The PB Forum Round The World Guinea Pig

Portugese 'Pig

2009-04-30T15:24:00.004+01:00

We booked this trip some time ago, so we were pretty excited by the time it came to get on the plane! Three days at the brand new Autodromo Internacional do Algarve...warm weather, grippy tarmac and our Guinea Pig buddy in tow.

We landed and went straight to the track, checking out the brand new road into it, which was impressive enough in itself (thanks to Couch for the random pose)...

..but we were stopped by security. Oh well, off to the hotel and beach it is then! The hotel was opposite the huge beach, just down the road from the touristy strip of restaurants and pubs.

Checked out some pretty flowers outside the Casino hotel opposite, where the posh people stayed.

Next day and it's raining. However, the circuit facilities are stunning. The whole place is just massive, new and top spec. Huge garages with power, toilets and hook up points for air tools, a swimming pool, a cafe etc etc. It really does put our UK offerings to shame.

We get out for some sighting laps in the hire cars, then swap the wheels for wets in Couch's 675. We both get some wet laps in to try and learn the very technical circuit. Luckily it dried out over the next two days and we got some decent track time in.

Guinea Pig didn't get out on the circuit, but he met some new friends in the paddock, some of who you might just recognise ;-)

After his star treatment, he reluctantly mingled with us less talented riders, but did choose to sit on some of the most expensive bikes in the paddock, one being the Pierobon Ducati, recently built for a friend by JHP.

The best thing about taking Guinea Pig with you is that you can hand him to anyone and they'll stand and smile with him for a photo, no questions! He made some more friends in the paddock and took a liking to our waitress on the last evening.

He met some furrier friends in the Casino lobby. We have no idea why the Rabbits were there, but they were gone by Sunday evening, possibly made into stew? Who knows.

Found a Triumph engine in one of the Steak Houses, considered bolting it into the 675 for increased performance ;-)

Had to take him away from Ducati Pete when he started playing with his KTM matches. Doesn't he know Guinea Pig's are flammable!

All in all, a brilliant trip and a circuit that any trackday nut should go and check out. It makes anything else seem flat and easy to learn in comparison! Plus you'll just walk round in awe at how brilliant the whole set up is. Two cheesy thumbs up and a big grin to Portimao!

Drinkin' & Gamblin'

2009-04-30T12:38:00.002+01:00

Straight after the Harley tour, Guinea Pig packed his bags and headed straight back to the airport with Shanna and Gray, to go and see the bright lights of the Las Vegas strip. I didn't get any story to go with this one, but the pictures of many cleaveages from Shanna's Birthday party should more then make up for it....enjoy!

What to spend it on....beer, Blackjack, strippers...

Mmmm, fooood

I think this sitting on heads thing is a new phenonema that needs to be continued!

THAT'S what you call a mini bar, fully stocked with goodies.

Another Twix PB (see 'Pigasus')

Then he got invited on a girly night out! The single guys could take a few tips from our fuzzy little mate, looks like he's got some pulling power ;-)

Boobs curry and a beer, what more could a boy want from a night out?!

Californication?

2009-04-14T17:55:00.005+01:00

Well, Guinea Pig has been clocking up a lot of air and saddle miles recently. He's turning all American on me, firstly having a ride round SoCal with DavieDawg, then straight back out to Las Vegas with Gray and Shanna...lucky little piglet he is!

First up, a man of few words, DavieDawg's Harley adventures;

No. 2 son, Guinea Pig and I are just back from a brief trip to Southern California where we travelled a mixture of roads over a week. We hired Harleys in an attempt to get the proper tone for the journey. This was a quite special trip so I have some information to pass on which I hope is useful.

First and foremost the weather was fantastic. This was the main reason for choosing the location. Blue skies and sunshine made the whole journey a pleasure in comparison with the miserable weather we were experiencing here in February an early March.

The riding was great. Apart from a couple of painful freeway sections we stuck to lesser roads which in the main were quiet and in some cases utterly deserted. The Sunday run was particularly memorable. From Barstow on I15 by desert roads to Lancaster (near Edwards AFB and Mojave) to Gorman on Hwy 138 into the mountains then to pick up the 33 south to the Ojai Valley and the coast at Ventura. This road is very spectacular and equal to any Alpine route. But its major benefit over the Alps was the lack of traffic. We saw no other vehicle on the northern part. On the south side we met several sports bikes on a mission and eventually nearer to civilisation at Ojai the traffic built up to a trickle. 150 miles of sheer uninterrupted riding heaven.

The people we met were friendly and helpful. Since most traffic uses the freeways and major highways, signposting of the other routes is poor. Junctions for even national routes can be hard to spot, using local names like Cool Springs Lane or Rocky Canyon Road as signage. Assistance was required to find routes. But not once did anyone appear anything other than sincerely helpful, but sometimes unfortunately, totally wrong.

The Bikes. We hired two bikes from Eagle Riders whose service was excellent, reflected in the price of course. My boy was on a Dyna Low Rider which is a twin shock style. I was on a Fat Boy soft tail.

Both are naked bikes with similar engines.They were very useable in the city and the best of fun for setting off car alarms. But a complete disaster for Freeway riding. The seating position and exposure are just not suitable for speeds above 70mph. In fact 60 is really the right territory. This created problems trying to get out of LA. The huge size of the place dictates that you exit on a Freeway where the traffic is doing 85mph to a man.

I could go on but then you already know what I am going to say – brakes, cornering, comfort, vibration. All issues. The Fatboy had a sixth gear! An overdrive I think because economy at 70 mph was phenomenal. But it ran rough and would not pull it. So a change down was required to overtake at that speed. I spent most of the time in fifth gear. So it was a total waste for a bike which is only suited for slow cruising or city riding. However I did enjoy the mountain roads because of the views which I am sure I would have missed on a faster bike.

To sum up the bikes – done that, won’t do it again. If I was going to the same place I would hire a Speed triple or similar for the mix of city and open roads.

Memorable things - Helpful people, great service everywhere. All riders were friendly despite us being on Harleys. Venice Beach. Highway 1 cruising envying the hippies and surfers with the RVs parked at the beach. The lack of clogging traffic. The straight desert roads with all sorts of strange humanity on the verge of civilisation living at the roadside. The 150 miles of mountain roads which follow the contours rather than do the Alpine thing of up multiple hairpins and down again. It produces lots of bends of varying radii and constant views. The only downside is you are up in the colder air which in March was a bit too cold sometimes.
But top of the list is the constant sunshine and blue skies. Imagine if we could have Scottish roads and Californian weather!

Just a quickie...

2009-02-06T15:37:00.005Z

While Guinea Pig's finishing his tour of all things Fire Enginey, I've created a page on Facebook for him :-) So, if you're on there and want to become a fan, just click here and join in the fun. More Guinea Pig adventures coming real soon....

Fireman Pig?

2009-01-12T17:51:00.010Z

First of all, a belated Happy New Year to all the Guinea Pig Blog readers! Hope you had a good holiday ☺ While we were off getting fat, eating all the Quality Street, PB Guinea Pig has been on duty with the West Midlands Fire Service. Story and pics courtesy of Dave (kwakbiker)...

Well it all started out with a simple comment of does he want to come and play with a fire engine or something like that anyway. Some weeks after I'm advised that a small parcel is on route. Cue a few anxious days and behold he turns up. Open the parcel and am greeted by PB's little furry friend(no not Rompy), the Guinea Pig.

Anyway, bit of moaning about the Xmas post and he catches up with the forum going on's and we share stories of Iraq and Basra(I was there in '03 with the RAF Fire Service)...seems it's still bloody hot and full of sand.

Onto his first day with the West Mids fire service. First job is to see how or if any kit will fit him.....slight problem with sizing issues we feel!

Well, it was time to try him with some of our kit, first up a breathing aparatus set..bit big.

And then he had a play with the thermal image camera(rather handy in smoke).

So were out and about, turns out its one of the lads birthday's....so in finest fire service tradition he gets the cakes in....and not left out is GP.

It turns out that GP is a mighty brave soul and tries to help during a house fire...no kit and no training doesnt help...poor bugger ends up needing some O2!

He pulls through quick..must be the healthy breakfast and cycle to work.

Anyway, bit of training while at work so its me and him in a chemical protection suit (looks a bit big on you Dave! -Grib)

And finally...he gets to meet his personal hero from the Hamster fire Dept..yep a real life furry buddy!

Thats it for now, we'll see what happens next week and then he can take a break and return off home.

Bottesford Toy Run

2008-11-30T15:21:00.006Z

So, it was bloody freezing this morning, wet on the roads and generally miserable...the best plan had to be, get the bikes out and go for a ride didn't it?!

Every year there is a toy run from Bottesford up to Grantham and hundreds of bikes turn out. It's usually a mix of winter hacks, strange things you haven't seen since the Nineties (bikes and riders!), cruisers and tourers. This one was no different.

My other half recently bought a Kawasaki Versys, which has been named 'Waffle' after it's waffley engine characteristics, so I nabbed that and he got his Triumph Sprint ST out, complete with it's heated grips, the git! Off to Asda to grab some toys, then hit the road. It's nice to be out for a ride, no matter what the weather, but the frosty air nipping at my neck is making me shiver! Little Waffle is superb though, giving loads of feedback and inspiring confidence on the slippy roads. Guinea Pig is safely tucked in the top box, now accompanied by a cuddly Lion and Zebra to be dropped off for the kids :-) We soon reach Bottesford, round the corner and see the bikes spilling out of the pub carpark onto the surrounding lanes.

The run out is slow and steady, in close company with a Goldwing, complete with two Santa's taking up the saddle and the stereo blaring out Christmas tunes! People come out of their houses to stand at the side of the road and wave as we pass and even the car drivers, who's journey's we've interrupted, can't help but smile and wave as they patiently wait for us to all ride by :-) The BMF have got several people out marshalling, blocking off junctions and roundabouts so we don't get split up. We're towards the back of the group and the sight of hundreds of bikes filling the road in front of us is quite something.

Pulling into the carpark, the Police have sent a few bikes out to shepherd us in safely. I hand one of them Guinea Pig and after looking confused, he accepts him, asking 'Does he bite?'.

Inside the hall, we get cups of tea and mince pies from the Salvation Army, who are collecting the toys. The hall gets full up very quickly with cold bikers clutching pressies.

There are members of various groups wearing their patches, alongside scooter riders and 'Power Rangers', still in their matching one piece leathers with a fleece chucked on top. It's great to see so many people making the effort, especially with a warm bed being so inviting on such a typical British, winter day.

Luckily for me, the slow ride on the Triumph has made Tony's wrists ache and he wants Waffle to ride home. That means I get the heated grips, yes! The big Trumpet weighs a ton after the little Kwak, but it's super comfy, stupidly fast and I've got warm hands, bliss!

Guinea Pig is off to his next keeper now...visiting more men in uniform :-) Looking forward to his next story, check back soon.

'Pigasus'

2008-10-22T07:09:00.010+01:00

This month, our little mate has learnt to fly with the RAF! Colin (aka rafjock) kindly offered to take him to a war zone and fly him in some of their finest aircraft and who could resist an offer like that!? If I could have fit in that envelope to go with Guinea Pig, I would have done. Being a fighter pilot has got to be one of the most exciting jobs in the world and it turns out not only are they brave and talented, they're also nice enough guys to fly a cuddly Guinea Pig round and take some pictures on their way :D Enjoy...

Doing the’Deid

Anyone who has visited the Gulf region cannot fail to notice the heat and humidity. Anyone who hasn’t, switch your oven on (Fan preferrable), take a hairdryer and combine the two with a handful of sand for effect. You now understand the reasoning behind the inaugural night races held this year at Losail just down the road from here at AUAB. Temperatures of 48C in July have now decreased to mid 30’s in mid Oct. Would you fancy riding in that in your riding gear? And at race pace for 45 minutes? Pity the 24 Hour Endurance racers who will be there in a few weeks. Still, it cools to the mid 20’s at night, which is great in shorts and T shirt drinking beer, but for my Jock temperature gauge is still a bit too warm for trying to ride motorcycles fast.

Now, I haven’t got a bike here, and as yet I’ve not even had a chance to visit Losail, and if it weren’t for the wife sending me PB every month and the general banter on the PB Forum I wouldn’t have seen anything about bikes for the last 3 months. So why did Grib choose to send her precious Toy here? After all, fresh from touring Europe at a great rate of knots, and schmoozing with Ducati and their lovely assistants, why send it here to a bike-devoid military setup? The promise of flying Pigasus (The Winged Pig) in an aircraft probably swung it, but she mentioned “adventure”. That started me thinking; my job is just what I do, I work with people who go to the same places, see the same things. But these are things that few others get to experience (and they are on well paid contract work). So let’s treat the Forum Guinea Pig to a little bit of adventure before he is whisked away to the next keeper.

Day 1 – 12 Oct 08

The shift handover was a busy one, very different to the one I’d given 12 hours ago before sleeping the day away. As the day shift were on the way out, they remembered to tell me that I had a parcel. Sure enough in my drawer there was a padded envelope, with a label proudly stating- “Contents: Soft Toy”. Thanks for that Grib, thanks a lot! Sure enough the Forum Guinea Pig had arrived on the next leg of its journey. In the few days since Grib e-mailed me I’d been getting tentative agreements for flights, but now it was time to get things sorted out. The next day’s programme had a perfect sortie that would let me get a couple of hours sleep in, so I put myself on it.

20 minutes later however, a Loadie I knew from a previous tour walked through the door with a C17 crew, quick glance at the programme to see where he was off to, packed my camera in Grib's envelope and asked him nicely if he would take Pigasus off to Afghanistan for the night. With a grin, he whisked our furry friend off with him with a promise to take some pictures for proof. So, 30 minutes from opening the package and it’s gone flying already, that good enough for you Grib? (oh yes - Grib) Well, it gave me time to deal with all the chaos and make some more calls to arrange the rest of its schedule anyway. Nearly 12 hours later, and the envelope and contents were returned safe and sound with the requisite photos. As it was the end of shift it was back to bed for me while the package was stored in my desk drawer.

Day 2 – 13 Oct 08

3 hours later I was back in work collecting the package ready for it's second flight in 24 hours, we were off in a VC10 on an Air to Air Refuelling sortie over Iraq. A couple of hours flight time and we were over Iraqi airspace at around 22,000 Feet, watching our first aircraft approach on the radar. That was my cue to disappear down the back of the aircraft with Pigasus in tow to watch a rapidly growing dot evolve into a Tornado GR4 that settled just off our wing. With the hoses trailing in a 250mph airstream, the aerial ballet began with the Tornado disappearing out of view behind the aircraft, then reappearing slowly and contacting the basket first time. And there he stayed for the next 5 minutes, making slight corrections all the time to maintain contact with the fuel hose whilst battling the airstream and the buffeting from trailing in the wake of our much larger airframe.

A couple of minutes and nearly 5 tons of fuel later he broke contact and took up position on the wingtip, before climbing and rapidly becoming a dot once again. A couple more refuels kept everyone happy, so we made our way back to base, letting Pigasus take the controls for the way back via the refinery fires of Southern Iraq and Kuwait, the bright lights of Saudi and the excessively bright lights of Bahrain with the sun setting all the way back, we landed in darkness. Once back in work and showing off the pictures, it was decided to treat ourselves to some good American hospitality, so Pizza and Beer it was to finish off a busy day, Lovely.

Day 3 – 14 Oct 08

Well, you see… I was going to send Pigasus off for a Hercules flight and photoshoot in Baghdad tonight, but I had an offer I couldn’t refuse for tomorrow, but they would need him today. So we went for a quick few photos on the Herc ramp and delivered him to his next keepers…

Day 4 – 15 Oct 08

Now this is what he was sent here for. With 16,000lbs of thrust from each of its afterburning engines and a top whack of Mach 1.3 (or nearly 1,000 mph). The Tornado GR4 is probably the airborne embodiment of the PB spirit. First flown in August 1974, it has been refined, updated and upgraded throughout its days to the point where its intended replacement (in 6 years time) has only marginally improved performance. Getting Pigasus on one posed few problems, their Ops man was an old friend, and they’ve been doing a roaring trade in flying Flags for American servicemen, so a soft toy would be a change. Photographic evidence though, that produced a suck of the teeth, and a “We’ll see”. Change of tack then, approach my young blonde Ops Officer, she wanders off to speak to the Tonka aircrew and comes back minus Pigasus and camera with a promise of pictures, Result! So, late this afternoon, I get the call to collect the package, and they didn’t disappoint, giving proof that the Forum Guinea pig was rattling through the clear skies over Iraq at 21,000ft and Mach 0.7, which equates to around 550 mph in real terms. I’m sure it was a great experience, after all I’ve been trying on and off to get a flight for nearly 18 years now with no joy, and Pigasus gets one after 4 days. Jealousy – it’s a terrible thing!

Day 5 – 16 Oct 08

Well, I’ve now run out of aircraft to fly him in, and the Americans are very particular that people do not take photos around the Operational site (under threat of Arrest at gunpoint, no less), so he was yet again handed off to my Ops Officer who took him around the domestic site for a spot of lunch and a Starbucks. Yes, Starbucks. It’s true, a little bit of home comfort follows their forces everywhere. Here we get Starbucks, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Baskin Robbins, Dunkin Donuts and a Subway. Just as well there are 2 Swimming pools and 2 Gyms to work it all off I suppose.

I hope that this change of scenery for the Guinea Pig hasn’t bored everyone (urr, no, it was awesome! - Grib). I’m sure normal service will be resumed soon, because he should be back with Grib in a few days and off to someone else to further broaden it’s horizons. Mind you, you’ll need to have really good contacts to get it any Faster than I got it!

When I got 'Pigasus' back, he was in a little uniform! Apparently the girls in the office did it...yeah, righto ;-)

On their way home, their flight broke down in Germany (not an RAF plane, I've been assured!), so it was an excuse to introduce poor Guinea Pig to the delights of being very drunk and getting snogged by grown men who should really know better!

What a way to end an incredible trip, thanks so much to all the Ladies and Gentlemen that gave PB Forum Pig such an epic adventure. When I took him out of his little box at home, he also had some Certificates to prove where he had been flying, excellent!

So he's back in the UK, paws firmly on the ground again. It's the next PB Forum trackday on November 1st at Oulton Park (join up, come along and meet some very cool people), so he's staying here until then and being passed on to his new keeper after that.

Checking out Cadwell Park

2008-10-06T12:18:00.006+01:00

Some friends were racing at Cadwell Park this weekend, so the usual Friday trackday testing was taking place for a few of them. Everyone knows that Friday is a half working day, so with the sun out, we grabbed PB Guinea Pig and got the bikes out for a cold, windy ride to the track :-)

We arrived to see cars going round, which was a bit confusing, but it turns out it was a bikes and cars trackday (not at the same time, they took it in turns ;-) ), so that was a bit different. There's usually some trick stuff at car days, but we didn't spot anything special, to our untrained eyes anyway.

We tried to sneak down to the podium without anyone seeing, but some inconsiderate sod lobbed their bike, got the session red flagged and everyone started filing back into the holding area while I took a snap or two of Guinea Pig basking in the glory of Cadwell's podium steps, how embarrassing.

They could do with a bit of spit and polish!

Guinea Pig's had enough of being back here, so he needs a new place to go. There's a thread on the PB forum, so if you want to whisk him away somewhere good, get on there and make a suggestion and there will be a poll as to where he ends up next :-)

Furry Adventures at the Ducati 1100 Monster launch

2008-10-02T16:39:00.006+01:00

Last week PB Forum Guinea Pig was stuffed in the post and sent to Performance Bike's, Kar Lee's house, with promises of being whisked away to exotic places to play with exotic motorcycles. Well, they've not disappointed and our fuzzy mate has been living it up in Cannes. Words and pictures courtesy of Kar...

OK, here be the pics and reportage from the launch, from a guinea pig's perspective. Over to you PBForum guinea pig!

Well, here I am in warm Cannes in the south of France, home of film festivals and just a stone's throw from Monaco. The flight over on easyjet to Nice airport was comfy - I had a row of three seats all to myself, which is plenty for a guinea pig of my size. In this pic I'm on the balcony terrace of the Miramar hotel. It's a 5-star jobbie and dead swanky. Was a bit windy on the railing though I did get a good view of the bikes on the seafront and the Mediterranean.

Kar was a bit worried I'd blow off never to be seen again so he's moved me down. Cheekily, he's found a couple of PB stickers and tagged the hotel. Way to go, PB fella! There's a Ducati flag in the background - the hotel was peppered with them and loads of Ducati branding. Pictures, signage, display bikes dotted all over the place... they've really gone to town and taken over the hotel.

Here I am on the bed of the swish apartment. There's a mini bar, widescreen TV, shower, bath, shitter, big terrace and a small lounge. A nice lady with a Ducati shirt gave Kar a bag. In it was a cool Ducati jacket! Apparently launch gifts are commonplace and Ducati are pretty good. Kar told me not to say but he reckons a good gift and a nice hotel is worth at least 20% extra on the score of a bike. He reckons that if we'd flown club class, the bike would get a proper rave review. He says bribery of this sort is commonplace! ( I said no such thing. KL)

This is the press conference room. There was loads of see-through chairs on there, and all the British and German journalists sat here for the briefing. All the Ducati bods were present and hey showed us a nice video of the bike in action on the road. It was like a coke advert, all full of beautiful people. A bit cheesy but people do buy into the lifestyle dream and Ducati brand. There was a nice Monster 1100 carpet laid down too, as well as Ducati coasters and pencils.

Kar put me down in the display cabinet for a while, next to some of the components that make up the Monster 1100. I got a good look at the fuel tank construction! The head of communications came in just as Kar was taking the photo, he just smiled. Kar looked a bit embarrassed, dunno why.

This is the route map for the rideout that we took. It was all mostly third gear corners - second was fun - with a whiff of clutch the front wheel was pawing the sky! Kar and the bloke from FastBikes mag got lost but they had fun finding their way back.

The meal was scrummy. It was mostly fish, but the red wine was very tasty. The dessert was all Ducati-branded up and Kar whipped me out for a quick photo when no-one was looking - or so he thought. I saw the communications man from Ducati looking again.

This lady was pretty and had a nice T-shirt that all the journalists kept looking at. Kar got her to pose for a picture with me. She couldn't stop kissing me, and it made me feel a bit funny down below. All the other journalists were jealous. She came down the next morning for breakfast and asked Kar where his rabbit was in front of Trevor Franklin from MCN. He looked quite puzzled. Doesn't she know I'm a guinea pig? Whatever, her T-shirt was very nicely lit.

This was in the underground car park at the hotel. There was at least 20 Ducati Monsters all lined up. We got to go on bike number one! It makes a nice sound when it starts up. Brumm, brumm, dakka, dakka, dakka. I think Kar's helmet is a bit big for me. I stayed in his Kriega bumbag for the whole ride.

We stopped off for a photo session here. Each bike and rider would follow really closely behind the camera car, where a photographer would sit in the boot and take pictures as we were moving. It's quite dangerous, but luckily there wasn't much traffic around. The guy with the Ducati jacket in the background who is talking to Trevor from MCN is the man who designed the Monster. He's staring at me, isn't he? He's probably jealous that I got a kiss from the pretty lady with the nice T-shirt earlier.

These two bikes were parked on the sea front around the back of the hotel. They were both the 1100S version, which had fancy Ohlins suspension but only costs a little bit more. Kar reckons this one is the one to get as he said the stock suspension was a bit shit.

This was taken at lunchtime at the sea front. We were all having lunch but the sun was nice so Kar went and sat me on a bike and smoked a fag. Just after the photo was taken Kar interviewed the designer man who has made all the Monsters for the last seven years. They stood talking for ten minutes while Kar made notes. Unfortunately I was sticking out of the bumbag so the Ducati man stared at me the whole time while I was strapped onto Kar's waist. Kar went a bit green afterwards when he found out. We caught a late night flight and I didn't get back to Peterborough until 1am in the morning! These swish launches are nice but I think I need to go somewhere else now.

Guinea Pig's European Vacation

2008-09-25T09:33:00.010+01:00

The PB Mag Forum Guinea Pig survived his first big trip, yay! Read the whole story here; http://pbmagforum.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=460 , I'll condense it a bit here, get to the important Guinea Pig shots ;-)

So we started out on Friday the 19th of September, bags packed, Guinea Pig in his own personal pocket in my luggage and headed from Nottingham down to Dover to stay the night in a dodgy B&B before boarding the ferry the next morning.

We landed in Dunkerque, got really lost trying to follow GPS through closed towns and roadworks and eventually started our trip proper through Belgium and down into Germany. The MV Augusta travelling with us decided to dump most of it's coolant, so we stopped somewhere in a big forest and the boys found some guys working on a car that helped them with the stuff they needed to fix it. We also met the cutest little puppy there, it was roughly the same size as PB Guinea Pig...I'll update if I can grab a pic of him off one of the others.

We eventually all made it to Sliders Guest House for a slap up BBQ dinner, a cuddle with Daisy the huge dog and a nice, hot shower. We dumped our luggage off so we could have a ride round the Eifel region and the Nurburgring, so Guinea Pig had to move to under the seat on the 848! At least it's warm under there.

The roads were stunning, the most perfect biking roads we've ever had the pleasure of riding on. After getting dizzy round so many hairpin bends, we stopped for a breather. Guinea Pig came out to have a sit on the MV, but our mate Stumpy, with a GSXR1000 made him road kill, poor little fella.

From there it was down to a beautiful old town called Cochem, then back up to the Nurburgring, where we rode the most dangerous ride ever! Cars and bikes on a one way road, all trying to go quickly together is not the best plan ever, especially when you're the fargile biker that doesn't know where the hell they're going, whilst trying to avoid massive Porsches drifting round the corners! Guinea Pig checked out the safety instructions and met a couple of stars, Bren (broken and on a crutch, but still at the 'Ring!) and Sabine.

From there we rode back to Sliders, packed the luggage back on the bikes and rode to Spa Francorchamps for the trackday the following day. It was a bit cold and misty, only a couple of us knew the track previous to this trip and we were all very aware of being on our road bikes, on road tyres, so take it steady and enjoy was order of the day. Apart from with Paul on the MV, who decided that big lean, fast speeds and an unknown track would be the ideal place to try and set a new lap record! It didn't end well...

Luckily Guinea Pig was on hand to advise and it was soon patched up enough to ride again. We had a garage next door to Ducati Brussels, so the furry little chap sneaked a quick sit on a Desmosedici, cheeky devil!

That was the last big event. From there we headed back through the rain on the motorway, on the ferry and trudged home up the busy English roads with the rude, dangerous and impatient drivers that we'd escaped by being in Europe for a few days. One last stop for a snack and some fuel on the filthy bikes, then slog it out on the M1 home.

I think the final vote for where PB Mag Forum Guinea Pig goes next fell to Kar and the Ducati 1100 Monster launch, so I'll send him a message and poor Guinea Pig's going to have to travel in the hands of Royal Mail to his next keeper! Check back for the next, much better written, adventure! :-D

In the beginning...

2008-09-18T02:44:00.018+01:00

Welcome to the blog!

Where to start...I guess that Autumn's creeping in here in the UK now and thoughts turn to staving off the boredom of another wet winter and what better way to entertain ourselves than sending an unsuspecting, stuffed Guinea Pig off on his travels, between the members of the Performance Bikes forum! Check out the first post here; http://pbmagforum.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=90

Why the PB forum, well, we (me and my bloke, who posts as Couch Commando) started posting there a couple of years ago and have since met and made friends with quite a few of the reprobates, so it seemed only right that we entrusted the care of the precious Guinea Pig with our pals.

How this thing is going to work. It seems I can let multiple people post on the blog, so whoever the keeper of the 'Pig is at the time will be able to keep us updated with whatever they've been doing, add pictures and stories etc, so it's going to be a big old mish mash of stuff, which should keep it interesting!

I can put a poll up beside these posts, so if we get as many options for where he goes next as we have been doing, then people can vote to make sure he's going where the masses want him. The only deal is that the keeper takes care of him and is willing to post him either back to me, or on to wherever he is wanted next, which could be just about anywhere.

The First Journey

Tomorrow, we're going to the Nurburgring then on to Spa Francorchamps for a trackday with a group of mates and the PB RTW Guinea Pig will make his first voyage of discovery! He's going to be travelling mostly on my Ducati 848, but there's a few KTMs and an MV to have a go on too, so I'll make sure he gets to experience them all.

That takes us to the end of September and we've started a poll on the forums as to where he goes next. It's currently between a trip to Ben Nevis or the chance to go on the launch of the new Ducati 1100 Monster. I want to be a stuffed Guinea Pig all of a sudden! There are loads of other offers coming in, from holidays in the sun to a trip to the legendary Ace Cafe, so he'll not be short of things to see. Check back soon and I hope you enjoy whatever this turns out to be :)