Not a very inspired ride, though enjoyable all the same. The aim was to sort out a few problems with the bike and GPS. First my new bluetooth headset (Interphone F3MC), unlike my five year old trusty Interphone F4, works properly with the BMW Nav V GPS that came with the bike instead of the intermittent loud hissing just when you need to know whether to turn left or right you can hear Emily lound and clear, second: one old pair of prescription sunglasses lets me actually see the GPS screen better than the new ones – their polarising must be slightly different, so those two things are really important to get sorted before going on a trip to foreign lands and inevitably getting lost and frustrated. Last, I worked out how to adjust the gear shift so that I can wear my huge motocross boots on the bike.

I spent many happy hours searching for bluetooth headset reviews. Sena seemed a good make and build highly specified intercoms, but reviews are very critical and about basic construction. Scores of people complain that a small plastic tab used to fasten the headset to the helmet breaks very quickly and in addition to that, it seems that the unit is ok in light showers but when it rains heavily water gets inside and it stops working. I find this astonishing. For me Interphone is tried and tested, though even that has some problems playing music from the Nav V. But it works in the rain, having ridden many hundreds of miles in pouring rain, I know that about the make. Crucially it is firmware upgradable via USB. My old one probably stopped working properly because it couldn’t be.