What to wear? (Tim)

Ive decided that I shall wear my latest ebay bought leather bike jacket, but not the trousers - im going in jeans.  I do worry about riding without good protection - but then I look at the all the continental motorbike riders in their shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops and think maybe i'm a bit of a pussy.

Its difficult to not be tempted to pack something warm when the weather outside here is so wet and miserable.

Nowhere near ready (Tim)

Oh shit.  Its 10:30pm.  In 12 hours time we set off on our scooters to the south of France, and we haven't even looked at the map yet!
I haven't finished packing.  I haven't even got the bike out of the garage - in fact I haven't started my scooter for about 4 weeks.
I've been trying hard all day to catch up on some last minute work things, and I've simply run out of time to do all the scooter things that I'd planned.

This is a one way trip - we are riding to Nice but getting the bikes shipped back to the UK while we dash back for work...... the only trouble is, I still havent got the transportation organised yet to get the bikes back :-(  I thought I'd have it all in place by now, but sadly not (yet)

But I am an optimist - I am sure everything will work out fine (fingers and toes crossed)

Camping kit

Trial run for the trip mat,tent and sleeping bag under the seat. Currently in Wales camping with my canvass vango force ten tent which I wish I was taking but it's just too big. My only quandary now having decided not to take coffee making gear is wether to take a ukulele. Big decision.

Here comes the sun, doo doo doo do

It's official - Great Britain has had the worse summer weather since records began - it really has been dreadful.
I've been worried about our ride - motorcycling in the rain is never much fun, and I've had to buy super-waterproof over trousers (my current ones clearly weren't waterproof enough!)
But look! Here's a tv shot of today's French meteo! Sunshine all the way!
Now our only worry will be, should we / shouldn't we ride in T-shirts?

So why are we doing this?

Because we can! :-)
I was going to go on and add that we are all "Young, Healthy and Wealthy" - but that would be lying.

I think we would all agree that none of us are "Wealthy", but we are all self-employed, so that does allow us to be a little more flexible with how we spend our time.  So we can choose to make this trip.... but we are having to do it on a tight budget - My initial idea of staying in quaint little B&Bs was quickly superseded with budget camping!

And I think we would all agree that none of us are "Young" - though I guess this is a relative term.  For instance I would say that Scott is young.  Lorne would say that Scott is young, and both Lorne and Scott would say I (Tim) was old...... Its true, I am old........ or very soon will be.  In approximately one months time I shall become 50.  And this is one of the reasons the idea came up to make this trip - A birthday trip!
It all started maybe 9 months ago when the 'silly' suggestion came up (I think initiated by my wife) of making a scooter trip to the south of France for a birthday party to celebrate my 50th - my run to italy had been fun the year before, and now that a bunch of us had scooters, why not do a pack run across France?  Since my ride with Scott to Italy, my dad, brother and brother-in-law (actually both of them - Lorne is also my brother-in-law) had bought old scooters (there are a lot of scooter is in my family!) and  to all ride together toward the sunshine coast of Nice seemed like a grand idea - one that everyone initially responded to with great enthusiasm.  Sadly, like many 'silly' ideas, after thinking about it for a while, most people dropped out of the plan (which is a shame - we only live once, and we should never miss the opportunity to do something 'silly' in the sunshine - and I'd have liked to adventured a bit with my dad and bro - another time maybe?) and so the pack was quickly whittled down to the hard-core; Scott, Lorne and me (Tim).  We are doing this trip because we can, and we want to! :-)

And as for "Healthy"?  Well, I think we could all say we were healthy if it wasn't for one (or should that be 'two'?) small details..... But maybe Scott doesn't want me to share the details of his recent little snip here on this blog

I SO want to get on my Vespa

This time next week we will be riding our Vespas through France.
Today (in Corsica) I stopped at a bar for a beer - the bar was on the top of a cliff 200 feet above the most perfect sea. Two Vespas also stopped for a beer, and it made my heart ache for some scooter riding of my own :-)

How much stuff can you get on a Vespa

I am just planning how few pairs of pants and tshirts I can get away with for our trip. I like to travel light. I don't want unnecessary stuff hampering the handling of my scooter.
As I ponder this I notice a Vespa pull up at the cafe I'm sitting in. This is FULLY loaded! Hanging onto the other side of this bike is one of those round pop-up tents. AND he had a pillion too!
I wonder how that handles on the corners?