Warning: This is going to be a long post, which given that I have barely ridden my bike in the last five years, is somewhat surprising.
Back in 2007 when I bought the SV, I was told by the man in the shop that it was suitable for me to use for touring around Europe... If I knew then, what I know now, I would have laughed in his face and then demanded a discount because I spent close to £5k in his shop that day on the bike, an alarm and the riding gear.
These days, illness and disability make riding hard, but when the daughter bought herself a new bike, a Kawasaki GTR1400, we knew that we all needed to go away for a bit of a biker's break. We chose North Wales, but getting there from North Somerset was going to be hard for me, so I decided that I needed to strap the bike to the back of the car and then off we could go for a week of riding. Life is never that easy though and that was the weekend when I met a lovely breakdown man from the RAC called Rob, from Bristol. You see, three weeks before we left for our trip, I had driven my best friend over to the historic steam railway to play on some trains and the alternator on the car died. A very nice engineer from the steam railway put a test meter on the car and she was producing eight and half volts! So I had the wife replace the alternator while I played with my Lego. Then two days before leaving on our trip, the alarm failed on Sylvie and shut down the ignition while I was riding home from ASDA with a baguette and some French cheese. That Datatool alarm had worked faultlessly since it was fitted in 2007, but sadly, the internal battery died and because the whole lot is sealed in resin, it could not be replaced. However, the wife and her daughter came to my rescue and twenty minutes later, Sylvie was running again and I have a new Jayney Special edition alarm!
Finally, the day of our trip came and with my daughter's girlfriend in the car with me, we set off on our motorcycle holiday.
Wifey and Daughter filmed the trip and so I present riding an SV around North Wales, while trying hard not to crash into the magnificent scenery.
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The first day of riding for me, was just a local trip, taking in some of the sights and visiting some of the places I used to play when I was a climbing instructor. Barmouth had not changed in twenty four years and I'm not sure if that was a good thing or not? However, my heart broke when we arrived at Eric's Cafe. The climbing paradise that is Tremadog has lost it's love of the sport it seems, since Eric retired. Eric Jones was a hero of mine when I was training to be an instructor and it was so sad to see what had become of his legacy, a once shining light in the mountains of North Wales.
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The weather was not my friend while I was away and as soon as the clouds covered the sun, my arthritis started complaining, as did I, because leathers get heavy when they get wet (from the rain, I'm not that old yet!). However, I had last visited Pen Y Pass twenty years before when I was doing my Mountain Leader Training (Now you know why the arthritis is so bad!), which just happened to be on my thirtieth birthday and I was up to my nipples in the winter waters that flowed off the summit. I had no desire to ever get that cold and unpleasant at this stage in my life. So with my waterproofs in the seat pack and my hand bag full of pain relief, we set off for a day trip. I am sure that most of you here are more than capable of riding a hundred miles in a day, but for me, this was going to be a big day out and I was excited.
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We stopped for dinner in Llanberis and spent some time chatting up the local birds.
I also got to show off my gorgeous Vision Video t-shirt I had picked up at their gig, when I had got to meet Goth Dad himself, but that is a story for another day.
Then it was back on the bike for the ride back to the holiday cottage.
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In this one week, I had ridden more miles than I had in the previous five years. However, my bike was glorious, she rode with impeccable manners and with almost 30K on the clock, she is running beautifully. It breaks my heart to think of the time when I can no longer ride and I know that it is coming. However, for me, this was the trip of a life time. I did get a migraine on the way out of Llanberis, but even with that, this was the best holiday I have ever been on, including all of those mad ones in my twenties when I got paid to climb mad stuff and look like a loon on a crag! Until I took this trip, my heart ached whenever I thought about climbing or mountaineering. But now, I have new memories and they are of riding motorbikes in the mountains with my family. To be honest, could I ask for better memories? I don't think so. We all get old and we all lose the agility we had in our twenties, but until I lose my faculties, this trip will always be with me.
By the way, before any of you ask. I am never selling my bike. I have told my daughter that when I am too infirm to ride, it is going to her and she has to look after it for me. Then she has to ride it to my funeral ( clearly after I kick the bucket, aged ninety eight while being chased down the street by an angry jealous husband who knows what I was doing to his wife)!
