Rays 2008 CBR1000RR Fireblade

At last years NEC Bike Show Ray spent quite a bit of time on the Honda stand, we thought at the time he fancied one of Honda's press girls but it turned out he was getting his rocks off looking at a different Honda badge, the new CBR1000RR Fireblade

It turns out that Ray has gone and replaced his 2005 CBR1000RR Fireblade with a brand new 2008 CBR1000RR Fireblade - the lucky bugger!

Ray collected his new bike on the 13th of March and due to poor weather he has only ridden the bike home from the dealers.

A few more pictures can be found here

Abergavenny

Saturday was a surprisingly beautiful sunny day for February so we decided to meet up the Bonzo and Ray at the Round Table Cafe on the A40 near Monmouth, the only problem was that as usual we were running a little late so that forced us to use the M42/M45/M50 so after 70-odd miles of mind numbing motorway we eventually met up at the Round Table Cafe for our usual start to the day, a scrummy breakfast (OK, in this case it was brunch as breakfast had finished) – Thanks Bonzo for the Brunch.

After we had finished our brunch we decided to head down one of our favourite roads, the B4521 into Abergavenny. After 20 miles of slipping and sliding around corners, along straights covered in mud from all the tractors we eventually made it safely to Abergavenny and the (almost) world famous Oasis Snack Bar (Bus Station Cafe) for coffee.

While we were lounging around the cafe we got chatting to a guy on a Honda Valadero (Sorry I forgot your name) who told us about a new Honda dealers that had just opened in Cwmbran and seeing how Ray is looking at replacing his current 2005 CBR100RR Fireblade with the new 2008 CBR1000RR Fireblade we decided to have a ride over and take a look.

Once again thanks to the guy on the Honda Valadero as because we are useless and couldn’t understand where the Honda Dealers were he offered top show us as he was heading in that direction.

15 miles later we arrived at Dragon Honda’s new showroom and was impressed at the spacious layout, the various make and models of bikes on offer and the free coffee (try the hot chocolate, it’s very good)

After having a look at the new 2008 Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade and a number of other good bikes including a tasty BMW 1150GS Adventure and 2 amazingly engineered trikes we decided it was time to start heading home, we said good bye to Ray (and f&*k off to Bonzo) and headed back towards Monmouth via the A472 road through Usk and once again started up the A40/M50/M5/M42 home.

A few more pictures can be found here

Sorry mate I didn't see you

I've just found this great video on YouTube and thought everyone would also like to see it.

If only ehh?

Photo of Scott

Above is a photo I took of Scott after his 4 hour black belt grading, poor thing (you should have seen him the day after)

Another reason to be proud.

We have yet another reason to be proud of our eldest son Scott

Last Sunday he took and passed his Karate Black Belt!

Scott has been training for the last 5 years, attending lessons at least twice a week as well as numerous courses and he has always trained hard and tried his best.

Both myself and my wife are extremely proud of Scott, he didn’t have a good start to life and was in hospital for over 8 months when he was born and on more than one occasion we were told that he would not survive the night but Scott being Scott, even at that early age showed his now extreme determination and managed to pull thru.

Scott was nil by mouth for over 10 years and was fed by a machine for up to 18 hours a day and as a result has very poor gross and fine motor skills and is very small for his age but with his determination and his Karate training he has come on leaps and bounds to the point that he is now a BLACK BELT!

If anyone is interested in Scott’s problems you can read more here

I hope to post a new photo of Scott with his Black Belt in a few days...

Scotty – Well Done Mate, Love You Loads!

MBI Riders Choice Awards

It’s time for you to have your say in this years prestigious MBI Riders Choice Awards.

This is where you, the average biker get a chance to cast your vote and tell the motorcycle industry who you think has produced the best new motorcycle, product, service, individual and also the worst!

Voting only takes a few minutes and there’s no need to go through any lengthy registration process or give any personal details.

To make your voice (or should that be click?) heard simply head over to the MBI website and cast your vote now!

Website Problems

Arrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhh!

Yet again within less than a month the company that hosts our main website at www.RigsVille.org.uk has a problem with the server that hosts our website.

The problem is based around an excellent website plug-in called AspJpeg that allows us to generate thumbnails for any photo's that we use on the fly.

Currently if you visit RigsVille you will notice that the website seems perfectly OK, that is until you select a page that contains any photos, for example the Bike Rides section.

Now you will see an error message due to the failure of the plug-in on the web server to generate the thumbnail photos.

This isn't the 1st, 2nd or even 3rd time that this problem has occurred and from what I'm led to understand it can be caused by a Microsoft update being installed and the fix is to simply re-boot the server.

I'm very sorry for any inconvenience that may cause anyone trying to access the website, hopefully it will get sorted within the next 24 hours or so......

Deflated?

Due to having a bad shoulder since the end of October I’ve been unable to get out on my bike for a while but I did notice in December that my rear tyre had lost quite a lot of pressure, so I pumped the tyre back up to the correct pressure and had a good look around the tyre for any nails, screws or small furry mammals that might have got lodged into the tyre causing the problem.

After an exhaustive examination (OK I spun the rear wheel a couple of times, kicked it a few more and made that sucking sound through my teeth that all mechanics seem to do) I couldn’t see anything obvious (obvious as it a 4 foot spike) so I decided that after all this hard work I should treat myself to a bacon sandwich and a cup of tea and have another look later on.

Much later, OK, the following day I checked the rear tyre and while it seemed still fully inflated so I checked the tyres pressure and it had gone down from 42PSI to 39 PSI – Crap! This means I got me a puncture!

This time after I had pumped the tyre back up I spent more time examining it but I still couldn’t find anything that might such cause a puncture, I took the wheel off the bike and using my best BMX puncture repair skills I found a big bucket and subsequently attempted to not only soak myself but drown the wheel in water in a vain attempt to see any air bubbles so that I could find out where the problem was.

After getting completely soaked (did I mention that it was a very cold day?) I gave up and decided to leave it to the experts.

Saturday morning saw me rechecking the rear tyre and then riding slowly down to Wheel House Tyres in Coleshill to see if they could do something with the tyre.

When I arrived at Wheel House Tyres they quickly took the wheel off and they also couldn’t see anything obvious so they decided to replaced the valve and clean the wheel rim in case there was some debris that might cause the problem (I have already looked for small furry mammals myself) and as it turns out when they went to replace the valve they found a very small hole in the valve that may have been caused but the super trendy anodized valve cap that I had fitted (They were on the bike when I bought it – honest!)

After they replaced the valve and fitted a standard valve cap they pronounced the job sorted, this was great news as not only did they find a problem, it was only the valve and that means not having to buy a new tyre or having to ride about on a repaired tyre.

Total cost?

£12.50 happily spent

Nominations For Annual Motorcycle Awards 2008

The nominations for the annual MBI Motorcycle Awards 2008 have opened!

MBI (Motorcycle Bloggers International), a group of over 142 Motorcycle Bloggers and News websites (of which RigsVille are proud members) is organizing this annual event.

What makes this yearly award more interesting than any others, is that it's you, the reader, who decides who gets nominated, it's you the reader who will vote for the nominations, so it's you, the readers who vote the winners!!! It's totally in your control.

Do you have a favorite motorcycle? (Sprint ST?)
Lust after one you can't afford? (Sprint ST?)
Admire someone who has done a lot for the motorcycle world?? (Rig?)

Now is your chance to make your voice heard!

All you have to do is head over to the MBI website and place your nomination but hurry as nominations close at the end of January and remember that anyone can nominate you don't need to be a MBI member to take part.

Happy Christmas from RigsVille

Everyone at RigsVille would like to wish all our readers a very Merry Christmas and lets hope that 2008 bring some great biking rides and in Bonzo's case even bigger breakfasts.

2007 NEC Bike Show

I've just uploaded some pictures of this years NEC Bike Show, they can be found here

Aberystwyth

We started the day meeting up with Bonzo and Ray at Fromes Hill Cafe where we had our usual excellent breakfast before heading onto the A417 into Leominster and picking up the excellent A44 until we had a quick stop at Crossgates Cafe

After we had refilled on coffee we stayed on the A44/A470 and followed this great road that's full of fast sweeping bends all the way into Aberystwyth.

Once we had found the seafront and parked our bikes next to loads of other bikes we stopped for yet another coffee and then it was time to head home which we did again via the A44 all the way back to Worcester and the Midlands.

A few more pictures can be found here

Grindleford Station Cafe

Grindleford Station Cafe was the destination for today's little ride out as it's only 80 miles away but they are some of the best roads in the area including the A515 through Ashbourne and the B5056 towards Bakewell

Once we had arrived and gorged ourselves we as had to start headed back home but headed home via Tideswell and the A515 into Ashbourne and then due to time issues we jumped onto the A52/A38 home.

A few more pictures can be found here

A proud day to be a Dad

Sorry but this post has nothing to do with motorcycles but I’m so happy and proud that I just had to post this.

For anyone that doesn’t know both me and my eldest son, Scott both study Karate and are members of the Shukokai Karate Association.

Last Sunday (September 30th) was our Karate associations National Championships held in Birmingham, now neither myself nor Scott were competing this year (I did win 1st place in 2005 for Kata but that’s enough of me blowing my own trumpet.) We went along to this year’s competition to cheer on and support a number of our fellow students who were taking part.

After a couple of hours watching and cheering on our friends just before the main event, the men’s black belt division the chief instructor of the association, Malcom Hudson stopped the proceedings and asked for Scott to come and join him in the centre of the hall.

Scott was then given an award for his “Dedication to Training” for his continued effort in training in Karate all through his illness.

We are all very proud of Scott, as any parent would be but even more so when you understand all the medical problems he has come through, all with a brave face and a never ending smile.

Scott – I love you mate.

Bournemouth

It was mid-August and Bob was starting to get itchy feet and he wanted to go and have a paddle in the sea (probably to soothe the itching)

So early on a Saturday morning myself, Bob and Chinny jumped onto our bikes to meet up with Ray and Bonzo, we had decided to meet them at junction 17 of the M4 so we took the excellent A429 Fosse Way from Warwick south and around Cirencester and past Malmesbury until we hit the M4.

After meeting up with the lads we decided to head back into Malmesbury and look for breakfast.

After parking up in Malmesbury (It was nice to see that they had put out the flags to celebrate our visit) we had a little wander around this lovely looking town and eventually found a little cafe called Summer Cafe on the High Street where we had our breakfast baguettes and coffee.

Once our bellies had been filled and our bladders emptied the next part of today's trip was to head south through Devizes and around Salisbury and then down the A338 until we reached Bournemouth

After wandering around Bournemouth for a couple of hours, walking along the pier, ogling all the very attractive ladies on the beach including one brave lady who seemed to have forgot her bikini top and trying to keep Bonzo off all the fair rides we decided it was time to saddle up and start the long journey home.

Rather than retrace our route back we decided to take a slightly different way home that included the A350 from Blandford Forum north through to Warminster where we had a quick stop at a local pub for refreshments (diet coke) before carrying on up the A350 back to junction 17 of the M4 where we said our goodbyes to Ray and Bonzo and we then retraced our earlier route back up the Fosse way.

All in all we had a great, if very sweaty day and covered over 445 miles and after all that Bob never did get his paddle.

A few more pictures can be found here

Aberaeron

Saturday morning saw myself, Bob and Chinny meet up again with Bonzo and Ray at Fromes Hill Cafe for our usual start to a day out on the bikes, a nice big fry up!

Unfortunately I had leave after breakfast to go to my niece Taylor’s 4th birthday party so while I headed back up the M5 with thoughts of birthday cake and orange squash the others decided to head for the seaside for some sticky rock at Aberaeron.

A few more pictures can be found here

Hartington

Due to other commitments only myself and Bob could get out today and even then I had to be home early, so we we decided upon a little run into the Peak District for breakfast.

We took our usual route through Lichfield and down the A515 until we stopped for petrol at just before Sudbury when I bumped into Boycie and Big Dave from t595.net who were also heading out for a little ride of their own. After getting some advice from Boycie about some of the local roads we jumped back on the bikes and headed back up the A515 into Ashbourne

After make our way through the traffic in Ashbourne we stayed on the A515 which is a great, if busy and heavily policed road until we turned left onto the B5054 and headed into Hartington. Like most of the B roads within the Peak District this a lovely road with some great views but due to a lack of time we stopped in Hartington upon the recommendation of a mate of mine at the local tea room where we had our usual breakfast before heading back out onto the roads and headed home.

A few more pictures can be found here

Breakfast Run

After a couple of years being unable to ride his Blackbird due to health reasons, it was great to see Chinny again

As with almost all our ride outs we arranged to meet up at a cafe, in this case we were meeting up with Bonzo and Ray so we decided to meet at Fromes Hill Cafe as this is half way between where we all live.

After our usual excellent breakfasts we decided to have a ride along the excellent A44 from Bromyard, through Leominster and stopping off at Crossgates Cafe for yet more food.

Here we had to call is a day and head home due to people having to get back early but it was great to see Chinny back on the road.

A few more pictures can be found here

PilliGrip Seat Cover

Many thanks to Cara over at Jangle Jangle for reviewing the PilliGrip Seat Cover for us, you can read all about the PilliGrip here
 

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