Howdy folks.  Hope you’re all doing well and all that old chestnut!!

Today was my first day back on the bike following my accident back on Easter Sunday; debris from a previous accident left on the road caused my bike to slip out and into the oncoming lane.  I had to volantarily crash the bike to the left to stop going through the windscreen of an oncoming VW Passat, and it almost worked too!!!  That was until the driver clipped the front of the bike which resulted in me being catapulted down the road at speed on my back.  Thankfully I was wearing my leather jacket, or I could have been bad to the bone, literally.

I’ve spent the last 2 weeks or so rather sombrely, my knee was pretty swollen and grazed up (it’s still slightly swollen now) and I cracked my upper rib which made breathing/laughing/sneezing rather painful.  Add to that my left shoulder blade hurt like a bastard everytime I moved, well you get the picture.  I can’t ever remember being so fearful of pollen just in case I might sneeze!   I do count myself rather lucky to have sustained only the minor injuries that I walked away with.  Yet I immediately felt pretty angry that the roads are in such a disgraceful condition given that we all pay our dues and blah blah woof woof.  Gordon Brown you swine!

Thanks to Kent Countil (my bike was hit in Westerham village on the A25) my bike took a fair bit of damage, the radiator bent back in an amusing shape, the bodywork and lamp units practically exploded along with my windscreen.  So I’ve been fixing all that up with the help of my mate Alan who popped over a couple of times last week to straighten out my front forks and steering, and the ever trusty Ray who has been on emergency 24/7 callout.  Had it not been for these two chaps I’d still be around the garage scratching my head with a spanner, looking at a schematic and wondering how the doobrey goes to the thimgamay.

I managed to source most of my parts through the official Aprilia dealership ‘Inmoto’ which is near where Baldie lives, I’d heartily recommend them; especially because I managed to blag a trade discount out of them for all my stuff.  Hyuk hyuk, how Joe Daki am I?!?  The rest of my bits, well, I bought them second hand off of e bay and they were tarted up by Ray “I can do anything with a wet rag and spraycan” Bush.  See piccies below, the man is a genius.

Big thanks to all my wellwishers, and of course many, many thanks to both Alan and Ray for getting me back on the road. Brrrrrm Brrrrmm Brrrrrrm. Still don’t know what to do with my fluffy dice though?  Anyone got any suggestions?