Archive for the ‘Ireland’ Category

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Wednesday, December 23rd, 2015

The bikes back home in LA.  The tanks and seats are switched, the nice tank and seat should be on the Comet.

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Shadow’s turn

Friday, April 3rd, 2015

Peter Redmond and I got out for another ride, this time up in the Wicklow hills, despite the cold and drizzle.  I’m glad neither one of us are worried about getting the bikes dirty.

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Tax Disc

Friday, April 3rd, 2015

First time I’ve had the need for one, found a nice generic black holder at a local motorcycle shop.

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East coast of Ireland

Saturday, March 28th, 2015

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Shadow is running again, first ride in Ireland

Sunday, March 24th, 2013

Just before moving to Ireland, I had problems starting the Shadow, it was coughing and popping.  I figured I was bitten by the poor quality modern fuel, that had gummed up.  Over here in Ireland, the license process for motorcycles excludes riding bikes with high horsepower until you get a full license, so I wasn’t initially too worried about getting the Shadow running.  We are going to move a few miles away here in Dublin next week, and I didn’t want to bother Henry Martini to borrow him and his trailer to get the Shadow over to our new place, so I took the time to clean the carbs.  Sure enough, that did the trick, and after remembering that I had drained the oil for shipping, I took the Shadow out for a short spin.  Boy, it sure was nice after a long absence to get back on the Shadow.  Time to celebrate with some champagne.

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New Plates

Sunday, September 30th, 2012

Finally got the bikes registered here in Ireland.  I passed my theory test (equivalent to the California written test).  Now I need to get a statement from an eye doctor saying I am not blind, and I can get a provisional license.  With that, I can get insurance, and with that, I will be legally able to ride the bikes once again.

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First Ride in Ireland

Saturday, March 24th, 2012

Peter Redmond came by to lead me around the Wicklow mountains south of Dublin, and we went on a fabulous ride, just under 100 miles.  It is very scenic around there, great views, lakes, farms, streams.  As some of you may recall, the last time I had the Comet out back in LA, on the ride from Dave Marshall’s to Lake Elsinore, my Comet wouldn’t start after we stopped at the lookout.  After Mike picked me up with his trailer and took me back to Dave’s, and once the Comet had cooled off, it started fine.  It always starts easy when it is cold, but I thought I had developed the classic magneto-condenser-hard-starting-when-it-is-hot syndrome.  Before leaving on the ride this day, I was adjusting the carb to get a good idle, and found that the air mixture screw was out quite a bit.  I cranked it in, and got a much better idle.  I think that might have been contributing to the hard starting when hot issue, since I had to start the Comet a couple of times during the ride.  The Comet ran pretty strong, climbing the mountains pretty well.  Here is a picture of Peter and our two Comets taken when we got back to my house.

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New Home

Sunday, February 19th, 2012

We finally moved into our home and received the contents of the shipping container on February 2nd.  Here are a couple of photos of the bikes inside and outside their new home.  After almost three months in their crates, I filled up the Comet with oil and took some fuel from the can used for the lawn mower, and the Comet started on the third kick, Peter Redmond was there to see them and hear the Comet run.  Now if I can find someone to take all of our empty shipping boxes and packing paper, I would have enough room to get around the bikes inside the garage, it is a pretty tight fit for now.

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Vincenteering in Ireland 1

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

Here is the start of a new blog category, where I will try to maintain a log of the Vincent activity I can stir up here in Dublin, and also the rest of Ireland, with a little bit about the experience of moving to another country.

First, a quick recap.  Corina and I arrived on Dec first, and moved right in to the temporary apartment my employer arranged. It is a decent enough place, but it is in an area that we later found out is not so great.  After a couple of days off, I started right in at work the following Monday.  We had looked at rental listings before we left, and we knew that unfurnished rental properties are rare over here.  Even more rare are garages, so the combination was going to be tough.  What was even tougher are the listing agents.  We couldn’t get in contact with most.  We only actually had two or three agents show us a property.  Luckily, many property owners handle the listing themselves.  They were easy to work with.  We looked at a few properties that were either a nice house in a bad area, or a not so nice house in a good area, or the garage wasn’t included since the owner was storing stuff.  Then the holiday season hit, and the country comes to a halt.  We found a listing for what looked like a suitable place, but it wouldn’t be available for a yearly lease until April.  My company was only paying for one month at the temporary apartment, and we really didn’t want to stay there on our own dime for the reason mentioned plus a few other reasons.  Then, I noticed the ad had been updated, and it would be available Feb 1st.  We were having such a hard time viewing other properties, we decided to extend our stay in the temp apartment one more month.  The owners were really nice to deal with, and we made the deal.  We move in Feb 2nd.  Meanwhile, the shipping container with our belongings and motorcycles arrived January 6th, and cleared customs within a few days.  The contents are being stored, waiting to be delivered to our rental home the day we move in.

Now the interesting part, getting the motorcycles registered and insured, and getting a driving license.  It looks like I will have to go through the whole licensing process, written test, road test, provisional license, then full license.  The USA is not a country that Ireland recognizes existing licenses from.

I knew the names of a couple of Vincent owners here in Dublin, and had been in email contact with them.  One was spending most of December in Florida, so a week or so after arriving, Peter Redmond and I arranged to meet at a pub near our temp apartment.  Peter rode his Royal Enfield and we had a nice quick visit.

Jump forward past the holidays, and I sent an email to Henry Martini and Peter to see if the three of us could get together.  Peter said he would pick me up in his car and drive over to Henry’s, so last Saturday we did just that, and a fourth Vincent owner, Gerry Clarke, from the west coast near Galway, was there too, having ridden a modern BMW over to Henry’s.  After a nice lunch provided by Henry, we spent a couple of hours out in the garage admiring Henry’s 1300cc Vincent with disc brakes and a few other nice mods.  We will try to continue the get togethers every month or two.

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