kev's rally this weekend, kev runs an independent harley workshop at mansfield, no frills, no bullshit 'dealer' facilities, every year he has a weekend rally for his mates and customers, low key, turn up, pitch a tent, couple of bands in the pub, couple of port and lemons and chill out, this is the first year i haven't made a weekend of it, i phoned barse to see if i could doss in his fly sheet friday night after working on the racer, 11pm, me and dangerous have a beer in the shed, mr's b isn't talking to me and has gone to bed, i sit in the shed after dave has gone, crack open a bottle of merlot and set to lockwiring and checking fasteners replacing the 'build' nuts with nylocks, i'm not going now, bed, up at 6, glorious morning, out with the dogs, quick 5 miles thinking about all the jobs still to do for the coming weekend at mallory, breakfast, shower and drag the sporty out for the quick blast over to the rally site at matlock, i always do the 'rideout' for kev, a 50-60 mile blast around the peak district to show his customers the delights of derbyshire, straight on to the a6, wave to barse and gordy as i pass them on their way home, quick coffee on site and around 20 bikes are assembled on the pub car-park for the ride-out, i'm on my own this year, dangerous is away playing motorhomes again and barse has a wedding, there's a fair few hoggies this year and i have to temper the pace a tad, ok, it's fucking painful, i keep opening up the sporty on the bends and i have to keep slowing down to let them catch me up but, hey, it's a lovely day and i can think about jobs i still need to do on the racer, 40 miles out and one of the 'bro's' pulls along side me and let's me know they want to stop for a pint, i drop them off at the boozer half-way up the via-gellia, as the bikes pull in behind me glen pulls up on his chop, we sit on a stone wall in the carpark and talk about communism in cuba, the ford anglia door hinge that he is using for a choke knob and all points west as the 'brothers' top up their alcohol levels, fuck that, it's 1pm on a glorious summer day, i like a few shandies as much as anyone else but this is riding time, i give them directions back to the site and skin out, back to the rally site, three cups of strong coffee, chill with kev and ammo in the le-rock party tent and set off for a quick ride home.
