What a disastrous weekend, so far.

So. the plan is simple - Blaney comes down with his mate, early ferry,
be with us in the afternoon, then some tuck and booze, pick up 400/4
and ride it bac to blighty, accompanied part way by my good self.

It starts to go wrong before they even get to the channel. Mate's car
is a Ferrari 360, which apparently felt a bit strange to drive but was
put down to carrying the extra weight of a Blaney. Got about fifteen
miles and noticed black smoke pouring out of the air outlets, so
pulled over sharpish. Calls to dealers were unanswered, so finally a
recovery company is called.

'Black smoke, coming out of the rear? That'll be a flat tyre then'
came the answer. WTF? Yes, the right rear had gone, unnoticed until it
had started to disintegrate and smoke. And they hadn't even looked at
it, the thick cunts.

Anyway, it's recovered to a tyre centre, where, this being darkest
essex, the correct tyre size is a doddle to find, it being the wheel
size of choice of many a boy racer, and a pair are found and fitted at
a leisurely pace.

Finally get going again, missing the next ferry as well, so finally
getting into France at about 4 o'clock instead of the expected 1030.

OK, the rest of the trip down is without incident, although it still
takes them 6.5 hourse despite 'silly' speeds being done. So we get to
eat (peppered-steaks , flambéd in cognac, with mushrooms & cream
sauce) around midnight, finally getting to bed somewhere in the
pre-dawn twiligght

So Sunday is a late start - Ben & I fit the new silencer he's brought
over for the Honda and we get going around 2pm. An hour later I'm back
home, having been cut up by some blind moron (who had priority, due to
the 'priorité à droite' rule) causing me to lose it on the gixxer, the
subsequent ~10mph drop breaking the screen (well, my leg did,
actually) scratching the r-h fairing panels and breaking the
indicator. Oh, and the brake pedal and silencer also show signs of
impact.

So the gixxer's still rideable, but looking a bit battered. I've got a
couple of screen-shaped bruises on my leg and damaged pride, but spend
the rest of the afternoon languishing in front of the tv.

Then there's a call from Ben, around 6-ish. Dave, his Ferrari-born
mate, has just left him, trying to make the last ferry crossing, round
about Reims, when The front tyre of the 400 decides it doesn't want to
contain air any more. He can't get the motorway recovery people to
understand him, so I translate for him and eventually he's recovered,
finally ending up in a hotel for the night after about three hours.

This morning he's expecting to be taken to a tyre place where they're
going to fit a new tyre, although I've warned him that somebody's
making a mistake, possibly just in traslation, as they'e talking about
fitting a tubeless tyre, which would be kinda interesting on the
spoked rim... should actually only need a new inner tube, I'd have
though, but we'll see.

Ben's still hoping to be back for family do later today and his flight
back to Qatar tonight. I think he's a bit optimistic about the former,
but I'm hoping he'll be back in time for his flight.

 

As Mondays is early closing day in France, he may be stranded until
Tuesday.

 

On Mon, 30 Aug 2004 11:02:21 +0100,

I warned him about that, but he said the recovery people had found
somewhere to take him at 9 am, so it should be all right.

 

So far so good.

[snip]

oh dear.

Oh bugger - still it's almost in the same nick as the triumph used to be
;-)

All this could only happen to Ben. He somehow has this knack of turning
simple tasks into adventures.

 

Oi, I resemble that remark. It may now be as scuffed, but the finish
elsewhere is still A1. Plus this one _will_ be put right. And a nice
pair of crash mushrooms will soon be addded too :-}

Sadly it seems to have been contagious. Hopefully he's far enough away
for us to be safe now.

 

Except that, as you suggest, I will be surprised if they locate a tube
quickly. Well, we shall see.

 

On Mon, 30 Aug 2004 11:36:43 +0100,

Ben update: He's not answering phone, so I'm guessing he might be
going again - I did ask him to call if he had any more problems, so
I'm hopeful he might be sorted by now.

 

Further update "100 miles from Calais" so he'll be home for his tea
then.

 

I await the: "Bugger, broken down just outside Calais!" posting.

 

On Mon, 30 Aug 2004 12:46:40 +0100,

What, break down on Mr. Honda's finest bike, personally fettled by me?

Oh, I see what you mean...

..
..
..

Actually, it was running on three cylinders for a while just after we
started out - one of the plug leads had been nudged off. He said he
thought it was slower than he expected, but maybe he'd get used to
it...

 

On Mon, 30 Aug 2004 11:22:17 +0100, Paul Corfield

Entertaining though. And he's going back to decent weather so I have
little sympathy.

 

I rock.

 

I don't know what I got, but I got "things" to the tune of 150 Euros.
And those things got me back to Surrey. I'm happy.

 

"Throw money at it."

 

Ahh, they must have decided it needed a new tyre too then. Not
surprising - even if it wasn't damaged by running flat, the old one,
while still blessed with plenty of tread, was, err, very old.

Glad you made it in the end, though.

 

So, what time did you make it back in the end?

 

Got to Leatherhead at 16.30. Quick shower and a hello to all the
family, then Heathrow at 18.45 and take-off at 20.30.

 

Is there anything left of the Royal School for the Blind on Highland
Road?

IIRC a condition of the planning permission for covering the grounds
in housing was that they kept some of the frontage, though most of the
main building was to be knocked down.

I hope they kept the clock tower, one of the many places that were
ruled 'out of bounds' that I ended up in, resulting in another stern
letter from the Reverend Coote to my parents.

 

If my memory serves me right both of you work (to some extent) as Project
Managers *snort*.

I just happen to have 2 Gixxer OEM silencers. One (spare) has a small &
inoffensive surface scratch running from behind the mount point towards the
outlet. Don't know how much the carriage would be. How bad is yours now?

 

It doesn't. I'm more of a systems/application manager (in a
non-managerial sense, IYSWIM). But the best-laid plan and all that.

Hmm, thanks for the offer, I'll think about it. Mine's got a 'dink' on
the fron outer corner - cosmetic only, but possibly worse than yours.
Would the scratch possibly polish out? I'll take a piccie of mine so
you can see how much worse it is than yours. I imagine shipping would
be in the order of 20-30 quid, non-express rates - certainly a damn
site less than a new one. Any idea how much they are anyway?

OTOH I could just go for an after-market end can. Was it you that has
already done so, and were there any performance gains/deficits?