To continue the saga, after a bit of toing and froing they agreed to sort out the issue amicably. We managed to get the bike to a friend of the van owner who allowed him to park it in the driveway until we got back from the races.
Me frighten Downey never, I never rode so slow
to the NW200
.
To continue the story we arrived at the NW200 with 15 minutes to spare before the roads closed and parked the bike in the yard of a family I know from many years of parking there (£5 and well worth it) Told them the story and they supplied Ice, Pain Killers, Tea, Coffee and loads of sympathy
to me for having to put up with him
.
We had a good day at the races despite the red flags and hold up Downey even managed to wangle Ice and more Sympathy from a group who were watching the race at Juniper Hill Chicane and who had a beer and wine cooler with ice. I headed to the shop for tea, coffee and kit kat and arrived back to see Downey with an Ice pack and more sympathy being delivered
Unfortunately we missed meeting up with Bigbluebear and we headed back when the racing was over to collect the bike. After more tea, coffee and sympathy
we headed off bck to the village to sort out the bike.
Got to the village and dropped downey to unlock the bike and talk to the man who allowed him park it there as I went to fill up with petrol.
took longer than I thought as the pump owner wanted to chat.
Arrived back to the house and there I see Downey and the old man looking at his bike doing a Nick Crisp in the hedge
Trying to keep serious and park my own bike without falling over and thinking "What the Foc".
I come in the gate to see Downey posing as if he had a shotgun shooting it.
Well he took it off the stand and forgot to take the lock of the back wheel.
We lifted it up and I pulled the forks as straight was possible with the old wheel between the legs trick
With no lights or clocks, Downey gets a LED torch and the old man gives him duct tape, and they taped it into the broken headlight.
A shame I never took a picture of it.
After pushing it on to the road side we headed on our merry way back to the hotel, which we just got to before it got dark
One tough Foccer we have here he rode this: see pic of fork misalignment 260mile at motorway speed (ahem)
with a broken wrist and an LED torch.