Congratulations & Commiserations

Phil - the man in the Suzuki Jimny a few posts down had his 61st birthday yesterday.

This morning he had an early call from the residential home where his mother has been these last few months - she passed away at 4:15 this morning.

The thoughts of our family are with Phil and Jane and family at this sad time.

1st ride-out of the year

Sunday saw me on the 1st ride-out of the year. 13 riders met up at Donington Services next to J23a of the M1 for a cross country ride south to Stoney Cove at Stoney Stanton. Got a photo of the group thanks to a kindly diver at the end point, shame we didn't get the bikes in. Turn out was very good with 11 Deauvilles, a Triumph Explorer and my TransAlp 700.


A right motley crew - would you buy a 2nd hand car off any of them?

Naked

My Transalp is in for service today at CMC Daybrook, Nottingham. My side of a deal that gives me a perpetual warranty for as long as I own the bike, which also allows me a courtesy bike. So here it is, a 2005 Yamaha Faser 600 that is obviously a shop bike that has seen a hard life despite the low mileage. The engine is a gem, unlike the rest of the package.


A 5800 miler, the engine is its strong point


It is tiny but the clutch is impossibly heavy

I recently bought a glossy motorcycle magazine that proclaimed 2014 to be the 'Year of the naked' (motorcycle). Well, it is generally accepted that this model Faser is one of the best in class and typifies the breed. Well all I can say is truly horrid. First off, while I am only 5' 8" tall weighing 210 pounds and with a 29" leg I dwarf the bike, it is tiny. The seat is more slippery than a glass surface covered in sheet ice and then covered in diesel - open the throttle and you slide off the back, touch the brakes and the wedding tackle makes painful contact with the fuel tank. It is cramped - footpegs are so high that even my stumpy little legs have difficulty tucking up into the crouch position that the footpeg position dictates. The handle bars are so narrow that it makes the front end feel twitchy. The instrumentation appears to be fairly comprehensive although I have yet to find a gear indicator so I am never sure which of the 6 gears I am in, but as it is so lowly geared and the ratios so close together I find that at anything over 40mph I am already in 6th and looking for more, which brings me to the worst feature - the clutch, which is so, so heavy that the 20 mile ride home resulted in a painful wrist.

That ride home highlighted the problem (for me) with naked bikes - the wind blast. I can cruise comfortably on my Transalp at speeds up to 85mph (in Europe, obviously) but this little bike is quite literally a pain at anything above 60mph and combined with the slippery seat means that there is no joy to be had - a motorway bike it is not.

So, if 2014 is going to be the 'year of the naked' then all I can say is that 2015 will see an awful lot of pre-owned naked bikes for sale as disgruntled owners trade them in for something that is more - more user friendly, more comfortable, more useable, more fun.

Availableman.com

After the classic motorbikes we stopped off at Availablecar.com where Phil found this nice little Suzuki Jimny. Not sure about the car but they got Phil priced up right.


Suzuki Jimney with a male for sale



Clean and well maintained, only one previous owner - that's Phil not the Jimny

Classic Motorcycles

Picked up a mate of mine (another Phil) on Sunday afternoon and went for a wander around the Classic Motorcycle Fair and the exhibition centre at the Donington Park race track. Arriving around 2pm we were give free entry and it was obvious that it had been poorly attended and that traders had already left or were packing up to leave.

Anyway, we had a wander around, I took a few photos and here they are, starting with the 2 strokes...


Yamaha RD350 - this one was really neat and on the money



Honda NS400R - not my cup of tea, but clean and tidy



Kawasaki H2 750 triple - import from USA



Kawasaki H2 750 triple - another US import



Suzuki Stinger (I think)



Suzuki 350 Hustler



Another angle on the 350 Suzuki



Suzuki GT750 - neat but not 100% complete



Suzuki GT750 - a favourite of mine back in my youth



Honda CB400/4 F2 - I owned a F1 in blue back in the 1980s



Mine never quite looked this good, back then it was my daily transport



This one did look sweet (in my eyes)



Suzuki MT1800R / VZ1800 - now, if only I could afford a 2nd bike...

What was mind blowing was the prices being asked by traders for basket cases needing full restoration, many of them incomplete and all of them badly corroded and in need of bucket loads of cash to get anywhere near road worthy let alone show standard. Anyway, those were the highlights for Phil and I.

Politics

I don't usually get involved in politics because in the past, on the few occasions when I have the result has most often been an opportunity for paid politicians to set about point scoring with no tangible benefit to the cause I am supporting. As a result I firmly believe Billy Connolly ("The Big Yin") got it 100% right when he said that the extent of person's desire to be a politician should be measured as the reason for them being banned from ever being one... or something to that effect. In my jaundiced eyes politicians, whether local, national or EEC/MEP are only after two things. One - money and lining their own pockets. Two - points and votes, as in points off their opposite number and votes to keep them in a position to achieve point #1.

Now I love filling in on-line surveys when I find them or get invited to complete one. They can be good fun and I love silly or not-so-obvious responses. Anyway, I recently completed a survey about my views on Europe - Should Cameron do.... x, y, z? Being devil's advocate I responded with all the options that would 'make the buggers work'. I selected all the difficult to do answers, all the hard options. In response I got a letter from Ms Emma McClarkin MEP thanking me for 'telling me what you think' which was very nice of her so I looked up images of her on Google. Seems that she must be doing OK as an MEP because she has piled on the pounds a bit since starting out in politics, but still, not a bad looker. Good old Wikipedia tells me she was (at 30) the youngest British MEP so she must have some brains to go with the 'out of a bottle' blonde good looks.

Now it turns out that I wasn't alone in my responses because 83% of the 13,500 respondees agreed Cameron should 'negotiate a fresh settlement with the EU' and 91% agreed he should 'cut the EU budget' - both of which I see as 'hard work' tasks. Oh, and 90% supported action to 'reduce net immigration' (which I understand he can achieve by letting fewer immigrants into Britain or financially supporting us Brits to leave England and move to sunnier/warmer/less stressed climes) while 97% support the work permit rules.

That's all very entertaining but a consequence of participating has been emails from Tory HQ asking me to go onto Twitter, Facebook and all the social media sites and 'like' various statements. Well what can I say to an invite like that? I'll tell you what, not a hope in hell. There's more chance of me swimming to the moon!

Dear Mr Cameron

I recently followed a link to David Cameron's Facebook page. Boy, doesn't he bang on spouting a load of poorly thought-out crap! Every other line refers to 'the working class' and him being 'one of us'. All posh boy's school tosh of course but hey, somebody voted him into power.

Anyway.... I want to take issue with some of his (and Tory party) policies, such as pushing up the retirement age before state pension is paid.

That is so much the wrong thing to do. Let those that want to retire earlier do and provide them with a state pension, but make it dependent upon the number of years they have been in gainful employment paying NI contributions - let's say 40 years. By allowing the 'older workers' to retire the young will have work opportunities. This will reduce payouts to the young jobless on benefits and allowing those that have done their bit to enjoy a more relaxed way of life.

An additional benefit from this policy would be that if the young have jobs then they can start saving for a house. And to encourage this the government should set up a scheme whereby every young worker who does not own a home automatically has money deducted at source to be paid into a government backed saving scheme towards their mortgage deposit. This would leave less money in the pockets of the young to go out on binge drinking sessions every time they get a pay packet.

My starter for 10 Mr Cameron - time you started thinking a bit more 'out of the box' and looking at the bigger picture, because IT IS MASSIVE.

So That was Christmas

How time flies...

One minute we are looking back at events from 2012 and looking forward to Christmas and the new year. The next we've been there and done that and the Christmas / New Year celebrations are a distant memory. So best recap....

Just before Christmas I went down with a virus which meant that unusually for me I took a 'sickie' day, thought it had gone so returned to work. Well I woke up Christmas morning and I'd no voice - bless them, the family said it was the best Christmas present ever. Here we are just past the middle of January and it is still hanging around. That aside, we had a nice quiet (for us) family Christmas / New Year. Mark came home for a few days and did the rounds of his grandparents. The two nanas spent time with us on Christmas day, my mum for dinner, Sue's mum for afternoon tea. We had friends round for a party with silly games one evening and then went to Carole & Guiseppe's for their party in the evening of New Year's day. Other than that it was a quiet and relaxed time spoilt only by the constant wind and rain which curtailed outdoor events.

From my point of view it was one of the best years I've had as far as pressies are concerned as Suzie has bought us a pair of tickets for us to travel to see my sister Christine and her family in the USA. How she managed to keep that quiet I will never know - a complete surprise to me but apparently just about everybody else in the family knew. The boys got me a wheel barrow, shovel and garden fork so that's one excuse for not doing any gardening gone to pot.



In the meantime my little Volvo S40 has had an eventful time with things. First an old boy in the street reversed into it so it got a nice new shiny bumper, then in quick succession it needed 2 new tyres and front wheel bearing (before Christmas) followed by the 2 rear wheel bearing being replaced this week. While tranquillity appears to have been mostly restored I don't think it will be long before the other front wheel needs new bearings. As the car has only done 97,000 miles I don't think that is a shining example of engineering excellence. I shouldn't complain too much, we are fortunate to have 2 cars and my motorbike at a time when the economy isn't so great.

Still, as long as it keeps going... the chap that bought my old VW Passat for his son called by the other day. It has been taken off the road and into a specialist to have a replacement turbo fitted at a cost of £1,500 because the bearing have gone in that unit, so I'm happier paying for a few wheel bearings to be done as they are much cheaper. Son still hasn't paid dad for car but has fitted £2,500 worth of flash 18" wheels and tyres. There must be more money floating around in that family than in this one. Seems he was itching for me to chip in towards the cost of repair but his boy has had it 15 months and is a known car thrasher so my money stays in my pocket.

One year on - RIP

Thursday was the first anniversary of father's death. My younger sister Christine is still taking it bad but she lives in America and was always daddy's little girl. What did surprise me a bit was how well mother took it so I had a chat with her about how she felt and while missing him terribly she is happy that his personal fight with multiple sclerosis is over, that he is no longer in constant pain nor confined 24/7 to a bed in a small room in a nursing home. That was no life for a man who lived out in the open, working the land until he passed his HGV test and got a job driving waste skip lorries for the local council (still keeping his own company most of the time).

So mother and I still celebrate a live lived. Yes, we miss him but his final years were nothing but physical torment for a man who lived to be free and do things his way in his own time. All his working life he worked with his hands, but in the latter years, following medical retirement, he couldn't control them so could do nothing. I know my parents planned retirement as a perpetual road trip, they saved for a motor-home and wanted to just drive where the whim or fancy took them but they never got to do that. As a man who lived so honestly and who would do anything to help anybody, his final years were cruel and painful. Those that knew and loved him will never forget him. RIP Arthur James Cooper 31-08-1932 to 19-12-2012.

Proposed increase in MPs pay is immoral

An 11% increase cannot be justified on any grounds. Local Government workers have had their pay frozen, been made redundant and had to reapply for their own jobs. That is 5 years of seeing their pay eroded while inflation has exceeded the governments own targets and basics like electricity, gas, petrol, diesel and food have seen price rises ahead of inflation.

Apparently the justification is making good losses of perks and benefits - things that were taken away because they weren't justified and MPs were abusing the system in claiming them. So why do IPSA feel that MPs should now be compensated for something they shouldn't be paid, isn't earned and are not due?

IPSA is supposed to be independent in order to stand up to the greed of the MPs and set realistic pay rates, but instead they abuse their position to suck up to the MPs and value their mediocre efforts with £74k p.a. salary (plus expenses and perks) that few others could ever hope to receive. It stinks!

Nelson Mandela dies

While many are acclaimed to be 'great people' with the strength of conviction, power and humility to influence others in reality few people really are worthy of that accolade.

Nelson Mandela is not and was not one of them. He should forever more be remembered as one of those uniquely gifted and influential people of our time. The fact that he survived to 95 years of age is a miracle based on the treatment he received prior to and during his time in prison. What he achieved after his release, and his influence not only in his native South Africa but across the globe will be a long and lasting legacy that all other politicians should strive to follow and emulate.

Nelson Mandela, I salute and will always remember you!

Strong winds

Yesterday was a bit blustery, to put it mildly. Loads of stuff was blowing about and some of it (mostly litter) made it into our back garden, including this trampoline. It normally lives the other side of the fence in the background but at some point in the afternoon the winds lifted in over the fence and deposited it in our garden. Chris (it's owner) couldn't believe it when I went round to tell him simply because it is no light weight.


So Saturday it will be going back so his 2 girls can play on it, but in the meantime it sits where it landed.