Modern Vespa

Billy, that sounds fab. I haven't ridden in the Netherlands so do let me know if it's worth the trip (bit flat innit? I love cycling there though!).

We spent the weekend in the King's Lynn Premier Inn, so as Jim says didn't see much of the town itself, but enjoyed the roads round about.

Glad you had a good time in Norfolk.

Have you tried that cider yet?

Cracked it open last night - it is absolutely perfect! Many thanks.

Glad you enjoyed it. (Just checking you were still alive. If you're OK, then I might start drinking it myself )

I haven't reached the dead rat in the bottom of the bottle yet, mind...

I've only just noticed that we're on page 86 - the number of my favourite fictional secret agent!

Still time for me to tell you that it's not a rat then. Eees filligree Siberian gerbeeeel.

Baseel! Here, Basil!

No....eees filigleee Siberieean hamsteeer...

Que?


(just don't mention the war.)

Nooo! Not another Hammy the Hamster thread...
http://tscoot.co.uk/boards/index.php?topic=5235.msg67930#msg67930

I have nothing to add except

Prettty!!!!!

I've been online so long I can remember when hampsterdance.com was one of the only things on the internet!

It was still really annoying back then

Yup, me too. I'm considered a web design dinosaur because I started hand-coding in '96...before anyone could make a site in Dreamweaver or Blogger. LOTS of annoying stuff between then and now. Remember when every under-construction site had an obnoxious gif warning you of the fact? Remember all the sites that had black starry backgrounds and played the site-owners favorite song (sometimes, ironically, "Dream Weaver") at you while it took 3 hours to load its gigantic graphics?

Good times.

WAKE UP!

In the spirit of adventure that is going on around here in other threads, i thought i'd just let you all know that yesterday I booked my ferry tickets for my upcomming scooter trip to .... ITALY

Only 64 sleeps to go.

HERE is a link to the map of the route if anyone is interested or has any suggestions of place to go en route (you may need to zoom out)

Happy days indeed! Here is the very first page I ever made - preserved for posterity: http://www.alice.dryden.co.uk/spies/

Christos, you lucky blighter, where are you going? I ventured into Italy last year - Cortina, Lake Como and Lake Garda - and I want to see more of it. I'd love to do it by Vespa rather than bigscoot too.

Simply click on the newly inserted link for the map and destinations. I dont care where we go or where we end up to be honest, I'm just taking it easy and for me its more about the getting there than GETTING THERE if you know what I mean.

There are 6 of us from our scooter club going, 5 on Vespas PX200s and 1 on a Lammy Silver Special (so obviously he wont be going very far )

I'm very excited about the whole thing and really cant wait to get going, its about 2 months time and its like waiting for christmas but without the commercial tat and boreing relatives.

Heh heh heh!

Looks a fantastic route, and I look forward to hearing all about it (especially the Piaggio Museum, which is high on my list of things to do in Italy). I know what you mean about the wait, too. All that anticipation and then it's over so quickly!

Ping jimc: 6000-mile service booked at Geomoto in Camden, will report back. All I know about them is that they're not Metropolis, but that's good enough for me...

Thanks for the heads-up Alice.

Very jealous of your trip Christos.

Is it that there are some specific things you're trying to see in the Sth West of Switzerland? (I'm only asking because your route gets a little dog-leggy there, and by going round Lake Geneva you miss the big concentration of lovely passes in the middle of the country. You also miss the fantastic Le Corbusier chapel at Ronchamp - just on the French side of the border above Basel).

Forgive my nosiness.

Well BB there is a kind of reason we are taking the route shown. We are avoiding all major roads on our trip and all toll roads. We are also heading for Lake Orta (i've been there before) so that we can stop off and have a swim, its the only lake that you can actually swim in due to the lack off pollution. We are also thinking of meeting up with some italian vespa riders who came over to the IOW last year and ended up staying a few nights in Brighton.

We may choose a different route for our return trip so any suggestions of roads to ride or place to go visit are welcome.
There is no concrete plans on this trip and changes can be made depending on events along the way.

nosiness forgiven

Grossglockner Pass! There's a toll but it's worth it for the photo op at the peak. And you get a sticker to put on your bike and show off.

Cheers Christos.

I was asking 'cause we went to Switzerland on our scoots the last two summers, and had a great time.

Half of that time was spent over on the Northeast of Switzerland, which may not be relevant to you (but a day in Liechtenstein is a laugh, and may be worth a detour, depending on how you feel about visiting countries which scarcely exist).

We did have a great time (and rode some great roads) over in the Graubunden area (Sth East corner, bordering onto Italy and Austria).

If you want to do some great passes, then I'd seriously think about going pretty much through the middle of the country. Around Meiringen, for example, you can have a day of riding which takes in three or four passes (Fluella, Grimsel, Furka, Sussten, Brunig, and others I can't remember right now. All awesome. I can do some more forced remembering if you want to know anything specific).

If you're flexible about your route through France, maybe consider coming back the more northerly way and spending a night in Nancy (lovely town to end the day in. Big squares with a good choice of food and drink. If you're lucky, they do great, free, son et lumiere presentations in the evening in the main square. You can also visit Champagne country if you then head on via Reims (another decent place to spend the night, and about one decent day's riding for me from London).

I think I've still got a swiss road map somewhere, which you're welcome to borrow (as long as I get it back when you've finished - I love maps and like to keep them).

I'm off on hols on Sunday though, so if you want to borrow a map you'll have to pm me your address quick, or wait a week.

I'm very jealous....

I concur with everything BB said. The Sustenpass was my favourite, and you can stop at the Reichenbach Falls, where Holmes and Moriarty slugged it out.

Is next week your camper van extravaganza? Have fun!

Yarrr! All sails set for Cornwall, me hearties. Avast behind, Jago, and all that.

I'm off to the Wirral tomorrow, wherever that is, for a friend's wedding. And some scootering.

Oh yes, of course. So good luck in finding the things that you can't tell anyone about finding (or, presumably, even not finding).

And I hope the wedding's good, and turns into a good party. (I love weddings. Always get me.)

Right I'm off to Amsterdam in the morning on The Hornet.

I'll be back on Monday so keep the place tidy.

Much affection

Billy-no-scoot

i'm off to lisieux with the kids in the car next week.

enjoy your trips everyone.

Have a good time, everyone - and Bill, any Dutch gin you might bring back would be gratefully received...

Holliday yesterday, and a picknick rideout .... a lot of good food, vino, limoncello, grappa and coffee ...

See the pictures

Nothing nearly as interesting for me; hubby's off work this week so it's been nice having him around...if only so I can run errands and make appts without dragging the sullen tween with me.

Anyway, my weekend will consist of taking pix of the LX50 to put on her "for sale" page, cutting hubs hair, hanging out with friends Friday night (sans kid, thanks to the in-laws taking her for the night...suckahs), and Saturday possibly heading up to SF to look at replacement scoots for the LX. Monday's a holiday here, so there'll be a lot of sleeping late as well. Like I didn't do that already.

Oh, and at some point this weekend I should probably study the lyrics to the damned show I'm in. I know the notes pretty well but I'm having to bullshit the words during rehearsals. And it's Gilbert and Sullivan so for the rapid patter I actually had to cluck it to keep up. Not my finest moment...if only because my cast-mates around me kept giggling. (who's laughing? just us chickens.)

I've just picked the GTS up from being serviced.

New brake pads, new belt, new Bitubo front shock, Stebel Nautilus compact (LOUD!!), Michelin Pilot sport on the back wheel...

...it's like a new scoot!

Shame I can't ride it for another week. Off on hols on Monday. Take care everyone.

Did a recce today for a Surrey Lanes evening ride (July 1st, book the date) - what used to be crappily surfaced but NSL roads over a huge area of Surrey have become beautifully surfaced 40mph roads! Humbug.

So another couple of recces are required. Damn, more riding free as a bird will have to be endured...

(Also posted in the rallies section)

Okey-doke, plans are firmed up a bit.

We'll be leaving Ryka's (Boxhill) at 19:00 prompt, full tanks, empty bladders, briefing at 18:50. This is a mixture of all sorts of roads, but mostly unclassified NSL. The route is about 50 miles, and we'll finish at the White Horse, Epsom, where the beer will be cheap for those who want some, and food will be available. I'm aiming to arrive there by 20:45, and the chef normally leaves at 21:00, so before the time I'll be asking who wants to eat there, and to pre-book as many meals as possible to enable us all to get served without frustration. Chef can stay a bit later if required, no problem.

There will be at least one fag/pee stop at a petrol station about half-way.

Those who have been on one of these rides before may have done about half the lanes on previous occasions. This is deliberate because they are too good to miss. Some may be in the opposite direction than previously though.

New brake pads? How many miles you done on that suckah? I'm still on the original pads on my GT after 28000 kms!!! And I brake hard.

greece is excellent that's all i'm sayin'

wonder machine and pdxvespa and myself have discovered an uber-amazing seafood restaurant that keeps luring us back with free desserts. last night's wonderfull creation was a mille-feuilles smothered in cream and fresh raspberries. it was so big you could have concealed a large suitcase inside it. we demolished it in under 5 minutes

i should also add that my rental scooter is a brand new 125cc kymco 'agility'.... and i like it it's a very agile little creature and corners like a greased weasel. huge fun to ride, even though it is a bit plasticky and rattley and the seat is the most uncomfortable thing i've ever put my bum on.

It is a POS but I have respect for its abilities. That said I rode behind someone today and their muffler fell off at 60 mph.

I also have to ride it like a teenage chav with my knees out to avoid jabbing my knee on the ignition key.

Although I like this place I'm going to come home a day early because heavy rain is forecast for Monday and I don't fancy riding in all that crap for 4 hours.
Me thinks the lucky people in Greece are having much better weather.
This city is odd because the people are delightful but I don't enjoy all of the cliches that it's famous for.
My mate actually had to dupe me into walking through the red light district because I mentioned to him that I really didn't want to go there and it was as awful as I though it was going to be. What's the attraction ?
Just as crass and unpleasant as I thought it was going to be Yuk !
My my buddy actually smiled at one of the more attractive working girls and she exposed her cock to him.
Having said that it's so pretty and all the people (of both sexes ) are so good looking but the only thing that really spoils it are the British getting totally wankered on every street corner.
All the things that people come here for - the hookers, the drugs and the heavy drinking just hold no interest for me and it is a curious feeling walking around not really getting it.
Would someone explain it to me ? Alright I'm not talking it up very well because the buildings are beautiful and the food is just fantastic but the more obvious attractions leave me cold.
In the morning we are going to go for a nice canal boat ride and them I'm going to pack up the Hornet and ride home to catch an early ferry.

Ride safe all

Regards

Bill

It's probably just not your scene. The whole hookers, and heavy drinking is what the kids, stag parties, sex tourists etc do.

But like you said Amsterdam is beautiful, me and genie enjoy ourselves when we go and check out museums, have walks, eat out and have a little smoke. It's a shame you didn't enjoy yourself. How was the ride though?

I think with all holidays nowdays there has to be a purpose. Take the Greece trip for instance, it's all about the scooting and hanging out with friends with a common interest.