All you really need.

I photographed this back in January in the market square of Ben Ghardana, a dusty little shit hole in Tunisia, just before the Libyan border. Looking at it earlier today It represented such a simple and uncluttered life I was moved to print it out, frame it, and stick it up on the wall for all to see. It terms of fulfilling it’s role in life this bicycle represents total efficiency at minimum cost. It probably looked exactly like this ten years ago and will look exactly like it again in another ten years. Lovely.

There is still hope.

A chilly evening yesterday with the wind coming direct from Siberia at a pace fast enough to prevent it picking up any north European warmth. This did not put three of us climbing into the Jeep, sans screen, to head off to Ashby Folville for the monthly gathering of the sane. Preparation included getting the front wheels balanced (big difference) and finishing the stencilled number plates for that original military, if it doesn’t move, paint it, look. A couple of stills here and a video of surely the coolest car there, Mark Walker’s 4.2 litre GN Thunderbug. I have seen this racing at a couple of VSCC events and believe me, it doesn’t hang about. Have sympathy with his passenger as she eases herself into the bottom shaped, hand beaten aluminium seat for the ride of her life!

Cheap thrills.

With freakish regularity, my Honda C90 has just passed it’s MOT again. Not even a ‘You may need a new flange sprocket next time mate’. Just a straight forward pass. At £29 that will be the most expensive annual expenditure on the ultra reliable Honda. Tax is £15 and insurance is £20, (tacked onto my ‘big’ bike insurance). The petrol tank holds just £3.50’s worth and that seems to last at least a month. As it’s a sunny morning I am about to fire it up and ride into town to deliver some work. I will be there and back on the bike faster than the there only journey in the car. Good fun.