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The Italian FZ-6 of doooooommmmm...


IforB

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58 minutes ago, IforB said:

Same with you, it was brilliant finally putting a face and person to the username! 

Someone put a tiger in the tank I think!

I did use super unleaded all the way, but I think it was those brilliant flapjacks at P2 that did it!

Not with my face it's not!😂😂😂 @heds954pictures have reminded me to get to the dentists. Erk.

 

Anyway,  those flapjacks were awesome!

 

 

Flapssssss....😛

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53 minutes ago, hawkati said:

Not with my face it's not!😂😂😂 @heds954pictures have reminded me to get to the dentists. Erk.

 

Anyway,  those flapjacks were awesome!

 

 

Flapssssss....😛

Got a link to the pictures?

@heds954

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1 minute ago, Thunderbolt said:

Aye.

Sorry we didn’t chat at P3, I was distracted!!!

No problem.

As I PM'd Ifor last night with the following:

 

So, I’m stood at pitstop 3, camera in hand, waiting for LDC participants to turn up. Me and the rest of the P3 crew keep checking our phones for the time, JohnnyMac had suggested that the first would land around 12:30 ish.

And we wait, and wait, and then a biker arrives on a dark blue mid sized bike with screen and panniers, everyone springs into action, the rider is herded off to be plied with food and a hot drink, Matt and the other guys fuss over the bike, and I document the first rider and bike in digital media. 

The rider finishes eating and drinking, dons his helmet and off he goes into the distance.

Then a painful hour passes, we’re all looking at each other nervously, news arrives that one, maybe two, bikes have either missed the stop accidentally or possibly intentionally.

I send Mitch at HQ a message “Where are they!?”, I ask, “They should be with you by now”, he replies. “Who’s been through?” he asks, “A bloke on a blue Diversion, I think, with panniers”, I reply.

”Oh, that’s Ifor”, says Mitch.

”You’re fucking kidding!”, says I.

So, Ifor and me have been chatting on this here forum for some 8-10yrs, and the first time he's in front of me I have no idea who he is!

I looked at the bike, didn't recognise it (despite reading his thread on it), even looked at the Airhawk seat (which I'd actually lent to Ifor for this event!), and thought ‘I’ve got one just like that’, AND STILL DIDN'T BLOODY TWIG! :eusa_wall:

 

Having manned P3 before, and having done the event myself in its inaugural year, I know damn well that most of the riders have the 1000 yard stare by the time they got midway, so I rarely interfere and just observe and click away.

I’m just a bit miffed that I didn’t introduce myself to some of the riders off the forum, including yourself.

Oh well, next time. :rolleyes:

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16 minutes ago, heds954 said:

No problem.

As I PM'd Ifor last night with the following:

 

So, I’m stood at pitstop 3, camera in hand, waiting for LDC participants to turn up. Me and the rest of the P3 crew keep checking our phones for the time, JohnnyMac had suggested that the first would land around 12:30 ish.

And we wait, and wait, and then a biker arrives on a dark blue mid sized bike with screen and panniers, everyone springs into action, the rider is herded off to be plied with food and a hot drink, Matt and the other guys fuss over the bike, and I document the first rider and bike in digital media. 

The rider finishes eating and drinking, dons his helmet and off he goes into the distance.

Then a painful hour passes, we’re all looking at each other nervously, news arrives that one, maybe two, bikes have either missed the stop accidentally or possibly intentionally.

I send Mitch at HQ a message “Where are they!?”, I ask, “They should be with you by now”, he replies. “Who’s been through?” he asks, “A bloke on a blue Diversion, I think, with panniers”, I reply.

”Oh, that’s Ifor”, says Mitch.

”You’re fucking kidding!”, says I.

So, Ifor and me have been chatting on this here forum for some 8-10yrs, and the first time he's in front of me I have no idea who he is!

I looked at the bike, didn't recognise it (despite reading his thread on it), even looked at the Airhawk seat (which I'd actually lent to Ifor for this event!), and thought ‘I’ve got one just like that’, AND STILL DIDN'T BLOODY TWIG! :eusa_wall:

 

Having manned P3 before, and having done the event myself in its inaugural year, I know damn well that most of the riders have the 1000 yard stare by the time they got midway, so I rarely interfere and just observe and click away.

I’m just a bit miffed that I didn’t introduce myself to some of the riders off the forum, including yourself.

Oh well, next time. :rolleyes:

Well I was thinking, must go and give Heds a struggle cuddle, then got distracted, several times….

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BTW @Thunderbolt, @IforB, @cuban pete, @hawkati, whoever else there was off the forum riding the LDC2021, it'd be great if you old reprobates fine gentlemen could copy and paste the image links from the Facebook images onto your LDC build threads so that we can point and laugh shower you with praise and adulation.

 

Thus

202390823_1892358747591216_7700777056288

Edited by heds954
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2 minutes ago, Thunderbolt said:

Well I was thinking, must go and give Heds a struggle cuddle, then got distracted, several times….

You could have stroked my long lens too (many did!) :tacheemoticonwh7:

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5 minutes ago, Sidkinky said:

I’ve heard it’s only a 50mm……

But 50mm's big, isn't it!? :huh:

Edited by heds954
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18 minutes ago, heds954 said:

BTW @Thunderbolt, @IforB, @cuban pete, whoever else there was off the forum riding the LDC2021, it'd be great if you old reprobates fine gentlemen could copy and paste the image links from the Facebook images onto your LDC build threads so that we can point and laugh shower you with praise and adulation.

 

Thus

202390823_1892358747591216_7700777056288

How the crud do I do that?

 

My brain can’t cope.

 

and I am supposed to be working.

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Just now, hawkati said:

Get a dark room you two!

Bloody photogramaphers,  always comparing apertures...

But not shutter speeds, there's no prizes for going off first. :D 

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6 minutes ago, heds954 said:

But not shutter speeds, there's no prizes for going off first. :D 

Been so long since I’ve picked up a camera I’d be wary of the shutter going off too quickly.

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1 minute ago, Sidkinky said:

Been so long since I’ve picked up a camera I’d be wary of the shutter going off too quickly.

1156044c-7cad-4c16-87d6-3f79ec91da6e_tex

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3 hours ago, Thunderbolt said:

How the crud do I do that?

 

My brain can’t cope.

 

and I am supposed to be working.

I feel absolutely shell shocked today 😂  impossible to function. 

Kate is taking me on the school run to pick my youngest up as she doesn't trust me to get it done right.

Jesus..

204213913-1892360424257715-3723138546202

Edited by cuban pete
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2 minutes ago, cuban pete said:

I feel absolutely shell shocked today 😂  impossible to function. 

Kate is taking me on the school run to pick my youngest up as she doesn't trust me to get it done right.

Jesus..

In fairness, I bet your missus had to take those kind of precautions before you did the LDC, didn't she? :rolleyes:

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6 minutes ago, heds954 said:

In fairness, I bet your missus had to take those kind of precautions before you did the LDC, didn't she? :rolleyes:

Pretty much... 

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18 hours ago, IforB said:

Well bloody hell.

What an experience. What an event and what a ride. 

Just amazing. Truly a jaw dropping "will live with me forever" experience. 

If you have ever thought about doing it. Don't piss around, it is the hardest bike experience you will have, but at the same time the most rewarding too. It is too early for me to decide if I will do it again, but I think I can guess what will happen! 

Epic, awesome, terrifying at times, cold as fuck, frustrating, exhausting, intimidating, painful are all ways of describing it, but the one I will say captures it best is "life affirming." 

Every person there is doing it for a reason. Every person there has an emotional attachment to the cause and is willing to put themselves through absolute hell to make it. Everyone I met and spoke to from riders to support crews were just brilliant, lovely people. To say it has restored a big chunk of my faith in humanity is an understatement. 

As for the bike, well, other than a blown main fuse, she is still running as well as she did at the start. 

I genuinely love that thing. It's no sportsbike or exotic jewel, but for this ride? I don't think I could have had a better bike. It is covered in cow shit has a million dead flies welded to it, the side lights won't turn off without disconnecting the battery and the nice new tyres have been squared off to hell, but she is still starting on the button and everything works and also managed to keep ahead of BMW 1000RR whilst fully panniered up on the way back to Stirling this afternoon. 

FZ6's might not get headlines, but what a fine little bike they are. 

Lots of people have asked to buy her, but after the last few days? No way. It might be "just" a £300 bike, but it is worth a lot more to me than that. It allowed me to fulfil a long held ambition and gave me an experience I cannot quite put into words. No money can ever replace that and even if it's wheeled out once a year for the LDU only, so be it. 

What a cracking little machine it is. What an awesome (in the correct use of the word) experience it was. 

As I rode away from from JoG today. I was genuinely emotional. The sense of relief, the sense of achievement and the feeling of just having been part of something that fantastic was a little over-whelming. Being exhausted probably didn't help, but I blubbed like a bairn in my helmet as I ride down the road. 

I will never forget this. I've done a lot of cool shit in my life. This is top 3.

 

Nice summary and great ride Ifor.

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After a quick 460 miles yesterday (an absolute piece of piss after the actual ride!) the ol' girl is back in the garage and due a damned good wash and some looking after. 

I was met by a welcoming committee of family and friends, who then had to endure me excitedly gabbling at them at 1000mph about the whole event in microscopic detail. 

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How it started. 

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A wee bit of electrical trouble at P4 that lost me 30 mins getting sorted. 

gqArUDK.jpg

When we arrived at JoG. 

ZsnJNdn.jpg

The eyes of someone who has just done 1000+ miles in 22 hrs

9NHiEPW.jpg

Just a brilliant bunch. A beautiful morning to wake up to as well! 

1Z80o8S.jpg

And finally home! 

A wonderful experience that I will remember forever and I can very much see me doing it again too!

Though I have to say, I am as sore as anything. My hands don't work and are fixed into a claw, my arse feels like it has been pounded more times than a Pornstar's, my lower back is sending warning signals that if I move too much, it will snap and my legs appear to not be responding to commands in the way they normally do. 

Other than that, I'm fine! 

P. S I bloody love that little bike. 

Edited by IforB
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As the chances of me doing next year's ride are somewhat better than evens, then my plans to completely rebuild the old girl and flog it are going to be put on hold. 

Originally, I was going to tart her up, sell her and add it to the pot, as I suspected this would be a one off and I was very, very unsure if I'd manage to complete it. 

As it is, my fundraising total is currently over £5K with more to come. A number I cannot quite believe. So running the numbers, if I can do similar or even half that next year, that will be worth more than tarting up, selling it and putting any profits into the pot. I reckon I'll make more money for CR by doing the ride again and in my head, that's the whole point of it afterall!

So, this means that only the absolute essentials will be dealt with prior to next year. 

The list of jobs after the run is like this:

Clutch plates (there is naff all left and it is as grabby as hell) 

Clutch cable (the inner sleeve is gone and it is graunchy even with ten tonnes of lube down it) 

Sort the electrical gremlins (suspect it just needs a new ignition barrel. Luckily I have one in the garage as I didn't think the old one was fixable, but it was, sort of!) 

New brake pads (allowed out of budget) 

New tyres (again allowed out of budget) 

A basic service. 

Better f'ing lights of some description. The ones on it are woeful. I rode the last section to JoG in braille. It was truly, horrifyingly bad, I nearly binned it at least 4 times on the last 10 miles alone. No road markings and the road is the same colour as the moorland around it... I'll probably chuck some LED bulbs in and maybe add some ebay special aux lights too. You simply cannot have enough light on that last leg. 

That's it. I reckon I can do it for a couple of hundred notes, so we'll be within this year's budget, let alone whatever happens next year with that. I suspect from the conversations this year, it may get upped a wee bit, but I'll keep it as minimal as possible whatever. 

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Regards the ignition shenanigans, have you tried swapping the Phillips screwdriver for a flathead? :eusa_think:

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7 hours ago, Basil said:

Regards the ignition shenanigans, have you tried swapping the Phillips screwdriver for a flathead? :eusa_think:

That is pretty much how it works now! 

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On 6/7/2021 at 2:10 PM, IforB said:

Yes. Yes there is. I shall however leave the exact details of it until after the ride. M'Lud!

Just to add, it does involve something my wife nicknamed the "Whale's vagina" to sort. 

chop, chop! the suspense is killing me*

 

 

 

* it isn't

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44 minutes ago, Tom Mac said:

chop, chop! the suspense is killing me*

 

 

 

* it isn't

Oh OK then. For the benefit of t'internets, this is an apocryphal tale and as a work of fiction has been made up purely to delight and amuse. 

At no point did I;

Buy a similar frame with a number plate and V5 off a well known Internet shopping place

Buy stickers that have numbers on them

Apply stickers. 

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