It was about 6:30-am when I got a text from my friend Sue, asking R U awake? I thought "well I am now". This was the day of the 2008 Egg Run in aid of Sheffield Children’s Hospital and Sue was concerned about riding her bike in the snow which had fallen over night and was looking for a ride as pillion, but on this occasion I couldn’t help her because my back seat was promised to Joanne, Lyn’s daughter. I got the VFR out and headed off to meet up with some of our members at our meeting point, the [View Full Entry]

---

---

Well what a name to give to a rideout but it will become apparent as you all read on. We decided to go for a rideout today but there were no plans for a destination when we made our arrangements, there were some suggestions but nothing confirmed, so this morning I got home from work around 5-am and straight to bed to be woken by my alarm at 10-am and climbing into my leathers and additional cold, wet weather gear, I headed off to meet the others at one of our regular meeting points, McDonalds at M1 Junction 30. Arriving at [View Full Entry]

---

---

Sunday the 9th of March saw a few members of our branch meeting up at one of our usual meeting places, Mc Donald’s at Barlbrough. I decided to take my Honda ST1100 Pan European out this day because I’d had a new rear tyre fitted and I just wanted to bed it in a bit ready for the 2008 touring season. When I arrived at the meeting point around 9:45 there was only Keven there waiting, which quite suppressed me because normally I’d expect Paul and Lisa to be there very early, unfortunately they were not to join us on this [View Full Entry]

---

---

I don’t know where to start with this one, because this was one of the best weekends I have ever had in my life… so here it is from the beginning. This was the ‘S no Rally 2008. (That’s no rally) I manage to get Thursday night off work because we were over manned, which gave me all day Friday to get ready for this event. I’d made pervious arrangements to meet up with my mate Paul at the M1 junction 35 and got the bike ready with ample time to spare. So off I set up to my local butchers [View Full Entry]

---

---

With the ‘s no rally coming up in just over a week I suggested a ride out the following Sunday (28th), just to blow the cobwebs off the bikes and to give new members the opportunity for a ride out with the club. Someone suggested the Sand racing at Mablethorpe as a destination and with me as the leader. Sunday arrived and I headed off to Mc Donald’s just off the M1 at junction 30, a regular meeting point for ride outs, having walked the dog beforehand. I was the second to arrive and I knew some of the regular riders [View Full Entry]

---

---

Austria 2007 The Austria part of my trip started with me leaving my Rhineland digs and travelling down the banks of the River Mosel stopping at several places to take in the sights before cutting over land to Saarbrucken where I met up with Graeme and the rest of the group and spent the night before we all made the rest of the journey to Landeck, Tyrol in Austria. Over the previous 9-months I’d met everyone in the group with the exception of Paul, so I knew I was with a good set of riders. That evening we went out as [View Full Entry]

---

---

This morning saw me up very early and getting a shower then my breakfast. As this was a budget hotel, then a budget breakfast was served. I really didn’t want too large a breakfast though because I always seem to feel uncomfortable on the bike if I’ve eaten a lot before hand. My route today was to take me out of France, through a bit of Belgium, Luxembourg and into Germany to a small village called Ruppertshofen where I was to stay at a B&B dedicated to bikers for 4 nights. After breakfast I took a look outside, it was damp [View Full Entry]

---

---

Well after a couple of days fighting either cold or flu symptoms I finally managed to get on my way down to the ferry at Portsmouth to make the crossing to Le Havre and the start of my holiday to France, Germany and Austria. I took my usual route down to Portsmouth avoiding any motorways and allowing more time for stop, the run was quite pleasant and uneventful although it was damp conditions but with only occasional bits with heavy spray. I arrived at Portsmouth with 1 ½ hours to spare which gave me time to chill out and have a [View Full Entry]

---

---

Having just renewed my Honda Owners Club (HOC) membership after my first year as a member of the HOC, I decided to go along to the HOC National Rally at Filey, North Yorkshire, on the Friday evening then on the Saturday’s ride out over the North Yorkshire moors. There was just one slight problem with the Saturday ride out for me, I had to go to work Saturday night. Fortunately my job on Saturday evening was shunting trailers in the distribution depot yard and not driving on the road. I’d worked Thursday night into Friday morning so after a good day’s [View Full Entry]

---

---

What a good weekend I’ve just had up there in Orkney, I’ve got friends up there that I dive with, one’s a guy that first took me to Orkney in 1999 to dive on the wrecks of the German high seas fleet that was scuttled on 21st June 1919, and he’s now got a B&B up there and would welcome bikers. I went up for 2 reasons, a) I’ve always wanted to take the bike up there, b) I’ve got a dive trip planned for August and the dive operator, which is a partnership has split up, so I needed to [View Full Entry]

---

---