My Poor Baby is sick. The lovely Kawasaki ZZR 600 that took me and my luggage on two stellar trips around europe is starting to feel her age. I blasted her over to Laurencekirk for her MOT - dropping her off last night. Despite the complete lack of safety clothing, the wind chill factor, etc, I still raced her into town. Nice. And then the call.

"The front tyre has a mysterious bulge, and the front disks are sticking.". Ouch. "Can you fix it" ? "No. we dont fix bikes..".. Damn...

I then tried to call Shirlaws of Aberdeen - the main Kawasaki dealer. A dozen attempts to get to the workshop, no answer. Damn, damn, damn...

In frustration, I went round in person, and after only a 10 minute delay, was informed by the maintenance chap that the bike was too old to fix. Ah. Thanks, mate. I put down the £200 new helmet I was fingering, and walked out in frustration. How dare he refuse to fix the bike ? 15 years isnt old! "So much for being a Kawasaki Main Dealer" I grumbled at the clothing guy on the way out..

(On a side note, if you've came across this page looking for a reference for Shirlaws. I cant give you one. I've drooled over bikes in that shop for the last 25 years, and tried - really tried - to get a bike, clothing or service. Never managed yet. I've always ended up going to McGowans every time. What does that say?)

Sigh. So after both the ladies in my life were sent (independently - I was running a "first past the post" failover strategy) to get the keys from the garage, I was dropped off again, to nurse the poor wee thing home.. At 40mph.. So to the six or so cars who were amazed to see a motorbike going as slow as an American Driver in Paris - sorry. But I figured a 40mph front-wheel blowout was survivable, and a 70mph was probably not..

She's tucked back up, cozy and recharging (Optimate do a great bike charger.. Keeps the battery going for years!), my new mission is to get her back on the road.. Its the least I could do after all the smiles she's given me..