These boots were made for riding

Up early today and off to Bromley, to Mark Holden Motorcycles., a small workshop of a former BMW mechanic, recommended to me by a police officer I met when Ginny had her service the other week. Ginny was getting some new tyres fitted, ready for her epic journey over the coming month.

Coopers had quoted me £350 to supply and fit a pair of Bridgestone Battlax BT23s. I got them online for £160 and MHM charged me £44 to fit them this morning. I had them sent direct to them, rode the bike in and went for a coffee. 1 hour later, the job was complete. Mark was not very complimentary about dealer servicing, saying that explained why bits weren't greased up, which he has done. It does seem that BMW are happy to charge shedloads of cash for these bikes but then not maintain them properly. Maybe that's down to the factory specifying long service intervals, though at 6k, Ginny is the same as the Sprint and Laguna seemed to do a lot more during a service than Coopers do for Ginny.

I've been through another packing phase, removing some items and adding others. Now just need to tick off what I've packed against my packing list.

Four more sleeps and I'll be heading to Portsmouth. Three more for Sanch, as he has his trip across from Ireland to do, the day before we meet up. Looking out of the window at the peeing rain, I can't wait to get across to, what hopefully will be, a hot and dry Iberian peninsula.