@Wessa: I am convinced that you can do without it on your trip. Your headlight is basically aimed at the area in front of yours and in my opinion it doesn't matter on which side of the road you drive. With double headlights then possibly the other headlight shines. What the heck!
Introduced my Cousin Alistair to his 'Ride' in my shed, He is Holidaying here in WA (Oz) for about Seven weeks and this will be his bike A 1998 Triumph Adventurer (legend/thunderbird) were other models of the similar ilk . There's four in the shed ... Rear America, red 250 ninja Kawasaki, the Adventurer with Ali aboard and fore ground R side a Black Honda Hornet 900 early 2000's model.
Thanks @Markus , my conclusion is I won’t use the deflectors. The hi-viz stickers came this morning and I have fitted them to my helmet.
For the record, many cars also no longer dip left. I know it's not "a man thing" reading instructions but look in your car or bike owners manual (paper copies are getting rare these days) and it will say if any beam adjustments are necessary for foreign travel. Some will advise against any stick on deflectors as heat build up can damage the plastic lens.
I took it to work, then checked fluids and pads, so as to be ready for my upcoming trip to Spain. All good.
Tales will appear as I go - as for routes, the outward journey will take me two days. The first day I will ride as long as I can, all motorways, probably taking me past Poitiers. The second day hopefully a little bit more relaxed, some nicer roads. The last bit should be fun crossing the Pyrenees over the Puerto de Somport rather than a boring 8,5 kilometre tunnel.
So today was a bit of a drive...... as I went to round up a new member of the household and took it for a "ride" through the Brecon Beacons
This is just down from The Storey Arms and certainly made a nice ride round although with typical fickle Wales weather, blue skies dry roads one minute, monsoon with rivers across the road next.
The little tow car (Skoda Fabia 1.2 tsi petrol) did great towing the bike back and averaging 48 mpg. Certainly a day out for it and yes the dash is in miles.....
Took a run up to Balmoral today, there was park and ride available from Braemar & Ballater as you weren't allowed to park in the car park or on the road, but as i was on my bike i found somewhere to park up and walk to the gates
Nailsea International Bike Show for @Helmut Visor and I today; about a 150 mile round trip and we had a good ride in very cooperative weather! Lots of bikes there, nice atmosphere and decent food so a good day out was had!! This one isn't my thing, but was probably the stand - out in terms of work put in which I can very much appreciate!
Trial run with my mate to see how his back held up. Headed up the coast to Bootle for a brew in The Byre Cafe but it was shut due to holidays so went over Birker Fell which is beautiful whatever the weather
Today @Helmut Visor and I went to Bridgnorth (about 110 mile round trip) for the Italian AutoMoto Club Festival - lovely atmosphere but extremely crowded to the point you could hardly move. Loads of beautiful cars there and some bikes too. I’ll add photos when the Club put some on their Facebook page so I can nick them as we were very lazy (again) in terms of getting any . Helmut of course rode his Tuono, given the theme!
Group ride, I heard about a dirt road that recently have been paved in an interesting area, while I initially thought it was going to be only a couple of us, we had a pretty good group, here we are parked at the little town where we had breakfast, and then the view of a hydroelectric dam from a lookout at the new road
Rode out to Llano, TX with a group for some barbecue at Cooper's. We had a Tiger 1200 Rally Explorer, two 1200 Rally Pros, a Street Twin, and a Harley PanAmerica along for the ride. It was a good group; all skilled riders, and all good at group riding. The route we took is one of my favorites between where I live and Llano, passing through Marble Falls and Inks Lake State Park on the way there, and then Bertram, Oatmeal and Liberty Hill on the return leg. Lots of fun twists and turns along this route, with some good views (especially in the state park portion). Cooper's is worth the ride for lunch All told, the route was 158 miles, and a little over 3 hours for the round trip, according to my recreation in Google Maps... Disclosure: I snagged a couple of these images from google maps for illustration purposes, since we were busy riding through, and didn't stop for pictures.
Looks like a great ride with some fab views, and that what it's all about. However, I'm not so sure about the meal you ended up with at Cooper's. Dare I say it, but it looks pretty unappetising. I can't even identify some of the things on that plate, which look like they've already been through someone
Fair enough That's a smoked pork chop, a jalapeño and cheese sausage link, a stuffed twice-baked potato, grilled corn on the cob and mac'n'cheese. With bread and a couple of chili peppers for sandwich-making, and various bbq sauces. You might not like the looks of it, but it was *delicious*.
