Once again I was up early taking “Chet”, my German Shepherd Dog out for a walk before I headed off for the day on the bike. Today was the Bike Safe course that I’d booked onto quite a while since and something that I’d been looking forward to. The course was run by the South Yorkshire Police and was to commence at 8-am sharp from the SY police workshops at Chapletown near Sheffield and was to finish at 5-pm later that day at the operations centre at Catcliffe, Sheffield, the place where the Egg Run started from a couple of [View Full Entry]

---

---

6-am saw me getting out of bed on this Mayday bank holiday and walking the dog. Actually I’d been awake since 5-am because I’d set the alarm wrong and kept hitting the snooze button for an hour. Once back home I had a bit of a snackette just to have something inside me to take me up to my breakfast after the ride through to Scarborough. I wheeled my Honda VFR750 out of the garage, please that I’d sorted the problem with the headlamps the night before. Putting it on the main stand I gave the chain a liberal dose [View Full Entry]

---

---

4-am saw me clocking off at work and heading home eager to get some sleep and join the other members of the Honda Owners Club, Three Shires Branch later that morning for a run out to Mytholmroyd near Hebden Bridge for the Dock Pudding World Championships. We met up at a 24-hour café on the A616 near junction 35A of the M1 at around 10-am, where a few of us had a snack or breakfast or just missed out because of the poor service. We set off around 10:30 for a very steady run over to Mytholmroyd. This is the [View Full Entry]

---

---

South Yorkshire Motorcycle Egg Run in aid of Sheffield children’s Hospital The Egg Run started in 2000 to raise enough money to buy 300 chocolate Easter eggs for Sheffield Children’s Hospital, with the help of South Yorkshire Police Motorcycle section, and a few other motorcycle clubs in the area, this has now grown into an annual event with around 200 motorcycles taking part each year The South Yorkshire Motorcycle Egg Run in aid of Sheffield Children’s Hospital took place with the motorcade of 200 motorcycles departing from the police operation centre, (wait for it) [View Full Entry]

---

---

7-am saw me up and taking the dog out for his walk on this frosty morning, the grass white over and the ground hard but despite that the sky was clear and the sun was rising. Today was to be the first ride out of the year with the Three Shires branch of the Honda Owners Club. Most of the party had camped out over the night at a farm on the B6056 near Eckington, Sheffield, but at this time of year I preferred to be a little warmer so I decided just to join them for the run out on [View Full Entry]

---

---

The ferry arrived in Le Havre on time at 7:30-am French time and soon I was on my way down the ramp out of the ferry and exiting the ferry terminal. I had already programmed the Sat Nav to the French map and set the time zone and my first destination, Honfleur. The road out of the terminal was quiet busy as a set of traffic lights near the terminal kept holding up the queue. After filtering through the traffic and getting a little closer to the front of the queue, I chatted to a couple of the bikers that I’d [View Full Entry]

---

---

As I approached Arromanches les Bains my first sight was the 360-degree cinema which was on top of the hill overlooking Arromanches and gold beach as it was named at the time of the D-Day landings on the 6th June 1944. I'd visited the cinema a few years earlier so I decided not to waste the lovely weather but continue into the town center. I rode down to the car park by the museum and pulled up at the barrier where the attendant said something to me and once again I didn't understand a word until I told him I was [View Full Entry]

---

---

Departing Honfleur, I headed west along the D513 coast road towards my final destination for the day. I followed the coast road passing through Villerville and on to Trouville Sur Mer (on Sea) then Deauville, Villers sur Mer, Houlgate, Cabourg, and finally towards Ouistreham when I recognized a landmark that I’d only seen in films or documentaries. As I approached Ouistreham I recognized the Pegasus Bridge in front of me and the Pegasus bridge memorial with the old bridge was towards my right hand side. I had planned to visit the Pegasus Bridge at sometime during my tour of Normandy [View Full Entry]

---

---

The Saturday finally arrived and I was about to head off down to Portsmouth to catch my ferry to Le Havre. I’d originally planned to take my Honda VFR 750 on the trip but having recently bought a Honda ST 1100 Pan European and rode it back up from Teddington SW London, I had decided to take the Pan because it was an excellent touring bike and did the ride back from London with ease. I’d decided my route down to Portsmouth should avoid the motorways because they are quite boring on a bike so I programmed the Sat Nav to [View Full Entry]

---

---

Going back to planning the South China Seas Trip, I decided to sell my 23-year old Honda VF750 Motorbike to fund some of my spending money for the trip, but first I had to get it through its MOT test. So off I went up to the local bike shop for the test and that’s when it happened. The bike sailed through its test because basically it hadn’t done any mileage since its last test because it wasn’t reliable to take anywhere. Steve, the guy carrying out the test told me about a 11-year old Honda VFR that he had in [View Full Entry]

---

---