The bike

Skip this bit if you really don’t want to hear about metal things.

The R1100RS is now 21 years old, bought on eBay in 2004. Recently I have done a few restoring tasks on her.
Cam chain tensioner upgrade
New starter motor, Nippon Denso not Valeo (which are unreliable)
Replaced Hall effect sensor when it failed
Battery, Odyssey
High performance plugs
New plug leads
Cleaned injectors,throttle bodies, new o rings
New Metzlers back and front
Rear brake lines and rubber to reservoir
New discs back and front
Throttle bodies balanced
Internal fuel lines and overflow reservoir cleaned in tank, tank cleaned of all the grot inside
Etc

So I am eating a goats cheese and date salad by a canal and my elbows ache.… More...

Emotionally rather than logically

I take the nearest campsite in Amsterdam shower, change and make way for my last evening in the city. Two days have passed, through Denmark and Germany. Side roads and cross fields of ripening corn, the weather smiles on me and I gather it’s 30 – 36 degrees London.… More...

The tall fat bassist

from the band Sleepytown, wearing the silly American red trucker hat, handlebar moustache and huge square glasses followed me out along the stony potholed path, onto the main road.

I paused to look at my sat nav as he overtook me in his dumpy high roofed van, beige in colour.… More...

Like processed frozen orange concentrate

Buried with the paper under a couple of heavy stones. Yes orange, orange deep. I was in full view of passing cars on heir way north and south. They didn’t notice me or care. Pack up and on back to Dals Langred to see my nephew Sandy, no rush, we arranged to meet at five o’clock.… More...

25th June

Birdsong starts at 02:00, cuckoos at 06:00. Yesterday 400 miles mostly on the 365 to Dorotea, then the weather improves, past the pretty town Sveg and on towards Mora. But it was warm, sunny even; I had not seen this for days.… More...

Sitting in a cold sauna

overlooking a flat calm lake. Two men in a small rowing boat going through the motions of fishing, although they don’t seem very interested in what they are doing. It is four o’clock and I have pulled over to find this almost deserted campsite with a very erratic WiFi connection.… More...

Fly Fisher folk

I like Finland

and the Finnish, so human, not Germanic like the Swedes. It’s dull but friendly. Warmer summers too. Does this affect the national character? I know the English to be untrustworthy, like the weather. The French deceitful, because they keep their best wine.… More...

A day of two halves

Set off smartest at 8:45 and journeyed through hell and heaven, the cold dripping dark deep tunnels that transport you three and four miles down down down then out again into sunshine, the sea… Heavenly mountains and spectacular views, really glorious in the warm sunshine.… More...

Passing six roller bladers

Passing six roller bladers with ski sticks pumping their way along the gloomy two mile long tunnel, no lights, take their lives in their hands. Practice for winter.

Plump fox crosses the single lane road further on. Not the scrawny London foxes but more like a toy fox with fat furry arms, I hoot at him, he looks back, almost smiling at me.… More...