SV-Wolf's Bike Blog

[sv-wolf]

Naked bike wash.

Be careful, Sev! I'm very susceptible to suggestions.

I wonder if I have any female friends who might be willing. The money is for a good cause, after all. I know one or two women who have the potential to raise a bit ( Shall I rephrase that?)

[Sev]

Naked bike wash.

Be careful, Sev! I'm very susceptible to suggestions.

I wonder if I have any female friends who might be willing. The money is for a good cause, after all. I know one or two women who have the potential to raise a bit ( Shall I rephrase that?)

I love double euphanisms, that's awsome.

Seriously though, I hope you get the chance to go.

[zarakand]

But talking of expense, last Tuesday I saw this dead sexy Arai helmet (£400.00 no less - ouch) in the Hein Gericke shop in Luton. It is the best looking helmet I've ever seen: glittery silver stars on grey background. I'm smitten. But it's way out of my price range (I think). And there is no rational way I can justify it, having just bought a nice HJC job. On the other hand, over on the 'sportbikes' site, I've just read an article that says some HJC models (I think, including mine - I need to check) have been criticised for being unsafe.

I think you're in love with helmets...but really unsafe, tsk tsk, this calls for double protection! Buy theArai and the half face you saw as well. Can't be too safe.

[sv-wolf]

I think you're in love with helmets...but really unsafe, tsk tsk, this calls for double protection! Buy theArai and the half face you saw as well. Can't be too safe.

C'mon zarakand, you have to allow a man his little interests, huh!

But bugger me! I'm baffled! How it happened, I don't know, but the baffle fell out of one of my cans recently. At first I thought it had fallen out, somewhere on the road, never to be seen again. Then someone with better eyes than me looked into the can and saw it sitting deep inside.

The engine's been running rich and the insides of the cans are heavily coated with carbon. Looking into them is like looking into a black hole. I've got the baffle out now: the retaining rivet had sheered right off.

So do I put the baffle back? - I guess, this is the sociable thing to do.

Or do I take the other one out? - this is the noisy option (but, hell! what a noise?)

So many decisions, so little time.

This all probably means that I will need to get the fuel injection remapped again. Sigh! Oh well, the bike is due for a service. (I've been putting it off, because I've been putting everything off recently that I don't have to do.)

Today was a difficult day. It would have been the day Di and I celebrated our 20th anniversary together. It is the day we properly met twenty years ago - one warm summer evening on the swing seat in a friend's back garden (enough information, already!). Well, not the exact day. Neither of us remember that precisely but we both recall that it was the night of the full moon. So every year since we have celebrated the start of our relationship on the night of the full moon in June.

It then took us another sixteen years to decide to get married, but that is another matter.

At two o'clock this afternoon I went to 'Stevenage Day' where the bike club was having a stall. It was a good decision. I slid the bike between two others on the stall and then just settled down in the back of the tent to drift for the rest of the afternoon. Nothing much happened. People came and went. Then, at five o'clock we pulled the tent down and came home. Just what I needed.

Things are changing. I'm moving out of the post-funeral period and into the start-of-the-rest-of-my-life phase. I'm beginning to realise at long last that she has really gone.

[sv-wolf]

Monday 12 June 2006

Well, made my first foray into fundraising today.

I spoke to people at work today in two of the three main housing offices and in the training section, and they are all willing - no, not willing; positively keen - to have a 'small change' box. That will stand next to the time sheets so that they can offload all their low denomination coins into it for the Enduro India. Several got quite excited about the whole idea of me doing the Enduro and came up with some brilliant suggestions for raising money.

Monday nights are bike club nghts. Every Monday the club meets at a different pub in the area. The club committee books the pubs a year in advance and then publishes where we are meeting in the annual club calendar.

We meet on Mondays because that is usually a quiet night for pubs and the landlords are usually welcoming - they like all the extra business. The pubs we book are usually traditional village pubs with lots of great atmosphere. Tonight we met at the Edward VII at Guilden Morden, a village in southern Cambridgeshire.

Yesterday, while I was lounging around in the club tent at Stevenage Day, I had this great idea. I could ask club members to sponsor me to ride to every pub on the calendar over the course of one weekend. I'd take photos of each pub visited. Then we could arrange the photos on a display board. This could then be used to illustrate what a lively, active (boozy) lot we are when we have a stall at a bike show.

I printed up some sponsorship forms and took them up to the Edward VII. As usual I was late. I didn't get there till nearly 10pm. The light was fading and some of the members were already getting back home. Despite all that, it only took half an hour to get pledges of nearly £300. Pretty good, eh! Next, week I will have to try to get there by eight so we can catch the earliy birds before they fly.

Theresa and Gail got enthusiastic about the idea and helped out, using their charms to sweet talk the guys into parting with their money. Theresa is going to ride pillion with me when we actually do the ride round the pubs. I haven't told her that I've only ridden with a pillion four or five times in recent years and am as nervous as hell about it. (Riding is OK but steadying the bike when we come to a stop I find scary with a pillion) Still, Theresa is only little and won't raise the CG of the bike too much.

I was the last to leave the pub. I rode home along the back roads alone, but in a very good mood. I felt very bouyed up by getting out and doing something positive for a change, and getting a positive response from other people. I'm sure I can raise a fair amount of money for this.

Up to the £3,350 the Enduro India people use some of the money raised to pay for necessary expenses (like hiring planes and hotels etc). After £3,350, everything goes to the charities. Di and I were going to go out together before her illness struck, so I'm dedicating this to her, and I want to raise as much as I can.

There were loads of muntjack in the hedgerows this evening. I was probably riding too fast for these lanes - the chances of a rabbit or something running out under the wheel are quite high but I was in such a good mood that I couldn't stop myself just powering along. I was just enjoying the physical freedom after feeling so constrained for so long. My eyes and brain were unusually sharp tonight, not dull has they often have been recently.

BTW there are some pics of the club on its website for anyone who is interested in seeing what we look like: www.stevenagemotorcycleclub.org

[sv-wolf]

Thanks to everyone who has shown interest in my attempt to do the Enduro India next year without killing myself in the process. Thanks also to those who have offered to sponsor me for a few $$ or ££; and to those who suggested I should ask Mike if he would be willing to let me ask for donations on TMW.

I've spoken to Mike and he is happy for me to do it. He also offered to set me up with a user group and another blog which I can dedicate to all things Enduro India and where I can try to relieve some of you of that burden of spare cash you carry around with you. All in a good cause, of course.

Suddenly, it feels like I have very little spare time left.

Cheers

Richard

[zarakand]

I'd be glad to help you out with a few $$ on the condition you post dozens of pictures and regale us with tales of your adventures! Best of luck, I really hope you're able to do it.

[sv-wolf]

I'd be glad to help you out with a few $$ on the condition you post dozens of pictures and regale us with tales of your adventures! Best of luck, I really hope you're able to do it.

Cheers Zarakand. Given that several other TMWers have offered sponsorship, I'm looking into the various ways money can be sent across currency boundaries - to make sure that it doesn't all get eaten up by charges. My Building Society would charge me £6 for converting a single dollar cheque into sterling before paying it into my account! Ouch! I'm sure there are ways around this. I'll keep you posted.

As a visitor to this blot (blot!!!!!??? - Do I mean 'blog?' - I hope I do) you will already know that I am never satisfied using ten words where three hundred will do. I assure you that you will be regaled with many mighty tales of adventure and derring-do in these pages over the next months (and that's only my commute to work!!!)

As for the pics, I am working on that. I am a complete dumdum when it comes to computing. I've managed to work out how to upload pics onto my comptuer, but am not so hot at getting them onto the site. However, help is at hand. I've approached a friend of mine to give me a few tutorials on how to do all kinds of stuff like that. So yes, in due course, you will begin to get pictures galore depicting my nerveracking assault upon the teeming highways of India, and if I get enthusiastic in the meantime, on the run up to the event as well.

Ride safe and have fun.

[dr_bar]

My Building Society would charge me £6 for converting a single dollar cheque into sterling before paying it into my account! Ouch! I'm sure there are ways around this.

I wonder???? Can I write you a cheque in £'s? I know I can write one in US dollars, even though my accounts are in Canadian...

Or even a postal or bank money order...

I'll look into it.

[Loonette]

It's good to hear how well things are going for you right now. I too was wondering how to get some cash flow your way. What about traveler's cheques? Well, let us all know how we can help you - I can't think of many better things on which to spend money.

Cheers,
Loonette