OK, as regular blog followers will know, for various reasons I have had to swap this year’s ride schedule around a bit, but the urge to get out there is as strong as ever, so where?

Well, the last big one was ‘The Italian Job’, so lets keep on with a movie theme, but go back another five years to 1964 and what a year that was; it saw …

James Bond: “Auric Goldfinger? Sounds like a French nail varnish.”

Being a member of a HoG Chapter is more than just motorbikes, it’s about meeting like minded people and making new friends, then sharing great times together. Today was one of those special times, the wedding of two of our Plymouth Chapter members and well, we couldn’t just let them quietly sneak off and do the deed without a Harley Davidson escort, could we?  So an escort it was, with over two dozen roaring V twins cruising through the sunny streets of Bodmin led by the groom, Chris, on a mission to meet his bride…..

…and what are lovely couple they are! Mission accomplished!

Good luck and best wishes to you both, from everyone in the Chapter and the world of Harley Davidson.

Thank you for letting us share your day with you.

Dookes

Wow, what a great last 10 days that Harley and I have just had!

Thursday; I gave Harley a little blast out of about 80 miles as I had a meeting to go to. Mostly lovely weather, but did get the tail end of a shower later in the afternoon.

Friday; with some other Plymouth Chapter members met up with a group from our twin Chapter in Brittany, who arrived in Plymouth on the ferry at six thirty am. In total ten bikes enjoyed a nice ride around East Cornwall; taking in breakfast at Windy Ridge, coffee in Looe and lunch in Mevagissey…. then torrential rain in Bodmin!! All led by Road Captain Denzil.Saturday; off to Exmoor with 3 cylinder Greg. Wonderful weather throughout, lunch in Ilfracombe.

We followed part of the old Lynton and Barnstaple Railway through stunning scenery; this is a much lamented narrow gauge line that closed in 1934. Efforts are being made to reopen the railway, at least in part and look very good; locomotive “Lyd” at Woody Bay station.  In the evening I popped down to Redruth to nephew Daryl’s leaving party, he has a new job in Newbury; good luck Dizz. A 310 miles day!

Today Saturday 25th; Dealership birthday event in Plymouth, live band, dynamometer on site and the sun is shining! Harley with Bodmin Chris’s Deuce, sorry about the pink plastic thing in the shot as well!

Coming soon; watch out for news of the next big trip!

Shadows on the road behind; shadows on the road ahead.

Dookes

I’ve just got a new toy to play with, check this out…It’s a mini HD video camera, that’s a 50 pence coin next to it. Just the thing for recording adventures on the road, once it’s clamped to the handlebars of Harley, the camera not the coin! So watch out for video links in future posts. Neat eh?

We’re gonna open up the throttle, yeah, all down the line.

Dookes

Well, what a super holiday weekend that was…at least here in the South West corner of the UK! The sun actually shone almost all the way through.

It was an important weekend for Harley Davidson too, with the launch of the new Softail Breakout. I was lucky to be invited to the VIP evening at the Plymouth Dealership last Thursday to get an early view of the new model; even better, the sun was shining so I went on two wheels…well it was only polite!

The new Breakout is a clever re-work of the tried and trusted Softail frame, which gives a superb ride with classic hard-tail custom look. I know ‘cos my Harley is a Softail!

The Breakout, which Harley are marketing as a “Performance Cruiser” has been styled with a nod towards street drag bikes. It certainly is eye-catching, but I’m not sure that I would want to ride far with the standard handlebars. Mind you, the alloy wheels are sooo sexy!  

The standard model is fitted with the 103 Inch engine, that’s 1690cc in Euros and would set you back about 16 grand, but if you really want to spoil yourself go for the CVO option…110inch engine, 1802cc, tuned up as much as you want and yours for a cool £21.5K!  But you can’t have one, cos they only made 19 and all are sold!!!  Oh yes, my mate Kev has bought one…honest! This one in lace red, with a distressed leather seat and full Sreamin’ Eagle tuning.

Lace Red? Look closely at this pic, it’s like the lace is trapped within the paint layers…anyone lost their knickers? I love it!

The silver lines are, I believe, stirling silver leaf …lovely, totally OTT; but lovely nonetheless!

Mind you, I lived through and loved Glam Rock!  Each to their own…

Metal Guru, is it you?

Dookes

Wow, what a lovely weekend we have just enjoyed! Saturday dawned bright and sunny so Harley and I just had to get out on the road.

First off, a swift ride into the Plymouth Harley dealership to meet up with Three Cylinder Greg and chew the fat with fellow Chapter members.

Next we did battle with the city’s traffic and boarded the Torpoint Ferry for the short trip back to Cornwall. The crossing is worked by chain ferry, one of only 12 in the UK. Now figure this out: To cross from Devon to Cornwall is free for cars, but costs motorbikes 30p….however, in the opposite direction cars pay and motorbikes don’t!!! It’s pretty good value, which ever way you look at it!

Some of the Royal Navy were moored at Devonport as we crossed, this is HMS Somerset, a type 23 frigate.

Next we took a spin through Polbathic, Landrake and Callington to arrive back at Dookes HQ in time for lunch…many thanks Mrs D!

Suitably refuelled we headed to the former RAF airfield at Davidstowe Moor, about five miles away. This was a base built hastily during the Second World War for the use of aircraft from Coastal Command on anti-submarine patrols. It also played an important role in destroying German naval forces in Western France during the D-Day operation. After closure in 1945 the place enjoyed brief fame as the only venue in Cornwall to host Formula One motor races, where famously Lotus won their first race. Today the place is largely deserted, save for sheep and moorland ponies. There are still some old buildings standing and the mile long runways are largely intact. When the sun shines it’s nice enough, but when the mist falls it’s as bleak as anywhere you can imagine. There are definitely ghosts here.

The old control tower stands silently waiting for missing planes to return…Leaving the sheep and ghosts behind we set off westward crossing the Camel estuary at Wadebridge and picked up the coast road through Bedruthan Steps, Mawgan Porth and Watergate Bay to Newquay. This is a brilliant stretch of tarmac, not über fast but great fun and just the place to go and practice hairpin bends…hmmm, like you get in the mountains, now that gives me an idea!

The surf resort of Newquay was quite buzzing, when isn’t it? We parked up at Fistral Beach, famous for it’s surf, and hunted out the ice-cream parlour. Then shock horror, Dookes had left his wallet back at HQ, doh! Oh well Greg, looks like you get to buy the ices !!! Sorry mate…my turn next time!The water looks great, surf OK as well, but trust me it was ‘kin cold! I’m quite partial to a spot of surfing, but not at this time of year…the old blood/oil mix is far to thin these days!

Anyway, great to blow some more cobwebs away and rack up the two wheel miles. I’ve got a great idea for quick break before the summer harvest as well; let me just hint that it’s solid gold…more soon!

I hear that highway callin’, oh feel the breeze!

Dookes

Today dawned bright and sunny here in Cornwall, if a tad cold! It seemed too much of a nice day to waste and not be on two wheels, so Harley and I hit the road and headed for Mid-Devon to visit my mate Greg, who has been a trifle poorly of late.

Well, to be honest that’s a bit of an understatement, the poor chap has had a bad dose of pneumonia (Is there such a thing as a good dose of it?) that has lasted a month. As a cheerful addition he has also gained two cracked ribs with all the coughing. No-one can call this guy a shirker either, he runs his own cleaning company, GME Cleaning Services, which specialises in high level work and though he tried to keep going eventually the germs finally won and sent him both to bed and hospital!

Worst of all he still can’t ride his motorbike, this is serious!!!

Harley and I headed east amongst all the retreating Emmetts on the A30, it was not fun having to second guess some of those idiots in (probably) company cars flying about like they never passed a driving test. Anyway we went cross-country from Whiddon Down and things got a whole lot nicer, quieter roads, lovely bends and dry tarmac all the way to Greg’s gaff high in the sunny Raddon Hills.

After about a gallon of tea and a splendid lunch Greg suggested we did a spot of astronomy….Now I’m quite partial to a spot of star-gazing myself, but at two in the afternoon, in bright sunshine?

No worries, out came my mate’s latest toy a P.S.T., that’s Personal Sun Telescope to us mere mortals, which was duly adjusted and pointed towards our nearest star, the sun.

At this point I need to emphasise a really important safety matter. DO NOT under any circumstances try this with anything you may have at home, that includes binoculars and ordinary telescopes, because IT WILL BLIND YOU!

The device that Greg owns is a scientific instrument made specially for observing the sun. I had never used one before and was blown away with what we could see. Clearly visible were a number of sunspots, these are turbulent magnetic fields that appear as dark spots on the surface of the sun which often lead to solar flares and coronal ejections and today we could see examples of those as well! Wow!

I’ve found a couple of photos on the net to show something of what we saw. First Sunspots and bear in mid that these spots are about six times the size of Planet Earth.Next Coronal Ejections, even bigger than the sun spots! Go Google for more info.After all that Solar excitement it was time to head back to Cornwall. Harley and I had a cracking ride towards home, but near Okehampton the sky over Dartmoor was blackened by a tremendous column of smoke. I found out later that a massive gorse fire was covering about 1500 acres of the moor and that smoke could be seen from 40 miles away. There were 12 fire engines in attendance with loads of volunteers helping too. Photo BBC.

Great to get out for 150 miles of head clearing freedom, magic

The sirens are screaming and the fires are howling, way down in the valley tonight….

Dookes

Hello Blogs Followers!

I’ve just got back from a nice little 50 mile jaunt, just the thing to blow the cobwebs away, get the new tyres fully scrubbed in and finish bedding in the brake pads. All of which I think we achieved!

The silly season appears to be starting here in the beautiful South West, traffic beginning to get busier and out of area number plates driving like they can’t wait to get to the scene of the accident!

I had a bit of fun in a petrol station earlier, I’d just finished filling Harley and was about to move off when a BMW squeezed, and I mean squeezed, past me to get to the front pump. Unfortunately for him, as I pulled off I just had to adjust my gloves and stopped right next to his driver’s side door. “Sorry mate, didn’t see you trying to get out….!”  Hee, hee, hee!

Bodmin Moor, two miles from Dookes H.Q.

Ride a white swan like the people of the Beltane, wear your hair long, babe you can’t go wrong!

Dookes

Ever get that feeling that things are not going to plan?

Well just lately it’s been hitting me big time!

This year I had plans for two road trips; a Spring jaunt to the Somme with my mate The Crimson Avenger (Get well soon mate!) and later an Autumn trip through Spain and France with Vifferman. Unfortunately the best laid plans have been dashed aside by developments in my non-riding life. We had to cancel the Spring trip and now with heavy heart have had to pull out of the Autumn jaunt as well…on account of being asked to project manage a rather expensive development, which may begin later in the year…..and I don’t know exactly when/if; so can’t commit to things with other people, argh…!
So now I have two mates who are fairly p****d off with me and a burning need to get something planned, cos I’ll go stir crazy if I don’t!

I think I will try to fit something in before the harvest period, domestic negotiations now commencing……watch this space.

The open road….calling loudly!

Dookes

Hello everyone!

I’ve just got back from a pleasant little ride to Plymouth Harley Davidson to participate in the global Harley Davidson Open Day and to look at some of the new models for 2013. It was a bit chilly earlier so I was glad of my heated under-jacket and gloves and arrived in Plymouth nice and toasty! First though was a cup of coffee and a splendid rib eye steak sandwich for breakfast, excellent!

There were a number of new bikes on display including the 2013 Street Bob, which I think is very nice. The dealership had two on display, one in blue and red, the other in Hard-Candy Red Flake. I liked the red bike, but the other did not do much for me…the red and blue looking too much like an old Fordson Tractor to my eye…..but each to their own! See what you think.

First the “Fordson”

Then the red.

There were a quite a few other 2013 models, all of which were nice, but this little 1200cc Sportster caught my eye.

As a bonus and as part of the global celebration of Harley Davidson’s 110 year anniversary everybody visiting was given a commemorative H-D110 pin badge, on the back of each is a unique number to giving a chance to win a trip to Milwaukee and the home of Harley Davidson. I haven’t checked my number yet, but ya never know!

Milwaukee music, the sweetest sound!

Dookes