It's Been a While

It's been a strange few months. A course of physio, a relaxing walking holiday on the Pembrokeshire coast, and finally nailing the issues with the BSA electrics are amongst the highlights. Getting burgled and the ongoing wrangles with the insurance company being, most definitely, the lowest points. I would show you some lovely piccies of Wales and race meetings but the lowlifes took both cameras and the laptop! Still, at least the police have caught them and we're awaiting the commital hearings - I'm starting to see the advantages of Shia law!

Anyway, trying to put that all behind me I busied myself getting ready for the annual Battlesbridge Bike Show. Each year the Pre65 Club put on a demonstration of our bikes and amazing riding skills(!) on a makeshift cicuit to amuse the punters and the organiser, Dave Harper (he of the encyclopaedic Greeves knowledge), invited me along. Thursday evening saw the working party banging in the stakes (blisters on the hands are always a good excuse for a poor performance come race day!), roping off the track area and erecting the Club marquee ready for the static display of 'interesting' bikes. Further fettling by Dave and his crew on Saturday completed the picture so that when I turned up on Sunday it all looked very professional with loads of riders ready to show off for the gathering crowds.

As usual with Pre65 events, we started spot on one hour late with a sharp reminder that this was not a race meeting but a demonstration so no kamikaze moves and make it look good. At least the delay gave me time to exchange pleasantries with the sidecar crews and sponge a coffee off the Metcalfs (thanks Carol). Strangely the starters flag seems to be the signal for all thoughts of 'demonstration' to be expunged from the mind as everyone hammered into the first bend - only to be expected really. Commentary was provided by Terry Sewell (he of the brown knees) in his usual engaging style and we soon had a sizeable crowd watching the antics.

On a personal note, I managed to get in four rides before lunch (3 on the BSA and 1 on the Shiny Stormer) and had a couple of enjoyable tussles with riders whilst definitely getting up a bit of a sweat. Both bikes performed perfectly and have given me a worrying level of confidence for the next meeting at Marks Tey on the 19th July.

As I had promised to be a) be present and b) not limping or otherwise injured at a family bar-b-q that evening I packed up and got ready to leave, only for the (t)rusty Transit to throw it's toys out of the pram and refuse to start! My thanks to Adrian, Margaret and Brian(?) for the push start - I'm pretty sure the Good Lady Wife wouldn't have believed that as an excuse for being late!

Now I'm back in the swing of things, and have got my super new camera up and running, I should be a more frequent blogger. That's either a good thing or not, depending on your viewpoint! I may even persuade the GLW to come along and take a few shots of the Shiny Stprmer in action, just to prove I do actually race the damn thing!

Mustn't grumble!