Wages of Fear II: This Time It's Agricultural

I left Thornbury about 12:30 on Saturday, the tractor fully laden with
luggage and offspring, and reached the Black Horse roughlyfour and a half
hours later. This time includes lunch, coffee and fuel stops. I also
paused once or twice to kick the exhaust back into line. The route was M5,
M6, Stafford-Uttoxeter-Ashbourne-Hulland Ward.

The exhaust remained troublesome the rest of the weekend, there was a minor
electrical outage and the saddle gave way sometime this morning, due to the
failure of what seems to be a pre-existing bodge.

Laura's view of the sidecar seems to have evolved somewhat, from general
enthusiasm to considering it the chariot of Satan. She returned home this
afternoon in the relative luxury of Jackie's Puma (ta muchly), clutching her
newly-acquired Xbox - I'm still a bit gobsmacked by that...

On the return journey, the troublesome exhaust header absented itself
completely within about 100 yards of leaving the pub. This was followed by
130 ear-splitting miles. I considered calling for a recovery wagon, but -
noise aside - it was just going very well, so I pressed on. It took an hour
to do the 30 miles to Stafford, and 2:20 to do the remaining 100, including
fuel etc stops. The old heap seemed eager to perform, and at times showed
100 km/hr on the clock - although on the motorway bit, I seem to have been
getting about 25mpg...

At some point, the silencer also escaped, so the offside of the outfit looks
a bit mimimalist...

Thanks to all for a very enjoyable weekend.

 

You, comrade, are a true Hero Of The Revolution. I salute you.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
ZZR1100, Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"

 

And where the **** were you?

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, platypus

Busy. And I've been away far too much recently[0], on both filthy lucre
and TeamUKRM related missions.

The BlingMobile is now[1] sufficiently fettled for France. Gawd bless
you, Petseal. Small areas of garage floor have emerged, blinking, into
the daylight for the first time since 1873. Larger areas are close to
surfacing. Several small trees are now one large pile of logs. I'm
nearly ready for the plasterer who is threatening to descend on me on
Tuesday.

Piss-poor excuses, one and all.

So I will close with my devastating "It was too fucking cold" line.

[0] Remember that "One click of my fingers" line? It was bollocks.
[1] Crosses fingers

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
ZZR1100, Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"

 

You are quite, quite mad. And a little deaf by now, I'd venture.
I told you to put a twist in that fencing wire.

Indeed. What a bunch of ... characters.

 

I think I agree with her, except it's even scarier from the saddle
than the chair.

I think I need therapy after one lap of the car park.
--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CBR1100XXX/KH500A8/TS250C
|_\_____/_| ..74309../..18302.../..3184./.19406
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 YTC#4 PM#5
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 two#11 WG*
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17 IbB#4
'^' RBR Landmarks: 12 Pts: 220 Miles: 914

 

platypus wrote

As long as that? I was quite impressed that you should actually carry a
pair of gloves especially to push the header pipe back home as a part of
your tool kit.

You meet a much better class of nutter at a ukrm do.

 

Salad Dodger wrote

Credit where credit is due, that is the first time in over 20 years that
I have run anywhere.

 

Wallace and Grommit, is all I can say. Although Steve A came a close
second....

 

<proud>

--
| ___ Salad Dodger
|/ \
_/_____\_ GL1500SEV/CBR1100XXX/KH500A8/TS250C
|_\_____/_| ..74309../..18302.../..3184./.19406
(>|_|_|<) TPPFATUICG#7 DIAABTCOD#9 YTC#4 PM#5
|__|_|__| BOTAFOT #70 BOTAFOF #09 two#11 WG*
\ |^| / IbW#0 & KotIbW# BotTOS#6 GP#4
\|^|/ ANORAK#17 IbB#4
'^' RBR Landmarks: 12 Pts: 220 Miles: 914

 

Not just for the header pipes, but any other dirty job as well. They're one
of the most useful items in my toolkit.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, platypus

Along with the wellies?

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
ZZR1100, Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"

 

Didn't bring the wellies. I did bring the footpump, though, which garnered
me a brief semblance of popularity...

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, platypus

"Semblance"? My dear fellow! How could you think such a thing?

Leave the footpump at home for the French trip. You'll find you're
*just* as popular.

Are you bringing that fit burd again, BTW?

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
ZZR1100, Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"

 

platypus says...

You're mad your are...

A truly silly machine and I feel privileged to have ridden it. I still
can't get ride of the urge to invade an eastern European country...

 

On Sun, 10 Apr 2005 22:38:35 GMT, "platypus"

[snip tractor trials and tribulations]

That explains the noise when I overtook you on the M5 - I did wonder
if that was it's normal level of loudness.

AOL.

 

On Sun, 10 Apr 2005 22:38:35 GMT, the infinite monkeys with infinite
typewriters employed by "platypus" <> spewed
forth:

during my truddle to the village..stop.. we have to turn back now it's
broken again.

no problem. I think Laura might be kicking Sarah's bad foot in the
middle of the night, just to ensure she can't come to France.

BTW you found your passport now? bit ironic if Sarah and Laura are
willing to go, but have no transport....

indeed.

 

I had problems with me outfit twice. First time I was about 6 hours out of
Melbourne. I'd been to a bike rally. Entered into the Sidecar race. Got my
arse kicked. Next morning I packed up tent and toodled off with girlfriend
in chair. The steering seemed to be a bit dodgy. I pulled into a servo to
have a look and the left tube of the leading link had started to split just
above the lower triple clamp. Luckily it was hollow. The owner of the servo
went through his junk and found some hollow tube So I jammed it down inside
which fit perfectly. Mind you we were in the middle of nowhere. So then we
toodled of again and all was well. We rode for about an hour and a half when
the steering went nuts. I was doin' about 90kph and I struggled to keep it
in a straight line. I was veering off to the left. I held it and managed to
stop. The left tube had given way. The inner tube had held on. My girlfriend
had lost all bowel control. We were about 45 minutes from her parents farm.
One of the boys took her down there to get her old man and his trailer. We
took a bus back to Melbourne. The next weekend I took my original forks up
there by bus and put them on. I thought carrying forks around was hard work.
Fighting with original forks on an outfit for about 4 hours was worse. I
didn't even have the strength to have one off the wrist when I got home. I
learnt one valuable lesson. Don't get a so called mate to build ya a leading
link. I also discovered that constant lifting of the chair and slamming it
down with someone in it is really not good for the bike frame. That was the
other problem. Cracked the frame in 3 places. I don't have the chair or bike
anymore. I'm hoping to get an XJR1300 and put a chair on it as soon as the
waranty runs out. Miss me outfit I do.

 

I think he was just trying to avoid being ploughed by SD.