Mr Wiggy

OHH BETTY, *What on earth do you think that I am? I have sever respiratory problems and fluid on the lungs which complicates matters some what so is a chronic illness.

Loiseau. It's nothing to do with the B&B, it's the vehicles parked directly in front of my house that are blocking the ambulances access to my front door. As I said to Mrs H that because of this illness (fluid on the lungs, it needs to be treated ASAP. so direct access to my front door would save a lot of time because this can be a fatal illness if not treated asap. The Maire is a very obliging gent so now doubt he will allow a hadicape space outside of my front door.

Mrs H. Thank you for you good wishes, I certainly appreciate them. I did a research on the subject of fluid on the lungs to discover that, if not treat asap it could be well fatal. That's why the Gendarmes motorcycle escort certainly made a big difference in getting me to the hospital that much quicker. So I will be writing to the Maire to make this very point. I don't think that he would allow any vehicles to block direct access to my front door considering the urgency that is involved. He is a very popular man and gets things done.

Hi, Hereford. In my particular situation every six months I get a build-up of fluid on the lungs which is quite a dangerous situation to be in, so obviously time is indeed very important to get the patient to hospital asap but in this last case because of the three cars parked across the frontage of my house they couldn't reverse to my door. Normally if there isn't any cars parked the ambulance can get right up to my front door then wheel the stretcher straight into my house. However this last time there wasn't any direct access so the driver had to find an access point further away and then reverse down past the houses to my house by means of the footpath. then because the ambulance and my door are at right angles it was a struggle to remove the stretcher and into my house, I was then placed on the stretcher and with a struggle got me into the ambulance. This took almost twenty minutes before we moved off to the hospital, and again we had to have a Gendarmerie escort to the hospital.

If you are referring to Marston's Pedigree, I was brought up on that and yes it's a strong beer, so it's a case of the individual's metabolism as I could consume 5 pints before it started having any effect on me.Which points to the single fact that no two people are the same So stop being so judgemental about others.What is wrong with having a couple of pints? Both consumed in the bar before and after a meal then retiring to bed for an early start the following morning?

ET, I don't think I ever mentioned being on a street, I actually live on a large square in the centre of a village. The square has two rows of houses, one is from the lower part, then the upper part has several more houses plus the village hall. In between the upper and lower sections is an alley which is about half way? On the top side of the alley is a B&B which always has cars parked outside The driver then has to drive up to the alley then turn right in front of the B&B to be able to try and reverse down what is a footpath until he reaches my front door. then they have to manoeuvre the stretcher from the ambulance and into my front door then throw me onto the stretcher and manoeuvre me into the back of the ambulance. All this takes time, 20+ minutes to be exact.

Dicky, Get real will you, as nomoss said back then it was unlikely that you could buy a beer over 2.5% proof, I rode down from Inverness where I stayed over night with a club members brother and sister in law who where both tea teetotallers. Even when I departed it was sleeting so for the sake of safety I headed towards Glasgow then onto the M74,then onto to the M6 by which time it was snowing, so what would have the A&B roads have been like? ICED up that's what, there was more trafic on the M6 than would have been on any side road, that was the reason for travelling on the M6 it was slushy because of all the traffic so din't have time to freeze over, and you no doubt would have gotten off the M60 onto to the minor roads and 10-1 gotten stuck. I remained on the M6 doing a slower speed and got home rather cold and later than I anticipated but safely.

It would better if I had said a couple of beers, because we had A pint before our meal and another to wash it down with.That was early in the evening aroundt 19:00 hrs. This was always done in a licenced B&B or hotel restaurant and we would hit the sack as we always did an early start and paid the bill before we left. Every time we stopped in the evening it was between 18:00hrs-19:00hrs and have the same two pints prior to and after our meals, and neither of us suffer with hang overs because we would need to drink an awfull lot more than two pints..The point is that I or my budy have never taken it upon myself to drink and drive especially when doing a charity challenge.

ET. The people who park there are new arrivals to the village who live in some apartments are very 10. isorganized lot at parking. Before they arrived the ambulace's could reverse right up to my front door and wheel the stretcher straight into my front room. As I have previously said, with all the cars parked across the frontage of my house there is no direct access to my house for the ambulance. Prior to these three people arriving, it was quite normal for four cars to be parked outside of my house while they where going to mass. This problem does needs to be sorted with the Maire, it's not my time to kick the bucket just yet so I don't want some other berk to be the reason!!

Loiseau. My main concern is about lack of access for the ambulances, when people park across the frontage of my house, and as i said it took the ambulance ten minutes to get close enough to my door. Then they needed to get the stretcher through the door and put an oxygen feed on me from bottle set me on the stretcher.and into the ambulance. Because of the delay the Pompier's had contacted the Gendarmerie and got a motorcycle escort to the City hospital. Unfortunately this is now becoming a regular problem as it turned out to be fluid on the lungs.

Are all you folks living in the real world? This trip from Lands End to John-O-Groats was organised in conjunction with the hospital and our bike club (The B.M.C C) who's members including Olga Kevlos & Albert Mole to name but a two. Olga was an ISDT competitor who beat several of male competitors while Albert was an ex TT racer and Flying Marshal. The idea was to do the complete trip on A&B roads only and no motorways, dual carriageway could be used too. I also used to take part in the Jumbo run which involved the B.C.Sidecar.Club members..

You have got to be kidding!! Myself and friend from a prominent motorcycle club in the Midlands decided that we would do the Lands-End to John-O Groans for a local kids charity. We planned to do it during the May bank holiday weekend back in the mid to late seventies.My friend on his restored 1965 Bonnie and me on my 900 Beemer. Everything was going well until we got near to Gretna Green when my friends Bonnie started to fail to fail with ignition problems so he struggled back to Glasgow, mean while I plodded on and got to Gretna and too several photo's of my BM parked next to the JoG sign for proof that I had made it then got back on the bike and headed south. I spent the night at a pub in Yorkshire and had several medicinal pints to put me to sleep. Not long after I hit the M6 and it started snowing, it continued to snow all the way south to the midlands and beyond.Even with a water proof suit I was frozen and stopped a some friends and fell to my knees in front of their fire, I was absolutely frozen and shuddering. We still managed to raise £500 squid for the handicapped kids though.

I have seen these blue badges for sale from Amazon co.uk for around £2.50, I will be applying for a blue badge and what I need to find out is, am l entitle to park outside my own house. The reason I ask is I live in a village square where other people are permitted to park, at present there are three cars parked across the frontage of my house, but once I have a blue badge, would I have priority over others to park, continuing on this line, as I'm quite often in need of an ambulance to rush me to hospital, but on the last occasion it took nearly twenty minutes for for the ambulance to get close enough to my front door and get me in the ambulance because of the cars parked directly outside my house. What is the legal situation in cases like mine where access is limited because of these vehicles?

Hi BritinBret. The buggy has a Suzuki 812cc tripple and the acceleration is quite rapid but obviously the motor is restricted, even so it can just reach 105 KPH which at my age is quite sufficient. I don't bother with a roof or doors as I still like to feel the wind blowing through my hair, yes I still have a good thatch on top. It has disc's all round, it also has rally seats and seat belts. The only down side has been a plastic fuel cap and with the Alloy tank situated above the engine it can be difficult to remove the cap, at one point I had to smash the cap off because it had swollen making it impossible to remove. I now have a piece of aluminium checker plate to fit under the tank to deflect some of the heat from the engine.

Hi BritinBbret. Mine was the old telegram 125cc plunger, I replaced the original engine with a George Todd 125 engine. I must say that I have never heard of a crook lock for a bike. The one I had was a Yale with the U shape bar of hardened steel with a lock across the ends.Like you I have been riding bikes all my life from a Honda 90, a Greeves 250t rials bike a G50 Matchless a BSA Golden Flash, I also built a Velton which was a Velocette clubman engine and gearbox in a Norton featherbed frame a Moto Guzzi T3. Bmw R 90, Bmw R100Rs and finally a BMW K75s. I also races a Royal Enfield GP5 rolling chassic with a Les Williams Suzuki T500 engine in it. I also changed the forks and wheels for the Yamaha TZ forks and wheels (8 leading shoe front brakes and wider wheels) and at the same time passenger in a Windle built sidecar outfit.

Hi Lehaut. A small correction to what we both made. The K 100 was the original Flying Brick whereby the K 75 was called the flying Brickett being the smaller one. I could ride that for hour after hour,only stopping for fuel, as it was that comfortable. As for the Duke, I rode 900ss down the M40 a few days after it opened and clocked 145MPH, As the gearing had been altered by one tooth on the gearbox sprocket, it certainly made my teeth chatter.

BritinBret. I have justreplied to yours and Le Haults messages.

Lehaut, You are spot on, mine is the K75s, a twenty-nine year old Classic. Again you are right as my insurance was 170€ and now it's down to 112€. It is now stored in my cave where I'm able to work on it at and when I like, and yes I did do all the recommended tasks, draining the fuel tank and engine oil and remove the battery and as it's on a workbench I have remove the rear wheel.

Britin. You obviously have no knowledge of motorcycles. How on earth can I fit a crook lock to a motorcycle? With extreme difficulty. The normal way is with a U lock which goes around the legs of the front forks and also locks the wheel moving. Also, I didn't cancel my insurance, my bank did, as I now have classic insurance with them.

Last year I had to hang up my bike gear because of suffering a deterioration of both my age and my health catching up with me so. What I did was I bought a Lantana M800cc buggy, my Axa agent in Fontenay le Compt in the Vendee,gave me a devis which was acceptable and I paid, while there I also terminated my bike insurance as it still had just over a month to run and I assumed that a month’s notice was sufficient as I intended to put it in storage and restore it as it’s now a Classic, 29.5 years old BMW K75s. A few weeks later I received my renewal for the bike so I ignored it, then the next thing I received was a request for proof of a battery Isolator switch and a receipt of fitment. This is a standard fitment, but I purchased a new one and took it to a registered mechanic, he then check the original one and gave me a receipt for 10€. I then sent a copy off and thought that this would be the last of it. Now way, the next thing they wanted was proof of a steering lock, again this is a standard fitment, so I bought a Crook lock and sent in a copy of the receipt. Again, a week or so later they demanded something else. So I wrote back saying that if he wasn’t so incompetent he should know about the European Commission for the Homologation Regulations for Vehicle Type Approval requirements. I knew about them because I had spent a good part of my working life, ensuring the vehicles that the company that I worked for built each vehicle to the European requirements. I didn't heard from him for a few week until he sent me an early termination notice of the buggie’s insurance. My bank have now insured me for two thirds of what I originally paid.

Wheel alignments ensure that all four wheels are consistent with each other and are optimized for maximum contact with the surface of the road. The way a wheel is oriented on your car is broken down to three major components; camber, caster, and toe in/out.

I did state quite clearly, for those who can't read.( If you had clouted something hard), which could be a pot-hole or maybe the kerb then yes you tracking would be out of alignment, and yes I too have done just that. I would assume though that uneven tyre wear could be to do with the caster angle being out of alignment. Towing in or towing out can also affect tyre wear.

Like E-T suggests it's Tracking or wheel alignment but, can't understand why this should need be done because I can't see how the alignment has changed just by putting on new tyres. Caster angle maybe, but surely not not tracking unless you have clouted something hard and bent a track rod.

I am indeed in touch with a registered breaker who is interested in buying the bike and all other parts.

Thanks everyone for pointing me in the right direction, it appears from what you have said is that basically the agent is the one who has been deceiving me as he continually stated that it must be fully insured, without explaining that the premium could be reduced if the machine was off the road. In that respect it certainly was as I had dismantled it completely ready to sell the parts and even supplied photos to AXA to that effect. Again this was rejected by AXA who said that I must pay the full premium despite giving a months notice. As I previously stated it was the moving of the machine manually that was the cause of my problem as the weight of the bike is 235kg / 518lbs in and out of a garage was beginning to be a big struggle especially with my health problems. So next year I will be going to another agent to insure the buggy and try for a reduction if I still haven’t sold all the bike parts, and there is no way I shall be riding it again.