I haven't been out on the road much (excluding my commute) I've neglected my VTR dreadfully, and even the GPZ hasn't had the love and attention it deserves (there's new parts just sitting waiting to go on). Its a surreptitious opponent depression, sneaking up on you so slowly that you don't notice it's there until it's too late. I liken it to a heavy cloak, it closes over you from behind by degrees, so slight that you can't see a difference day to day, until suddenly you are enclosed completely and you can't find any chink, any daylight at all so you don't know how to get out, you're trapped in the dark. Once you've managed to create a chink in that cloak you have to work hard to let the light back in before it closes up again leaving you lost and deflated once more. Once free of it it seems you can never really relax or you might once again find yourself being swallowed up into the dark once more.

I won't go on drugs, I don't believe they are the answer. I do see that they can help some people to cope better whilst working through their issues but I guess I'm just too much of a control freak to even think for a minute that it might not be me in control but some drug induced version of me...

I am however trying something a bit different, hypnotherapy. Sure you've seen Paul McKenna and you've heard of people using it for weight loss and to stop smoking... but depression? Well I did some reading and found some for and some against, but given that your options are incredibly limited already I was prepared to try. We're still very early days but I can assure you its nothing like you see on TV, at all! It's very relaxing and can feel a little strange but not unpleasant in any way and you do actually know exactly what's happening at all times. Early signs are good so I'm hopeful. (That's a start in itself!)

Right enough of that, took the GPZ to have his valves checked today, pre winter. I still have a new brake disc to put on and the front brakes to overhaul, but am hopeful we'll get a decent weekend this month.

I've been off work since Tuesday, stuck in bed with some cold/flu/bug thing which has really laid me low. Feels like its on its way out now though, thankfully!

Not sure what else there is to report, but I will try not to be so lazy... honest! Take care out there folks.

Let's start with a question for the bikers out there... If someone coated your back tyre with oil, how far far do you think you'd get safely? How bout if you were already moving, so you didn't have the initial propulsion worry, a bit further? Well, if you'd asked me on Monday I probably would have said a number of feet, yards, maybe but not very far at all! I had reason to put it to the test yesterday, albeit without my knowing.

Headed off to work as normal, on the VTR (more about that later), nice dry day, feeling quite good and looking forward to my favourite bits of the run when not far into my journey I noticed smoke behind me, in both mirrors and realised it had to be me. It looked oily and there was lots of it. The car behind seemed to be backing off too which was odd. I couldn't figure it out but figured I'd pop into the Esso in Dorking to have a quick look before I carried on. So I carried on, crossed the roundabout (yes!) and just as I was thinking "naw, smokes gone now, it's ok" the car next to me pulled up and wound his window down and was waving energetically to me so I changed my mind and pulled into the petrol station. Fortunately I switched the ignition off as soon as I came to a halt and dismounting I was horrified to see the oil vacating the sump at a fair old rate. I threw some paper towels under the bike and ran to the fire buckets and proceeded to pour sand under the bike, berating myself (thinking I'd not tightened the sump plug properly. The back tyre was soaked, and you could plainly see my trail into the petrol station (and I was told halfway up the hill and over the roundabout).

Once the oil had lessened to a drizzle I got underneath and had a good look. It wasn't coming from where I could see the sump plug, it was directly underneath. A bit of prodding found a hole in the casing about the size of my finger. Something must have leapt up off the roadbed and taken a lump out. I certainly didn't recall hitting anything with any force. A considerable time later as the VTR was being loading onto the RAC recovery lorry (six times bigger than I needed, but still it makes me look important!) I also noticed a screw in the rear, just to add insult to injury.

The nice RAC man; Gavin, took us to Capital who promised to do everything they could for me asap. They were as good as their word and even better still (as I now had no wheels that worked) dropped the bike back to me later on. Fortunately they had a second-hand sump cover so it was a fairly simple swap and the puncture was repairable. I took it out for a little run and the tyre felt most odd. I've washed it twice now and it seems to have stopped "seeping" oil like a sponge but it does feel like a very new, very slidey tyre.

So... why was I on the VTR? Well, following the shock replacement on the GeePee (as told below) the running rough was only getting worse, and it was worrying me. So much so that one evening after work I got the spark plugs out to check them (they looked OK) and I even managed to put them back where they belonged - in the dark. Still not overly happy I booked him in for valves and carbs, thinking that that might be the trouble, and if not it wouldn't do any harm, and might just highlight any other problems... which it did... all too well.

The cams were disintegrating, the cam chain was well stretched and the adjuster next to useless. Depression was about to set in, but of course I've still got the Brat. Pete and Ken agreed to collect the non-running Brat and have a look at our chances of swapping the head. Fortunately for me it's do-able. The Brat has been stripped, and is now back home waiting to be completely broken and scrapped. The GeePee is still in a certain amount of pieces but is well on the way to completing the transplant and full recovery.

We did achieve a lot with the shredder though, our garden was heaped with all the overgrown trees and shrubs we'd cut down to move into the house but we hadn't done anything other than get them out of the way. Even better apart from the trunks and bits too big to shred, which we'll give away for firewood everything else was put back onto the garden as mulch so nothing to take to the tip.

We had an old composter half buried in the far corner which I've now dug up and resituated in a more useful position and am starting to compost all our kitchen waste etc. I do like to avoid creating much rubbish wherever I can and it does irk me that so many things come in so much packaging, much of it very unnecessary in my opinion.

This weekend just gone I intended to have a little look at the GeePee as quite frankly it was riding like it was held together with gaffer tape... after a wee examination it was found that the cush drive rubber was broken and badly worn, which I replaced with the one from the Brat which had only been on a few months before he conked out. Whilst doing that I noticed the back brake pad was badly worn so resolved to do that too. I popped over to Capital for Ken to have a look at the head bearings and suspension and sure enough we noticed the shock weeping... that's another shock (OK in another bike, but still!) that I've managed to destroy! After a brief discussion I was assured it was an easy task so collected my brake pad and was on my way.

It was a fairly easy task once I've gotten the bolts loosened, although of course I went about that backwards, getting the Brat up onto the Abba stand before realising I could hardly put a lot of weight behind the wrench as I would just push the bugger off the stand... So after so tooing and froing I was quite shocked (haha!) to find I'd already got the one off the Brat and it had only taken me about an hour. I set about getting the knackered one off the GeePee and all in I had them swapped and nearly everything back together before dark fell. Not bad going as I only started about 14:00. Of course there were the odd hitches, eg I confidently replaced the dogbones on the Brat and pushed if off the Abba stand to be surprised when it dropped right down to the back wheel... I hadn't thought about the fact that it's the shock which keeps the whole thing up, not the swingarm.

Taking the VTR for his annual MOT tomorrow, and hopefully spending an hour on the GeePee, chain needs another tug and he could do with a bit of a wash behind the ears.

Having all that time off was really great, didn't get out on the road really so it was just as well we were out for an hour on Sunday as the poor GeePee didn't want to start after all that time in the garage in the cold. Start he did in the end though and he's still running nicely now.

I'm always slightly apprehensive getting back on the bike after a break, after all one of my worst accidents was just after coming back off holiday after a week away from riding. Whether or not that had any bearing at all on the off I couldn't say but it does always make me a little more careful to go through all the motions after more than a few days off at a time.

Well this year I will have my RoSPA retest... I don't think I'll be as nervous on passing it as my initial test however I do of course want to maintain the Gold standard that I achieved last time. We shall see...