Ryka's December 06

[Whealie]

Tip of the day: Ignore the weather forecasts. I checked the BBC weather site Saturday night and it said Sunday would be 9 degrees and raining. So I didn't bother with the inner lining on the jacket or trousers. The temperature did not rise above zero until 9.30 at Ryka's (a BMW rider turned on his machine to show us the temperature )
Anyway, I met Lord Vader about 300 yards from his house at about 8.30 in the bitter cold Sunday morning sunlight. I entered a mini roundabout and lost both wheels on ice but managed to stay upright (you shoudl have seen my arse wiggle) and got round the roundabout. I could have sworn I heard a loud scraping noise. Where was Vader? Are there is he is in my rear view mirror standing up still on the other side of the roundabout (about 500 yards from his house) .
I checked both Vader and his Death Star for damage. His crash bars had held off the worst the Federation could throw at them but he had lost a bar end weight (Chad, come in Chad, how do you drill out a sheared off bolt?)




So we avoided the back roads and got to Ryka's without further ice attacks, where we met Simon - a newbie to the site who has only has his red, white and blue 2002 @ for eight weeks. He wanted to get it dirty, so we did.




And Vader made a splash too:


While I stood up and showed them how to do it


Then we went back to Ryka's so that all the "I only ride on sunny weekends" bikers could frown at our muddy bikes (looking at them through the reflections on their chrome, obviously).
Here's the lovely @s:


Then we had a long trip through Sutton and Croydon and some nice little country villages, such as Knockholt, to Eynesford. Vader, Von Short Hausen and I were there about a month or so ago and it was a doddle so I just drove straight into it.
Mistake. It is now winter and about six inches deeper and several yards longer to cross. The water went over my head. Luckily I had my visor down. Vader followed me but wearing only sunglasses
We just had to do it again, but I was a bit cold a shivvery by the time I took this pic of Vader so it is a bit blurred:


Then Simon lifted his feet out of the water:


And then we all went home with grins on our faces nearly as big as the ford at Eynesford.

[Lord Vader]

You see whealie this is where you wrong I did not crash, i was just leaning so far over that for a untrained eye like yours it might have looked like a crash
Scrapping knees anyone can do that,try ellbows and shoulders

[Lord Vader]

But thanks for a cool day
Nice pics,can not wait for the other pics and the clip from simmon0bikes

[DaveS]

So the crash bars saved the day then LV!?

For the benefit of others thinking about getting crash bars:
What make have you got?
What would you think would have damaged had you not had the bars?

[Lord Vader]

Mine are the fehling ones from germany and with regards to damage hmmmm lets see i reckon
Tank dented and scratched
All plastic on the one side(front and rear)
As i was in a prime position(on my bum in the middle of the road )i watched her slide away from me and it looked like she was entirely sliding on the bars and my top box
Lots of nice sparks

[Robster]

Glad you're alright dude and escaped unscathed to tell the tale...just watch out for a severe late-onset pain in the wallet sure to follow any spill!

[Lord Vader]

Glad you're alright dude and escaped unscathed to tell the tale...just watch out for a severe late-onset pain in the wallet sure to follow any spill!

Nothing serios justa light bulb for my indicator
I'm fine robster thanks just incredible how quick she went

[Chad]

one battle scarred @ just rissen up the cool ladder by about thirty rungs

glad your ok LV may be its time for another visit to chads pad

take a center punch and marked the center of the sheared bolt and drill through with a small bit . if you have a stud extracter take the hole put to the required size wind in the extracter and voila out comes the stud

if you dont have any extracters then use bigger drill bits till your some where near the treads of the studs and work out the remains

or come to me for coffee and biccies and i'll sort it for you fella

[Von Short Hausen]

Well Pete I know the feeling, after putting mine down on our last rideout.

Glad to hear that you're OK mate , I guess it's all part of the biking 'experience'. It's ironic that you ride the bike every day, and then drop it during the road section of the rideout. I sure can understand how it got away though, I had several 'sphincter tightening' moments last Thursday.

[simon0bikes]

Aha. This is where you are posting chaps. Just posted a silent copy of the rideout on youtube. We are doing it in mime mode! Feel the force of LV and follow the link Mime mode because I noticed that they did not want any copywrighted stuff and I had already deleted the virgin off road screams from me in the water etc. Doh. It sounds good with Fleetwood Mac, Big Love live. Anyway, got it saved on PC so if you want it..... pm me with an emai address and I will see what I can do.
I love Microsoft Moviemaker, am I allowed to say that? Cant wait till the insurance company pays out and I can get this bike set up with camera equipment again. Blooming BMW drivers...
Thanks again Lord Vadar and Whealie for showing a how it's done. Now I want to play on Salisbury plain.