West London IJR

[clive]

Friday morning we had 100 plus miles to the rally. Reg decided to make his own way as he wanted to have a more relaxed ride. Off we went with our first stop over looking a castle at Cochem.

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Then we took a ferry with a stop at a coffee shop in The Netherlands then we were back in Belgium. Then a lunch stop in Germany followed by a ferry.

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Finally the satnav we were following took us down green lanes until we ended up in the middle of a forest. There we needed a stop to replace a missing screw on the Triumph brake lever.

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We finally got to the hotel at about 5pm to find Reg had beaten us to it by at least 2 hours!
My final action of the day was to drain the primary chaincase into a beer mug so i could fix the slipping clutch. This worked well and i was able to replace at least some of the oil and also the beer mug on the bar (washed first of course).

[clive]

Saturdays ride went to the place we had lunch yesterday. So a view from the otherside of the river.

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The primary chaincase was leaking badly so off the 20 or so cap screws came and some of Dudley's gasket goo applied. Fingers crossed for tomorrow.

[REW]

What a fine collection of bikes on the run. The BBC's "From our own correspondent" has nothing on this reportage Clive - thanks!

[clive]

Well the strange failure of Internet on my phone whilst in Germany has been explained. I had turned mobile data off, not sure why. At least it means I can access google maps as I am leading our little group going home.

[56G80S]

Thanks for the posts, Clive. Overcoming the problems is part of getting a sense of achievement from the trip.

Well done.

Johnny B

[clive]

Monday. Early start as we actually made it away at 8.30. Nice roads although at the start we had travelled them, a couple of times before. I set a good pace until the Triumph played up on one long up hill section. However after checking it out we felt nothing was wrong. However i had to repair the loose sole on my other boot. Superglue makes a better repair than insulating tape.

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The next stop for petrol and it seemed my dynamo on the G11CS had moved about 1/4 of an inch across allowing oil to soak my leg. While i was fixing it the G80 combo was found to have ejected a metric bolt being used to hold the front brake steady. It will be replaced with a stud on the return.

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Rain hit us just as we stopped for lunch of our extras liberated from breakfast. It stopped once we had moved on. No further events until we arrived in Bastogne and we took in an excellent museum of the Battle of the bulge.

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The hotel was accommodation above shop on a garage forecourt. Actually quite good and it made it easy filling in the morning.

[clive]

Tuesday can be summarised by rain rain and a bit more rain. Then a nice Airbnb and the last post ceremony at the Menin gate. Further 170 miles travelled.

[clive]

Final day about 40 miles to Dunkerque in the rain of course. Booking in a relaxed affair.

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Then home long M2 M30 M25 and M3. Although the weather was fine and the threatened rain held off the roads were a big disappointment after the empty minor roads we had been travelling.
Home 1200 miles (allowing for the slightly generous speedo readings with the new lower profile rear tyre) travelled in 8 days. The clutch needs work and the pivot point on the clutch and brake have worn out. Otherwise my G11CS ran well and despite 2 of our party running out of petrol I did not.

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[56G80S]

Sounds great, pleased you are home safe.

Johnny B

[clive]

I should add my thanks to Jan Hendrik and team for an excellent rally.