BMW RnineT – but what a silly error with the Moto Guzzi

24/05/2023

BMW RnineT – but what a silly error with the Moto Guzzi

Last time out I had been on my superb BMW RnineT, but with the welcome change in the weather it felt an ideal time to get out on the Moto Guzzi V7 for a few hours.

Knowing I had a fairly busy day on the Sunday, I made time on Saturday afternoon to move the bikes around in the garage and get the Guzzi ready for it’s first outing of the year.

So having spent some time doing the basic checks of tyre pressures, oils, lights etc I was all set for an early start on Sunday morning.

Early start

I planned to be out for about 06:30 (at the latest) and head off to maybe the Cheshire or Shropshire back roads. I was probably only really aiming to do a 100 or so miles before heading home for about 11:00am and a late breakfast/early lunch with my son and family.

After that, most of the afternoon and early evening would be taken up by making the regular trip to the Etihad. On this occasion it would be to watch Manchester City play Chelsea and then watch then pick up the Premier League trophy (again).

Not quite to plan

But things didn’t work out quite as planned and it was only whist having an early coffee I remembered I needed to log on to the DVLA web site and tax the Moto Guzzi (it had been SoRN’d for the winter). It was only when I logged on that I realised the MoT was due!

I could have kicked myself I really wanted to get out on the V7 on Sunday. If you’re not too familiar with the V7, you can check out this ‘picture post’ from 2021 at this link. It’s a beauty.

The only options I had were to ride the bike without an MoT (and in doing so risk invalidating my insurance) or suck it up and swap to another bike – so it was a no brainier. Another bike it would be.

Pointless

Although the decision was easy it made my Saturday preparations pointless and I now needed to mess about moving bikes.

This meant putting the V7 back onto the bike lift (that’s where it’s kept) and which in turn meant taking the bar end mirrors off – hardly big problems more of an inconvenience really.

Contrary to my plan of getting out by 06:30 I was delayed a little – but even so I was still out for just after 07:00am.

First of all I headed down to the Etihad stadium, for no other reason than to see how it was looking in advance of my visit there later in the day.

I was down at the Etihad for around 07:20 or so and it was already reasonably busy with TV crews and other folk starting to get ready for the Manchester City v Chelsea match and the subsequent trophy presentations (there will be more of that on my rainycity blog) in a day or two

Heading for Cheshire

After a few urban miles down to the Etihad I turned and headed for the leafy lanes of Cheshire and had quite an enjoyable ride.

I stopped for a coffee and scone at the Lockgates Coffee House in Tarpoley which was enjoyable as was a chat with another bike who pulled in on a huge and fully kitted out Honda Goldwing.

Although it was a decent 100 miles or so, I have to be honest and say that as much as I love my bikes, the main event of the day down at the Etihad wasn’t far from my mind so once refreshed from my coffee stop I headed home full of anticipation for another excellent Manchester afternoon.

There’s pictures of the Moto Guzzi (on it’s stand) in the first picture gallery and then some from my ride into Cheshire in the second picture set