Mr Wiggy

Is it ever going to be possible to lose the word BIKER, if anyone refered to me as being a biker I would go absolutely APe-Sh1t. I have been ridding motorcycles sinse the age of 15, illegally at first on a Bsa Bantam,tuned to the gunwels  with George Todd tunning parts and it flew, but after passing my test on the very first occasion on ahumble Japonais machine a honda 90. How many of you can remember that far back to a Honda 90? Shortly after that I bought a Matchless G8 500 twin, A genuine British Motorcycle. ,Bsa's, Triumphs Nortons Vellocettes and I continued to ride British motorcycle machines until the sad demise of the the British motorcycle industry. I then bought a Motto-Guzzi 850 T3 motorcycle a brilliant machine, handled and braked extremely well but the crome and electrics let it down. My next machine was a BMW R90s, such a comfortable and smooth motorcycle, the next an R100rs, another beautiful Motorcycle. And I still ride Bmw's to this day. All of these Motorcycles are stooped in tradition of good sound engineering. Even the Bmw's engineering, one of my K75s is now due for it' very first shimming of the tappets after almost 90.000 mls. That is engineering for you. My definition of a bike is a Humpy Dickieson that needs through pipes, (no silencers) to eliminate the rattle and clatter of the motor. I'm NOT a Biker I'm a  genuine 100 per cent MOTORCYCLIST.

I too spent my years touring France from the mid 70s to the late 80s and after all that time all I could think about was boy would I like to live here. Then come the turn of the century I was forced to take early retirement, health prob’s and this was when I formed my plan of action, I bought my first computer and spent a lot of time searching until I found the suitable region in the Deux Sevre, then spent 3 fortnightly stints for several years viewing various properties. Then in late October 04 after more wasted viewing we ended up in a bar in this town for a café where the agent realized that there was a property here that we could go and view. He quickly phoned the owner who then arrived half an hour later, as we entered the house one of the agents standing along side me whispered to me that my chin was dragging on the floor. We had walked into a beautiful big bright dinning room, spotlessly clean and well decorated and the rest of the house was the same. I am now living in this same house and am very happy, even though it still has some of the earlier residents here. And I am not joking ! ! !

A little bit of good news, the for/ex is now up at 1.1645. I blame them thar damn git's across the pond for all our troubles

Hi Ron. This is only applicable to the people living here, there might still be threads to this subject in the Ark Hives, and if you have no luck you could consult with the Oracle, or the fountain of knowledge, all better kown as Sunday Driver!!!

I too like Bugbear opted out of the UK tax system, this was done totally by our own S-D, in fact all I did was to sign and date where nessary and post the envelopes. Now being out of the system I find that I am better off but still not enough to sponsor Bugbear as I am already sponsoring my local drinking establishments. To be serious though I do think the tax system in the UK is very unfair in many instances, to me now looking back at the UK the old addage springs to mind and as far as I am concerned is quite true, Rip Off Britain and I would never want to go back and am very happy here.I see that the rates of the £ is at an all time low and I have moniterd the exchange rates for nearly ten years.

Hi Woody. The car breaker you mentioned is still there and doing a fair trade too, I past it only last weekend.

I own a house in a town square, I dont have a garden so when I step out of my front door I am immeadiately on the square. So my question is quite simply, is there any boundary from my front door? I do have a strip of concrete to the left of my front door under my dinning room window this is almost 12ft long and 2ft wide and also two small narrow flower beds on the left of the front door.Is there a standard for this sort of situation?  

Hi. I would like to ask a question on this matter as I too am contemplating installing a chauffe eau system but in all of the articles on this subject there has been no mention of the energy efficiency ratting with these boilers, the only ratting's that are in the info package for some of these boilers that I have seen are in the class B. So from this am I to assume that class B is the norm?

Hi Dave. I too had the same sort of  problem I now buy the bottles of the oxygen as my mixed bottle expired and as a back-up I do have some gas-less wire for certain jobs, I am also wearing L-plates on my back. I have noticed recently more mig welders being advertised alongside the arc welders in many of the Brico depots and I think a time will come when the Mig will be the more popular welder as it is a cleaner and stronger weld, from what I've read.

Hi Rico. I've got a similar problem with my livebox after the last big storm we had, no phone or internet, I do disconnect when there 's a storm around so after reconnecting nothing was working then the livebox started after 4 days and if I need to phone I have to disconnect the livebox so shall be giving FT a call this afternoon as I think it's the livebox thats at fault.

I would certainly throw these tyres away, as has been said regarding the deterioration factor alone would render them completely unsafe. Yes generally F1 is boring, not so yesterday, I would certainly recommend Moto GP for the excitement factor but then I'm bias being an ex road racer.

I completely concur with Chris'julie, I have the all in one, doesn't make the tea though, but it's a fantastically good printer and the Quality is excellent

Hi Frogslegs . Iv'e a HP all in one and find the best place here is cdiscount I buy the twin pack which is less than the price of buying a single cartridge ie: in super-u a HP  the black cartridge is  around 27-28€, and a twin pack from the formentioned is around 35-36€ which is a very good saving and using the genuine article.

Hi T-F. There are dealers in the UK who specialize in selling L-H-D vehicles, that's exactly what a past member did when he moved over here unfortunately he never had much chance to drive it as he was tragically killed shortly after moving here. You may have a chance to part chop your RHD motor for a left hooker.

.Ay up S.D.Chappie. You must be feeling chipper, especially addressing me as Young Wiglet. That has really made my day, must addmit though sorry about the lack of ordinary style coffee, shall make a point of purchasing a new jar just for you, (moaner). Problem, Where on earth do I post this message now as it has nowt to do with the tinternet or phones? Help I'm having a senior moment !!                                                         Mr Wiglet.(The Younger).

  Hello Panda. This problem of mine always seems to occur during /after a storm, and yes I do on most occasions manage to disconnect both the Live-Box and the phones when ever a storm is forcast. After the storm passes the phone comes back on again but very crackley which then does clear later on. I am then able to get back on line and don't have to log in as I am the sole user and use Lycos as my home page and Orange is in the drop down, Tim of Kalyn Comps set that up and switched off the phone light on the box and it is only recently that this problem has reared it's ugly head so I might try what you suggested as I have just picked up the receiver to find no dialing tone again.Just hed a visit from the banged up S.D.He's still having problems getting around but his sense of humour is very much intact.

Hi Rich. Only this last weekend prior to the storm I disconnected the phone's from the wall  connection points,Sunday morning I reconnected said connections, low and behold no connection at all. Later that day I tried again and still nothing,so I then disconnected the L-Box and the phones worked again,so for the box to work I had to disconnect the phones as I cant have both on together and this is how it remains at the moment. Maybe things might improve, but am not holding my breath.

I don't know why anyone would want to build a trike based on a Reliant Regal / Robin chassis, it must be one of the most dangerous vehicles ever built and I know I usdd to own the John Cobb Special (Aluminium body Cabriolet) when I was a kid, it was forever scraping the body panels along the kerb if you went round a corner too fast.The ideal layout is definately to have the single wheel at the rear,Owen Greenwood proved that back in the sixties. It was so quick going round a corner that the ACU banned it in the end as it was beating the convensional sidecars.

Hi Dave.   One of the Brit lads here in L'Absie goes of with a bunch of French local lad's who go off roading most Sunday mornings, if this is any help I can get you his phone number for the details.

Hi. Surely the matter of the headlight is encompassed in the Cert De Conformity From the Concesionaire.

I called in to See them this lunch time, both are recovering well, so much so that they will now be releasing Brenda tomorrow Wednesday, and now as Dave is now up and about chasing the nurses, they will soon want to get rid of him too, possibly near to the week-end and where better to recover from your injuries than at home. Brenda got the flowers, very nice too, and Dave wanted to know what happened to the bottle of Whisky.                                                      Mr Wiggy.

I would like to thank everyone for their messages of suport for Dave and Brenda, I've been completely overwhelmed, I shall be taking all of your messages with me on my next visit, hopfully this afternoon.                                                    Pete D. (Alias Mr W)

That picture brings back a certain happy memory, in the early 70s just after the M42 was opened, a friend of mine had that very same machine, brand new just run in model same colour the single difference he had made was a slight adjustment to the Gearbox sprocket, he had raised the sprocket size by 1 tooth and it certainly made a heck of a difference. I was allowed to try out the change that had been made so, I took the bike down the Stratford road in Shirley, Solihull to where the M42 section had not long been opened, so I joined the 42 in the direction of the A45 Coventry Road and opened her up on a very clear ahead, it actually showed 145mph on the clock but believe this was possibly a little on the dubious side, even so a really fast bike.                                                               

Hi Pete. I'm completely overwhelmed with emails from everyone, it's unbelievable. I have not long returned from Bressuire Hospital and its all good news if you can call it good news,although the injuries are not life threatening never the less are still serious, it appears that Dave is the worst of the two with a possible cracked vertibrea so he's flat on his back for the moment he will possibly be having a scan tomorrow and will know more then,.His wife Brenda has a fractured collar bone and wrist and a smack on the nose from the air bag, They are both in good spirits cosidering his car is now a  step through Cabriole.                                                     Another Pete D. Alias mr wiggy

I received a phone call late this morning from the Hospital in Bressuire informing me that our very good friend, Sunday Driver and his wife had been involved in a serious car accident. When I do not know as yet but I did manage to speak to Brenda his wife who herself has several broken bones plus other injuries and as regards to the extent of Dave’s injuries that is an unknown quantity at present, all I can say is that he is suffering multiple injuries. I shall be going to Bressuire this afternoon to see them as I have been given permission to visit, so will give all the information when I return home. I know there are like me, many people out there whom Dave has helped so all I ask is for you to say a prayer for a full recovery for him.