Frenchbob

Looks and sounds like a great bike, Tom. Don't mend it 'til it breaks is my advice [my 2002 Sport hasn't broken yet, despite my best efforts], but consider joining the "Bog standard" forum thread when you've forgotten to wash it a few times, got rid of the Ohlins and scuffed it a bit.....

You made me look at it again! Actually, Serge was named after the eponymous French singing and smoking person! There's little resemblance, however.

JAP-engined Zenith.

Since this is Serge's forum, and he isn't available right now [he's in the field, Belfast, not in the pot], I feel duty bound to take over as assistant moderator. So, er....that's quite enough of that!

That's good going!

So it is. The V11 is dead: long live the V11! Tant mieux. Let's face it, the spares situation is unlikely to get WORSE. My dealer is very happy to buy any second-hand ones he sees. Dinosaurs are supposed to be extinct, anyway.

Libido? Oh, yes...I think I remember. Martin, this is my problem precisely: recently new tyre. I've done a tubeless repair on it but I think I'll look for some Ultraseal to add as well, if it'll do no harm. Thanks.

Very kind, but I think I'd prefer to be driving over the authors of expat "Don't you wish you were here well let me tell you how good it is since we've established that you can't be or you wouldn't be reading this wank.." books. If it was THAT good for them they'd just shut up and get on with enjoying it, er, like I do.....? Put it another way, NO amount of money would make me: - attract any more expat Brits to an area I think so much of - betray my French friends and neighbours in print Meanwhile, the sun is shining [or it was a few hours ago], Serge is feeling frisky and has two new girls to beguile, the V11 is fruity.......and I've picked up a screw in the rear tyre that hisses when you poke at it: aaaaaarrrrgh! Yes, I can repair it. No, I won't be happy until I've replaced the tyre. Yes, they're bloody expensive. Where's my fountain pen?

Is that your final word?

Thanks, Belfast. I'm touched by your efforts [or just touched, if you're listening to 'er indoors] with the cover. From your handwriting, I deduce that you are a physicist.... No applause, please! My son's a physicist and he writes exactly like that. Prozac? We have a proper health service, here, and my doctor's response to being reminded of the alarming amounts of alcohol that I take instead of Prozac was to get my liver checked out to see if it's handling it OK. It is. This was done as a priority, within a few days of me consulting him because he knows how thirsty I get.

But I was the first to get the correct answer! Isn't that what the quizzes are all about, or am I AGAIN missing something [he said, through gritted teeth]? I need this point, Ben; don't deny me the point. [stifled sob]

These are good ideas, but..... I didn't finish the previous dozen writing projects I started...I always end up in the garage, "thinking"... Winter fuel is cut and collected the previous winter, alas! [no guests then] Ever on the ball, I'm just about to cut next year's... The third one contains the word "teaching"............................! [pauses to take a fortifying sip] There's no room for a YMCA in the barn anyway: it's full of ancient French furniture, ancient bikes, ancient agricultural implements, ancient, dismantled lathe, chickens [recent], etc Your fee has been dispatched by carrier hen.

Good God! They're breeding: I must go an have a look. And who invited YMCA in there? To answer your question, Belfast: basically, yes! But there are problems in paradise: 1. I keep running out of money, and, since I no longer work, the supply is now finite; 2. my summers seem to be occupied with guests [non-paying]; 3. my winters seem to be occupied with keeping a supply of dry wood handy to heat the house; 4. any remaining time I have seems to be occupied with stopping said house reverting to its original ingredients, mainly rubble [winter], stopping everything growing that isn't required to grow [summer] and processing all the stuff that is required to grow [most of the time]; 5. I can't afford to keep an establishment in the UK [no, hang on: that's NOT a problem!]; 6. for every quiet moment, with glass in hand, gazing at views I dreamed of in the UK, there's a bureaucrat sitting behind a mahogany desk waiting to send me ten forms, all of which need sending in quadruplicate to four other bureaucrats, all of whom will send further forms which it's an offence not to fill in, just because I had the temerity to ask whether I really needed to pay for a TV licence since I don't have a TV - it's like living on the film set of 'Brazil' sometimes! I wouldn't go back, though, and I LIKE living in a republic: I'm a citizen here, not a subject....

Now that sounds much more like it! Respect!

No, it's the correct name for this:

Did he really say that? I'm not surprised; I just want to use it......

Me!

Martin, even chickens deserve a little dignity!

But in shot, if you look carefully, is my Thunderbird! I'm the one in the style-free PVC jacket. Plus ca change, etc

Just say that you admire them, then, Dave,. It sounds so much more politically correct and means the same!

Let's face it guys, we're all dead dodgy!

Dan, this suggests that you let you wife's car into the garage sometimes! Disturbing...garages are for bikes, conceivably wooden boats and forgivably my Jaguar, but your wife's car?! I had my Thunderbird out in the sunshine, today!