Firstly, I have to get the Manurhin roadworthy, registered, and road tested before I can sensibly consider her for a travel adventure. And Secondly, I have an adventure to plan!
Lorne and I met over a curry one night - with a map. We knew we wanted to ride in France (our last trip to the South of France on Vespas in 2012, was fun so why shouldn't it be again?) Our only real challenge now was the constraint that Lorne reckoned that he could only manage maybe 80 miles a day on his pushbike (I had no idea if this sort of cycling distance was supposed to be impressive or pathetic - I just worried about the stress on that little 75cc 2-stroke engine) and we had one week (plus 2 weekends = 9 days) to do it in.
A loop from Dunkirk was decided....... and if we pushed ourselves, we could ride through; France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Holland, and England - The "6 Cuntries" adventure was born. We dashed back to Lornes house and booked our Ferry from Dover to Dunkirk.
May 14 - May 22, 2016. It was suddenly real
Now, we live in Birmingham UK - about 200 miles from Dover - about 2.5 days cycling for Lorne. We didnt want to be wasting our available holiday time riding up and down through England, so we needed a plan to transport our 2 'rides' down to the south coast. Lorne could take the train with his pushbike if he needed to, but the Manurhin would have to be ridden or transported, and as I also didnt want to waste my time riding around the smoggy M25 I started to investigate vans and transporters.
Once again, after a few days of online browsing of ways to transport a motorcycle, another vision came to me in the night.....
Now I think it is truthful of me to say that I wasn't drunk, but I was most certainly hungover (and I did have Hugh mischievously egging me on) when i placed my eBay bid on a 20 year old Hearse. I really did think it would go for more than £800.
I'd always wanted a hearse since the age of 16, and now seemed like a perfect excuse to own one - with the coffin deck removed, it was the perfect vehicle for transporting both my scooter and Lornes pushbike to and from Dover.
It took me 2 days to steal myself to tell my wife about the Hearse - I was right to prepare..... she hit the fucking roof! One month on, and we still never talk about it, and i have only ever parked it outside our house when she is away. This could quite possibly be the (forgive the pun) 'final nail in the coffin' of our marriage.
Hugh kindly offered (i think he was feeling a little guilty) to drive me the 300 miles to Devon to collect the Hearse. There is no doubt about it, she is awesome - knackered, but awesome.
I had her serviced and MOT'd for £200, and I managed to sell the coffin deck for £250 to a man in Kent who was converting his 1930 GUY flatbed truck into an "alternative Hearse".
So far Ive driven the Hearse nearly 1000 miles - she is slow and lumbering and liable to over-heating (I had to sit on the hardshoulder of the M5 for half an hours waiting for the steam to stop billowing from the sides of the bonnet) - but now with the coffin deck removed, I think we've got ourselves a sweet van for getting us off on our "6 Cuntries" adventure.
Now all I have to do is get the Manurhin up and running!
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