Since sometime in late November I have struggled to keep my bike running, travelling up to Cambridge on the train from Liverpool Street every couple of weeks to take the bike out, have some fun, charge the battery up a bit in the process and maybe end the ride with some rudimentary cleaning courtesy of my battery-powered pressure (low pressure) washer. What was great fun in July and August – getting out into the East Anglia country without having to spend an hour or more in London traffic – turns into a chore in wet and cold December to February. Also, as we all know, batteries don’t hold their charge so well in cold weather. My tracker can tell me the volts of my battery from 60 miles away. Sometimes I am surprised. 12.2 volts can start up the bike. Sometimes it doesn’t and my amazing Antigravity pocket-sized charger has saved the day and been impressive in starting the engine. But when my device was warning me that the battery had only 11.3 volts I wasn’t too optimistic. Nevertheless as ever, I struggled into the biking gear, heaved out the bike to start up and attached the clever Antigravity but… nothing. So now my dirty R1200gs sits in my garage without a heart and my battery is here in the kitchen, charged up and being checked every day to see whether it still has legs – which it seems to. Not quite time to replace it. (Its a shame Odyssey don’t make a battery the right size for the 2014 GS otherwise I would have forked out on one already.)

My garage is getting closer to being ready for a motorcycle relocation.