My new (2 previous owners!) Varadero

Well the insurance paid out, the Pan is gone and I have plumped for a Honda Varadero

Here it is (photo courtesy of the previous owner)

A 960cc V-Twin. Lighter than the Pan and feels a lot more "agile", certainly great fun to ride and I am enjoying it immnensly. Slightly less stable and secure feeling at motorway speeds and a bit more wind noise and buffeting (but then I haven't got round to looking at the plethora of after market add-ons yet!)

Trashed on the M6

I was out with the Hell's Grandads yesterday coming back from The Lakes - just south of the M55 junction, I was leading doing a steady 70 in the outside lane, in busy traffic.

Up ahead a classic M6 shunt - van & car collided & stopped in the fast lane, I pulled up pretty sharp as did Mick who was just behind me and we both stopped in the now stationary queue - just about got my feet down - looked round & a guy on a CBR was flying down the outside lane obviously no way could he stop. He tried to avoid me but clipped the back & near side - knocked me very hard & I fell off and the impact took off the exhaust, rear peg, pannier and I think has bent the frame as looking at it from the rear, the seat was definitely at an odd angle.

The others in our group were about 1/2 a mile behind & later said that they'd seen this guy in a group of 4 pass them and all hurtling towards the slowing traffic without apparently slowing down!

The guy had his girlfriend on the back & I think she broke her leg - as their right legs hit the left side of my bike - anyway ambulance & police called & the two of them got taken off in the ambulance.
The police were excellent - sorted the whole thing out - and probably fortunately stopped my trying to ride the bike home - as it did start up (amazing just how noisy a Pan is with only one exhaust) - so they arranged for it to be recovered - I went home on the back of Mick's bike and I'm glad to say lived to ride another day! I'm guessing that they'll write it off, especially if the frame is bent, but will have to wait & see. So all in all it rather spoiled what had been a good day out!

The rear view - looks like the frame may be a tad out of line! note the lack of nearside pannier & exhaust


note lack of silencer & rear peg

Sunny Sunday In The Peak District

9:30 am, the sun is shining so having met up at the PC World car park in Bolton we decided on heading towards Buxton, then over to Carsington Water.

Graham is back on two wheels again riding his newly acquired Gold Wing, the sounds of Radio 2 wafting from it rather spoil the Hell's Angels image!

Breakfast was planned for the Grouse & Claret Inn at Rowsley, but due to traffic and us being pulled by the police at Doveholes - "inspecting tax & tyres sir" we were 10 minutes late so we had to stop for lunch instead.

Now I'm all in favour of our brave boys in blue catching criminals, but the copper who stopped us was ONLY stopping bikers - don't car drivers evade tax & have dodgy tyres too? Anyway we were all judged fine upstanding citizens and allowed to continue our lawful passage along the queen's highway.

Through Matlock & Matlock Bath then parked up at Carsington Water where fun abounds and ice cream is served very slowly.









Some visitors - two wheeled and two winged!

Then off towards Leek and Rudyard Lake. I got the satnav to take us the pretty route and apart from wanting us to go through a ford that looked rather too wide & deep for my liking, it did take us down a series of country lanes before putting us on the A roads.

One photo opportunity arose so here it is:

Over the Border & Into Yorkshire!

A fine (but cold) Sunday morning saw Hell's Grandads meeting near Darwen at the ludicrously early time of 8:30 and setting off for the full English at our favourite cafe/garage on the A59 between Skipton and Bolton Abbey.

From there on through Kettlewell, Buckden & Aysgarth to Hawes where we parked up the Pans amongst the amazing variety of bikes that congregate there every Sunday.

The hardy ones managed an ice-cream then we set off towards Ingleton along one of THE biking roads of Great Britain.

At Ingleton the decision was to head for Caton where there is another biker's stop complete with snack bar doing hot drinks and buttered Chorley Cakes! However the party managed to get split up with the leader (me!) slavishly following the GPS and being lead down the 'B' roads whilst the rest stayed on the main road following their own route!

No harm done and we all met up again at the Caton snack bar for a great photo-opportunity!

Hell's Grandads Ride Out

Finally the rain stopped so the first group outing of the year - amazing that it's got to May before a planned rideout.

But a new member (Eric) and a new bike in the group a Honda Pacific Coast (known to the dutch as "The Baby Pan" - on the Pan Austria Rally last year I met a couple of Pacific Coast riders from Holland).

The route was from Bolton up to the Knott End Cafe for breakfast (with Malc JUST managing to avoid the lemon meringue pie), then on to Glasson Dock and a stop at the Port of Lancaster Smokehouse to buy kippers (IMHO they have the best kippers in the world - certainly the best that I've ever tasted).

From there on through Lancaster then cross country towards High Bentham and gradually circling back towards home. A stop at Bolton by Bowland gave one more photo opprtunity:

Motorcycle Tyres - Recommendation - use B&C

Completely unsolicited testimonial

Had a new front tyre put on the Pan today - decided to go with a straight replacement of the original which was a Bridgestone Excedra. Booked it in with B&C Performance Tyres of Farnworth, Bolton (01204 577 333).

They could not have been more helpful - the axle on the front wheel was all but seized but the guy doing it persevered and got the wheel out, fitted the new tyre then sorted out the corrosion on the spindle and a few of the retaining bolts - all well above what he really had to do - fantastic service, friendly and very professional - I have no hesitation in recommending this place.

First MotorBike Outing of 2008

Saturday saw warm (well relatively warm) sunny weather so got my motorcycle out of the garage. The battery charger (Optimate III from Shadofax engineering) had done its job perfectly and the bike started with no problem. Checked out the tyre pressures (foot pump needed to top up both, 42 in the front and 44 in the rear), oil, water, break and clutch fluids - all OK so set off to Bamber Bridge.
Chose to avoid the motorway and went towards Belmont and through Abbey Village.
As ever the bike behaved perfectly (why would anyone want anything other than a Honda ? The best Honda of all ? The ST1100a Pan European of course).