My ST1300 Shadowfax evolved my riding from Dilbert and Arod took the reigns in Ireland. Now our GoldWing, Sherbert enters the stable. This is our blog.
I'm Snow Virgin
White Out
Snow Virgin Snow More.
Look. It had snowed around Farnham and Frimley. I have ridden in times of snow (evidenced in the photo - look closely).
To recap, we'd been awake and travelling to Offenburg, Germany since 2:30 am. Bikemoto's offer of a free coffee felt overwhelmingly generous while we waited for Sherbert's paperwork to be readied. There was a hire agreement to cover our ride back to Ireland, the ownership documentation, Certificate of Compliance, manuals, sales agreements, and more. It all took time. All the time I was taking stock of the enormity of the day and second-guessing the plan. Self doubt I'd not ridden for nearly 5 years since fixing Arod's speedometer sensor and finding his fork seals were leaking. COVID 19 and working from home were little motivation to set things right. Now I am about to ride a new-to-me model of bike I've not ridden before. Sherbert is heavier than an ST1300, a weightier insurance liability, and has a dual clutch transmission (DCT). He's extra expensive to buy and more-so to fix. I'm riding on the right side of the road in Europe and with my wife rid
Head Trauma The LHS winder for the screen is jammed. I’ve had the screen at a medium-high stetting for the cold and rain but this really gives some buffeting in some conditions – especially at speed on the M-ways. It was so bad on the way to Stoke I had to stop and hand-force the screen all the way down for some relief. It needs either another overhaul (gave it a good oiling when symptoms first appeared) or replacement, which is just so expensive. Even a knackered one from a ‘brakers seems to command an inflated £100+ tag. Daft greedy b’stards. Anyway – the jobs waiting for a quieter moment. Too much going on to rip the plastics off Shadowfax just now. We both have a job to do.
Offenburg is a couple of hours south of Frankfurt. Initial plans were to fly to Frankfurt, catch a train to Offenburg, and then a taxi to the bike shop. Unfortunately, RyanAir fly to Frankfurt Hahn airport and don't hint at the fact Hahn is two hours west of Frankfurt. We discovered that gem after booking the flights. No plan survives first contact, right? So we adapted and hired a car to drive the 3 hours to Offenburg. Adapt or fail We learned that RyanAir will only allow helmets on spare seats–one helmet per seat by the read of it. Otherwise your life-saving equipment needs to go in the hold to be crushed, battered, and invisibly compromised by damage. Our new Shuberth C5s had arrived only a couple of days ahead of the flight in two smart boxes within a single purpose sized box. Mrs G called RyanAir and confirmed a 'suitcase' can be a box and what the maximum dimensions can be. The box fitted the bill. Into Hahn Typically, the Friday flight out was at around 6am and w
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