England calling.

[Alb1on]

Good Day, Just to let you know my name is Cathy and I'll be starting up the 'England' section of the ROMEOS over here later in the year so I thought I'd better let you know something about me. I have been riding since 1974, first a Velosolex 5000 which was a 50cc French pop-pop that folded up for travelling, (not whilst riding), and was a lot of fun if underpowered. It was unhappy on steep hills and motorways were out of the question but it was fine for commuting. After that I realised I needed training which was voluntary then so took a three-month training session at the RAC/ACU centre at Crystal Palace in south-east London in 1978 where I met my husband Jon Taylor. (http://www.jon-taylor.com). He was horrified by my bike and built me a CB200 Honda from two wrecked insurance write-offs, one with a damaged front and one with a damaged rear, which I used to pass my test in 1980. Then I fell in love with a Kawasaki Z750E on which I passed my advanced motorcycle test in 1981. Now I was hooked on Kawasakis so bought a Z1100A, which was heavily discounted as everyone wanted the GPZ1100, and that went to the Isle of Man, and on the Krauser Rallye, which covered Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland, as it was a very comfortable touring bike. I bought another one of those, together with a KE175, an XT550 and a CBX550 as I was by then a motorcycle instructor and swapping between all these machines made life interesting. Someone assured me that BMWs were the way to go so I had a K75 triple but it was a short romance and I regressed to a GT550 then a Honda Revere which I had from 1988-2008 and when I retired so did it, so I was relegated to my Yamaha XT225 which is ok around town but does not have much puff anywhere else. For my 60th birthday in 2007 I decided on a T100 865 Triumph, which was quite a jump from Japanese machinery. At least they don't leak now and you don't need a right leg like a rugby player to start it. In 2008 we went on a round-the-world tour, which included a three-week trip around New Zealand on a BMW GS. That is a beautiful country and well worth a look especially from the pillion seat, so high up. We toured the USA in 2009 and 2010 on a Harley and will do it again this year with MCI tours. Then we're off to Croatia on the Pan European to see what that's like and will keep you all posted if you like.

Regards from Blighty.

Cathy

[Klem]

Let me be the first to welcome you Cathy. Mostly that is because I am an insomniac so one of the first up. Your variety of bikes is similar to mine only you had the good sense to discard the old ones. It will be interesting as we share the similarities and differences of our sport over the coming months. I noticed in your list of bikes a couple that I was not familiar with, or at least by the name on them.

Don

[BeemerBill]

Cathy, Welcome to the ROMEO's..... I think it is fantastic that you plan on starting up a ROMEO group in "merry ole" England.... Please keep us posted on how that goes for you. I think you'll find that it mainly requires someone who will take it upon themselves to find and post a destination or meeting place, the word will spread and before long you will be meeting new friends who also like riding and eating. I've been fortunate to be able to do the "lunch ride" thing for a lot of years now, and still enjoy every one. Good luck, and be sure to post a few pictures of your lunch rides, when you get one going over there....

[Alb1on]

Let me be the first to welcome you Cathy. Mostly that is because I am an insomniac so one of the first up. Your variety of bikes is similar to mine only you had the good sense to discard the old ones. It will be interesting as we share the similarities and differences of our sport over the coming months. I noticed in your list of bikes a couple that I was not familiar with, or at least by the name on them.

Don

Thanks Don, let me know what's causing the confusion so I can remove it. Hope this is the right way to reply, let me know if I'm making some dreadful social gaffe!

Cheers

Cathy

[Alb1on]

Cathy, Welcome to the ROMEO's..... I think it is fantastic that you plan on starting up a ROMEO group in "merry ole" England.... Please keep us posted on how that goes for you. I think you'll find that it mainly requires someone who will take it upon themselves to find and post a destination or meeting place, the word will spread and before long you will be meeting new friends who also like riding and eating. I've been fortunate to be able to do the "lunch ride" thing for a lot of years now, and still enjoy every one. Good luck, and be sure to post a few pictures of your lunch rides, when you get one going over there....

Thanks, if you are ever in Blighty you'd be welcome to join us but wait till it's warmer. Will certainly post pictures of the rides and maybe a map to show where we've been.

Regards

Cathy

[roginoz]

I noticed your previous mention of a Pan European. If you haven't done so, you might want to check out http://www.st-owners.com/ for information on the ST/Pan. It's a great site for tech info, and there are some other British Pan owners on the forum.