Yesterday was my birthday, 49 btw, So now just a year away from "the trip". I spent the day painting the rendered outside walls on my house, and woke up this morning to see just how patchy they now look. Worse than when I started - gutted!
However, spending all day doing that mind numbing task gave me plenty of time to think about things, and enevitably my thoughts turned next year's trip. In the end, I started to rethink the whole thing quite radically. Now, I'm not sure if my new thoughts have legs, or will come to anything, so I'm going to take some more time to mull them over before I post them here. If they do stand up to scrutiny, then expect some big changes to my plans......watch this space.
Thursday 15 April 2010
Tuesday 6 April 2010
Spring has sprung......
..... the grass is ris; I should really be getting the bike out now.
Yes, it looks like the last of the salt has been washed from the roads (let's hope no more cold snaps), so I figured it's safe to get the bike out of hibernation.
It was booked in for its MOT today (For anyone not in the UK, the MOT is an annual safety check-up that all motor vehicles more than 3 years old must have to be legally usable on the road), so it came out of the garage yesterday for a good clean and check over. Thanks to the Optimate trickle charger that it's been plugged in to all winter, it started up first time. A quick polish and clean up and it was looking good and ready for the test. An oil change/service will be done once it's passed.
I was excited this morning as I donned my gear for the first time this year, jumped on board, and roared off to Armstrong Engineering, where it was booked in. An hour later I was happliy holding the MOT Certificate which proves that it's good to ride for another year! I did notice that the rear tyre is getting down a bit, so will need to be replaced in the next few hundred miles. Next stop the Post Office for a tax disc, and I'm back on the road and leagal again!
Trouble is, doing all this has made me wonder about I'm doing the right thing in renting a bike for the trip? It would be so much more of an adventure taking my own bike. Will have to watch the £/$ exchange rate and see if it becomes a viable option
Yes, it looks like the last of the salt has been washed from the roads (let's hope no more cold snaps), so I figured it's safe to get the bike out of hibernation.
It was booked in for its MOT today (For anyone not in the UK, the MOT is an annual safety check-up that all motor vehicles more than 3 years old must have to be legally usable on the road), so it came out of the garage yesterday for a good clean and check over. Thanks to the Optimate trickle charger that it's been plugged in to all winter, it started up first time. A quick polish and clean up and it was looking good and ready for the test. An oil change/service will be done once it's passed.
I was excited this morning as I donned my gear for the first time this year, jumped on board, and roared off to Armstrong Engineering, where it was booked in. An hour later I was happliy holding the MOT Certificate which proves that it's good to ride for another year! I did notice that the rear tyre is getting down a bit, so will need to be replaced in the next few hundred miles. Next stop the Post Office for a tax disc, and I'm back on the road and leagal again!
Trouble is, doing all this has made me wonder about I'm doing the right thing in renting a bike for the trip? It would be so much more of an adventure taking my own bike. Will have to watch the £/$ exchange rate and see if it becomes a viable option
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