lucky breaks

Well, it turned out that I was fortunate not riding down to Walesby on the Friday after all.

The guys who rode down then had a horrendous journey by all accounts. The weather was wet. really wet, south of the border. Most of them were still drying clothes and sleeping bags when I arrived at four on the Saturday afternoon.
Things got better from then on and the sun shone most of the weekend after that. Just being there was fun. Great company and loads of good bikes to look at. Just what a rally should be. The camp site was in Walesby forest and because of that there shouldn't have been any fires on site. Not that it stopped us, the Scottish contingent that is. All the others were quite happy for us to take the blame and joined in the party.
The ride down on the motorway wasn't even that bad. Or maybe I'm just getting used to motorways. It was around trip of 550 miles. That's the longest I've ridden over a weekend. Was still sore by the end of the return leg but seem to be getting more used to it.
I was tired on the way back up but that was purely through not being used to drinking alcohol in the quantities I used to and mis-judging the effect on the morning after.
One down side. I lost my disc lock. The bag it was in was gone completely. The velcro faster was still there. Looks like the stitching had given up somewhere down the road.

international rally

The HDRCGB international rally is taking place in Walesby this weekend.
I was all ready to set off tomorrow morning when my mother being hospitalised threw a spanner in the works. When duty calls all else goes out the window.
Not to worry though, her condition isn't that serious and I can still get away on Saturday as long as I can persuade my kid brother to step in to visit!
Will report from the rally when I get back.

gone and done it

Haven't been riding much lately. Well not during the week at least.
I had a wee trip down to the Biggar rally (custom cars, bikes and trucks) last Sunday. It was a great day out and good meeting up with some of the guys from the riders club.

I got talking about the mods I'm planning to the front end and got so stirred up about it as soon as I got back, I ordered the bits I need.
At least, I ordered the yokes. I had to work out which year to go for and in the end decided that the ones with the 25mm spindle were probably the best bet. That's the latest change HD have made to the 49mm forks.
As the wheel I've got is a 3/4" and would need modification no matter which spindle came with the yokes, I thought it would be better getting the most modern.
So next I ordered a pair of 25mm bearings and axle spacer. I'm going to try to fit the bearings myself. I have done it before on a Jap bike so hopefully I'll manage without spending an absolute fortune on the HD tool.
Once everything is here it will be a matter of trying it all out then seeing if I need to get anything fabricated.
Will probably be too much to asked that it all goes together out of the box, but we'll see.

missed chances and more purchases

It's been a wild weekend, weather-wise.
I was planning to go down to the North East region's rally at Middleton-in-Teesdale, County Durham. I couldn't get the Friday off work so had thought about riding down on Saturday morning, leaving at 5.30.
In the end I haven't been feeling too great with an infected gum, so I changed my mind at the last minute.
Just as well, maybe, considering the rain that's been falling on the north of England since Friday.
There's been no reports from the rally yet. But, no doubt they'll all have had a great time.
I've still got the one at the end of the month to look forward to.
Sitting at home all weekend has given me the chance to browse some catalogues. So, now I'm thinking about ordering some more bits for my winter projects.
The front end looks like the favourite to buy first as I've more or less decided which yokes to buy.