Changes to MBM & MBY

[Hugo_Andreae]

Re: Facts !

Ouch!

Unfortunately, I can't deny it. On the plus side at least I am still a biker and just to prove that I have no intention of being soft on boat reports or anything else here's a few perceptions on my'beloved' Beemer.

1) The brakes are crap, Liberace must have had a hand in the styling, the bar ends are so prone to rust that they must have been made from recycled Fiat Ritmos and the end can looks like a left-over from Heinz's canning factory. It would struggle to pull the skin off a rotten tangerine.

2) The last time I got an insurance quote on a CBR600 the premium was more than 10 times the cost of the F650's (apparently anyone under the age of 106 who keeps a sportsbike on the street in London is a suicidal maniac who begs people to steal his bike). You can ride it for more than six miles without your spine disintegrating. I am still alive.

Oh and I will do my best to ensure MBY keeps building on Tom's recent legacy.

Hugo

 

[tcm]

Very bad start

oh dear. Duffery old BMW's aren't ever ridden by "bikers", you've made references to Liberace, Fiat and the Heinz canning factory, had a sideways whinge about the cost of insurance being the reason why you've hung onto the poxy old beemer instead of going for a er Honda, which itself is a bit ordinary...

Hardly aspirational is it now? Are we going to be treated to musings of the high cost of new slippers, the detailed rules and regs for a blue ensign, and menu plans for a sunday trundle round the island in a trudgy old birchwood?

I hope this isn't the shape of things to come. But if it is, you can have the Kettle group test to get going.....

As for the beemer - chop it in for any duke, and just have tpft insurance.

 

[Hugo_Andreae]

Re: Very bad start

A kettle test? Inspired idea, I can see it now:

Hobbs vs Swan vs Electrolux fight it out in our exclusive Battle of the Boilers.

How much do you want for all rights to the idea and will you take a lightly abused BMW F650CS as a deposit?

 

[DepSol]

Re: Very bad start

Hugo dont take it as a bad thing as it has obviously stood you in good stead to get you where you are today.

Just get out and see the subscribers a bit more...but dont turn up on the beemer!!! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Althorne]

Re: Very bad start

If it's a bad starter give me a ring each time you breakdown or get it nicked or youre too pissed to ride it home. I've just started a small motorcycle recovery business based in NW3 and need all the money I can get to pay for the special trailer I bought. 0800 956794/07974260311
Roy

 

[Hugo_Andreae]

Re: Very bad start

Cheers Dom. I'm looking forward to the MBY challenge and will try to ensure I get to meet as many of you as possible.

It also gives me the ideal excuse to explain to the men in suits that if I'm to have any credibility with the readers, it's essential they provide me with a Kwak Z1000 and a DB9.

 

[DepSol]

Re: Very bad start

Nice try but I dont think that will wash. I mean who rides a Zthou these days?

Best of luck and lets see that locked away humour coming out to play a bit more. Enjoy the new post and let us know who is taking over from you at MBM please.

Dom

 

[Planty]

Re: Very bad start

All the very best with the new position Hugo. For my part like many others I think the problem with MBM or MBY is that now we have bought a boat they somehow miss the mark with what might actually interest us perhaps.

Thats not to rubbish some excellent articles or product tests but that a lot of articles just miss the bit I'm actually interested in. For example in one of the mags recently was a collection of reports of North French ports, great in its way, but not much more than one could glean from any half decent pilot book. However what would have really interested me and many others IMHO was actual suggested routes between the various ports, pointing out why a particular route or passage was preferred. From this one could possibly gain much education and understanding and for many, confidence.

Again rather than blat around the Solent for a "SeaTrial" how about "Living on board an S29/ Azimut 160 / Squaddie 58 for 72 hours", how practical, how frustrating etc?? What about "Mystery Shopping for a particular product" Trying out various dealers / chandlers for a given product / boat and reporting back the experience. Or even "How crap are Instruction Manuals, a practical guide to setting up ****** product"

Or even taking this last weekend on the south coast as an example, "Scared poohless in fog, what you should look out for on your radar/ chartplotter/ Navtex/ Sea Surface etc. etc."

I suppose what I think is a bit more of what we actually do & experience in Motor Boats, including why Raggies get peed off, Marina staff can be the devil incarnate, why QHM exist, the reasons for HM's Navy not wanting you too close etc, unloading a tender in a choppy sea & more importantly retrieving it.

I took 47 years to buy my first Mobo, had it 12 months then bought this one which I will have for probably 5 more years, so new boat reports are interesting but what I actually would like to do or am doing on the one I've got is far more gripping. Perhaps thats why the Red Diesel debate, the RYA's attitude or percieved attitude, the ColRegs etc. gets a lot of us going, 'cos they actually affect what we do or would like to do. All IMHO of course. Regards Paul

 

[KevB]

Re: Very bad start

I agree with Paul. We buy a boat maybe once every few years but use our current boats most weekends. It's how to get the best out of what we have and use every weekend that makes interesting reading, not what we might one day buy.
It's nice to read about the latest, flashest boat but not at the expense of ideas as to what we can do with what we have.

 

[powerskipper]

Hi sweet talker.

Its would be nice to see some Hugo type humour on here.

See if you could make an interesting and funny read about say making a cup of tea!!

 

[Hugo_Andreae]

MBY ideas

These are some of the best ideas I've seen posted on here. Good job this thread is so old that I can claim them as my own without anyone knowing!
Whether we can convince Mr Azimut to let us sully his black satin sheets and have a fry-up on his new boat's pristine galley is another matter. Maybe we'll just have to take up squatter's rights.
Seriously, thanks for the suggestions and keep them coming.

 

[tcm]

Re: even worse - kwak/ db9

oh heck. Kawasaki might have been a tearaway machine with the KH 2-strokes and z1 of the seventies, but no longer . Likewise, heavyweight old-bloke astons.

I can see you like old wrecks so to win cachet with the all-important eyties choose a de Tomaso Pantera, an Iso Grifo, or if you need space for kids and shopping, an Espada.