Bertha and Belinda

Yesterday I rode down to SBW Motorrad in Welwyn for a booked test ride on the F800 that I have been mentioning, my thinking being to move to a lighter more manageable bike but one that still has some style and presence. When I got there it turned out they had sold the test bike and didn’t have another. Not a good start, so as I had spent the best part of an hour getting down there I asked whether they had a 1200gs (the current version of Bertha) for me to try, more out of curiosity. They did and I was shown a TE version with spoked wheels which I rode. Again, more out of curiosity I asked the price and this demo version seemed surprisingly reasonable, not that much more than the smaller machine. So what was it like? Once astride it feels suprisingly similar to my current bike and apart from being noisier (I forgot to put in my ear plugs) and the gears clunkier (mine are well worn in) it was a very familiar experience. But this bike seemed much lighter and easier to get around corners. All reviews say it is much more responsive than the old model but it was hard to compare. Very quickly I realised that this bike was clearly the more manageable bike I was after, with the wind protection and motorway capability that I feared losing on the smaller F800. I loved it. Here it is in a lay by near Welwyn:
on-test

Pleasant surprise number two was the offer I got for Bertha’s trade-in. If all goes to plan next Wednesday I will drive down on Bertha (all that cleaning and repainting was worth it) and drive off with a 2014 1200GS TE with just over 1000 miles on the clock, very many extra switches and dials, plus alarm, and I shelled out for the overpriced but clever BMW GPS. I was so excited that I barely slept last night. The Touratech catalogue is on my desk.

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Ride to Saffron Walden

On Friday I test ride a BMW F800, for those who don’t follow such things, its an ‘adventure’ bike similar to mine but about 2/3 the bulk and also 2/3 the power. I am also taking Bertha down for the dealer to give me a quote for its part exchange value.

Here’s Bertha cleaner and shinier than ever before:

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Duke of Burgundy

‘Stylish, sensual and smart’, that’s how Rotten Tomatoes summarises this interesting film from Peter Strickland. The review goes on to say that this film ‘proves that erotic cinema can have genuine substance’. Other reviewers have presented it as a thinking person’s alternative to Fifty Shades of Grey. So that’s a lot to live up to. It is certainly beautifully filmed with many dreamlike visual nods to late 1960s, psychedelia even. It is also very funny in places, the pan across the concentrating and engaged audience at the entomological association which features at least two slightly out of focus, but nicely dressed, mannequins in the back row, for example. I also enjoyed the strange nostalgic world created in some unspecified time and (European) place where the only people are beautiful and slightly stiffly dressed women.

The subject matter is the dilemma of the relationship between the beautiful and submissive Evelyn (‘this is all I have ever dreamed about’) and the more-comfortable-in-cosy-pygamas-Cynthia who becomes less patient and accommodating to Evelyn’s requests as time goes by. Its nicely played mostly with lots of lingering (in both senses) eroticism. The film avoids the most crass S/M cliches (whips etc.) to its credit and the allure of the practices is nicely balanced with a focus on Evelyn and Cynthia and their gorgeous environment – as well as the butterflies and moths that remained enigmatic for me throughout the film.

But I found it slightly disappointing. I hoped for something far more taut. There was too much sentiment and far too much dialogue. Everything was said out loud. I imagined this film with only a quarter of the dialogue. I asked In what way are these women like butterflies? Are they pinned? I concluded that the entomology was an atmospheric addition rather than a central structure or metaphor for the whole film, albeit a beautifully achieved one.

The trailer is here.

David Beckham Into The Unknown

This is not the sort of documentary I would usually enjoy but the link came from a motorcycling site and I downloaded and watched.

Beckham and two old friends fly to Brazil to get away from Beckham’s busy life and to find a few weeks of anonymity. And crucially for me – otherwise I wouldn’t be watching – for some of the journey they ride on nicely customised and hard core looking Triumphs.

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Whether you consider it interesting and enjoyable or not will depend on your interest in David. If you are a fan you will love it because you see plenty of his good looks and charming banter. From a strictly travel documentary angle it is not very penetrating. From a biking angle, its difficult not to see it in the same mould as the Long Way programs that also feature, and have much of their interest, in the celebs on board. But Beckham and friends’ riding style would make off-road gurus like Simon Pavey wince. There’s no standing on the pegs to be seen. Its more gun the throttle with legs splayed and hope for the best – probably how I would do it despite having watched the Touratech DVD on how they do it on the Dakar. Also there is very little branded motorcycle adventure wear on display, just a (very nicely designed) leather jacket, white t-shirt and jeans.

jacket

As has been said before, David comes over as surprisingly normal and charming both in his (generously proportioned) home in London where we see warm interactions with his family, and out with his friends. Strangely his friends on at least one occasion seem to want to sabotage Beckham’s desire for anonymity. At the end he tells us how few new friends he has made since he became famous and that the next ‘day off’ in his diary is in six weeks time. Although presented clearly as time out for Beckham, I wonder how relaxing this was given the constant filming. I’ll be taking a bit more notice of him after seeing this.

This eloquent review says it all.

Now, where can I get some more tattoos?

Another icy ride


I wanted to get out even thought the temperature showed 4 degrees and there was an icy wind. This was a quick 25 mile blast to West Wratting and I came back with Bertha covered in the salt and shit from the wet roads.