Nearly time to go.

Its now only 11 hours until I have to be down at the ferry terminal to check in for the 7am sailing to Heysham and the start of the trip.

Check in closes at 0415hrs - what an ungodly hour but I suppose with the TT races coming to an end I suppose there will be tons of bikes to load.

Racing was cancelled yesterday due to heavy rain around lunchtime, partway through race 1 of the day, and the programme was put off till today, that did not help us one bit as we had tickets for the Day of Champions which had to be cancelled.

In view of this, myself and Chris, went down the grandstand where Chris was desperate to get Guy Martins autograph and also to get her crash helmet signed by the great Mick Doohan, who was over on the island for a couple of days.

Managed to get the helmet signed straight after the start of the race, so that was a result, the only problem now is that Chris will have to "retire" the helmet and treat herself to a new one. Suppose that will be the thick end of £400.00.

Chris also managed to get Guys autograph just after the podium and before the press conference, although Guy was not a happy bunny following a spurious red flag that cost him time in the race, I don't think it affected the overall result and he must be pleased with another podium.....a win must be on the cards for him.

After the grandstand it was back home to make final arrangements for the trip, getting the packing done and check over the bike.

Jed is on a high and can't wait for the morning, he insisted on having his photo took on the bike again. He also wants everyone to know that he has a special flag that he has bought to put at the Joey Dunlop memorial at Tallinn where Joey lost his life. We will actually be in Tallinn a few days before the anniversary of the sad event, long may he live on in our memories.

Suppose the next entry will be made when I have sailed away from this sunny isle.

Thanks to Chris for the surprise gift of some money, Stirling and Euro's, and also thanks to Hils for her gift as well, they are all appreciated.

Thanks also to Chris, my parents, my in-laws and my daughters for the birthday prezzies, sorry I have opened them early!

That's it folks, thanks for reading.

Baby is sorted

Well, my beautiful blackbird is back home after her nose job, and she looks fantastic!! Took her to Azzy paints in Douglas and he was able to plastic weld the split in the fairing, and re-sprayed the complete nosecone. He has done a fantastic job and I cannot see where the damage was at all, she looks as good as new. I promise that I will be more careful in future. Blackie gets taxed tomorrow as the Isle of Man Gov have reduced the tax on large bikes from £96.00 a year lastyear, down to a more reasonable £60.00. for this year. This change followed a public outcry, it ended up costing more to tax a bike than it did for a similar engine size car....no sense at all. My tax ran out in November and I did not renew it as I was not using the bike due to my arm injury, and also because of the horrible weather over the winter months. Hopefully the weather will start improving now that April is on the doorstep, and I can get out on the bike a bit and put a few miles on her clock. Chris and I are off to Northern Ireland in May for the Northwest 200 road races, and on our return I will have a pair of new tyres fitted for my trip in June.......the clock is certainly ticking folks....not long to go.

My baby feels the pain!

Well, last week I was told that the bloke I was going to see in Norfolk, in order to sort out the loom of my blackbird, has packed in doing servicing etc to concentrate on his business selling bike spares. So, to a degree, I was in a bit of a fix, as I really need the wiring loom sorting as failing to do so would lead to all sorts of trouble in the future.

In his wisdom, Mr Honda, on building the Blackbird, put a connecting block in part of the loom in order to carry out tests when new, the problem being, that when the bike is completed, this block is not used again so is just taped over. However, the block is just behind the foot peg, so at some point, water will find its way into the block and start a slow process of shorting systems out. At this stage things get VERY expensive. On speaking to John in Norfolk, he told me that the job was easy and just involved cutting off the connector block and soldering the 10 wires that went into it together, and that was it, problem sorted.

Anyhow, to cut a long story short, my soldering is crap, there I've said it. The upshot is that Rob spoke to a mate named Brian, who said, "No problem, I'm on my way round to sort it."

At this stage I was about 1 hr from going to work, so, rush into garage to move Blackie from winter hibernation, and strip the rear bodywork off in order to get at the block. BUT, in my haste, I let Blackie hit the door frame - result - a 4" crack in the nose cone. Oh No!!!

Well, Brian duly turned up and within 30 mins the job was done, block off and wires soldered and bike back together. A trip to Norfolk saved and outlay, nothing.

Next day, a trip to the repair and paint shop with Blackie...cost of repair to nosecone...£150.00, gulp!

Blackie going in on Monday for her nose job, hope she can find it in her heart to forgive me.

I promise that I will look after her, and pamper her from now on, she knows I love her to bits.

Whats it going to cost?

Thought I might try to work out the costings (it will also give me a rough idea of how many pennies I need to save) Oh well, here goes, (I am prepared to start worrying)

Ferries.......Isle of Man to Heysham and return from Liverpool...£207.00

Hull to Rotterdam and return from Zeebrugge....£306.90 (however that includes evening meal, breakfast and a cabin)

Stockholm to Tallinn....£165.00 (also includes meals and a cabin)

Expect to cover 3500 miles, so roughly 100 gals of fuel, at approx £5.00 per gallon.....£500.00.

I intend to spend 21 nights camping, prices appear to be about £10.00 per night, so £210.00.

The remaining 10 nights will be (cheap hotels) at about £30.00 per night, so a further £300.00.

So, a grand total of £1689.00, plus food and entertainment. So all in all not too bad, even better when you consider that I have already paid the ferry fares.........not as bad as I first thought then.

I suppose really that I should also factor in a pair of tyres that I will need to fit before the trip. (I can put the old tyres back on when I return as they are OK but would not cover 3500 miles.)

I should also include a trip I need to make to Norfolk in order to rectify an inherent fault with the wiring loom on the Blackbird.

I may also treat myself to yet another tent, even though the 3 berth tent I used in France last year is still good to go. (see above picture) We will see.