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North
West 200 - Portrush - 2005
The plan started
innocently enough with an email from Ireland - do you boys want to come
over for the road races...? Well
of course but with the American guy wanting a full fly-drive program (with
room service, including a Goblin Teasmaid) and the Brit (me) determined to
ride there and back on a legendarily painful to ride ZX-7R plus one of the
Irish being in the game to personally import a Moto Guzzi, the plan was
never going to be that simple. Like
all the best plans, it just developed a life on it's own:
Day
1
Saturday - Paul flies in from
Dublin to pick-up his brand new Moto Guzzi. Except the DVLA have
decided not to register it and there is nothing more that can be done
until Monday. Frustration mounts.
Day
2
Paul has been lent a Triumph
595i by the equally frustrated dealer, so we blast it all over the South
East on a sunny Sunday, instead of heading for Wales as planned -
frustration grows.
Day
3
Monday and will the DVLA
(known for their friendly and flexible attitude) give us the
registration? An amazing piece of smoke and mirrors yet again proves
that there is none more resourceful than an Irishman on a mission - we get
the bike on the road by lunchtime and off to Henley-upon-Thames for
lunch. The brilliant sunshine immediately turns to showers the
second we board the bikes and after lunch we head for Wales - Kington, to
be precise.
Why
Kington? Because we have discovered this bunch of the most friendly
bikers, lead by "Woody" at the Kington
Motorcycle Club - we get to their club house The Royal Oak along the
best roads in the country...but in the rain :-(
We
meet the club members, drink, eat and sleep very well that night.
Day
4
Woody and David take the day
off to show us their playground - of which they know every inch. We
hide our embarrassment behind the need to run in the Moto Guzzi as we try
to keep up with these guys, who know the turf and can obviously ride faster than the
wind. They also have a sixth sense about where Plod would set a speed trap and
just ride around such problems.
Day
5
We ride through more of this
beautiful country and alas part company with Bart who heads his TL1000S
for home, back to London, while Paul and I catch the ferry to
Dublin.
In
Dublin, the rest of the gang arrive and head for the task of re-building
the Moto Guzzi while mixing cocktails and consuming Guinness, wine, Vodka
etc.
Day
6
Ouch! - my head hurts.
But a blast along Ireland's roads soon rattles the fillings from my
teeth and makes me feel very awake - and we're off to the North -
Londonderry here we come.
Day
7
Sightseeing day. Giants
Causeway, a rope bridge, get a new tyre fitted (visiting a Kawasaki dealer
for new rubber is sightseeing for a true biker!)
Day
8
Race day! Fantastic riding from guys that have balls bigger than
grapefruits and can ride as fast in the wet as the dry on public roads
splattered with white lines and overbanding - amazing.
Day
9
Ride 150 miles to
Dublin in 3 hours - sun shines - roads are great. Ferry journey for
four hours. Ride 250 miles from Liverpool to London, much of it in
the pouring rain on motorways. This proves a few things:
-
I am 50 years old and can still ride 400 miles in a day, starting at 8 am and
ending at 10:30 pm on a sportsbike known to cripple even young bike magazine
journos
-
The ZX-7R is so capable, reliable and confidence inspiring, even in a
storm at 80 mph
-
Bikers are mad
-
It always rains when you get your bike out of the garage for a trip over
10 miles
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