Family, Photography and other misc news
Loving the freedom of the open road. Limited now due to Greyhound adoption.
A warm sunny commute into the office today, that certainly made a change. Lets hope the weather stays nice till the end of the week as its the County Show this week.
The last few times I have been to the Lincolnshire Show, I have been working there but this week its for pleasure. If I get any good photographs I’ll post a few up on Thursday night.
Still even if its raining, a good time can be had, I’ll take my Wellington Boots just in case.
Cooler weather seems to have set in now, we had a few cold rides into work on the BMW GS last week.
We are looking forward to better weather next month as we have a week free so are planning a motorcycle tour. We cannot go too far but I want to see the sea and some mountains, so that really rules out England.
Time to get the Maps out.
When we had the warmer weather we had to fight for a bike parking space at the office, but now its cooled, there was only two bikes there today and that was including mine!
In the British Isles if you only rode on sunny days you would not get out much.
I read a number of blogs, and each one is focused on a particular subject.
Many are about photography, or about photographic gear. Others about Motorcycling, Flying and cooking.
My blog has a number of functions. Primary it’s like my diary, I look back over time and see what has happened, it’s also a record of my photographic and motorcycling trips.
I sometimes ask what do I want from my blog. Most blog readers want a targeted blog detailing and being focused on there interests.
My blog while primary about photography does drift off sometimes onto other subjects. I hope you will continue to bear with me while I sometimes blog about subjects that may be off no interest to you.
Today I was in the extremely lucky position to be offered the choice of having any BMW motorcycle I wanted for the day (thank you Astles BMW of Grimsby).
Well it may surprise you all but I opted for the smallest tourer BMW have in there range, the little F800ST. You see I keep looking out for a small bike to replace our little Honda Deauville. Our Honda is the little 650cc model not the latest version but it is getting a little old now and will soon need replacing, but what with.
Well the new Deauville I consider a little overweight, though even more practical. The BMW F800 while possibly not as practical is a little sportier and more modern.
I took it for a spin round North Lincolnshire and was well and truly surprised, this has to be one of the best handling little bikes I have ever ridden, plenty of torque, and quick enough for what it is, but the way it flicks through the bends was simply stunning.
If your after a small bike with a big attitude and more then enough handling to have fun in the twisty back roads, then this is it.
Great and very enjoyable day, but I was glad to get back on my R1200GS, now that is possibly the ultimate big tourer.
I have always been more of a Moto Guzzi then a Ducati fan, but most of the guys (and some women) ride Ducati’s at work.
There were rumours flying last week that Ducati was about to be bought and this week it came true when Volkswagen announced they had purchased the iconic motorcycle brand.
They said that it would be a subsidiary of their Audi brand.
If I had to have any Ducati it would either be a Monster or an air cooled 900SS. So many bikes so little garage space!
Being a small group of islands with the Atlantic on one side and the North Sea on the other, the weather is hard to predict and often very varied. Recently we had record temperatures for the time of year, then last week it was cold and wet.
This morning looking out the window we saw some light snow coming down! On with the thermals under the biker gear before jumping onto the bike for our morning commute. Then tonight on the way home, lovely warm sunshine illuminating the fields of bright yellow oil sea rape filling the fields.
Its it difficult to know what to wear on the bike. Luckily my Rallye Motorcycle suite more then copes with whatever we encounter.
April and May have always produced the worst motorcycle statistics and today is its peak.
Far too many people, after a winter layoff jump on their bikes and try and ride like a GP God.
Leave the heroics for a track day.
Dress in the best gear you can afford including gloves and boots not just for yourselves but also for your pillion and take it steady.
What a busy weekend its been. Saturday saw us again at Whisby Nature Reserve for the morning, attending our Bee Course. We are now over halfway through and have fully enjoyed our Bee Keeping Course hosted by the Lincolnshire Bee Keeper Association.
As its a half day course and the day was so nice, I decided to spend the afternoon practicing my flower photography. Unfortunately it was a little too windy to get any really good shots.
Sunday we jumped on the bike and spent the day exploring the North Yorkshire Moors. All in all, we spent over six hours in the saddle, finding minor roads and fords to cross. For lunch we had a break at the very nice but extremely busy Magpie Cafe in Whitby.
The wonderful warm sunny weather on the Sunday really brought out the Motorcyclists and the Photographers. I took the Nikon V1 outfit with me and a freshly charged battery, but I was having far too much fun on the bike to stop much and take pictures, but I do have some lovely memories of the beautiful scenery and a number of locations to head back to with the Medium Format Camera.
You can certainly tell that spring is on the way now.
The Photographer in me has started to spot the Crocus and Snowdrops raising their heads into flower. Thoughts of Macro Photography start to fill my mind.
This bright and sunny Sunday morning saw myself and Caroline pulling on our running shoes and going for a run out of the village. The signs of spring were very much in evidence.
We saw Coal Tits, Chaffinches as well the usual Wood Pigeons, Black Headed Gulls and some very noisy Black Birds.
The fair weather motorcyclists are also starting to make an appearance, they can be spotted on their overly loud Japanese motorcycles, sporting garish one piece leathers. Power Rangers on Rice Rockets is the colloquial term.
Though as a rider of a BMW Motorcycle, that makes me a Pipe and Slippers man, obviously too old to have fun and should be a paid up member of the Advanced Motorcyclist Group, who never go over 50 mph.
Here’s to Spring.
Our BMW R1200GS had to go into the garage this week to have the rear suspension looked at, its had some very hard use over some very poor quality roads recently.
While it was there I had a loan bike. Our local BMW Bike dealer is pretty good about loan bikes and over the years, while our bikes are being services we have tried out just about every bike BMW make.
Today I got to have a blast round Lincolnshire on the baby GS, the F650GS. The old model from a few years a go was a real blast, but not a bike I could ride for long. It was a single cylinder 650cc bike, and that big single thumper while fun made your bum go numb after about 100 miles.
When the F800ST was released it brought to BMW a whole new engine, the parallel twin 800cc. Parallel twins have a bad reputation, but this was a whole new design with a lot of cutting edge F1 technology incorporated into it; and it is a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde engine. At low rev’s a comfortable bike with amazing fuel consumption, but at high rev’s a real sporty and fun bike when the mood took you.
Versions of this engine have now been used across the range and confusingly now powers the F650GS, yep the 650 is actually an 800cc bike. The GS range now has the F650, F800, and R1200GS.
The F650 is the soft option. A fun bike easy to ride and not too threatening. The F800GS is a different beast, far more aggressive and a real off road tool.
The R1200GS needs no introduction. I have to say my R1200GS is the best motorcycle I have ever owned and is even the best bike I have ever ridden. There are other bikes that I would rate as just as good but different, but the R1200GS is unique.