Painting Tins

Well with all the bits off to powder now that just leaves the Tins , and I am meeting Image Design Custom on Friday to sort them out.

Here is a pic of what they will get.

Next Road Trip

The countdown has started to the next road trip, when me Iain and Tim fly off to Washington to meet Al, Roger, Paul Brian and Frank on the 3rd June.  We met Al and Roger on our last tour of New England and they are great guys, and are looking forwards to meeting their friends.

Our bikes are all booked with Eaglerider in Washington and our first stop to meet them will be in Front Royal.  From there we are riding the Blue Ridge and Smokey Mountains for 5 days - can't wait.

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Off to Powder Coat

Well the bike is all stripped down now and ready to go to Colour Coatings in Edenbridge for Powdercoating.  Its going to be Pigeon Blue RAL 5014 and will take about 2-3 weeks to get shot blasted and then painted.

These are the bits being coated (plus the frame which i pick up tomorrow).

Cool Bike Site

Just found this one - an outfit based in Copenhagen that makes really nice Cafe Racers called Wrenchmonkees.

I particularly love their Gorilla Bike based upon a Honda 750 superb

Road Trip

Just got back from a great road trip to the 2009 Harley Davidson Euro Rally in St Tropez.  I went down with my friend Steve Butler, who I met on the Route 66 ride last year, and just south of Rheims we hooked up with David Van Kempen, who was also from the Route 66 Tour.

It took two days to get there with an overnight stop in Beaune - i went on the Macbeth Bobber, all laden up, and with its max 60 mile range visited most service stations on the Motorway down.

There must have been about 15,000 bikes down there and the weather was great.  On Saturday we had a ride out with Chelsea and Fulham HOG, in the hills behind St Tropez.  Unfortunately Steve had a crash and broke his hand, which resulted in us shipping the bikes back to the UK.

Nonetheless a top trip and for the detailed blog go to 36FuelStops

Home

Despite my best intentions to get there and back it was not to be, and it was with some regret that we got the taxi along the cast this morning in what looked like glorious riding conditions - still its great to be home.

You can only get to grips with a bike when you really put some miles on it and we actually covered about a 1000 in all, and for a hand built bike with no modern suspension that was some going.  The most surprising thing was how comfortable the bike was, the hard saddle and springs took all the strain from the hardtail drive - the bag tied to the front leaf spring gave it some stability as well.  I only had one small problem which was the barrel that holds the ignition key came loose and I couldn't switch the bike on and off, but despite this i made it down, and on site I met a great guy Paul Lusty who had all the tools (a 9/64ths Allen key) and the time to help me sort it out.

Paul was again able to help me out on the Saturday as he has a business shipping Harley stuff around and had three huge articulated lorries (all HD branded) and was able to ship our bikes back with any hesitation at all.  So with rain predicted for Sunday and Monday (and no front mudguard) it was an easy choice to join Steve on the plane.

Anyway this is the last post  - i hope you enjoyed it, and get ready for the next one which is our tour to Virginia and Tennessee in June - can't wait. 

End of the road

Well steves bike is a mess and he can't ride home.
Following the never leave your wingman rule I have arranged to get
both our bikes shipped back to the UK for next week . This leaves
just time for one last night out and then an early flight back tomorrow.

Some big dogs at steves hotel

Unfortunately Steve fell off on the rideout - he is ok but his bike is
a bit messed up.
Not sure what we will do now but he is safe which is the main thing.

Colombieres

Halfway round one guy fell off but is ok - great ride and fantastic
svenery

Chelsea and Fulham rideout

We are here in Gassin ready for three hours of tight hairpin bends not
sure I am up for this but I will have a go.

Friday night in st tropez

Must be at least 2000 bikes along the harbourside

No win today

Because my bike does not have a Harley engine the only catergory it
could go in was radical and unfortunately it's not that radical!
Still it had huge amounts of attention and loads of photos taken so I
am very pleased. Possibly I should have cleaned it first as 800
miles of bugs and grime do not look good.

Had a late lunch in grimaud and had an entertaining half hour watching
an irate Frenchman trying to get passed some parked harleys in his
clio - it was so funny.

Tonight we are out for some drinks with the guys from C and F HOG in
St Tropez and then back for a quiet night.

Good day all round.

Bikeshow

I have entered the bike in the drive in bike show - radical section

Prime people watching position

The drink is a monaco it's beer lemonade and grenadine
It's disgusting

Drawing a crowd in St Tropez

At the rally

Full of noisy harleys

Is having a well deserved beer

By the pool in a very nice hotel in St tropez

It's bug's life here on the road

Lancon

We are just past Salon at Lancon which is near where I spent a month
on hols last year

Goodbye David

At fuelstop 19 in the cote d'azur at last - we are having some lunch
and it's time for David to go off to Arles and me and Steve head off
to St Tropez - it must be 80 out.

Scorchio

We are 300 I'm south of beaune and the weather is gorgeous a you can
see we are at fuelstop ..... Lost count must be nearly 20

Halfway there

Well we made it to Beaune to the very nice hotel le cep - I was last
here in 2005 and had a nice drinking session with Iain and Andy mostly
drinking Marc de Bourgogne the local brandy.

We met David and he rode with us here and we are going out for dinner
with him his wife and son tonight.

Bike is going well and I have done 8 fuel stops so far!

Fuelstop number 3

And it's all going well

An early start

Here I am at 5:15 am at Tunneidge Wells ready to meet Steve

No getting out of it

Just fully loaded up the bike with a full saddlebag and a big holdall strapped to the front leaf spring suspension - did a quick 10 miles and nothing fell off or grounded out so I guess it will all be OK for the next 1800 or so miles.  

I did a photo shoot for BSH back in January and told the editor I would be riding it to St Tropez, well he kindly published that in the current issue, so I have to take this bike now come what may - despite how easy it would be on the Streetglide, with its CD player, hard luggage, comfy seat and 200 mile range between fill ups.

Back Street Heroes

The Macbeth bike made the cover of BSH this month (June 2009), and with a 9 page spread inside - very positive indeed; although some dodgy quotes he embellished from me - but there you go.  At the end it features the new bikes and lays the ground for future publicity.

Ian's got a brand new bag

Dianne from Chaos Custom has made me a matching bag to go on the trip
with - it will hold all my junk and help with those sharp left hand
bends!