Well, I’ve had an adventurous day which included two separate and lengthy rides with my ornery red-headed old hag ....errr, I mean my beloved riding companion, Lucille
My day started this morning with the customary CVMG (vintage M/C group) Sunday breakfast ride. The plan was to meet at a certain Tim Hortons (we’re Canadian eh?) at 8:00 AM and then depart as a group at 8:30 AM for a nice little diner 35 km away in the picturesque town of Kingsville. Soooo, I got up, did the three “Ss” and then woke up Lucille. She started immediately but was “missing” at high revs (above about 4500 RPM). I didn’t have time to argue with her so I just resolved to short-shift today and behave myself with respect to speed.
I left on-time, stopped for fuel on my way to the Timmy’s and was there, sipping a coffee by 7:45 AM. I sat for about 15 minutes but nobody else turned up.....hmmmmmm. That seemed odd..but,....hmmmmm.
Eventually, I re-read the email notice from
Our Fearless Leader and noted that the meet-up was at the Tim Horton’s
in the town of Essex, while I had cleverly stopped
15 km away at the
Manning Rd. & County Rd. 42 location. Smooth move Ex-Lax....
Dammit. Anyhow, I gulped the rest of my coffee and then Lucille and I belted down the road to the
correct location and found four of my compatriots just about to get going to the breakfast spot.
NOTE TO SELF: learn to read, you stupid git. Oh well, one good outcome was that Lucille’s “miss” had now gone missing and she was her old rhorty self again.
I wonder what the issue is (suggestions welcome). We all had a nice ride out to Kingsville and a great breakfast at the Dutch Restaurant (highly recommended) and then I rode back home to do some chores before the next ride this afternoon.
The PM ride was going to be even more fun: one of our local CVMG members was hosting some of his Norton buddies who were on their way to the big
Norton Owners Rally over in Berkeley, Michigan this week and we local-yokels were going to assemble at the aforementioned Manning Rd. Tim’s (i.e the WRONG one) and then ride out to meet the Toronto Norton people at a little restaurant in Blenheim - about 90 km away. The local group included a classic black ‘73 Norton 750 Commando, a new 2017 Norton 961 Commando, a couple of modern sport bikes, a nice ‘73 BMW R75/5 and of course...Lucille.
We got out to Blenheim in good time for the 2:00 PM meet-up with the Toronto contingent and after a delay of about an hour or so, they turned up. Apparently, one of the Toronto bikes had an electrical problem on the way...<
imagine that - a British bike with an electrical problem> but they persevered and made it OK. Here are some photos of the group and note that the R75/5 and Lucille are both cleverly disguised as Nortons to make the Hogtowners feel welcome.
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Fortunately, the Toronto crowd had a good chuckle about the two
ersatz Nortons (heck they had just ridden 450 km on two old British bikes - they must have a sense of humour).
All-in-all, a fun day with more than 225 miles of great riding and not one frickin’ drop of rain the whole time!
Pete