Many thanks to you and Colin for arranging it all.


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+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Aprilia Shiver Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

 

I'll send you a bill for parts (WD40 spray and serviettes) and labour
(pulling a few connectors) to the usual address then.

I told you that you need a nice reliable Italian...

 

Yeah. Like that. I've been in about 30 minutes now, and am completely
crackered.

A big plus one on that.

And waited, and waited. Done a lot of waiting, today. And quite a bit
of pushing of the Bandit.

Elly was most amused - as am I, in hindsight. I'll get down to it
shortly, but I'm having a large whisky now and then a good kipping is
in order.

 

True to form, you and AntE pissed past the van transporting me and the
buggered Bandit as we were oozing North at what appeared to be the
flat-out speed of the shagged-out Renault Trafic of 70kph. You could
probably smell the thing, creaking up the road, shedding straw and
ordure in its wake. A highlight was having to firmly grip the
passenger door when crossing viaducts, as the sidewinds caused it to
flap alarmingly in its frame, and to create new windblasts from
unexpected angles.

Missed boarding the correct ferry by 10 minutes, due to P&O pissing
about getting the van driver a pass-out from the port after having to
explain he wasn't crossing with me, just dropping me at the end of the
hard, ready for The Long Push. A special mention to the UK Border
Agency asking for the registration number of the bike (and running a
check on it, as well as a check on my passport and the van driver's
licence - then asking for the frame number of the bike as we were
importing it to the UK for the first time, apparently.

Amazingly, when I told them to stop fucking about, they did so. The
non-English-speaking van driver was quite impressed with my ability to
"Parlez plus vite". I think he learned some new words.

Life: it's a great, never-ending adventure. The fucker.

 

How's Ms Vass, BTW?

 

heh, all good thanks, she was even "quite liking" the bike by the end of it

 

I was talking about your daughter!

<fx: runs off and hides>