Monte Carlo Rally - Oldies with Stories

 There are some good stories connected with some of the older cars in the Historic Rally

This is a 1951 Austin FX3 taxi driven by a 64 year old Belgian, Jean Marie Hermann. His journey was inspired by F1 driver Tony Brooks who drove a similar vehicle in the 1961 Rally.

I wonder what the fare to Monaco will be?

This beast, known as "Josephine", is a 1934 Lagonda with a 4.5 litre engine. Amazingly it has been owned by the same family since new. The current driver's grandfather bought the car and drove it in the 1936 Monte Carlo Rally. The car has completed many rallies include the Monte Carlo in 1998. Its current mileage is 415,000.

Josephine leaves her mark on the Paisley asphalt

This is a 1927 AC Montlhery Sports drive by Michael Grimmond. His grandfather won the Montre Carlo Rally in 1926 in a similar car. All the way to Monte Carlo in an open car - wow!

This Bentley 3.5 litre also dates from 1934 and is being driven from John O'Groats to Reims by Dutchman Robert Jan van Rheeman.

I got there early to avoid the crowds and had some time to see the sights. Paisley is a place I know quite well because I went to school there and later frequented its pubs

Anchor Mills. A former thread mill converted to offices

The Abbey

Statue of Queen Victoria and the Town Hall

There seems to be a lot of fat birds in Paisley!

Monte Carlo Rally

Cars left today from Paisley to take part in the Monte Carlo Rally for classic cars.

Triumph Dolomite Sprint & Opel Kadett GTE

A Pair of Volvo Amazons, a 122S (top) & a 123GT (below)

Two I really liked - an Alfa Romeo 2600 Sprint (I think) (top) and a Lotus Elite (below)

Austin A40

Rover 2000

Beautiful & immaculate Austin Healey 3000

Scotland's own Hillman Imp (built a few miles from here at Linwood)

An Imp power kit car  - the Clan Crusader

Even the most mundane cars go rallying - an Austin A35

First generation Toyota Celica

CBF Handguards

I recently thought about fitting a pair of handguards to my CBF250. It seems a good idea for a bike that is used through the winter to keep the wind and rain off my hands.

I got a pair on eBay. These were fairly cheap "universal" guards so I did expect to have to do a bit of mods to get them to fit but as it turned out they were pretty much a straight bolt-on.

The handguards

Fitting kit (not all parts were needed)

Comprehensive fitting instructions!

On the bike

They're CE (Conformité Européene) marked. I don't know if there are any EU directives on motorcycle handguards but if there are they meet them!

***UPDATE*** 

Following Tom's questions (in comments) I've added some more photos.

The bolts I used are not threaded full length. They need at least 15mm of thread.

"Hex head" is wrong. They are socket head or Allen screws. I get my bolts from Tek Hardware. They do a wide variety of fasteners in stainless steel, small quantities at a good price. You could also use crosshead screws.

 

The "small plate" is attached between the inner part of the handguard and the supplied plate from the mirror mount. It moves the inner part of the handguard out about 20mm to clear the throttle cables. Alternatively you could cut away some of the handguard but I though that this might weaken it.

Hope this has been helpful. 

 

Shopping at Aldi

The discount supermarket Aldi currently has an angling clothing special so I went along to see if there was anything that would be suitable for motorcycle wear. 

I bought a fleecy "onesie" that could worn under my waterproofs and a pair of padded waterproof trousers. I'm not expecting too much from them being made of lighter material that bike clothing but should be ok for local running about in cooler weather. At these prices they're worth a try.

Modelling my purchases

Been 'Round the World (at least that's the way it feels)

We're just returned from our annual winter week in the sun. This year we went to the Spanish Canary island of Tenerife. And very pleasant it was too. A nice hotel with great weather & scenery. But things went a bit wrong on the way back. If fact it turned into a version of the comedy movie "Planes, Trains & Automobiles".

On Saturday snow fell at Glasgow Airport. It seems that it wasn't serious but the runway had to be closed for two hours. This lead to a knock-on delay of five hours to our flight back. Problem was that the crew had run out of flying hours and we could only make it to Málaga. After much hanging about we finally got to bed just after 6am. We were in Torremolinos, a Spanish resort developed in the 1960's. 

It was interesting to visit southern Spain in winter. We've been there many times in spring & autumn (summer is way to hot for us) As it turned out it was very pleasant. It was a bright sunny day and about 17C/63F. There are some ugly old concrete buildings but also a charming old town. With few tourists that this time of year we joined the locals for a stroll along the seafront. It was funny for us northeners to see them wearing coats and scarfs in conditions we found fairly warm.

Our travels

Buenos dias Torremolinos! I suppose there are worst views to wake up to.

This was actually a very nice hotel and a lot better than sleeping on an airport floor!

On the beach - you do do a lot worse than spend a winter down here.

It's not called the Costa del Sol for nothing

Locals fishing

Nice sculpture - nasty architecture

The old town

The Casa de los Navajas is a moorish style mansion. Now surrounded by '60's concrete

Gwen joins the locals enjoying their Sunday afternoon paseo (stroll)

But it's always nice to get back home (groan)