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Continue reading →: Talking Turkey with a Vespa.
It’s 30 degrees in the shade here in Turkey, and they don’t ride in leathers. They don’t ride much in the way of big bikes either. The largest I’ve seen has been a lone R1200GS. The rest? Much, much smaller. 125 is the norm, with everything from obscure Chinese reverse-engineered…
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Continue reading →: RAF Kelmscott and summer silence.
The airless reception area with its cheerful, exhortative corporate posters made me think of communist Russia. Dark wood. Grey, worn carpet. Grey fluorescent lights. Every so often, there would be a sharp, electronic bleep and the door would get pushed open. A grey-suited figure would scuttle past and the door,…
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Continue reading →: The kindness of strangers
The GS has been playing up for a while. Matt and Stuart at North Oxford Garage have been fantastic – and patient – trying to diagnose an intermittent but vicious electrical problem where the bike simply refuses to start. It’ll crank – for hours – but won’t fire. It’s been…
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Continue reading →: Spring.
You can tell it’s spring. All the little parking gaps in Stow that are empty in the winter now host Solvol-gleamed motorcycles. The creak of leathers is almost audible as sportsbike riders mix it with the righteous Harley brethren in the mean streets and tea shops. Today, I headed up…
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Continue reading →: Hanging up your helmet
The days are, finally, lengthening. That seemed as good an excuse as any to drag the Ural from under its cover and clack-zag though the staggered web of lanes to Bibury. At this time of year the coach loads of travel-myopic, Bath-Stonehenge-Bibury-Shakespeare n’ Stratford-inna-day tourists are still tucked up and…
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Continue reading →: Balance. On a combo.
Today was the sort of bone-cold day that aches by the time you’ve ridden five miles. But so what? I was out on the Ural, not (as I have far too often been lately) stabbing with increasing irritability at my laptop keyboard in the office, fretting about clients, deadlines, the…
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Continue reading →: The Good Samaritan
5 June 2010. “For God’s sake!” For the third time that evening, Squadron Leader Martin Delaheye cursed his decision to ride the BMW. Even in mid-summer it was hopeless. You’d think, in June, you had a chance of getting home without half-drowning. But no, the rain had got to the…
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Continue reading →: Lighten our darkness.
Ever since my first evensong as a chorister, aged 6, I’ve loved the words of the third collect: Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee O Lord; and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of thy only Son our Saviour…
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Continue reading →: Summer Uralling
Today appears to be summer – so time to get out in the lanes of West Oxfordshire and do a bit of Uralling with a fellow Uralist down from The Wirral for the weekend.
Hello,
Welcome
Thanks for dropping in. There’s all sorts of stuff here, from reviews of watches to thoughts on driving and riding. And you’re welcome whether you agree with any of it or not.
MMC Musings 