from Rotterdam

Arrived in Rotterdam at 0900hrs and got off boat to drizzle, typical. Pulled up next to all the other bikes to don my waterproof jacket and start the GPS. All set and start off.

Stop again after 100yds.....forgot to fasten crash helmet, dork, gloves off, helmet fastened and gloves back on, off I go again

After 200yds, stop again, try to change instruction on GPS from statute to metric....fail, forgot how to do it, oh well, off again. 1/2 a mile this time, stop again, gloves off and fasten waterproof jkt at the neck to stop it flapping, what is up with me, can hear Jed tutting! At least this time I manage to sort the GPS, now reading metric, at last something is right,

Off I go and this time keep going. Believe it or not after 65 miles bum starts to ache a bit and I have to stop after 80 miles..needed fuel anyhow.I do have a plan B however. Over the winter I purchased a Airhawk seat, which is an inflatable segmented seat cover as used by Charlie Boorman, I have never used it so decide to give it a try......what a difference, rode the next 105 miles with no problems at all, then after a 5 minute break for a can of red bull, I rode a further 110 miles, brilliant, what a revelation.

Have come off autobaun, after finding the bike is rock steady at 145mph even with luggage, and I could still hear the music from my ipod through the Autocom, I feel this trip is going to work.

Anyhow, walked into a hotel in a small village and asked if anywhere had Wi-Fi and they said no problem, showed me into a back room and gave me a passwork, she even, the staff even offered a drink, bringing back a pot of tea and some biscuits, what could be better.

Just need to find a campsite for tonight now, will ask at reception, they may even do me a deal on a room for the night.

Today was always going to be a slog up the auto baun but tomorrow I should be through Germany and across Denmark and into Sweden, and off the Motorways, hurrah.

As you can see Jed is not a night owl...would rather go to bed with a nice cup of tea, such a toughie.

Day 1

Well I managed to get up at the silly hour of 3am and got the bike all loaded. Afraid Jed was fast asleep and missed the fun getting on the boat.
Myself and Rob met up at the sea terminal at 4am and were one of the first bikes at the front of the queue. After waiting in the cold for nearly an hour the signal was given for bikes to go onto the loading slip, well that was like the start flag at Le Mans. I have never seen anything like it as about 250 bikes all started and tried to outdo each other to be first on, it was crazy.
Myself and Rob actually managed to be one of the first 20 on so managed to bag the seats that we had reserved and get a nice early cup of tea.
I have never seen so many bikes on the boat deck, it was just bikes with 1 lone cravannette!
Anyhow, after waiting till 7am we were finally off, arriving in Heysham at 9am so not too bad.
I gave Rob my best wishes on the car deck and left the boat and although I kept an eye on my mirrors I did not see him before I reached the point where our routes diverged.
I had a great ride across to Harrogate where I stopped for lunch, the bike felt great and well planted with the new tyres. I am impressed with them.
I am at a little chef at the moment about 25 miles from Hull with plenty of time to spare.
Understand senior race is well delayed, so Chris will have had a lousy time as she has been in the grandstand since about 9am today and unable to get back to her car as it is parked at St John Ambulance....just been told Senior is now at 5.15pm.....Chris well racked off....oh well.
I will hopefully be on the boat to Rotterdam by the time it takes place, however the boat will not have sailed by then, will probably be getting a kip in before my evening meal, ha, thats the way it should be.
More to follow.

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.

19 days to go.

Well, its Monday 23rd May and I only have 19 days till I'm off on my trip, where has the time gone!

My new tyres are on the bike and they are now bedded in after a wet trip to the Northwest 200 road races in Northern Ireland. What a weekend that was. Wall to wall rain, cannot remember the last time I got so wet doing nothing.

We started off by spending an hour sheltering under the grandstand trying to keep a little bit dry before we moved up to our seats in the grandstand.

Rain eased for a bit and they managed to get race 1 off and and running, however, just before the start of race 2, and with the rider on the grid, there was a bomb scare in the paddock and everyone in the paddock was evacuated to a field for nearly an hour whilst the Police made searches. In the meantime further rains came over which meant more sheltering.

Nothing was found during the search so eventually race 2 was able to commence, however just before the end of lap 1, Ryan Farquhar's bike engine blew, spreading oil all over a section of the circuit along the coast road....further delays whilst oil cleared up, and yes, further rain.

Eventually the rider went out for another stab at starting race 2 but it was decided that, following a sighting lap, the circuit was still too slippy where the oil had gone down, so further delays whilst they made further attempts to clear up, and yes, more rain!!

In the end the organisers decided it was unsafe to hold further races, so meeting abandoned, and yes, it rained all the way back to the B and B.

So all in all the weekend consisted of 1 shortened race and 1 further lap, hope next year is a bit better.

TT starts on Saturday so fingers crossed for a nice dry 2 weeks.

As you can see from the picture above, Jed is getting all excited about his trip and is busy planning his route out. He says that he is really looking forward to it and has been busy practising the many languages that he will need in order to communicate for us both. He also promises plenty of photos providing he can find Wi-fi set ups.

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.