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A Crash And Other Antics

Day 4 Monday 2 June.

By Bogger

We wake up to a cold damp and very foggy morning. Today James is off home and is soon on his way into the morning murk. 

A rider is packing his camping gear onto a Honda C90 in the misty murky fog of the campsite

Today we are off to Vic-sur-Ainsle which is near Compiegne. We are on our way at 8.30am and the fog has not cleared any. One mile down the road Nige, Pete and myself take a left at the roundabout, Ironsides and Jason sail straight on, the visibility is that bad. Nige takes off after them and within fifteen minutes we are on our way again. The speeds were mainly between 50-60mph as we made our way from Ypres down to Bethune. We skirted Arras then into and out of Bapaume, through the now sunny country side along the A roads to Albert.

Coming out of Albert, Ironsides going round a roundabout lost the front end and decided to throw the death trap down the road with him still on it. He blamed some French cyclists who pulled out onto the roundabout then some oil on the road. Luckily he was not really hurt just a small cut to his finger, his pride a bit dented and some battle scars down the side of the death trap.

The huge ally streamliner fairing has several scores and scratches along one side
A travel case being used as a pannier has a patch of scratching after the crash

He wasn't impressed when I rechristened him Lowsides. After gathering our composure we carried onto Roye and into the cathedral town of Noyon. We detour to Thiepval where the British WW1 cemetery, museum and monument are. As we are inside watching the free video we are all falling asleep and our heads are nodding, I felt myself go two or three times. Once outside I lay my jacket on the floor and fell asleep in the hot midday sun. 

Just up the road from Theipval is the Lochnagar crater where the British tunnelled under the German positions, laid 60,000 lbs of TNT then set it off. As you can see the size of the hole is just ridiculous.

The crater left after the massive explosion
more of the massive crater from the first world war

Luckily there were no more incidents with regard to the bikes or indeed the riders and we soon find ourselves in the village of Vic-sur-Ainsle where we pop into local supermarket for provisions for that night. Ironsides/Lowsides says his elbow is sore and he takes his leather jacket off for a closer look. It's bleeding and won't stop.
Luckily Mrs Bogger has packed me a small first aid kit so when we get to the campsite we set about Lowsides' elbow.
 
The hand puppet sooty has a knife and is pretending to do surgery on Ironsides Elbow

It was home cooked chicken Balti for tea with rice and chips. I'm sure Pete's grooming me for some sort of perverted curry debacle. Pete said he was thirsty and polished off cider, white wine and then some lager. We were camping on the island again and had the whole area to ourselves, bliss. Oh that night we nearly wet ourselves laughing mainly at Ironsides' misfortune, really, really funny. 

Total miles for the day 156 with one off.


We've got more great contributions coming soon - if you'd like to add your own click here.

To French France and Guines Perfect planning prevents pee poor performance. Someone should have told these chaps. Throw in some Alchemy and carnage and come up with gold, comedy gold.
Easily Into Belgium Not too much malarkey today, the lads manage to sidle their way into Belgium with minimum shenanigans. There's a moment for reflection betwixt the brews 'n' beers.
Ypres, Museums, Memorials And Muppetry Bogger and co are mixing a heady brew of malarkey and educational museum visits. Hasn't Ypres already suffered enough?
A Crash And Other Antics Bogger and pals have reached the age of maturity and yet maturity seems to have escaped them. More high jinks from those who ought to know better.
Gear Selections in Compiègne It's a lazy day in Northern France for Bogger and pals. Only a short exploratory ride, mostly spent in search of Ironside's elusive gears.
Rain, Misery, Laughter and Puppetry It's not the best start to Bogger and pals' day. And yet a bunch of middle aged men clearly demonstrate they haven't grown up at all.
Arromanche With Some D-Day Thrown In The Motley Crew spend the day enjoying the D-Day events with the weather on their side and only 1 minor mechanical issue. Remarkable!
Dynamic D-Day During the D-Day commemorations Arromanche is bustling and bursting. Bogger and crew do their best to navigate the beach, the town and the machinery on their last full day.
It's Home Time A brief note from Bogger on the last day, the homeward bound leg. Tired little teddies, awwww bless.

Reader's Comments

Ian Soady said :-
I see your mate has pinched the name (but not the style) of the Royal Enfield Dreamliner. Never caught on - I wonder why.....
https://www.autobics.com/2018/01/royal-enfield-dreamliner/...
Posted Image
19/05/2020 10:01:18 UTC
Upt'North said :-
That is one truly gopping motorcycle, let's hope the Indians don't reinvent it.
Upt'North.
19/05/2020 10:24:50 UTC
Bob said :-
From an engineering point of view it's obviously very good and the figures prove it achieved a considerable improvement over the standard machine. It's just us motorcyclists are a conservative lot.
I guess with the benefit of 55 years of design evolution something less hideous could be acheived.
Although looking at it, it's not very far from a Burgman / Majesty or other super scooter.
19/05/2020 15:10:14 UTC
Bogger said :-
Blimmin eck Ian. Don't give him any more ideas. However he has built another death trap based on a Honda 400N. I've not seen it, but Ironsides has said he prefers the Cub version.

Bogger
19/05/2020 17:19:44 UTC
Ren - The Ed¹ said :-
While I admit to my eye it is indeed a rather "unpleasant" looking contraption as Bob states there are some benefits to be found. The whole dustbim lid fairing has many aerodynamic advantages but I seem to recall someone (Ian?) stating that they were renown for catching sidewinds in a terrifying manner. I'd rather fancy the weather protection offered by this Dreamliner, and indeed some of the modern scoots too.

It is curious how much of our taste in motorcycles comes from that which went before. If we'd been brought up on a diet of Dreamliners and entirely encased motorcycles would we even consider this to be odd or unattractive? Imagine fully enclosed motorcycles where, like a car, you just wash the outside and only give the inside bits a wipe down when you're working on them. There's not many folks who clean their engines and suspension linkages diligently in the car owner's world.
19/05/2020 19:34:20 UTC
Borsuk said :-
Ren. I am afraid you lost me when you said car and wash in the same sentence. Why do you use words that are only found in dictionaries and never used in real conversations.
19/05/2020 19:44:10 UTC
Borsuk said :-
I forgot to say, that looks like a frog on wheels. The Kermit special.
19/05/2020 19:45:50 UTC
nab301 said :-
While the Dreamliner was only a one off prototype but based on a "motorcycle", what was very popular in my part of the world as a youth was the (admittedly a scooter) Heinkel Tourist , with a tall screen and a letterbox slot to look through I'm sure they interesting to ride . They seem to be popular with the IVVMCC and run an annual Treffen
Nigel
http://ivvmcc.ie/galleryfiles/heinkel/ht_2012_02.htm...
20/05/2020 13:37:31 UTC

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