Merry Christmas
It may be Christmas day. It may be 6am. But the weather and the light waits for no one and given the fact that the rain was coming down so hard the day before Christmas Eve that the A52 was flooding, well, you take your opportunities where they present themselves. So, it was up and at 'em to get some shots of the bike and the jacket on a crisp winter’s morning.
The Honda's in a lock up a couple of minutes drive down the road so Amy and I drove over and I pulled the bike out. It was so dry I didn't actually realise how cold it was until I couldn't feel my fingers or toes. The light though. The light was stunning and it reminded me of the last time I was taking photos of it. Although, then, it was in Bahrain and it was 45C before the sun had even come up.
It's pretty incredible when I think back to March this year. That same bike was sat, totally unloved and on it's last legs, outside a fried chicken restaurant under the baking Bahraini sun. Since then it's been completely overhauled, it's traveled 6998 nautical miles and is ready ride in the UK.
Well, I say ready to ride. That still needs to be seen. I know there are a bunch of things I need to do to make it roadworthy for British roads. I need to find the wing mirrors out, wherever they are. The speedo needs to be switched over to miles from kilometres and the indicators on the rear loop are too close together to be legal. I also need to get the battery hooked up again, fill it with fuel and see if I missed anything or if it'll start up for me.
But, that'll have to wait again. I'm heading back over to Bahrain on the 28th of December to get some size and photo samples stitched up. I've got enough black gabardine ordered to get 4 jackets made and enough white to get another 4 done so I’ll be able to check out the dimensions for S through XL. I ordered the white and a bunch of Dylon fabric dye so that I can check it out in Olive, Navy, Sand and a bright Red. I only need to create one jacket in each of the colours but most fabric suppliers have a minimum yardage of 6 - 10 metres. Each jacket needs just 2 metres, so this way, I can keep wastage down to a minimum right from the beginning.
All going to plan, I should be back in February. Then it's time to find a workshop and move the K100 over along with the Honda. Once I'm set up and settled, I'll finally be able to get the Honda started up. Next steps for the bike will be to get it road and MOT worthy and for the jacket, it’ll be to find a factory, either here in the UK or somewhere close by but we'll have to see where we're at with Covid restrictions to see what progress I can make.
