Take the world in a love embrace

Bless me father for I have sinned.....tis.....4 days since my last confession.

I haven't talked about my guilty pleasure yet. Looking at today's title you'd probably think I'd want to divulge a secret addiction to dogging or something equally unusual. Actually, there's a story there too of which more at a later time. However, no; it's not about dodgy car park activity today.

I like motorbikes. Pip likes motorbikes too. It's what makes the rock and roll renegades who they are.

Back in another world when I used to call Pip "guvnor" I came across her one day (in a car park as it happens) straddling a 450 Virago. Immediately I saw her in a new light. "Girl's on bikes" I thought. I was lost of course. She wore a sexy little leather jacket, I find out later, that came from her brother "shotti". She looked like a proper biker.

My own situation was grave. I'd traded in a 1200 FJ 3 years previously at the insistence of thumper. The promise of a mini-caravan to travel the world seemed only partial recompense.

My love of bikes goes way back to BSA Bantams, Tiger Cubs and James 197's. I dream of owning a 64 crusader continental GT 250.

When RNRR was born last year, Pip and I used to meet at "the lakes" Another ....er....car park....... by (quite naturally) a lake. A place to be peaceful and think. One day, Pip arrived on the Virago. Again, I was lost.

A phone call to a company in Huddersfield pointed to a man in Abingdon who had a bike for sale a lot like the image above that has taken me some considerable time to upload. I claimed the BMW R100CS as my own.

Squeezing into aged Salopettes was a joke. Buying a racy new jacket with "cafe racer" on the label was more exciting. Meeting Pip up and down the country in car parks is like Betty Crocker icing on a devil's food cake. She rides like a dream and is my love.

Currently, I'm experience problems with my tickover. Who said life was all about dogging ?

JVIP