Monday, July 31, 2006

Hack Green

Loz and myself went for a ride out yesterday to Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker near Nantwich. Hack Green played a central role in the defence of Britain for almost sixty years (http://www.hackgreen.co.uk)




A 6 foot tall nuclear warhead


If you look at the sign in the middle of the picture it says "bikini alert". I'm not sure if it has something to do with very friendly female staff, voyeuristic male staff or something to do with fallout!!

To get there we took the A5 up past Western Park, turned right onto the A41 towards Whitchurch, deviated off onto the A529 past Market Drayton and through a very nice village called Audlem. We couldn't have timed it better because Audlem was hosting its annual festival of transport. There must have been over 200 classic vehicles all driving in a procession through the village. From there we continued on the A529 until we got to Nantwich. Our return journey saw us coming back down the A51. If you take out the A5 and the last part of the A51 from Stone to Rugeley which are both littered with speed cameras, the rest of the journey was on great roads with plenty of twisty stuff. All in all a great day out.

Posted by Mike

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Official Merchandise

I'm currently working on an official janglejangle t-shirt design and thought I'd stick a pre-production preview on here to wet the old appitite so to speak.



The picture bearing a very discrete janglejangle web address will be on either the front or the back (which ever you prefer) of a lovely 100% cotton white t-shirt in small, medium, large and extra large, aaaannnnddd... here's the best bit... (drum roll)...you can purchase one at completely cost price from our goodselves!! Staggering, I know.

Next week we'll be reveilling our ladies underwear range and are currently looking for a volunteer female to model them for us whilst we argue between ourselves as to who's going to be the photographer.

Posted by Mike

Childish Antics

I was out with Gaz, Loz and Matt yesterday and Gaz decided he wants to start up a "stunt section" to our blog. So to get the ball rolling he decided to upset the local country wildlife and no doubt Mick (the gaffer of the pub) by doing a few fly-by wheelies on his newly purchased GSXR1100 WP. Incidently if anybody has read this blog from the start you may recall it being mentioned that he's never owned a bike that he hasn't dropped and this latest aquisition is no exception, although I'll be honest, he managed it at zero mph!!







Not to be outdone Loz decided to do a burnout on the newly laid tarmac of Mick's pub which really put his nose out of joint. He came stomping out the pub shaking his head from side to side and waving his finger in a left-right motion just like a school teacher would do to one of his pupils as he's about to do something he shouldn't do. You'll have to excuse the miss timing of my photo but I was too busy laughing at the pub police!



I make no appologies for the childish behavour as I blame the incident entirely on Gaz for leading upright citizans astray. On another note, we're off to Bassets Pole tonight so I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

Posted by Mike

Monday, July 24, 2006

Peak Forest

Yesterday I took myself on a bike ride up to Peak Forest where I have some friends who own a pub. Peak Forest is situated about 10 minutes north of Buxton in the High Peaks. I left Lichfield and headed up the A515 to Ashbourne. From there I continued along the A515 all the way to Buxton. The stretch of road from Ashbourne to Buxton is one of my favourite roads in the Peaks and totally speed camera free!

If ever you're up in that area you really must call into the Devonshire Arms in Peak Forest which is situated on the A623 near to Chapel-en-le Frith heading towards Chesterfield and say hello to Fiona and Ian who own the place.



Once inside you'll be greated by lovely modern surroundings, great beer and really fantastic food.



Take a look at their website at http://www.devarms.com and check out the menu.

Anyway, that's enough plugging of my friends establishment... Once I'd had a good old rattle to my pals of the above watering hole and rehydrated myself with an ice cool pint of tap water (sad but true) I headed back south along the A53 to Leek and then the A523 towards Ashbourne turning off onto the B5032/B5030 to Uttoxeter. From there it was out the other side towards Stafford, turning off onto the B5013 across Blithfield Reservoir (another great road) to Rugeley then onto the A51 back home.

It was one of those days where man and machine worked in perfect harmony, the more I rode the faster and smoother I became and the grin got bigger and bigger... one of those days when you get into a rhythm and you always seem to be able to overtake cars just at the right moment so they never seem to get in your way and slow you down, one of those days when you hit every apex with rail like precision.

Yip, yesterday was a perfect biking day! The weather was fantastic, my knee's as good as sorted and maybe I'm doing something wrong but it was better than sex!!!

Posted by Mike

Friday, July 21, 2006

Errr...

In my wisdom I decided that I needed to add a luggage rack to the top of my Givi box to carry my tent, sleeping bag etc, so I went to see a friend of mine (well I thought he was) who owns a fabrication company. I left him with my top box, told him roughly what I wanted and then left it to him. Two weeks later I had a call to say it was all finished and ready for collection. So, in my excitment I rushed over to his place to collect my new piece of biking kit and received something resembling nothing I'd asked for. I'm not going to say anything else about it as you can make your own minds up but I'll just add that as soon as I got home I had to immediately remove it and now I'm left with four unwanted holes in my luggage box. Now before anybody starts making rude comments about it, bare in mind that the obvious comments such as "nice barbecue griddle"and "great spoiler" have already been mentioned!!





Posted by a very unhappy Mike

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

At long last....

after 8 weeks suffering with a knee injury I was finally able to ride my bike yesterday. Admittedly I only got as far as the pub but it was a ride none the less! So, hopefully by next weekend I'll be able to ride greater distances without too much pain and start enjoying the best biking summer we've had in a long time. Although knowing my luck, and I don't want to put the kiss of death on things, but it'll probably rain constantly for the rest of July and the whole of August!!



Posted by Mike

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

A Proper Chaps Wedding

I hope Loz doesn't mind me posting this picture of his big day from his first marriage but it's not every day you see helmets and leathers replaced by top hat and tails!



Posted by Mike

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Hey Ant

Why don't you tell us all about Loz's weekend bike/camping trip to Wales? I strongly suspect you might have an amusing tale or two to tell us?

Posted by Mike