All Change

or should I say, Alles verändern?

 With just 37 days to go until I leave home on this trip, there's little new to report, with the exception of one major item. You see, Michael Dunlop isn't the only one switching manufacturers for the North West. Both he and I have taken the decision to move across to the BMW camp, he with Tyco BMW race team, me with the purchase of a beautiful K1600 GT SE.

I have been toying with the idea for well over a year and postponed the idea for last year's Scandinavia trip due to uncertainty at work. With that side of things clearer, i.e. I'll be jobless in August, I decided now was the time to take the plunge. My beautiful baby girl, Ginny, was born on 17th March and weighs in at a healthy 334kg.

I've decided to keep the Sprint for now, as I don't really want to commute on Ginny, so given that and the crap weather we've had so far this year, there's a slight time pressure on me, to get 600 miles covered AND Ginny serviced, before I set off for Ireland. So far, she's just over the 150 mark. I've got  a couple of friends I can visit over the next few weeks and one of them is a biker, so I'm hoping we'll get to ride out together. Ginny is already booked in for her first checkup on the 8th May, so my fingers are crossed that springtime arrives really soon.

The Sprint has been a great servant and I'd not hesitate to buy another, IF it came with shaft drive. Unfortunately, the chain adjustment on the Sprint is the most difficult you'll ever come across and that, together with the mess a chain creates, was a big factor in me wanting to go for a shaft. She'll still be ideal for nipping through the London traffic over the next few months though, so she's not being consigned to the scrap heap just yet. It'll be like having a wife and a mistress at the same time. On the one hand, the pretty, petite, reliable British girl, on the other, the glamorous, buxom, exciting fraulein.  Lucky me! 😉   

Both my GT SEs

Is it safe?

I'm wondering if it is even safe to head into the North, with a fellow from the Republic, let alone try to plan days out with him. Maybe I should just smuggle him into our hotel and leave it at that? Nobody seemed to mind last time though.

So, I've been having a look at things we can do on the non race days and I've come up with a few ideas.

I definitely have us down for a trip around the east/north Antrim coast. Maybe this time I'll take it a little slower though and look at the scenery. Back in 2012 I remember being delighted to have such a fantastic piece of road to ride and took off on my own, stopping every so often to let the 'uprighters' catch up. Bikes are meant to be leant into bends! But that's another story, so I'll say no more.

As we are in this part of the world to watch road racing and with Ballymoney only 10 miles from our hotel, it would be plain wrong NOT to pay a visit to the Joey & Robert Dunlop Memorial gardens, so that's another thing on the to do list, maybe with a visit to Joey's Bar too, to toast their memory. I expect it gets quite busy at North West time though, with biking pilgrims.

I've looked at going into Belfast to the Titanic exhibition but I think that could be a lot of walking and reading, plus it's quite expensive. There's also the feeling that that is something I could come back and do with Catherine, as she's a massive Titanic fan, if fan is the right word.

What has caught my eye though, to the west, is Derry or Londonderry. My only knowledge of the place is from the news back in the day, during the troubles but I have discovered it is an ancient walled city, with the walls still intact and is a place steeped in history, not just from the late 60's onwards. It sounds interesting and I'm quite fancying a guided walk. Now walking isn't high on Grizzly's list of must dos but I may be able to bargain with him, coz I know he loves murals and there are quite a number of fairly famous ones for him to line up in his viewfinder. We'll see. It won't be much fun doing either if the weather's bad.

One other thing I fancy doing, is riding the Ulster Grand Prix course. I can already here Grizzly, "you sad bastard Woody". It's not far from the outskirts of Belfast, so probably not worth a special ride down but I might be able to build it into the Antrim coast road ride somehow.

If anyone has any suggestions of things to do, I'm open to them. For now though, that's it. I've got a few things to sort out over the next 60 odd days, so I'd best crack on.

1001 Things to do in Waterproofs

I kinda like the idea that some biker somewhere would have taken the trouble to write a book about things one can do in your waterproofs. If they have though, Google hasn't found it yet. Such a book might be useful, as I look to plan what Grizzly and I can do, when we're not watching practice or the races.

The schedule for the event is below.

Tuesday 15th May      Practice                                  9.15am – 3.00pm

Thursday 17th May    Practice                                   9.15am – 3.00pm

Thursday 17th May    Evening Racing                       5.00pm – 9.00pm

Saturday 19th May     Race Day                                9.15am – 7.00pm

We arrive on the Sunday, 13th, probably fairly late in the afternoon, so I expect all we'll be doing then, is finding somewhere to eat and sink a few pints. Monday, Wednesday and Friday, we're going to need something to keep us busy. If we're lucky, the weather will be fine and we can ride out somewhere but where?

We've been round these parts before, when we stayed in Balintoy back in 2012, see http://wildhogsuk.blogspot.co.uk/, so we've done the Giant's Causeway and the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge. No need to do them again. I'd love to ride that Antrim coastal road again though, so that might account for one half day. The others I'm still thinking about. I'm a Game of Thrones fan, so maybe a trip to some of the film sites could be in order. Not sure Grizzly will be up for that, though he's usually happy just to get his leg over! There's the Bushmills Distillery I suppose but we did the Ben Nevis one back in 2012 too, so do we really want to do another? I'll have to get my finger out though and come up with some ideas, as it's not much more than 10 weeks away.

Aside from the  'rest' days, I also need to give thought to what we'll do on the practice and race days, i.e. where we will view the action from. Saturday, main race day, is sorted. I've bought us 2 seats in the Grandstand but for the other days, I've not really given it much thought. The website gives all the information on places to watch from, so I'll just have to pick one or two with facilities and work out how we get there. I'd love to watch from alongside one of the fast straights, just to get the rush, as the bikes flash by, side by side, at over 200mph.

Anyway, that's all I've got to say at the moment. I'll be back when I have more pieces of the jigsaw in place.