Touring Thebiglad's coming to UK - lock up your daughters - aaaaaargh !!

Thanks very much mate, looking forward to it A LOT !

 

It started out with just a small idea of meeting some biking mates..............................



About 3 months ago I watched a YouTube video by Delboys Garage when Del was showing us how to fix something or other. He also mention the "Bishop's Waltham Bike Extravaganza" which started a small thought in my mind - could I actually go to England on my lovely Bonny and just show up and surprise them?


Time moves on and the idea expands. If I did that, I could visit my sister (Yeovil area) who has just moved back to England from France - that would be nice. Why not also meet dear friends in Worcester and Kidderminster as well?


If I'm going to do that wouldn't it be great to see my cousins and Auntie in Leeds? I haven't seen them in maybe 25-30 years !!!


Then a blinding flash came and the idea of meeting Triumph pals all over the country started to form. This is getting big !!!!!!


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9:30 am Saturday 16th May - leave home for the ride to Dieppe - about 550kms - complete with luggage donated by Phil and Trish - dear friends.


Very soon realised that more spring pre-load was required due, not only to my bulk (for those who met me!), but also to the ridiculous amount of stuff I was able to carry - not on this trip was it going to be one pair of pants "inside front, inside back,outside front etc etc" - oh no, this was going to be proper clean clothes every day !!!!


Message to self when back home - change the rear springs for HD ones in the shed.


Arrived at the port at about 6:30pm and realised that I had forgotten the book I'd put out, in order to fill the time before embarking at midnight and sailing at 1am. There's only so many times that you can read the leaflets, safety instructions,hints and tips as well as walking around the car park, stroking strangers dogs etc etc


Midnight Saturday 16th May - excitement mounts rapidly as we board the boat and head across the channel - sleep does not come easily but I'm running on adrenaline.


7am Sunday 17th May - Wow wow wow !!!! In England !!!!


7:30am Sunday 17th May - Folkbloke and Mrs Folkbloke (andtheir beautiful dog!) are the nicest people you could ever hope to meet.They had offered to be up and provide me with sustinence in the form of coffee and a bacon buttie which I wolfed down with great pleasure. More of them later............................


10:00am Sunday 17th May - Loomies Café !!!! I'm very excited at this stage because: 1. there are no biker cafe's anywhere near where I live and 2. I'm going to meet more of the Triumph forum members. To my eyes there are thousands of bikes there - all shapes,sizes ages, the lot ! I soon find Steveleggat and we get stuck into big mugs of tea and do a tourof the carpark. Loads of interesting bikes Steve's being one as he has his new pipes on - sounds very cool btw Steve - then I see this thingof beauty. No, it's not a woman it's a triumph-engined Métisse !!! Beautiful, immaculate with an exhaust note to die for !!!


11:30am Sunday 17th May - after spending a verynice timeat Loomie's, Steve and I toddle off to Bishops Waltham and their annual Bike Extravanganza. Oh my Lord, I have never seen so many bikes in so many different styles !!!!


Rat bikes; Harleys with paint jobs that are just a true work of art; trikes; specials - even a French reg lovely Triumph T100 !!!!!!


We have a good walk around the town which is PACKED with bikes before encountering the mobI was hoping to meet - the "Idiot Collective" !!!! This is Delboy and his charming wife Penny (how he did that I'll never know!!!) plus lots of their mates. I had planned a small surprise for them. They like cake, lots of cake, so I'd done some shopping before leaving home, for them.


After the initial hugs and using Dels bike as a picnic table, I got out my cake (steady there!!) then a bottle of quite nice red wine plus Brie in excellent condition, Goats cheese and Salami with Pistachio nuts. Let's party !!! Needless to say cheese and wine went down very well !


After that, had more of a walk around and listen to the band,then headed off to see Big Sis.


18:00 17th May - after a fair bit of mucking about I finally found Big Sis's place in a tiny village - much hugs and kisses then got down the big update about her move and installation in new home.


10:00 18th May - as she is moving back to England, there's loads of things to get changed such as her driving license, registering her car in UK etc -in order to ease her mind.


That done we then wento the local pub and had beautifulfood and excellent beer !!!


10:00 19th May - left Big sis's place for Kidderminster and my pal Rog. Fish 'n chips; Curry all the stuff a growing boy needs. Good time had by all.


En route called into another pal at Crowle, Worcesterfor a cuppa andcatch-up.


10:00 22nd May - set off for Leeds and family get-together. Met with 2 cousins and my auntie that I hadn't seen for 25 to 30 years ! Had lovely meal together and good old chin-wag.



8:45 23rd May - me and cousin John set off for Squires Café and to meet Tigcraft (piss-taker extra-ordinaire) and Recycled Rocker (the real deal). Had a great time there, loads of bikes plus the BBC filming for a MAG news item. Got talking to the cameraman and he starting filming my bike !!!



Tigcraft very kindly (and as it turns out rashly) let me have a go on his bike with his new Motad pipes. As I left the car park there were lots of peeps on the LHS of the gate and road, as I turned left, so Iwas forced to ontothe RHS of the road and thought nothing more of it. His bike really does go well and I was setting it up for along left hand sweeper and really enjoying the ride when in the distance I saw something that at first I couldn't work out, but as it approached I realised it was another bike ON MY SIDE OF THE ROAD !!!!


Pretty much at the same time I realised that I was STILL ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDE OF THE ROAD eeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk! For several micro-seconds my world flashed in front of me and - as I was about to find out just a few minutes later - the same was happening to the other guy.


Thankfully we avoided each other so no physical damage, but when I went back to the car park another rider came up to me to 'explain' that I had just committed a bad error. I apologised profusely and sincerely but I could see he was in a pretty bad shape.


Tigcraft nearly pissed himself as he watched my accepting total responsibility for the near miss. I was just glad I handed him his bike back, in one piece !



From there we went to York and the 25th anniversary of A1moto,the Triumph dealer.Free coffee, plenty of good humour from loads of bikers, then headed back to Leeds.


We watched the BBC local news and saw the piece about the MAG ride and obligatory sleazy councillor, then............cue fanfare..............MY BIKE, ON THE TELLY !!!!! Plus some reprobates shown in the bar-end mirror. Perfect end to a perfect day.


9:30 24th May - with lots of emotion I bid farewell to my family and Leeds,heading down the A1 and Newark. Arrived pretty-much as planned andmet up with Dodge74 and hada really good chat with him plus coffee and bacon butty (yes, another one!) before continuing my journey.



Stopped at the Harley dealer near Rutland Water and met with a Dutch Harley rider and a Swiss Harley couple who had all been to the Lincoln big Harley weekend.



From there to Northampton where I met with friends of long-standing, and stopped the night.



9:30 25th May - 140mph along the A14 in my pals Aston Martin DB9 !!!! After that down to ACE Café - took the pic drank the tea then moved on.



For those of you that have stayed awake long enough to get to this stage, you may recall I mentioned Folkbloke earlier. Well this is where he proved himself (and Mrs Folk) to be a real star. He knew that I would have a long wait for the return boat, so they invited me to have dinner at their house.


Still not quite sure if the 'authorities' had asked them to escort me off the country, but nevertheless had a beautiful meal prepared by himself and a very pleasant evening.


Suddenly realised what time it was, so shot off down the road to Newhaven to get the boat home.


16:00 26th May - arrived home, completely wiped out but VERY happy.



Roll of honour :


I hope the others won't mind but for going above and beyond I have to mention again Folkbloke. Thoroughly lovely couple who I would hope to build a lasting friendship.


In order of appearance:


Folkbloke - excellent musicien


Steveleggat - super nice bloke


Delboy and Penny - Hmmmmmm Penny


Recycled Rocker - the REAL deal. Been there, done that, wrote the book, printed the T-shirt


Tigcraft - piss-taker extra-ordinaire, poker face unbeatable in the face of adversity, thoroughly good bloke


Dodge74 - really nice guy, generous butty provider



To summarise:


The BEST holiday I've ever had, bar none.



Some useful Info:


The Newhaven/Dieppe crossing is the cheapest way to get across to France, south of Paris.


France is a very big country.


Current price for 95 unleaded is 1,42euro per litre


The toll cost between Dieppe and my place (postcode 23350) 11 euros

 

It would be an absolute pleasure to show you around mate, truly.

 

No probs mate, next time eh?

 

Hi Steve, you know I'm from Yorkshire so I'll hold you to that

 

If you are anywhere near 23350 La Cellette, let me know and we'll organise a get-together.

 

Hi Daryl, it was great to meet you too!

Here are a couple of links which might be useful to you:

My place: https://www.google.fr/maps/dir/Le+P...9d!2m2!1d1.995459!2d46.384738!1m0?hl=en&hl=en

Camping Moto - Drome valley:
http://www.lecampingmoto.net/index.html

I have about 6 acres at my place if you wanted to camp?