I think there are quite a few companies that print t-shirts from designs you can upload. I went for the first one that appeared called Streetshirts to see what my oblique banner would look like. I was pleased with the quality of the shirts and how the design came out. I’m not convinced I put them in the right places. (woops -image problem)
These two (an ‘antique’ t-shirt and a long-slieved shirt came to about £35.
Xena bike disk lock/alarm: first impressions
Having rather more disposable income than usual at the moment because of the plummeting interest rates and my friendly tracker mortgage I am susceptible to ‘recommendations’ in bike mags for gizmos of various kinds. This time I have bought a Xena bike lock, a chumky bit of shatter proof steel that just looks good and feels so nice in the hand that it could really have no other purpose and still be good to have around.
It locks through a hole in your break disk and automatically sets itself and will screech at 110db if tampered with. I tried it and its loud. In fact I went into an oblique panic trying to unlock the thing to stop that noise. In the meantime neighbours burst out of their front doors to see what the racket was about. I appologised. Verdict: too embarrassing to use (at least at my street).
Motowhere
Finally I think I have found a useful site for trip planning at motowhere which is aimed at bikers (just with the descriptors you can add to your routes – like’low-enforcement’). Draw a line from Hook of Holland to Marienbad in the Czech Republic and it automatically snaps to a route and gives you an idea of the mileage. Here’s my proposed route for the first days of my proposed trip across eastern Europe. I wonder how sensible it is. You are meant to be able to load the routes into a GPS. I wonder if that will work.
An alien has visited my kitchen
While I was away in London an alien has visited my kitchen and has been trying to communicate with me:
MCN Motorcycle show Excel January 2009
The main attraction of this show held annually in London’s docklands is the chance to swing a leg over bikes you could never (baring lottery wins, inheritances or pension lump sum payments – see later comment on the hair colour of most punters on the BMW stand) afford to buy which I did unashamedly – well actually I was rather self conscious on the BMW stand. I discovered that unlike some fellow bikers, my feet did touch the ground when astride the highly coveted 1200GS Adventure (it was so big). Apart from motorcycles, of course, there are miles of jackets, boots, gloves and helmets supposedly at knock down prices. Sadly I wasn’t in the market for any of this kit though I was tempted by shiny new versions of slightly tired items I had at home under the bed, such are the delights of consumerism. All I did buy was a tub of beeswax for a tenner which I must remember not to search out on the net and find that I was fleeced. I did actually want some. My main foci were the BMW and Triumph stands and I felt entirely at home at the latter as of course I own one. Climbing onto the Tiger it was reassuring that I could reach the ground on this high machine and the new (shiny black) Sprint ST was rather comfortable. Maybe I could be persuaded to replace my year 2000 model with a nice new black one some day. It was beautiful and comes with hard panniers installed….. It was so shiny… I think I can hold my head up being a Triumph owner.
Going back to BMW, I was rather excited to see Charley Boreman on the stand and managed to snatch a blurred pic of him as he was about the only person nearby without white hair.
What I found very cute were the men (often not spring chickens) who persuaded their (presumably) wives to climb on the back of these touring machines and the small children who sprawled over immensely large, powerful and expensive machines.
Worth a comment finally were the numbers of people visiting on crutches and the MCN ‘babes’ who were impossibly thin (some looked like they had had their bottoms amputated) who were posing for photographs.
John Martyn dies
To be honest I hadn’t thought about him much since the late 70s early 80s when everyone I knew in Cambridge seemed to be playing his records and trying to sound like him. But now that I am listening to him singing ‘When the hurt in your heart is gone’ I am completely blown away by the power and emotion of his music. I must get hold of that album Grace and Danger and get back in touch with this genius.